Seahawks Super Bowl Notebook: 3 insights on the matchup

The Seattle Seahawks are in Santa Clara preparing for Super Bowl LX, and we’re getting you ready for the action with takeaways from our favorite NFL voices.

Seahawks, Pats kick off Super Bowl week with tamer Opening Night

On Monday, two NFL analysts joined us on Seattle Sports’ Bump and Stacy to help preview the game, and we talked about the Seahawks as big favorites and the matchup we’re all overlooking.

How Pats could give Hawks issues

Yahoo Sports NFL analyst Nate Tice joined the show Monday to help preview the game, and we asked him if the Seahawks being favored means it should be a lopsided matchup, or whether we’re all overlooking the threat of the Patriots. His answer? The Seahawks might be better, but the Pats – particularly defensive linemen Christian Barmore, Khyiris Tonga and Milton Williams – can give them headaches against an area of weakness.

“I think the Seahawks are the better overall team, but having said that, I also think the Patriots have a couple things that align that could give the Seahawks some issues,” Tice said. “I think the biggest issue this whole year for the Seahawks has been right guard and a little bit (Jalen) Sundell at center. And a strength of the Patriots’ defense are the two defensive tackles/defensive ends that they have.”

The strength-on-strength matchup you’re not talking about

We’ll all be focusing on All-Pro wideout Jaxon Smith-Njigba against Patriots Pro Bowl cornerback Christian Gonzalez (for good reason!), but FTN Fantasy’s Chief Analytics Officer Aaron Schatz joined the show Monday to share a surprising stat he’s dug up during his Super Bowl research. It points to another strength-on-strength matchup.

“(Sam) Darnold was like the second- or third-best quarterback in the league this year on play-action passing. The Patriots are the No. 1 against play-action passing since Week 10, including the playoffs,” Schatz said.

Don’t just focus on an easy schedule

The Patriots didn’t just have the easiest schedule in the league this year — they had one of the easiest schedules ever.

“It was the third-easiest schedule that I’ve measured in my numbers going back to 1978,” Schatz said. “But they are playing much better now that they were earlier in the season.”

That last part is important. Yes, the Seahawks by DVOA are the single toughest team New England will have faced this year. But the Patriots have played well all season and are getting hotter, particularly on defense. They have at least one takeaway in their last six consecutive games, and at least two in four of those. They have eight combined takeaways over their last three games.

You can add all the context you want to this part (CJ Stroud’s turnovers and a blizzard in Denver), but the Patriots had to get past two of the best defenses in football to end up here in Santa Clara. They’re top 10 in total DVOA and, despite a sputtering offense in the snowy AFC Championship, can push the ball down the field. They’ve also started trending upward in a key area.

“The thing they’ve been doing the most is blitzing,” Schatz said. “They are up to blitzing almost 41% of the time in the postseason, which is a little bit of a problem because Sam Darnold was not very good against the blitz this year.”

For context, a blitz rate of over 40% would’ve been second-most in the league in the regular season, behind only the Vikings. New England typically hovered around 28%.

Super Bowl: Seattle Seahawks vs. New England Patriots

• Unheralded Seahawks and Patriots who could impact Super Bowl
• How 2025 Seahawks would stack up historically with Super Bowl win
• Has a Super Bowl-winning QB ever had a career like Sam Darnold?
• Can Patriots QB Maye exploit Seattle Seahawks’ stellar secondary?
• Seattle Seahawks’ latest Super Bowl injury report reveals good news

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