The Seattle Seahawks won their first Super Bowl in 2014
The Seattle Seahawks produced a devastating defensive display to beat the New England Patriots and claim their second Super Bowl victory.
Two of the NFL’s strongest defences battled it out in Sunday’s showpiece and the Seahawks emphatically came out on top to win 29-13 at Levi’s Stadium in.
It was a defensive performance for the ages and Briton Aden Durde played a pivotal role, becoming the first overseas coach to win the Unites States’ biggest game.
Seattle’s 46-year-old defensive co-ordinator has helped create the most feared defence in the NFL, which has become known as ‘the Dark Side’, and they showed why on American football’s biggest stage in Santa Clara, California.
New England’s second-year quarterback Drake Maye narrowly missed out on this season’s Most Valuable Player (MVP) award but was stifled by the Seahawks, who claimed six sacks, forced three turnovers and scored a defensive touchdown.
After Seattle led 9-0 at half-time, Maye’s first turnover resulted in the game’s opening touchdown for tight end AJ Barner early in the fourth quarter.
Linebacker Uchenna Nwosu then returned an interception for a 45-yard touchdown, while Jason Meyers kicked a record five field goals as Seattle denied the Patriots a record seventh Super Bowl win.
“We were the better team; we’re the best team. We loved each other, we believed in each other and now we’re champions,” Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald told NBC.
“We went to the dark side tonight. We love our players – they made it happen. They made it come to life.”
How Seahawks stifled MVP contender Maye
Most of the 70,823 crowd seemed to favour Seattle, who came into the game as narrow favourites, and their win also means quarterback Sam Darnold completed his redemption story after being written off as a starting NFL quarterback.
The Seahawks are Darnold’s fifth team in his eight-year career – and third in three years – but in his first year in Seattle the former third overall draft pick has won the game’s biggest prize.
The 28-year-old has been haunted by a comment he made as he struggled in a game against the Patriots in 2019, when he said “I’m seeing ghosts”, but Darnold has now exorcised those demons.
Instead, it was Maye who suffered a nightmare when confronted with the fast, physical defence that Durde and coach Macdonald have fashioned in their two seasons together in Seattle.
Such is the breadth and depth of the threat it carries that Devon Witherspoon claimed a sack from cornerback. He, Derick Hall and Rylie Mills only registered 2.5 sacks between them all season but all three got to Maye in the first half.
The Patriots earned only four first downs before the interval and 52 yards in total. Some cruel folks on social media even joked that Bad Bunny gained more yards as he carried a ball during his half-time show.
Hall’s second sack forced a fumble which was recovered by Byron Murphy, who also sacked Maye twice as the Dark Side wrote themselves into Seattle folklore alongside the ‘Legion of Boom’, the defence that led the Seahawks to their previous Super Bowl win in 2014.
“My team-mates and my coaches, they believed in me,” Darnold told NBC.
“Since the first training camp, every single day we came to work. Shout-out to our offensive line for everything they did in the game. But I’ve also got to shout out our defence.
“We did it. It’s been such a special journey with these guys. So much hard work has been out into this and we did it.”
Patriots and Vrabel denied historic win
New England were playing in their first Super Bowl since 2019 and the departure of legendary quarterback Tom Brady and head coach Bill Belichick.
The duo led the Patriots to six Super Bowl wins, tying the NFL record with the Pittsburgh Steelers, with Mike Vrabel playing in three of those wins.
After two 4-13 seasons, the former linebacker returned to New England as head coach and has rebuilt the roster, leading the Patriots to a record-extending 12th Super Bowl appearance.
Vrabel was hoping to become the first man to win a Super Bowl as a player and head coach with the same franchise, while Maye aimed to be the youngest quarterback to win the big game.
As well as having the league’s best pass completion rate this season, Maye has impressed with his ability to scramble and escape the pressure.
There was no getting away from the Seahawks, though, as New England were unable to get their run game going or get star receiver Stefon Diggs into the game.
Maye did give the Patriots hope as he found Mack Hollins for a touchdown to cut the score to 19-7, but he was intercepted on their next two possessions, meaning Rhamondre Stevenson’s late score was a consolation.