Most of the crowd of 70,823 seemed to favor Seattle, and their win also meant quarterback Sam Darnold completed his redemption story after being ruled out as a starting NFL quarterback.
The Seahawks are Darnold’s fifth team in his eight-year career and third in three years. But in his first year in Seattle, the former third overall draft pick won the game’s biggest prize.
The 28-year-old was so distressed that he said “I see a ghost” when he was struggling against the Patriots in 2019, but Darnold has now exorcised that demon.
Instead, it was Maye who had a nightmare when faced with the fast, physical defense that coaches Durde and Macdonald created during their two seasons together in Seattle.
It’s the breadth and depth of the threat that Devon Witherspoon claims is a steal at cornerback. He, Derick Hall and Rylie Mills have registered only 2.5 sacks all season, but all three sacks in the first half came to Maye.
The Patriots had just four first downs before the interval and gained 52 total yards. Some cruel people on social media even joked that Bad Bunny gained more yards by carrying the ball during the halftime show.
Hall’s second sack forced a fumble that was recovered by Byron Murphy, who sacked Maye twice, as the Dark Side entered Seattle folklore with the Legion of Boom, a defense that led the Seahawks to their previous Super Bowl victory in 2014.
“My teammates and coaches believed in me,” Darnold told NBC. “Every day since our first training camp, we’ve come to work. I have to give a shout-out to our offense for everything they did in the game, but I also have to give a shout-out to our defense.”
“We did it. It was a really special journey with these guys. So much work went into this and we did it.”
