Super Bowl

The 2025 NFL season has finally reached its last game. Super Bowl 60 between the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots took place in Santa Clara last Sunday night, yet it feels like forever ago. As much as I don’t want to revisit this game, the job must be done. 

FIRST QUARTER

After a dazzling National Anthem performance by Charlie Puth, the Patriots won the coin toss and elected to defer, giving the Seahawks the ball to start. On the opening drive, it only took them four plays to get deep into the red zone, but the drive stalled out for a field goal. Seattle ended up punting on their next two possessions of the quarter, but the defense really set the tone throughout the game. They only gave up three first downs on three total drives, sacking Drake Maye twice in the process. New England’s defense did what they could to keep the game close, but the offense just could not get much of anything with the chances they had. Yet there was still a lot of time to figure it out; they just needed to settle in and find a way to get points on the board.

SECOND QUARTER

From Seattle’s standpoint, the issue for the offense was not necessarily struggling to move the football, but instead it was getting in the end zone. Running back Kenneth Walker was phenomenal, totaling nearly 100 yards before halftime. Unfortunately, Darnold completed just nine passes on 22 attempts, which is a big reason why the Seahawks were able to only get two more field goals throughout the rest of the first half. But once again, their defense was just playing their best game of the season. 

In the second quarter, the Patriots offense had the ball twice and managed just eight yards. It says something when the runner-up for MVP had less completed passes than the entire team was forced to punt the football the entire game. The running game went nowhere, the pocket was getting swarmed up in an instant, and it felt like the Seahawks defense knew exactly what New England was doing before the ball was getting snapped. The Patriots offense finished the half with just four first downs and less than 50 yards of offense. Yet the team was only down by nine points at halftime! This game was still winnable and all it was going to take was one turnover for either team to seize the momentum.

THIRD QUARTER

Whether you tuned into the Bad Bunny halftime show or decided to see what the Kid Rock performance was all about, there were still two more quarters of football to be played. Essentially, both sides picked up exactly where they left off: Seattle’s offense was the better group in sync, yet kept stalling out, while the Patriots got completely punked in every single direction. After Jason Myers nailed his fourth field goal of the night to give the Seahawks a 12-0 lead, the offense managed just eight more yards on the next two drives, while New England only totaled 32 on four possessions. The sacks kept piling up, no adjustments were being made on the sideline and the pressure was really starting to build up for the MVP runner-up. The moment where it felt like Seattle was going to blow this game away took place in the final seconds of the period. On third and six at New England’s 44 yard line, Maye got the ball stripped by Derick Hall off the edge and the Seahawks recovered it in promising field position. 

FOURTH QUARTER

By the start of the fourth quarter, the Patriots defense did just about everything they could to win the football game. Heck, Christian Gonzalez might have been the Super Bowl MVP if they found a way to win because of how sensational he had been. If you told me that Seattle wouldn’t score a touchdown for 45 minutes and Jaxon Smith-Njigba would only catch two passes by that point, I would say they didn’t have a chance. However, after the strip sack from Hall, the Seahawks offense capitalized off the turnover on the fourth play of the period.

On a play-action pass at the 16 yard line, Darnold fired a wide open touchdown pass to AJ Barner down the right side of the field and all of a sudden, the flood gates opened as the Seahawks increased the lead to 19. Then right on time, the Patriots offense woke up and kicked into gear. On their second play of the ensuing drive, Maye finally connected on a deep pass over the middle to Mack Hollins for 24 yards. On the next play, Maye took another shot down the left side of the field to Hollins and this time, the receiver was able to hang on for New England’s first touchdown of the night! When Seattle got the ball back, they punted the ball in less than two minutes and all of a sudden it was a game again!

When Maye took the field again, the Patriots were starting to get a little bit of momentum back in their favor. They picked up a couple of quick first downs and there was still plenty of time left to make it a one score game. All they had to do was not screw up. Unfortunately, on second and three at the 44 yard line, the Patriots quarterback essentially put the dagger in with a horrific interception over the middle of the field to Julian Love. Seattle might have kicked a field goal on the next drive, but it was going to take a near-Herculean effort for New England to somehow take the lead.

