Alright, folks, buckle up because all roads lead to Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California, for Super Bowl LX! The Seattle Seahawks are definitely the favorites here, no cap, but don’t count out the New England Patriots just yet. This Super Bowl edition of Four Verts is gonna dive deep into the biggest storylines, from the Pats’ struggling offense to their need for key defensive players to step up, and Sam Darnold’s surprisingly ‘clean’ playoff run that has everyone buzzing. It’s for real, there’s a ton at stake this Sunday, and these narratives could go either way, making for one heck of a championship showdown.
Speaking of the Patriots, their offense has been on a wild ride this season. They’ve faced some of the most brutal defenses the NFL has to offer just to get to this point, getting straight-up dominated by squads like the Chargers, Texans, and Broncos. Their journey to the Super Bowl has often been fueled by a handful of clutch drives, a lucky defensive touchdown, and even some help from overwhelmed backup quarterbacks struggling in the snow. But make no mistake, every team that weathers the storm of attrition to reach this stage absolutely deserves to be here. The key to their hopes rests heavily on the shoulders of their star players, and for New England, the ‘Patriots’ Defense’ has to be absolutely ‘on point’ if they want a shot at lifting that Lombardi Trophy.
Drake Maye, the Patriots’ second-year quarterback, is a bona fide star, pulling off an Atlas-level carrying job for this offense all season. He’s legit earned his MVP finalist stamp, and if you’ve watched him play, you know why. Yet, even with Maye’s heroics, points have been hard to come by. Against the Texans, they barely scraped by in the rain, and their only touchdown drive against the Broncos came off a short field thanks to a baffling decision by Jarrett Stidham. Seattle’s defense, a truly dominant unit this season, presents their toughest cohesive test yet. It’s not like Puka Nacua, Davante Adams, or Sean McVay are gonna walk through that door for New England’s offense, so a lot is gonna fall on Maye and a somewhat shaky offensive line to keep things afloat. Expect moments of brilliance from Maye, but when you look at the non-quarterback talent against the Seahawks’ D, it’s hard not to feel like they might get stuffed into a locker for the fourth straight game. They’ll need more than just good weather to get this done.
This is where New England’s defensive stars come into play, big time. The Patriots are underdogs for good reason, and when you stack these rosters side-by-side, it’s pretty clear which team has picked in the top five of the NFL Draft for two straight years and which has been a fringe playoff team that finally hit its stride this offseason. However, the Patriots are not completely bereft of talent, and they have a crucial trio that can turn the tide if they play to their absolute best: cornerback Christian Gonzalez and defensive tackles Milton Williams and Christian Barmore. These guys are the lynchpins, for real.
What’s ‘dope’ about these players is their positions and their ability to impact the game with high-level performances, especially that duo on the interior. There’s no better way to shut down Seattle’s offense and make life tough for them than by creating immediate disruption on the front lines with Barmore and Williams. ‘Lowkey,’ Seattle’s interior offensive line is one of the weaker parts of its offense, making this a prime opportunity for those two Patriots to take over and provide some much-needed relief to their own struggling offense. Specifically, Seattle’s Jalen Sundell and Anthony Bradford are going to need help against this ‘fire’ defensive tackle duo.
There’s also a natural symbiosis at play between defensive line pressure and secondary performance. When Barmore and Williams dominate in the trenches, it automatically makes things easier for Gonzalez, the third member of this vital defensive trio. Pressure leads to bad plays, and Gonzalez has already shown his ability to make game-changing plays on the ball, like closing out the Broncos’ offense in the AFC Championship with a sick interception. Gonzalez will have his hands full with Jaxson Smith-Njigba, who’s arguably one of the best wide receivers in the league right now. But if Gonzalez can win even a couple of those battles while Barmore and Williams wreck shop up front, the Patriots truly have a puncher’s chance. These three absolutely need to play up to their Pro Bowl billings because, overall, this Patriots roster looks outmatched. If they can execute, getting the ball back to Maye and the offense will be imperative, though that’s easier said than done, especially with a quarterback like Sam Darnold across the field.
