As attention shifts to Sam Darnold, prepare for endless stories about his 2019 "seeing ghosts" comment, when he played for the Jets and struggled against the Patriots' defense. Even after the Seahawks QB won the NFC title game Sunday night, he was still asked about it.
"I almost forgot about it, so thanks,” he joked.
That was questionable form by whoever went there right away, even though Darnold handled it like a pro, going on to say, in part, “I think, for me, there was a lot that I didn’t know back then...”
He sure knows more now, and is (mostly) playing like it. Darnold’s history, and the Seahawks in general, will now become our local obsession as they are the last opponent standing between this Patriots team and a Super Bowl title.
It’s a remarkable story, and the preseason odds hammer that point home. This matchup was 4,800-to-1 at the start of the year, making it the most unlikely Super Bowl matchup since 1989 (h/t Mike Sando). I did the math. We all could have had one hell of a vacation if we had just put down $10. Maybe next year.
As for this year, as of the writing of this column, the Patriots are anywhere from 4 to 5.5 point underdogs to the Seahawks. I would bet Mike Vrabel already is framing one of his “edges” around his team not getting enough respect. They’ve played it up for weeks (as Bedard noted in his postgame column from Sunday). Why not lean into the greatest hits one more time?
Seattle’s built around its defense. Mike Macdonald replaced a legend, Pete Carroll, and brought with him a Ravens-style unit that wants to attack an offense rather than let the offense dictate the terms and tempo. The transformation has been quick, and there’s no arguing with its success. The Seahawks defense is #1 in both DVOA and weighted DVOA (which gives more credence to recent games and less to those earlier in the year). They are also #1 in DVOA against both the pass and run, in case you were wondering if one aspect was better than another. Nope. They’ll be equally as imposing.
Seattle also excels at taking the ball away (6th-most turnovers caused with 25) and has 47 sacks, which rank 7th. The pass rush is built around the collective. They were the only team to have 5 players with 40+ pressures in 2025 (per NGS): DeMarcus Lawrence (51), Byron Murphy II (46), Leonard Williams (45), Uchenna Nwosu (44), and Boye Mafe (41).
That will put a lot of heat on Drake Maye and the Pats’ offense, which has been more passenger than driver in this postseason. The Pats have scored just 54 points in their three wins. That’s the fewest points scored prior to a Super Bowl by a team that played in the Wild Card, Divisional, and Championship rounds (breaking the record of the 2000 Ravens).
But the level of competition has been fierce, so why not save arguably the biggest challenge for the finale? Maye can become the 2nd QB in NFL history to defeat the 1st (Seattle), 2nd (Houston), and 3rd-ranked (Denver) scoring defenses in a single postseason, and the Chargers were no slouch either (in fact, I’d argue they were playing better than the Broncos at the time of their meetings).
The Pats have proven they can run the ball effectively against these teams, and that will be important again on Super Bowl Sunday. It wouldn’t be nice, however, to get Maye cooking again. He’s been sped up in this postseason and has been considerably more scattershot with his accuracy than he was throughout the regular season. It’s not all on him. Left tackle Will Campbell struggled again on Sunday in pass pro, and even before the weather turned, the pass catchers weren’t throwing a scare into the Broncos DBs. Seattle doesn’t have a Patrick Surtain, so maybe that makes for easier sledding.
As for the Seahawks offense, so much of it rides on