Behind a dominant defense, and Kenneth Walker III, the Seahawks got their getback, beating the Pats for their second Lombardi trophy. It wasn’t the prettiest Super Bowl, setting the record for most field goals in a Super Bowl, torturing a very young Pats O-Line with six sacks on Drake Maye (Which made the 2026 Pats the most sacked team in a single postseason run), and a two-score lead basically the entire game, but it got the job done. But what exactly happened in this game, and how did all these guys perform?
First off, Why Did This Game Even Matter?
11 years ago, February 1st on Super Bowl Sunday, the Seahawks were down 28-24, and one yard from the goal line. 2nd and goal, 26 seconds left, and Marshawn Lynch in the backfield. Lynch was one of the top backs in the league at the time, and everyone watching was sure Lynch would soon barrel into the endzone to take the lead winning back-to-back Super Bowls behind the Legion of Boom. Instead, Mr. Unlimited’s pass to WR Ricardo Lockette on a flat route was intercepted by Malcolm Butler, and the Seahawks lost. The Hawks would kind of begin to fade away, with the L.O.B. dismantling, and the franchise not making it past the Divisional Round for the next 10 years. Then, behind another dominant defense and run game, they were back to the Bowl, looking to redeem themselves and win their second Lombardi. They’d be facing the Patriots again, with a top defense and MVP candidate QB Drake Maye, who were aiming to revive their Brady dynasty, and win their record seventh Lombardi. Also, it’s the Super Bowl. It always matters.
Sam Darnold/Drake Maye
Sam Darnold finished his redemption story, and Drake Maye arguably played the worst quarterbacking game in Super Bowl history. Darnold wasn’t really impressive, with 50% completion and 202 passing yards. The Patriots were pressuring Darnold a lot, but luckily, he wasn’t seeing ghosts this time. He played pretty well in the pocket, avoiding sacks and hits, but he’d usually end up making a bad throw anyways. He was decent at managing the game at least, but just wasn’t delivering when it came to making the big plays. For Maye, basically all of his stats came in the fourth quarter, when the game was realistically over. With two rookies on one side of his O-Line, he was getting terrorized. When he was able to get some time in the pocket, he just couldn’t make plays. The MVP runner-up looked like Geno Smith on the biggest stage, with zero points, 8/18 with 60 passing yards, 5 sacks, and a fumble through three quarters. Then, the Pats shamelessly stat-padded so it looked like they tried. Both qb’s had pretty bad ball placement for the most part, looking awful throughout the whole game, but we can finally say this: Sam Darnold arguably outplayed an MVP candidate in the Super Bowl.
Every Receiver That Played (and also a little bit about Rashid Shaheed)
With how sub-par the QB’s were, the receivers didn’t play very well either. I grouped them all together because they all stunk. OPOY Jaxon “the Emerald City Route Artist(ECRA for short)” Smith-Njigba, was tightly guarded and rarely found one-on-one or man coverage. He also went down with a concussion in the third quarter, but returned later in the game. Stefon Diggs had a whopping five yards and one reception through three quarters. It was better than Hunter Henry at least, who had nothing through three quarters. Cooper Kupp was working with Italian B.M.T. throws from Darnold, Mack Hollins got 71 yards and a td from ethical statpadding. The Patriots also put a lot of work into ensuring Shaheed hardly touched the ball. He didn’t do much as a returner, and hardly had any impact as a reciever, but that was mostly because they didn’t even want him touching the ball.
Christian Gonzalez
This guy really wanted to win. Prevented a lot of big or even td plays, shut down ECRA, Rashid Shaheed, and Kupp, and kept the Patriots as alive as he could. He was the heart of the Pats pass defense, and was arguably the best player on the field at times. Sadly, his efforts and lockdown coverage went to waste, with the majority of the offense playing poorly.
Seahawks D-Line
It hurt to watch these guys assassinate Drake Maye on live television. Byron Murphy II, Demarcus Lawrence, Derrick Hall, Uchenna Nwosu, all them boys. Even though they kind of ruined the game, shutting down the Pats offense and being the biggest part of the blowout, at least I can watch Pats fans cope with it and try to argue that it was close. Forced two fumbles on Maye, put the game out of reach, and stopped evil empire from getting number seven.
Kenneth Walker III
Most impactful player on offense by a mile. Big plays and conversions when the Hawks needed it, and kept drives alive. A lot of people are arguing Jason Myers should’ve won it, having 17 total points, and setting a record for most field goals in a Super Bowl, but his kicks were only from 26, 33, 29, 41, and 41, with two PAT’s. Walker was the one who was able to get him into those short-range field goals, with 161 total yards, and 5 yards per carry. Walker went on to win the SBMVP, rightfully so. With Darnold’s struggles to get the pass game going, Walker picked up a lot of slack and kept their offense in it. I think the only argument should be him or a defensive player, but the defense was basically a group project, not one dude’s dominance. Personally, I think K9 getting the award was completely valid.
Overall, the game stunk. The Patriots were never in it, and could only statpad down three scores. Most people say it was one of the worst Super Bowls in history, and their pretty spot on. I’m pretty scared for next year, since the Hawks have about 70 million in cap space, and they’ll probably be staying as a top five team for years. Even if the game was awful, there are three things I can say:
- Sam Darnold is officially 10x the player Josh Allen is
- At least it happened to the Patriots
- At least we got to see Bad Bunny
