How Seahawks ruined Drake Maye, Patriots. How Sam Darnold won the Super Bowl

Mike Macdonald turned the corner. He, finally, re-entered the Seahawks’ locker room.

The 38-year-old head coach, in his second year on the job, was wearing a black, SEAHAWKS SUPER BOWL CHAMPIONS T-shirt. And a huge smile.

“How about THAT?” Macdonald said. Michael Bennett, Cliff Avril and Jermaine Kearse, members of the last Seahawks Super Bowl team 11 years ago that lost to the New England Patriots, waited outside the locker room at Levi’s Stadium to join the party late Sunday night.

Jermaine Kearse, Michael Bennett, Cliff Avril from #Seahawks’ Super Bowl 11 years ago against the Patriots, outside the Seattle locker room after Super Bowl 60 win here tonight here in Santa Clara.
⁦@thenewstribune⁩ pic.twitter.com/G1PPRVckP7

— Gregg Bell (@gbellseattle) February 9, 2026

Inside that locker room — the rival San Francisco 49ers locker room, they were well aware — Leonard Williams, Jarran Reed and Byron Murphy posed with the Vince Lombardi Trophy. Reed carried a triangled bottle of Don Julio 1942 tequila. Most of it was empty.

Cigar smoke, IPAs and laughs filled the room. Devon Witherspoon held an instant newspaper headline with a cover photograph of quarterback Sam Darnold under the banner “CHAMPIONS!”

“Now my dog, m***** f***** Super Bowl winner!” Witherspoon said, tapping the newspaper.

He is. They all are.

Macdonald’s defense besieged New England quarterback Drake Maye with a variety of pressures, more blitzes from more places than Seattle’s usual. The looks and hits left the runner-up for NFL MVP and his entire Patriots offense spooked. The Seahawks sacked Maye six times. They forced three turnovers in the second half.

It was 19-0 with Seattle also leading in total yards 271 to 78 into the fourth quarter, before the Patriots finally scored.

The final score of Seahawks 29, Patriots 13 didn’t tell how lopsided the game was, how rollicking Seattle’s second Super Bowl championship in its 50-year history was.

But all those inside the raucous locker room postgame sure did.

“Every time we blitzed we got home. We made it count,” Uchenna Nwosu said.

The veteran outside linebacker playing in his first Super Bowl teamed with Witherspoon for the play of the game. Nwosu returned the fumble Witherspoon caused by Maye 45 yards for the signature touchdown that upped the Seahawks’ lead to 29-7 with 4 1/2 minutes remaining. It was the first fumble return for a touchdown of the eighth-year NFL veteran’s career. And the perfect time in the biggest game of his life.

“It was just me and the end zone. There was nobody else,” Nwosu said, knowing that play will be on loop on the Pacific Northwest until, oh...the end of time.

“We’re the best defense since the Legion of Boom. And that’s facts,” Nwosu said.

“The plan was to get to Maye, disrupt him. We knew he was their whole team. He’s the MVP runner-up (Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford). Could have been MVP. So we knew if we affected him, their whole game plan would be nothin’.”

Forget the final yards. New England put up two touchdowns in garbage time, after doing nothing with the championship on the line. The pressure was so affecting, so debilitating, Maye was scatter-shot on passes on the few passes on which he did have time.

“It was — it’s insane, man,” Seahawks middle linebacker Ernest Jones said.

It was Jones, the defense’s signal-caller, who called his teammates on that side of the ball together way back last spring during voluntary meetings and workouts. Jones told them they were going to win the Super Bowl, “and it was going to be on our backs.” Then his Seahawks led the league in fewest points allowed while going 17-3 and winning it all.

Losing Super Bowl 60 was not an option for Jones, or Macdonald’s defense.

“And...I’ll be damned if we get one game away and this defense doesn’t show up like we’re supposed to,” Jones said.

“No surprise. ...Man, once we get in front of you, we’re a different group, so we were able to get out there, get pressure, and get after the quarterback. It’s what I expected from us. We’ve been doing this all year. We’ve been battle tested. “This was nothing.”

Oh, and New England’s punishing running game, with bulldozing backs TreVeon Henderson and Rhamondre Stevenson?

