Revenge is a dish best served cold. Although seeing as the Seattle Seahawks had to wait 11 years to exact theirs on the New England Patriots, their fans would have been forgiven for moving on to other matters.
Not that you’d know it from the way the Seahawks played in Sunday’s Super Bowl, where they smothered the Patriots in a rematch of the 2015 championship, when New England pulled off an extraordinary victory that has haunted Seattle for years.
Kenneth Walker III, the engine of Seattle’s offense with 135 rushing yards on 27 carries, was named MVP. Sam Darnold completed his long redemption arc from draft-bust to champion quarterback by throwing for 202 yards and a touchdown.
The Patriots won the coin toss and opted to kick off. The Seahawks moved the ball down the field quickly thanks to a 23-yard catch by the Super Bowl MVP from four years ago, Cooper Kupp. But they stalled on New England’s 14-yard line and settled for a field goal to open the scoring.
Then it was the Patriots’ turn. Drake Maye led their offense out – at the age of 23 years and 162 days, he was the second-youngest starting quarterback in Super Bowl history. Although he had a brilliant regular season, he had struggled in the playoffs, albeit against some excellent defenses, committing five turnovers in three games. But if Maye was nervous it didn’t show: he completed his first two passes and followed up a sack with an 11-yard scramble. The Seahawks defense – their pass rush in particular – is merciless, though, and they flushed Maye out of the pocket on third down. New England’s opening possession ended with a punt – their first of eight on the day.
Darnold, like Maye, was playing in his first Super Bowl. He had a tougher road to Santa Clara: he appeared destined to be another talented quarterback ruined by the dysfunction of the team that drafted him in 2018, the New York Jets. But he has resurrected his career since leaving New York, thriving under superior coaching in Minnesota and now Seattle, who he joined for this season. There were still doubts about his ability at the very highest level and he completed just three of his first seven passes as the Seahawks punted on their second possession.
Despite the compelling backstories behind the quarterbacks, the game quickly turned into a showcase of two excellent defenses. Rushers were crushed at the line of scrimmage, receivers were smothered by defenders, and Darnold and Maye barely had time to set their feet and throw. At the end of the first quarter, the teams had mustered 99 yards of offense between them and there were just three points on the board.
Walker had clearly had enough of the attrition at the start of the second quarter, ripping off gains of 30 and 29 yards before the Patriots made some adjustments and stopped him for losses twice. Walker had done enough to get his team in field-goal range and Myers made it 6-0.
Seattle’s pass rush continued to impress. On the Patriots’ next possession, Seahawks rookie defensive end Rylie Mills mauled his way through several hundred pounds of New England linemen to bring down Maye, effectively ending the drive. It said a lot that one of the day’s biggest cheers came on a beautiful punt from Michael Dickson downed at the 2-yard line on Seattle’s next possession.
A Myers field goal ended a first half that was for defensive sickos only. The previous three Super Bowls averaged 25 points in the first half; this one yielded nine. Maye and Darnold had completed 45% of the passes between them and Walker’s 94 rushing yards dwarfed New England’s total offensive output. New England were blitzing relentlessly, unsettling Darnold. On the other side, the Seahawks were going after Will Campbell, the tackle the Patriots drafted last year to protect Maye, who had been sacked three times and looked understandably rattled.
Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels entered Sunday with six Super Bowl wins under his belt. But if he had come up with a brilliant new scheme during Bad Bunny’s half-time show, it wasn’t evident on New England’s first drive which ended in, yes, a punt. Another Myers field goal made it 12-0 before Maye committed the first turnover of the game – a fumble gobbled up by Byron Murphy II – at the end of the third quarter. Teams – including the Patriots – have come back from larger margins to win the Super Bowl. They also had functioning offenses.
The Patriots needed to do something drastic. Instead they gave up the first touchdown of the game. Maye’s fumble had given the Seahawks excellent field possession early in the fourth quarter and Darnold soon found tight end AJ Barner in the end zone for a 16-yard touchdown pass.
That score sparked something in the Patriots. On their next drive, Maye finally had time to find his receivers. Or receiver. Mack Hollins, an oddball journeyman who arrived for the game dressed as Hannibal Lecter, hauled in a 24-yard pass followed quickly by a 35-yard touchdown catch. The Patriots trailed 19-7 but were finally showing some life on offense.
It wasn’t enough. Maye threw an awful pass on his next drive that was intercepted by Seattle safety Julian Love. Any momentum New England had was halted, and Myers’s fifth field goal soon afterwards set a Super Bowl record. Another turnover by Maye led to another touchdown as Uchenna Nwosu ran in an interception 45 yards for the score. Maye’s second of the touchdown of the game – a pass to Rhamondre Stevensom late in the fourth quarter – added a veneer of respectability to his stat line but the 29-13 told the full story.
The Patriots would have broken a tie with the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday if they had won what would have been their seventh Super Bowl, a record in the modern era. But they can be content that the pieces – including Maye, who has too much talent not to come back from this performance, an outstanding defense and head coach Mike Vrabel – are in place to have another run at the title soon, while many of their rivals in the AFC are in flux or outright turmoil.
As for the Seahawks, 11 years is a long time to wait for redemption – but they’ll take it.