Right on schedule, with less than five minutes left to play, Maye got hit on the blitz from Devon Witherspoon and the ball fluttered in the air. Uchenna Nwosu caught it and took off down the right sideline, officially putting the icing on the cake to give the Seahawks a 29-7 lead. At that point, the writing was on the wall. Sure, the Patriots got a garbage time touchdown on their next possession, but by that point, it was too little too late. 

The final score: the Seattle Seahawks 29, the New England Patriots 13.

FOR THE SEAHAWKS

Seattle earned its second Lombardi trophy with yet another dominating defensive performance against one of the league’s hottest quarterbacks of the entire season. Entering this game, we were all interested to see how this unit would play. In the divisional round, they stifled the 49ers by holding them to six points. The next week in the conference championship, they were on their heels for the entire game against the eventual MVP Matthew Stafford and a high-powered Rams offense. Fortunately, they saved their best performance for the final game of the season. They sacked Drake Maye six times, forced three turnovers and completely punked this Patriots offense from start to finish. Mike Macdonald deserves all of the credit in the world for being able to guide this team to a championship in just his second season. But he’s not the only one that deserves their flowers.

Kenneth Walker won the Super Bowl MVP and I think it was the right move. The offense might have only scored one touchdown, which took place in the fourth quarter, but Walker was the biggest reason why that offense had any sort of rhythm that night. Against one of the league’s best rushing defenses, he had 94 yards in the first two quarters and finished the game with 135 on 27 carries, which is five yards per carry. Ever since Zach Charbonnet was sidelined due to a torn ACL, Walker made the most out of the opportunities he was given and reminded the Seahawks just why they drafted him in the first place. Without that presence in the running game, there was no way in hell Seattle would have won that game.

Now we get to the main character of the Seahawks: Sam Darnold. Was he perfect on Sunday night? Absolutely not. However, just like he did in the divisional round against the 49ers, he didn’t make a single mistake. After completing just nine of 22 passes in the first half, he went 10 for 16 in the second for 114 yards with a touchdown pass. New England sent so many blitzes at Darnold the entire night, but he handled the rush perfectly and didn’t put the ball in harm’s way. There were definitely a couple of bad misses he would have loved to have back, but he did his job and now he is a champion. Considering where his career was two years ago, this is absolutely mind-blowing, but he deserves to be celebrated and everybody should be extremely happy for him. Heck, he got a Super Bowl earlier than Lamar Jackson and Josh Allen, two quarterbacks in the same draft class as him. Baker Mayfield was the first overall pick and Darnold still got a ring first. That’s astonishing. 

FOR THE PATRIOTS

Unfortunately, the Patriots couldn’t capture their seventh Super Bowl ring and this loss is going to sting for a while. This was easily winnable. The defense played their tails off the entire playoffs, but the offensive struggles came back to bite this team in the butt. New England might have been able to get away with it against the likes of the Chargers, Texans and Broncos. However, Seattle knew that as long as they didn’t turn the ball over themselves, there was no way they were going to let up. As a result, Drake Maye had the worst NFL game of his career and he was essentially the biggest reason why the Patriots lost. It really sucks to say this, knowing the amount of hope and rejuvenation he brought back to the organization and fanbase, but the story is not over.

The fact that head coach Mike Vrabel was able to bring the team to this point in just his first season is astonishing. It’s no wonder why the NFL gave him Coach of the Year honors. That team played for him all season long and got through every hurdle and obstacle they faced. Unfortunately, they came up just short. Simply put, the Seahawks were the better team. I know a lot of critics are going to say “this is what happens when you play a real opponent,” but New England more than deserved to be here. They might not have gotten the outcome they wanted, but the future is incredibly bright in Foxboro again. I have a feeling they will be back.