The Seahawks leave no doubts

The Super Bowl was an embodiment of Seattle’s season.

• An offense that was effective, but settled for too many field goals.

• A special teams that was consistently extraordinary.

• A defense that functioned like a python, choking out its opponent in methodic and unrelenting fashion.

There are no doubts any more. Not about this team.

They may not be as brash as the 2013 squad that won Seattle’s first Super Bowl, but these Seahawks have a style that is unmistakable and all their own.

Devon Witherspoon is a singular menace of a cornerback, Sam Darnold seems impossible not to like and it turns out that Seattle had a two-foot advantage in Sunday’s game thanks to the efforts of kicker Jason Myers and punter Michael Dickson. ¹

So how exactly did this happen?

1. The Seahawks took care of the ball

Turns out the turnovers were strictly a regular-season thing. Seattle didn’t commit a single on in the playoffs. Nada. None. Zilch. There were some close calls, though. Especially in the first half when the Patriots defensive backs were aggressively looking for opportunities to jump routes.

2. Pound the ground

Kenneth Walker was responsible for three of Seattle’s four longest plays from scrimmage and finished with 131 yards. It continued what has been an incredible closing kick to this season as the Seahawks really found their footing on the ground.

3. The immovable object

Seattle’s defense didn’t just make an impression on Sunday, it left a dent. The Patriots first eight possessions of the game produced four first downs and resulted in eight punts. Entering the fourth quarter, the Seahawks looked poised to author the first shutout in Super Bowl history, and while Drake Maye and the Patriots avoided that ignominious distinction, Seattle’s defense was absolutely the story.

The Super Bowl was the seventh time in the past nine games that Seattle held an opponent to 16 points or fewer. In fact, the Rams are the only team who has scored more than 16 points against Seattle over the past months.

🎉 Surprise party 🎈

I hesitate to call the 2025 Seahawks a surprise.

They won 10 games last season.

But they also traded their starting quarterback and their top wide receiver in the offseason, and while Seattle was very much considered a potential playoff team, no one saw them earning the No. 1 seed in the NFC and marching to the franchise’s second Super Bowl title.

I felt like my forecast for this season was among the more optimistic. I predicted the Seahawks would win their division, but I did not think this was a team that was getting past the divisional round of the playoffs.

So I am inclined to call these Seahawks a surprise. In fact, I’d list them as the biggest surprise in the history of Seattle sports. Here’s my impromptu list:

No. 1 2025 Seattle Seahawks

Oddsmakers in Las Vegas set the line for Seattle’s season win total at 7.5, meaning there were as many people betting Seattle would win seven games or fewer as there were taking the over. Well, the Seahawks won twice that number and a title.

No. 2 2001 Seattle Mariners

They’d watched Alex Rodriguez leave as a free agent over the offseason, and they had added Ichiro, but remember, this was back when no Japanese position player had made much of a mark in Major League Baseball. They also brought back Bret Boone on a one-year deal, and he showed up looking … ummm … really healthy.

 The Mariners won 116 games in the regular season, setting the American League record. The fact Seattle lost to the Yankees 4-1 in the American League Championship Series shouldn’t overshadow what the Marinres did that season. The fact the Seahawks won a title this season does offer a superior ending, however.

No. 3 1977-78 Seattle SuperSonics

Seattle lost 17 of its first 22 games that season, which earned Bob Hopkins a pink slip. He was replaced by Lenny Wilkens, who’d previously been both player and coach for the Sonics. This time, he was just coach, and adapted the team’s style and structure to accentuate the strengths of guards Gus Williams, Fred Brown and Dennis Johnson.

The team went 42-18 under Wilkens, beat the Lakers in the first round of the playoffs and marched all the way to the NBA Finals where they lost in seven games. It set the stage for the following season when the Sonics won the title.

No. 4 2004-05 Seattle SuperSonics

The Sonics started the season with seven of players and their coach all in the final year of their respective contracts. When they lost their season-opener 114-84 to the Clippers, and it looked like the season was over before it began. The Sonics, however, rallied to win 17 of their next 19 on their way to finishing with 52 victories and winning the division. Of course, they did let Nate McMillan leave in the offseason as he signed on to coach Portland.

1  Yes, this is an absolutely awful play on words and I’m not at all going to apologize for it.