Seattle’s Top-Notch Defense Vs. New England’s High-Powered Offense
Trevor Phipps
I know, I know, the Super Bowl this year is going to be a tough one for Broncos’ fans everywhere to view.
After an exhilarating 2025 season, the Broncos broke their fans’ hearts when they found out the team would be without its starting and prized quarterback, Bo Nix, for the AFC Championship game due to a freak injury at the tail end of the Division showdown against the Buffalo Bills.
And to make matters worse, the Broncos just barely lost the AFC Championship game 10-7 after a blizzard made game day conditions unbearable. The worst part was that Broncos’ fans couldn’t stop thinking that they probably would have won if star QB Bo Nix would have been leading the offense that day.
But oh well, Broncos’ fans need to stop crying now as they won’t be watching their team in the big game just like 29 other teams. The good news for the Denver team is: they seem to have a solid team set up for next year.
But following a complete bum-out ordeal for 24-plus hours after the championship game loss, I have moved on and I am now switching gears to the big game. Even though most of us locals don’t really like (or even despise) both of the teams playing on Feb. 8, most of us will suck up our prides and tune into the game, still dubbed as America’s top sporting event. Some of us, might even place a bet on it.
And even though most experts (and even the gurus in Las Vegas) seem to all favor the Seahawks, I personally think it will be a close game due to the strengths of each team. Vegas favors the Seahawks by pretty big odds for a Super Bowl, 4.5 points. But I don’t feel a “W” for the Sea-Chickens will come that easily. The big game this year has a unique matchup, with one of the league’s most opportunistic defenses (the Seahawks) versus a fast, high scoring offense (the Patriots).
According to Vegas, Super Bowl LX turned out to be one of the most unlikely matchups as both teams only had 1 to 60 odds to win the Super Bowl at the beginning of the season. So, before you make your bets for the big game, let’s take a look at some of the strengths and weakness of both teams.
Seahawks’ Strengths and Weaknesses
For their strengths, everyone knows that it is Seattle’s stellar defense. At the end of the regular season, the Seahawks had the best total defense. They took the prize with allowing the least amount of points per game with 16.4.
The team kept their strong defensive presence into the playoffs too when they held the San Francisco 49ers to two field goals. According to ESPN, “the Seahawks have now gone 27 straight games without allowing a 100-yard rusher despite facing Christian McCaffrey twice, Kyren Williams twice, Bijan Robinson once and Jonathan Taylor once over the past two months.”
However, even though the Seahawks’ clear strength is their defense, their offense can’t quite be counted as a weakness. They finished the regular season with the 7th best total offense (8th in passing and 10th in rushing).
The biggest weakness for the Seahawks this year has been their high number of turnovers (28) with only the Minnesota Vikings committing more. QB Sam Darnold leads every player in the league with 20 turnovers.
Seattle’s starting QB is also playing through an oblique injury, and Seattle’s offense just lost one of its most reliable players, running back Zach Charbonnet, to an ACL tear. With how New England’s defense has been playing in the postseason, a beat-up offense could mean trouble for Seattle.
Patriots’ Strengths and Weaknesses
The Patriots this year have proved to be the league’s “Cinderella team” as first year head coach Mike Vrabel turned around a 4-13 team (the Patriots’ record in 2024) to winning their first division title since winning 11 straight from 2009 to 2019. The team’s obvious strength is their offense as they ended the regular season with the league’s third best offense (4th in passing and 6th in rushing).
The team’s stellar offense this season can mostly be attributed to star second-year quarterback Drake Maye. Maye has proven his ability to scramble and have expert accuracy deep down the field even when he is escaping from the pocket. “In the regular season, he led the NFL in completion percentage (72%), passer rating (113.5) and yards per attempt (8.93),” ESPN reports.
And even though it isn’t really considered one of their strengths, the Patriots’ defense is also pretty good as they finished the regular season with the 8th best defense. And I think it’s fair to say that the Patriot’s defense definitely stepped it up in the postseason.
Turnovers and having a young team could, though, hamper the Patriots’ championship chances. “Maye fumbled six times in the Patriots’ first two playoff matchups (losing three of them), and he also had a tipped-ball interception against the Chargers,” an article published by ESPN’s website stated. “Youth is also a consideration. In addition to four undrafted free agents, the Patriots have all 11 draft picks from 2025 on their roster. The Super Bowl is a big stage for rookies.”
