Seattle beat the New England Patriots 29 – 13 in Santa Clara to win their second Super Bowl in team history
It’s already being talked about as one of the best defence performances of all time. The ‘dark side’ defence of the Seattle Seahawks limited Drake Maye and New England to only 13 points, with two fumbles, an interception and six sacks on the 2nd year Quaterback Maye.
This was backed up by game MVP Kenneth Walker III’s 135 yards and Jason Myers’ recording breaking five successful field goals, the most in Super Bowl game history. This secured the Seahawks second Vince Lombardi trophy, 12 years since their first win in 2014.
It’s been a fairytale season for Quaterback Sam Darnold, who joins an elite club of only five quarterbacks, including Tom Brady and Matthew Stafford to have won a Super Bowl in their first season on a new team. This comes after a turbulent career, into a resurgence year with the Minnesota Vikings in 2024 before arriving in the Pacific Northwest.
A team led by young head Mike MacDonald, who becomes the the third youngest coach to win the Vince Lombardi trophy, behind Sean McVay and Mike Tomlin. MacDonald also becomes the first head coach to lead the defence and win it all.
The Seahawks had started the scoring in the first drive of the game, with Darnold leading his team 51 yards up the pitch to set up a 33 yard field goal for Myers to knock in for three.
This was a pattern that followed the majority of the first half. The Patriots struggled to get anything going with the strong blitz defence of the Seahawks limiting influence from some of the Patriots key offensive weapons, including Wide Reciever Stefon Diggs and Running Back TreVeyon Henderson.
Another two field goals meant Seattle went into the half-time with a nine to nothing lead, to the credit of both defences who shut down any offensive gains and rythym. Fans were then able to watch the performance of Puerto Rican star and grammy award winning Bad Bunny.
Throughout the 2nd and 3rd quarters, the ’12th man’ of Seattle had some worries for NFL offensive player of the year Jaxon Smith-Njigba, who left the game due to a suspected concussion for a huge hit
New England had all the work to do in the second half, but felt like nothing had changed in the third quarter, with Maye going three and out to start his most important half of his young career so far.
Another field goal followed for Myers which meant that the Seahawks held a 12 to zero lead over the Patriots with the NFC champions recovering a fumble from Maye just before the quarter ended.
Despite the low scoring affair in the first three quarters, the last of the four frames would be the most dramatic, with a total of 30 points for both teams in the last 15 minutes of regulation. The first of which would come from a Darnold throw to AJ Barner for a ‘Hawks touchdown.
A desperate New England would score after 48 minutes of gametime, thanks to a Maye 35 yard dime to Mack Hollins. Any further attempts for a historic comeback just like from Tom Brady’s exploits against Atlanta for New England in 2017 were halted, after a pick six from Uchenna Nwosu would all but end that dream for Maye and co.
Despite the result, it’s fitting that the Super Bowl in the year of the 250th anniversary of American independence had the Patriots competing in this years game, after an incredible 16 win season led by coach of the year Mike Vrabel. The Patriots will be looking to build on a season which has ended so close to Super Bowl glory.
But for the Seahawks, it’s an incredible finish to an incredible season, summed up by a strong and stern defense, mixed in with a sparkling offence of multiple dangerous weapons, and a Quaterback who searched and found the team he was looking for all along. A match made in heaven for Sam Darnold and the Super Bowl LX champions.
