SANTA CLARA, Calif. – A lot of defense and a little bit of Sam Darnold was all the Seattle Seahawks needed to win their second Super Bowl title in franchise history and first since 2014 on Sunday night.
A mostly pro-Seattle crowd of 70,823 packed Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara for Super Bowl 60, and it became quickly apparent that they’d be heading back home happy; a Seahawks defensive unit that was the best in the league during the regular season remained so when it mattered the most, holding Drake Maye and the New England Patriots to just 51 total net yards through the first half.
It was just a 9-0 lead at the time for Seattle when Bad Bunny took the stage and after that for Darnold, the gameplan was relatively simple given what was being accomplished on the other side of the ball.
You didn’t need him to win the game for you, he just couldn’t lose it with the turnovers that had haunted his game in his first few years in the league and had many label him as a bust.
Mission accomplished for the former New York Jets third overall pick, who finished the day having completed 19 of his 38 pass attempts for 202 yards, one touchdown and no turnovers of any kind in a 29-13 win.
“I was just spending more time with Sam on all these interviews,” Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald said after the game.
“It’s like Sam doesn’t care about the obstacle. Like everyone’s made a narrative of this guy. They have tried to put a story and a label on who he is as a person, who he is as a quarterback. He does not care. He is the same guy every day since he showed up. He’s so steadfast. He’s a great teammate. His teammates love him. All he has done since he’s walked in the door has just been a tremendous player on our football team and a tremendous leader who is the same guy every day. And that’s who he is. And that’s how we need to talk about him moving forward.”
To Darnold’s credit, while it seemed like a weight had been lifted off of his shoulders as he sat at Podium 4 in the corner of a makeshift press conference area in a white tent just outside of the stadium — he jokingly said “that was fun” with a big smile as he sat down — he also acknowledged that it was mostly the defense and special teams that got the win on Sunday.
“Obviously, we would like to get into the end zone more,” he said.“I think with our defense, the way that they’ve been playing, my job was to take care of the football. I knew that coming into the game, and I did that. I took the open guy when they were there and if I had to take sacks, if I had to throw the ball away, I was able to do it, but I just played that kind of game and I feel like we ended up being on top because of it…I feel like we didn’t play as good as we could’ve. I certainly didn’t play as well as I could’ve. But our defense had our back, our special teams had our back, and we got the win.”
More importantly, Darnold didn’t lose it.
