{"id":572987,"date":"2026-02-07T13:44:21","date_gmt":"2026-02-07T13:44:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/572987\/"},"modified":"2026-02-07T13:44:21","modified_gmt":"2026-02-07T13:44:21","slug":"super-bowl-2026-how-seahawks-and-patriots-became-title-chasers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/572987\/","title":{"rendered":"Super Bowl 2026: How Seahawks and Patriots became title chasers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

SAN FRANCISCO\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Neither team began the season among the favorites to reach the Super Bowl<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Seattle Seahawks and the New England Patriots<\/a> both were regarded as long shots.<\/p>\n

But not by their coaches and players.<\/p>\n

On Sunday, the Seahawks and Patriots will play in Super Bowl LX<\/a> at Levi\u2019s Stadium.<\/p>\n

After the Seahawks defeated the Rams<\/a> in the NFC championship game, Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald was asked during a postgame broadcast about being an \u201cafterthought\u201d behind the Rams and San Francisco 49ers in the NFC West.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe did not care,\u201d Macdonald proclaimed, making public an attitude players adopted throughout Macdonald\u2019s two seasons.<\/p>\n

The Seahawks reflect their second-year coach, safety Julian Love said, by keeping an intense but \u201cmatter-of-fact\u201d approach.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe tries to keep the main thing, the main thing,\u201d Love said. \u201cHe doesn\u2019t like to make … grandeur out of everything.<\/p>\n

\u201cLike, he\u2019ll say, \u2018Who do we play next, and what time do we play?\u201d And then we\u2019ll all say in a team meeting, constantly, just like every meeting, \u2018We don\u2019t care!\u2019 That mindset and his quote … that\u2019s just how he\u2019s been all year, all the past two years and that shows who we are as a team now.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Seahawks won their last seven regular-season games and finished 14-3 to capture the top seed in the NFC. After a first-round bye, they routed the 49ers and beat the Rams to advance to the Super Bowl for the first time since 2015, when they lost to the Patriots and fell short of repeating as champions.<\/p>\n

Quarterback Sam Darnold<\/a>, cast aside by the Minnesota Vikings after he led them to a 14-win season in 2024, played well throughout the season and spectacularly in the playoffs.<\/p>\n

Running back Kenneth Walker III leads the rushing attack, and George Holani has stepped into a complementary role that Zach Charbonnet filled before suffering a knee injury in the divisional round against the 49ers.<\/p>\n

\"Seattle <\/p>\n

Seattle Seahawks wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba runs with the ball during a win over the Rams in the NFC championship on Jan. 25.<\/p>\n

(Ben VanHouten \/ Associated Press)<\/p>\n

Receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba was voted the NFL offensive player of the year after catching 119 passes, 10 for touchdowns. Darnold also relies on receiver Cooper Kupp<\/a>, the 2021 NFL offensive player of the year and Super Bowl LVI most valuable player when he played for the Rams, and the electric Rashid Shaheed, along with tight end A.J. Barner.<\/p>\n

Linebacker Ernest Jones IV<\/a>, linemen Leonard Williams, Byron Murphy and DeMarcus Lawrence, cornerback Devon Witherspoon and safety Nick Emmanwori are among the standouts for the Seahawks \u201cDark Side\u201d defense that gave up a league-best 17.2 points per game in the regular season.<\/p>\n

Jason Myers is the kicker, All-Pro Michael Dickson the punter and Shaheed the dynamic kick returner.<\/p>\n

Like the Seahawks, the Patriots and their fans were similarly inspired by a speech receiver Stefon Diggs made before a preseason game, when he proclaimed \u201cWe all we got. We all we need.\u201d<\/p>\n

After finishing 4-13 last season, Patriots owner Robert Kraft fired first-year coach Jerod Mayo and hired Mike Vrabel, a former Patriots linebacker and three-time Super Bowl champion who coached the Tennessee Titans for six seasons.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were intentional about making sure that when the players returned there was a program in place that they could look at, that they could believe in, that they wanted to be a part of and that they wanted to protect,\u201d Vrabel said. \u201cThat\u2019s what we set out to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vrabel, the NFL coach of the year, led the Patriots to a 14-3 record and their first AFC East title since 2019. The Patriots then defeated the Chargers and the Houston Texans before beating the Denver Broncos in the AFC championship game to advance to the Super Bowl for the first time since the 2018 season, when they defeated the Rams in Super Bowl LIII.<\/p>\n

Quarterback Drake Maye<\/a> is a dual threat who became an MVP finalist while leading an offense that averaged 28.8 points a game.<\/p>\n

Diggs is Maye\u2019s top target \u2014 he eclipsed 1,000 yards receiving for the seventh time \u2014 and tight end Hunter Henry plays a prominent role. Receivers Kayshon Boutte, Mack Hollins and Demario Douglas and tight end Austin Hooper also have made plays.<\/p>\n

\"New <\/p>\n

New England Patriots wide receiver Stefon Diggs runs with the ball against the New York Jets on Dec. 28.<\/p>\n

(Adam Hunger \/ Associated Press)<\/p>\n

Running backs Rhamondre Stevenson and TreVeyon Henderson combined for 13 rushing touchdowns during the regular season.<\/p>\n

Defensive lineman Milton Williams, linebackers K\u2019Lavon Chaisson and Robert Spillane, cornerback Christian Gonzalez and safety Jaylinn Hawkins are among the key players for a defense that gave up 18.8 points a game during the regular season \u2014 the league\u2019s fourth-best mark. Sack leader Harold Landry III is questionable because of a knee issue.<\/p>\n

Andy Borregales is the kicker, Bryce Baringer the punter, and Marcus Jones is a second-team All-Pro punt returner.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN FRANCISCO\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Neither team began the season among the favorites to reach the Super Bowl. The Seattle Seahawks and…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":572988,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5123],"tags":[1582,276,262,1910,248958,2961,224,5337,76568,32630,9323,449,7138,11578,2087,5950,21686,6620,50647,1628],"class_list":["post-572987","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-ca","tag-california","tag-defense","tag-game","tag-kicker","tag-la","tag-los-angeles","tag-losangeles","tag-mike-vrabel","tag-patriots","tag-player","tag-point","tag-rams","tag-regular-season","tag-seahawks","tag-season","tag-super-bowl","tag-time","tag-touchdown","tag-year"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116029650929495980","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572987","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=572987"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572987\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/572988"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=572987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=572987"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=572987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}