I agree with your entire post but especially the part I quoted here.
If you’re interested, here’s something about the meaning behind some of the songs and sets. It helped by appreciation of the show.
Not to me it wasn’t, because it was so late in the game and despite New England finally having some offensive success for the first time in the game, it seemed pretty much a fluke. I still had zero stress at that point. And sure enough, Seattle got a field goal and then the defensive TD to go up 29-7. And at that point it was nearly impossible, because the Patriots had around 5 minutes to somehow score 3 touchdowns, and had to get a two point conversion to even tie the game. That last TD was essentially garbage time.
Another reason why I was pretty relaxed was from this article:
The Seahawks trailed for only 1 minute, 35 seconds this postseason. That’s the fifth-least amount of time trailing by any Super Bowl champion since the 1970 merger:
| Year, Team | Time Trailing |
|---|---|
| 1991 Washington | 0:00 |
| 1977 Cowboys | 0:00 |
| 1973 Dolphins | 0:00 |
| 1971 Cowboys | 0:00 |
| 2025 Seahawks | 1:35 |
| 1983 Raiders | 2:48 |
With that momentum going into this game, once they showed that yes, they still had the same dominating formula they’d had, I didn’t have a doubt.
I don’t think a lot of people realize how ridiculous Seattle was this year. The last truly competitive game they had was that crazy one against the Rams on Thursday Night Football (the one that they won in overtime with a 2 point conversion). After that, they destroyed the Panthers, and then embarrassed the 49ers (and the only reason that game wasn’t a total blowout was because Jason Meyers missed 3 FGs which he never does). Even in the NFC Championship they seemed to have control over the game. They came into the Super Bowl hot.
And even before that, they’d lost 3 games by a total of 9 points. Every loss was a game they could have won if things had gone just a bit differently at the very end. Two of them were a loss because of a fluke turnover, and the other one was a loss because Meyers missed an extremely long (but possible) field goal in the waning seconds of the game.
I am pretty confident that I am one of those people in that subset. I thought it was a great game. One of the three best I have ever seen.
The Seahawks had the lowest number of 4th down attempts this year, only 12, 7 less than the next lowest. And I’m guessing most teams would have made the same choices to kick on all of these:
4th & 7
4th & 14
4th & 3 - There were 11 seconds left in the half with no timeouts, so it was either kick the FG or go for a 23 yard TD play.
4th & 9
4th & 4 - The FG took them at 5:00 left from a 12 pt lead to a 15 pt lead, which took it from 2 TDs takes the lead to 2 TDs and a 2 pt conversion just to tie.
It’s mostly numbers and situation based, and I don’t think that is going to change. It’s not (usually) aggression for aggression’s sake. With NE not getting anything accomplished, there wasn’t a solid reason for Seattle to go for it more often on 4th down.
But that wasn’t as true on the other side. There was a 4th and 1 somewhere midfield the Patriots didn’t attempt halfway through the 3rd quarter, and they probably should have, as they were down 12-0 and probably needed to try something at that point other than punt.
If it’s the sequence I’m thinking of, it was around the New England 45 yard line (so you are right it was midfield) but it was originally 2nd and 1, but the runner was stuffed, then on 3rd and 1 they tried a pass which was incomplete. At that point it probably was wise to cut their losses and punt rather than risk giving Seattle such great field position.
Yes, yes, yes! It was an awesome game!
There are two kinds of defensive slogs. One is where both teams’ offenses are just horrid, and the other is where both teams’ defenses are great.
This was the latter. It was a great game. Neither offense stunk it up, it’s just that the defenses were tough. That Patriots cornerback with the Colombian flag, number 0, was great in coverage too.
Regarding the claim that the Seattle Defense is nicknamed “The Dark Side.” Has anyone heard that before last night? I watched every game this season and read quite a lot about the team, and I’ve never heard that before.
I guess the argument can be made it was the ‘safe’ thing. But losing conventionally is no better than losing unconventionally, at least when there aren’t any job security consequences.
The game was already close to out of hand. I’m more of the mind it’s better to at least try and potentially lose bigly than play it safe on the off chance the other team will somehow suddenly start screwing up to let you back in the game.
I know coaches often wait until the 4th quarter to take those kinds of chances, but this didn’t seem like the kind of game that would allow for that sort of comeback if they waited.
Christian Gonzalez was a beast and he was the bane of Seattle. He had so many pass breakups, if New England didn’t have him I’m going out on a limb and saying the Seahawks would have probably had at least a couple more touchdowns. He was a problem.
The guy is only 23 years old. He is an absolute game-changer for that team.
I’ve been hearing that for a while now. That is the nickname they’ve settled on. They also call their pass coverage “The Death Zone”, but that’s not a term brought up nearly as much. But yes, The Dark Side is what they’ve called themselves to distinguish themselves against the Legion of Boom.
DeMarcus Lawrence coined that term in early November if I remember properly, or at least that’s when he was telling the media about it.
Here is a YouTube short from November 6:
That was part of the reason I stopped watching the game at 19-0. It didn’t seem like New England was trying to win and were just going to lose quietly. The fact that they tried to change up in the fourth quarter was too little, too late. Has a team ever scored 20 unanswered points in the fourth quarter after failing to score in the first three quarters?
They should’ve changed up immediately after halftime.
This is incorrect. The “strategic” designation is based on extremely long range and high payload capacity. Not whether it can carry nuclear ordinance or not.
This CBS article about the game has a lot of interesting factoids about this game.
The one that surprised me, and it’s something that I really had no idea about, is that the Seahawks have only one player that is the highest-paid at his position in the NFL. And that is punter Michael Dickson. I get why they pay him so much, he is elite, but that still seems weird.
Another interesting fact, especially for those who predicted that Sam Darnold’s turnovers were going to doom the team:
The Seahawks became the first team in NFL history to win a Super Bowl during a postseason where they turned the ball over ZERO times.
Also, Drake Maye had a total of 60 passing yards going into the 4th quarter, and then got 235 yards in that quarter alone. (And they scored 2 TDs that quarter, the only points they scored in the game.) Makes you wonder if the Patriots should have had a different offensive plan from the start. And those 235 passing yards were the most ever thrown by a QB in the 4th quarter of a Super Bowl.
It happens when you have a team full of young players, and your starters at key positions are still on their rookie contracts (e.g., Smith-Njigba) or journeymen (e.g., Darnold).
Guys who are among the highest-paid at their positions are, of course, stars, and are playing under their second or third contracts.
This. I just assume the Pats 4th quarter performance ids evidence of cheating, because that’s the legacy they’ve built for themselves.
I’m pretty sure that’s more passing yards than in some Super Bowls (both teams combined), but I can’t find a good (accessible) listing.
I went put for a burrito and didn’t watch the second half, but was getting updates on my phone. The flukosity of the Pats first touchdown was not apparent to me.
It’s certainly more than the combined passing yards for Super Bowls VI (Dallas vs Miami) and VII (Miami/Washington), but those were outliers to an extent. It’s more yards than individual teams had in that era but combined passing was usually more than 235 yards