The Seattle Seahawks earned their place in history with a dominating 29-13 win over the New England Patriots in Super Bowl 60. Seattle’s average margin of victory in its three playoff games was more than 18 points, the highest of any Super Bowl winner since the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the 2002 season.
This game was a low-scoring scoring affair early, with the Seahawks leading the Patriots 9-0 at halftime thanks to three field goals from kicker Jason Myers (and more on him later). The scoring skyrocketed in the fourth quarter, with all four of the game’s touchdowns coming in the final period, but the margin never got particularly close. Seattle held a multiple-possession lead for the entire second half.
Here’s a look at Seattle’s dominance, by the numbers.
1: Patriots’ red-zone trips
If the Patriots were going to have any chance to make a serious comeback late in the game, they needed to score a touchdown on a drive that began with 5:35 left in the fourth quarter, staring at a 15-point deficit. On the fourth play of the drive, Seahawks cornerback Devon Witherspoon came on a cornerback blitz and hit Patriots quarterback Drake Maye, forcing an interception that was returned for a touchdown by linebacker Uchenna Nwosu.
Initially, the play was called a fumble returned for a touchdown. It would have been Seattle’s seventh sack of the game, tying a Super Bowl record. It was later changed to an interception. It was the lone non-offensive touchdown scored in the game. And it meant that with less than five minutes to go, the Patriots had still not reached Seattle’s red zone.
The Seahawks managed four red zone trips, scoring one touchdown on a Sam Darnold pass to tight end A.J. Barner and adding three field goals from Myers. The Patriots only had one red zone trip, on their drive following the Nwosu interception, which finished in the end zone.
New England’s other touchdown was on a 35-yard pass from Maye to Mack Hollins.
3: Seahawks’ forced turnovers
The Seahawks won the turnover margin, 3-0, intercepting Maye twice and also forcing a fumble on a sack near the end of the third quarter. Seattle became just the fifth team to force at least three turnovers and at least eight punts in a Super Bowl — and the first since the Baltimore Ravens 25 years ago. Meanwhile, talk of turnovers had followed Darnold, who led the NFL in that department this season, but he didn’t turn the ball over once in the Super Bowl. Darnold threw some dangerous passes on Sunday, but Seattle finished the playoffs with a perfect margin: seven forced turnovers, compared to zero times giving up the ball.
In this game, “three” didn’t just stand for New England’s turnovers. Top Patriots receiver Stefon Diggs finished with just three catches for 37 yards. Two of his catches came late in garbage time. Fifty-six minutes into the game, Diggs had just one catch for five yards on one target.
Only three Seahawks wide receivers caught a pass in the game: Cooper Kupp, Jaxon Smith-Njigba and Rashid Shaheed. They’ve been the main contributors at the position for the Seahawks throughout their playoff run, with Jake Bobo being the only other Seattle receiver to record a reception this postseason. Darnold completed at least one pass to six different targets in the Super Bowl.
Seahawks punter Michael Dickson had a phenomenal performance. Of his seven punts, three trapped the Patriots inside their 6-yard-line. New England’s offense was struggling anyway, but Dickson’s performance didn’t give them any breathing room.
5: Jason Myers field goals
Myers was a rock for the Seahawks throughout the game, converting on all five of his field goal attempts to set a new Super Bowl record. It wasn’t a particularly difficult day at the office for Myers, who attempted kicks from 33, 39, 41, 41 and 26 yards. Still, in a game that didn’t feature a lot of touchdowns until the outcome already seemed clear, every point was critical, and Myers came through for the Seahawks.
6: Sacks of Drake Maye
The Seahawks finished with six sacks of Maye, one shy of tying the Super Bowl record. They hit Maye 11 times. Meanwhile, the Patriots had just six quarterback hits on Darnold and finished with one sack. The sacks won’t be a good look for the Patriots’ offensive line, which did struggle in the game — left tackle Will Campbell allowed 14 pressures, according to Next Gen Stats, the most of any player in a single game this season. But Maye also had some issues with holding onto the ball too long and not reacting to blitzes fast enough, resulting in potentially avoidable sacks and hits.
Another six: Kupp led all receivers with six catches. He was targeted 12 times, which was also the most for any receiver on either team. Kupp is four years removed from being named Super Bowl MVP when he had eight catches for 92 yards and two touchdowns for the Los Angeles Rams in their win over the Cincinnati Bengals.
Smith-Njigba, Seattle’s top receiver, finished the game with four catches on 10 targets for 27 yards.
37: Most rushing yards for any Patriot
The Patriots found a running back duo this season in Rhamondre Stevenson and TreVeyon Henderson. But both players were shut down by the stingy Seahawks run defense. Stevenson finished with 23 yards on seven carries while Henderson had six carries for 19 yards. Maye led the Patriots with 37 rushing yards. Seattle’s Kenneth Walker III outdid that trio by himself — in the first half.
48: Percent of Seattle’s offense from Kenneth Walker III
Speaking of Walker, he finished with 135 rushing yards on 27 carries and added 26 more yards on a couple of receptions. In total, he accounted for 161 of the Seahawks 335 total yards. That means Walker was 48 percent Seattle’s offense. His production led to him winning Super Bowl MVP honors.
Kenneth Walker III celebrates with Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald after carrying much of the offensive load during the Super Bowl. (Kevin C. Cox / Getty Images)
80: Seahawks’ interception return yardage
Maye didn’t just throw two interceptions; the damage on both plays went beyond the turnovers themselves. Nwosu’s interception late in the fourth quarter resulted in a 45-yard return and the dagger touchdown, which put Seattle up 29-7. About four minutes before that, Julian Love intercepted a pass and returned it 35 yards to set up a Myers field goal that extended the Seahawks’ lead to 22-7.
While the Seahawks had 80 yards on interception returns, the Patriots could barely muster any movement at all until the late stages of the game. They finished the first half with just 51 yards of total offense.