And then there’s Sam Darnold. Dude, just one more game. Just one. While the Seahawks’ offense was ‘sketchy’ over the second half of the season, Darnold has been playing incredibly ‘clean’ football through these playoffs. If he can make it one more game without a classic Darnold implosion, Seattle should cruise to a Super Bowl victory, and he can totally change his career narrative. Darnold has become one of the most fascinating quarterbacks in the league because the great heights he’s capable of reaching haven’t always been attainable, mostly due to his own mistakes. So far in the playoffs, he’s been able to avoid them. One more game will cap off the most important three-game run in his career, where he’s done the one thing everyone has been clamoring for him to do: just play clean!
From personal experience covering him during his Jets days, Darnold has always been one of the more physically gifted quarterbacks in the league. He often had practices where he looked like the best QB on the planet, then would follow those up with some of the sloppiest stuff you’d ever see. There’s a reason he’s on his fifth team, and it’s not because of his general ability; it just hasn’t been consistent or ‘clean’ enough. Seattle hasn’t asked Darnold to throw for a high volume through two playoff games, but he’s worked well with what he’s been asked to do. He’s tossed the ball 53 times for 470 yards, four touchdowns, and nearly a 70% completion rate, rocking a passer rating of 122.4. The only real blemish has been five sacks on such a small number of dropbacks. However, the most important number for Darnold: zero turnovers. He fumbled once but recovered it, and in the one-game sample sizes of single-elimination playoffs, that works. He needs to do it just one more time. That seems feasible given what he’s done so far, but there’s always that permanent aura of the unknown with Darnold, where the bottom could fall out at any time. He has so much to gain from this if he can get through one more game without those intrusive thoughts popping into his head as he scans the Patriots’ coverages.
Forging new destinies is truly the theme of Super Bowl LX. There are plenty of established figures in this game, from coaching staffs to players, who can either cement or completely redefine their legacies. This game carries an extra weight in terms of reputational benefit or loss. A victory can forgive or completely erase past narratives. These are some of the most compelling storylines the Super Bowl generates, and with two relatively new teams in the big game, it feels like more is on the line than in recent years.
Sam Darnold feels like the obvious, biggest benefactor with a Super Bowl win, assuming he continues to play cleanly. His career has been marred by puzzlingly bad play, especially considering his great physical skills and flashes of brilliance. However, the ruts are real, and they still show up occasionally, even if Seattle has managed to win through those rough moments. If Darnold can get through one more game without turning the ball over, paired with a win, he can rewrite the entire narrative about himself. There’s no better time to cap off what could easily be the best three-game run of his career.
Coaches like Josh McDaniels and Mike Vrabel can also write new stories for themselves with a win, considering their previous stops didn’t end in the most flattering manners. While Vrabel bounced back from how his tenure in Tennessee ended, it wasn’t completely nonsensical for the Titans to move on. They were stuck in the mud after two middling seasons and never really rebounded from the losses of wide receiver A.J. Brown and offensive coordinator Arthur Smith. Moving to then-rookie quarterback Will Levis wasn’t a fruitful endeavor, and the Titans’ offense was so bad they decided to move in a different direction. Turns out it was a bad decision, with Brian Callahan lasting only 23 games as head coach, but it was understandable at the time.
McDaniels’ firing from the Raiders requires less explanation; they were awful, and so was he. However, he can begin to rebuild his career narrative if he can conjure up answers for the Patriots’ offense to survive a raucous, physical Seattle defense. McDaniels can prove to himself and everyone that he can reach the mountaintop of success without the titanic shadows of Bill Belichick and Tom Brady hovering over him. Patriots quarterback Drake Maye and Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald are new enough in their roles that they shouldn’t be too dinged by a loss, but they can hit the ground running on their respective careers with a Super Bowl victory in their second seasons. History can be made and rewritten with a Lombardi Trophy — at least until there’s a shaky 2026 season that turns up the heat on the hot take machine and makes everyone forget, because that’s just what we do now.
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