"SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- The best team in the NFL spent the 2025 season hiding in plain sight. Led by defense and special teams, armed with a quarterback nobody believed in and run by a 38-year-old, second-year coach whose personality remains opaque to almost everyone outside of his building, the Seattle Seahawks kept their heads down and kept winning. Preseason expectations did not shine on Seattle the way they did on the two better-known offensive mainstays in their own division."
"Seattle's dominant defensive front was a bad matchup for Drake Maye and a Patriots offense that came into the Super Bowl struggling. Eight of the Patriots' first nine possessions Sunday ended with a punt, and the other ended with a kneel-down to close the first half. When the third quarter finished, the Patriots had 78 yards of total offense and as many first downs -- five -- as the Seahawks had sacks."
""I've always felt like this year I never had to force anything," Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold said during the week leading up to the game, when asked what his defense meant to him. "Kind of a security blanket almost, I can feel really confident moving on to the next play and letting our special teams and our defense get to work and understanding that we really just need to take care of the ball as much as possible.""
Seattle completed an unlikely championship run by winning the Super Bowl 29-13 over the New England Patriots in San Francisco's home stadium. Defense and special teams anchored the team, producing a dominant front that limited the Patriots to 78 yards through three quarters and repeatedly forced punts. Sam Darnold managed the offense without pressing, relying on ball security while the defense and special teams created opportunities. A 38-year-old second-year head coach led a team that outperformed preseason expectations and overtook division rivals late in the season to claim the franchise's second Super Bowl title.
Read at ESPN.com
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