The Patriots rushed for all of 67 yards on 18, inconsequential carries.

New England punted on its first eight full possessions of the game. The ninth drive ended with Witherspoon’s blitz into Maye’s fumble into Nwosu’s arms for the game-clinching score. And then the sacks. Oh, the sacks. Defensive tackle Byron Murphy had two. So did did outside linebacker Derick Hall. Witherspoon had his, and basically had a second. Even rookie Rylie Mills, 13 1/2 months removed from tearing his ACL ending his college career at Notre Dame, bull-rushed Patriots left guard Jared Wilson into Maye for a sack.

Seattle’s six sacks were one off the Super Bowl record.

“Credit to them,” Maye said.

“They had applied some pressure where they got us a few times. And we got be better with the football and make better decisions. And I’ve got to make better throws when the game goes like that. I got to make some throws to help us move the football.”

Mike Macdonald blitzes more

The Seahawks entered the Super Bowl with the NFL’s fifth-lowest blitz rate this season.

So of course Macdonald began the game by blitzing.

The Seahawks’ defensive guru and head coach got consecutive drive stops on New England’s two straight third-and-longs from midfield late in the first quarter. Both times, Macdonald sent Witherspoon.

The first time, blitzing with Nick Emmanwori, Witherspoon broke in on Maye and forced a hurried, poor throw incomplete.

The second time, the 185-pound Witherspoon bulled through a chip block to sack Maye for a 10-yard loss and a second consecutive punt by New England from midfield.

The Seahawks stayed ahead 3-0 into the second quarter. “We knew how they were going to protect,” Witherspoon said. The three-time Pro Bowl cornerback said the Seahawks knew exactly how New England’s running backs were going to slide over to try to combat blitzes. So they often blitzed multiple defenders, one way from the slide.

Macdonald schemed that, too. Maye became the first quarterback sacked three times on the first four drives of a Super Bowl since Patriots legend Tom Brady in Super Bowl 42 against the New York Giants 18 years ago.

Kenneth Walker, Sam Darnold, offense

All that the defense dominated left it on Kenneth Walker and Sam Darnold to do two things on Seattle’s offense to win the Super Bowl.

Walker: Run.

Darnold: Don’t turn the ball over.

Walker didn’t just run. He absolutely romped. The fourth-year veteran dashed for 135 yards on 27 carries. His runs of 30 and 29 yards on consecutive handoffs in the second quarter created one of Jason Myers’ Super Bowl-record five field goals.

Walker’s 20-yard catch and run in the third quarter set up Myers’ fourth field goal for a 12-0 lead.

That’s how Walker, on the night he became unemployed, won the Super Bowl 60 Most Valuable Player award. His 135 yards rushing tied Buffalo’s Thurman Thomas for eighth-most in Super Bowl history.

“I feel like as a running back, you’ve got to have that rhythm. You gotta get touches,” Walker said. “The O-line made my job easier.

“Later on in the first quarter, early on in the second is when I started to feel it.

“Mike always talks about, it’s a softening process, and that’s when those big runs start to come.”

Sam Darnold does his job

Darnold did his job to win. For the fifth consecutive game, the NFL leader with 20 turnovers in the regular season did not turn it over one time.

The Seahawks have won all those games, through the playoffs, through the Super Bowl. Darnold completed only 19 of 38 passes, for 202 yards. His touchdown of 16 yards to AJ Barner 91 seconds into the fourth quarter put Seattle up 19-0.

He can’t win the big one? Darnold just did.

After eight seasons playing for five teams, including the Jets, Panthers and Vikings (in 2024) that gave up on him, the 28-year-old QB in his first Seattle season led the Seahawks to becoming Super Bowl champions.

“It’s a special group. It’s a combination of a lot of different things. Coach Mike, his messaging, and what he wanted this team to be. And all the leaders believing in it. Really taking ownership of it, and making it a non-negotiable. Making it, hey, if you don’t believe in this you are going to be out.

“Sorry, that’s just the truth of the matter. We have leaders in every single room...That’s the special part. It wasn’t coaches’ messages. It was our message, too.

“It really started with Coach Macdonald, and what he able to bring this team, and bring us together.”