They say defense wins championships. That has never been truer than it was Sunday.
The Seattle Seahawks delivered an all-time performance in their 29-13 victory over the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LX, unleashing a ferocious pass rush to torment quarterback Drake Maye all night.
Maye suffered six sacks and committed three turnovers, including a fourth-quarter interception that linebacker Uchenna Nwosu returned 44 yards for a dagger touchdown.
“We said at the beginning of the year, ‘The way this team gets to the Super Bowl is on the backs of the defense,’” linebacker Ernest Jones IV told NFL Network afterward. “And I’ll be damned if we get to the game and this defense don’t show out.”
All three of Maye’s turnovers led to points for the Seahawks, whose dominant defense is nicknamed “Dark Side.”
With 16 seconds left in the third quarter, Seattle’s Derick Hall strip-sacked Maye, and Byron Murphy recovered the ball at the New England 37-yard line.
Five plays later, Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold found tight end A.J. Barner for a 16-yard touchdown, giving Seattle a 19-0 lead.
Maye responded with a three-play, 65-yard drive that ended with a 35-yard touchdown pass to Mack Hollins.
But with the score still 19-7 with under nine minutes to go, Maye threw an interception to Seahawks safety Julian Love, who spent his first four seasons with the Giants.
That led to Jason Myers’ fifth field goal of the night, which set a Super Bowl record.
And then with less than five minutes remaining, blitzing cornerback Devon Witherspoon delivered a hit on Maye. The ball came loose and didn’t touch the ground before landing in the hands of Nwosu, whose touchdown return gave Seattle a 29-7 advantage.
“We did a great job of shutting them down, getting after the quarterback, getting takeaways, which, to me, was the deciding factor of the game,” defensive tackle Leonard Williams, formerly of the Jets and Giants, told NFL Network.
“Demarcus Lawrence came onto the team, and he was joking about needing a Harvard education to play on this defense because there’s so many blitzes and pressure.”
Maye had 48 passing yards at halftime, and Seattle held the Patriots scoreless through three quarters.
Hall finished with two sacks, while four other Seahawks — including Witherspoon — had one apiece.
Seattle’s swarming pass rush was an unwelcome sight for Maye, who suffered a shoulder injury in the AFC Championship Game but was removed from the injury report before the Super Bowl.
Maye finished 27-of-43 for 295 yards and two touchdown passes with two interceptions and a lost fumble.
“I’d like to go back to the beginning and redo it. There’s so many plays that can decide and change the game,” Maye said.
“I have the [interception] and they return it for a touchdown. There’s numerous plays in the first half where I feel like I could have made a better throw or made a better decision. It really comes down to who makes the plays and who doesn’t, and they made the plays tonight.”
Maye finished his first postseason with seven touchdowns and eight turnovers in four games.
The Patriots had overcome Maye’s uneven play in playoff wins over the Los Angeles Chargers, Houston Texans and Denver Broncos, all of whom possess top-tier defenses.
But those were nothing like what they saw from the Seahawks, who boasted the NFL’s stingiest defense in the regular season, allowing only 17.2 points per game.
“They just made a decision they were gonna play a certain way,” head coach Mike Macdonald said. “They lived up to the Dark Side today. That’s gonna go down in the history books.”
