For the 2nd time in 11 years, the Super Bowl featured both the Seahawks and Patriots, both with entirely different rosters and coaching staffs from their original meeting. Instead of being led by Tom Brady and Bill Belicheck, the Patriots were led by 23 year old QB Drake Maye and their new head coach Mike Vrabel. The Seahawks also lost some icons from the first meeting, including Russel Willson, Pete Carol, and their famous “Legion of Boom” defense that featured Kam Chancellor, Earl Thomas, Bobby Wagner, and others.
In the preseason, both the Patriots and Seahawks were predicted right around the middle pack of teams for odds of winning the super bowl. The reason both teams succeeded had to with breakout players, great coaching, and good rookie play. For the Seahawks, Jaxon Smith-Njigba (JSN) passed his career high in receiving yards by 600, receptions by 20, and touchdowns by 4. In addition to JSN’s career season, other starters like Kenneth Walker, Rashid Shaheed, and Sam Darnold played well too. The Seahawks also had one of the league’s best defenses, ranking top 7 in both sacks and interceptions, and were one of only 3 teams to do so in that stat.
As for the Patriots, it was a season that was much better than what most fans expected in the preseason. Coming off a year finishing 4-13 and firing their head coach, stability was expected when Mike Vrabel was hired, but these results were beyond what most people imagined for the Patriots. While they did have one of the easier schedules, it’s still rare to see young quarterbacks like Drake Maye improve so much in one season. In addition, the Patriots added Treyveon Henderson in the draft and Stefon Diggs in free agency. Linebacker/edge K’Lavon Chaisson played well, and other players who typically had small roles stepped up to help propel the Patriots to an extremely successful season.
As for the game itself, it unfortunately became quickly apparent that the Seahawks were going to beat the Patriots, and that it wouldn’t be very close. It took the Patriots 8 drives until they finished their drive in something other than a punt, and the result of the 9th drive was a fumble recovered by Seattle. When the Patriots would eventually score to make the game 19-7, a defensive stop followed by a touchdown would put them back in the game, but Maye threw an interception at midfield. When Seattle kicked a field goal the next drive to make it 22-7 with less than 6 minutes left, the game was all but over. Another Maye interception and a touchdown would end the game 29-13.
With the Patriots and Seahawks both having a pretty popular fanbase at Indian Hills, some students gave conflicting opinions about the game: Nick Carreira, a Seahawks fan, confidently said that “I knew our team was better and that Maye would crumble, they had a lucky run to the Super Bowl.” Eric Darcy, a Patriots fan, said, “The game was definitely winnable, and the defense did a great job holding the Seahawks to only field goals for most of the game, showing the potential of the team. However, the offense was very underwhelming, and is the reason the Patriots lost the game. If the offense was better, the Pats 100% had a chance to win.” Both made valid arguments, the Seahawks had an explosive offense all year, and the Patriots defense held the Seahawks to limited scoring in the first half. If the offense could just get a few points on the board early in the game, this would’ve been an entirely different game. This just wasn’t the case, and as Carreira said, the spotlight may have just been too big for the young Drake Maye and his offense.
Although the season and playoff was fun in general, the Super Bowl was definitely a bit underwhelming. As NFL fans, in the future, all we can hope for is an eventful offseason and hopefully a more entertaining Super Bowl next year.