Twelve years after Super Bowl XLIX, in which the Tom Brady-led New England Patriots beat the Seattle Seahawks due to a bizarre final-minute Seahawks playcall, the two successful franchises lined up for a much-anticipated rematch.
The two teams faced dramatically different paths to Santa Clara. After two cellar-dwelling seasons in the bottom of the AFC East, the Patriots hired head coach Mike Vrabel for the 2025 season. Vrabel, formerly a successful coach with the Tennessee Titans, immediately turned the team’s fortunes around, leading them to the second seed in the AFC.
Led by MVP runner-up sophomore quarterback Drake Maye, the Patriots dispatched the Los Angeles Chargers and Houston Texans to set up an AFC Championship bout in Denver. In the midst of a snowstorm, Maye and the Patriots eked out a narrow win over the Broncos to return to the biggest game for the first time since 2019.
The Seahawks had to wait even longer for their return. While they never hit the lows that the Patriots did, Seattle was very much a franchise mired in NFL mediocrity. General manager John Schneider made a series of key, controversial decisions to try to turn the team’s fortunes around, including trading star quarterback Russell Wilson in 2022, a trade that helped to set up this year’s run to the Super Bowl. Veteran head coach Pete Carroll left for the Las Vegas Raiders in 2024. Starting quarterback Geno Smith followed him to Sin City last year. To replace them, Schneider brought in former Ravens defensive coordinator Mike Macdonald and quarterback Sam Darnold, coming off a 14-3 season with the Minnesota Vikings.
In a crowded NFC West, the Seahawks edged out the San Francisco 49ers and Los Angeles Rams for the number one seed. With the luxury of a bye, Seattle was merely two games from returning to the Super Bowl. Their first game, against their rival in San Francisco, was a 41-6 trouncing, highlighting Seattle’s staunch defense. Playing in front of a home crowd in the NFC Championship, in a nail-biting back-and-forth against the Rams, the Seahawks narrowly survived, heading to their first Super Bowl in 12 years. Could they avenge the demons of their infamous goal-line choke?
From kickoff, the story of this game centered around the defenses. An early Seattle drive was limited to a field goal, and while both teams tried to get their offense moving, neither was able to create much. Both teams’ pass game was near-nonexistent, but the Seahawks found some first-half success in the run game. Seahawks running back Kenneth Walker II (eventually named Super Bowl MVP) was instrumental to the team’s progress. Walker’s 94 yards from 14 carries in the first half were the second highest in Super Bowl history, and while the Patriots’ defense held up for the most part, Seattle held a 9-0 lead going into the half. On the New England side, cornerback Christian Gonzalez was outstanding, making multiple key plays to deny Seahawks receivers.
On the back of a memorable halftime show by Bad Bunny, the two teams returned in much of the same form. The third quarter was once again quiet, with yet another Seahawks field goal extending their lead to 12-0, but the game finally gained momentum in the fourth quarter.
A Drake Maye strip sack led to a Seahawks possession inside the Patriots’ half, a gift which they took full advantage of mere minutes later when Darnold’s pass found tight end AJ Barner for the game’s first touchdown. The Patriots still had some fight left in them, though. Maye led them down the field to cut the lead to 7-19 before the Patriots held the Seahawks to a field goal. On the next drive, a crucial moment for the Patriots to have any hope of getting back into the game, Uchenna Nwosu intercepted a pass and took it all the way back for another touchdown. 29-7. A Patriots consolation touchdown soon after didn’t matter; the game was over.
While Walker II was named MVP, the Seahawks won this game through their suffocating defense, nicknamed ‘The Dark Side.’ The Hawks held the Patriots to just 79 rushing yards all game, and while they did allow 252 passing yards, many of those came in the fourth quarter, when a Seahawks victory was all but certain. Perhaps more tellingly, the Seahawks managed six sacks and two interceptions. Maye rarely had the time to even get the ball to a receiver before he was swarmed by Seahawks players.
The other unsung hero of this game was the Seattle special teams unit. Kicker Jason Myers went five for five on field goals, the first kicker to ever manage that in a Super Bowl. His excellence was matched by Michael Dickson, the Seahawks’ punter, who repeatedly put the Patriots in uncomfortable spots on the field.
The future looks bright for both teams. Maye will be entering just his third season as a starter next year, and the Patriots’ core is talented enough that they will be a contender again. Seattle, the fifth-youngest NFL team, has positioned itself very well for the near future. Even considering that they must re-sign many key players over the next two years, the Seahawks have the sixth-most available salary cap space. Time will tell whether either of these teams will return to the Super Bowl next year, but the possibility is certainly there.
A week on from the game, Seahawks star wide receiver and offensive player of the year Jaxon Smith-Njigba posted on X, “The Goal is Back 2 Back.” That goal seems within reach.