It’s Super Bowl season. This year, the NFC will be represented by the 14-3 Seattle Seahawks, while the AFC will send its champion, the 14-3 New England Patriots. The game will be Sunday, Feb. 8, at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, CA.
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Seattle and New England met in Super Bowl XLIX in 2015, with New England pulling an improbable 28-24 victory with an interception in the end zone at the end of the game. Since then, New England has been back to the Big Game three times, most recently in 2019 with a 13-3 win over the Los Angeles Rams. Seattle hasn’t been back since that loss in Super Bowl XLIX.
Mark: Usually, I’m excited about the Super Bowl. But I’m a Miami Dolphins fan who went through yet another disappointing season and is now bracing for yet another rebuild. And who is representing the AFC this year? The Patriots, an AFC East rival who will appear in their 10th Super Bowl since the last time my team won a playoff game. A team that completely turned its fortunes around in one season with a solid head coach. Win or lose, they win.
So yes, I’m bitter. And no, I’m not excited.
At least I can take solace in the idea that the Patriots won’t win this one. Quarterback Drake Maye has had an amazing season for the Patriots (yes, that’s also upsetting), and anyone who says otherwise is simply confused. But I think the Seahawks have too much for the Patriots to handle. Yes, they’ve lost one of their two amazing running backs to injury, but they still have Kenneth Walker III. Meanwhile, Jaxon Smith-Njigba had that textbook third-pro-season statistical leap that the experts tell us about all the time.
On the other side of the ball, Seattle’s defense has been elite against the rush this year, top 10 against the pass, top five in the red zone, and the best on third down. In contrast, the Patriots edge out the Seahawks in passing defense, but their red zone defense is worse than the Dolphins. (No, my bitterness cannot be contained.)
There’s a trite argument in sports about inexperience and big games. Blah blah blah. However, in this game, I think the experts might just have something. Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold knows how to lose the big game—let’s all remember he had a playoff collapse in Minnesota purple a season ago—but I think he’s ready for the big stage.
Meanwhile, Drake Maye struggled against the Broncos (and the snow) in the AFC Championship. In fact, after a truly stellar regular season, his stats in the playoffs have been less than impressive. He and the Patriots will be in the Super Bowl conversation for years to come; I may be bitter but I’m also realistic. However, I don’t think this year’s campaign will end in the win column, and I don’t think it’ll be close.
Wayne: As a Houston Texans fan, I too, am bitter. The Texans had 49 players active for the AFC Divisional Round, and 48 of those players played their tails off. C.J. Stroud, who I was vehemently opposed to on draft day, did everything he possibly could to give the Patriots the game, giving every Texans fan PTSD from the Matt "Pick Six" Shaub days. The defense, as it had all season, gave its opponent fits and held Drake Maye to one of his worst performances of the year, and arguably career... until a week later when the Broncos made him look like Tua Tagovailoa without Tyreek Hill.
As many of our readers know, I have a fantasy football podcast (shameless plug: 3 and Out available on YouTube, Spotify, Apple, or just click on the box below for our annual Super Bowl Special!). Coming into the season, I was alone among my two other cohosts in saying this would be Drake Maye's breakout season and he would be a top 5 quarterback, so I take some solace in being correct. However, as Mark mentioned, two recent wins for the second-year quarterback help mask the fact that Maye has been at his worst of late. He's completed only 55.8% of his passes after leading the NFL with a 72% rate in the regular season. He's thrown two interceptions in three games after throwing eight ALL season, and those four fumbles against the Texans were painful. The Seahawks aren't going to make anything easier.
This is 100% opinion, but the Patriots may be the worst AFC team to make the Super Bowl since that 1995 San Diego Chargers team got blown out of the sky by the San Francisco 49ers by I believe a gazillion points if I remember correctly. They have had a comically easy path to the Super Bowl: eight of the teams they played saw their head coaches relieved of their position this postseason, they lost to the Las Vegas Raiders, who were so bad they have the first pick, and they caught every team with their best players out (most recently, the Texans were without Nico Collins, and the Broncos without Bo Nix). The Seahawks are going to have a field day.
Of course, there is Sam Darnold. Darnold has removed the bust tag from his days with the New York Jets, but the past two seasons, we have seen much stronger play from him in the first 13 games than his final five or six. It looked to be more of the same, with three-straight games under 200 yards and a total of two touchdown passes, but he exorcised those demons by going off against the Los Angeles Rams. I think the Sam Darnold "Sam Darnolding" is being overhyped.
The Patriots offense has faced the No. 2, No. 4, and No. 5 scoring defenses in football this postseason and have looked pretty off their game. On deck is the No. 3 scoring defense. You see a trend? Eventually, their luck will run out... and that will be on Feb. 8.
Mark’s Prediction: Seattle 31, New England 16
Wayne's Prediction: Seattle 28, New England 10
