SANTA CLARA, Calif. — As an excited roar filled the air at Levi’s Stadium on Sunday evening, Devon Witherspoon rose to his feet, turned to see his teammate running toward the end zone and raised his hand in the air.
With one finger extended toward the night sky, Witherspoon announced Seattle’s ascension to the NFL’s throne. It was only right that he was the one to lead them there.
Owning a 22-7 lead and needing one more knockout punch to send the Patriots to the mat, the Seahawks turned back to a method they had rarely used throughout their journey to Super Bowl LX. It required calling Witherspoon’s number, dialing up their blitzing fox to knife through New England’s pass protection and wreak havoc one final time.
Witherspoon’s fourth-quarter blitz arrived like a heat-seeking missile launched under the cover of night, slipping untouched between New England’s right tackle and running back on a direct path to Patriots quarterback Drake Maye. When Witherspoon arrived, the collision was explosive, jarring the ball forward directly into the arms of Seahawks linebacker Uchenna Nwosu, who caught it and sprinted toward pay dirt.
It all happened so quickly, even Witherspoon was surprised by the result.
“I ain’t even know he fumbled the ball, to be honest,” Witherspoon said when asked about his reaction to the result. “It was kind of crazy, my reaction was kind of late. I’m just living in the moment.”
The moment was perfect for Witherspoon — or perhaps he was built perfectly for the moment. Either way, the outcome punctuated a dominant showing from a Seattle defense that took the NFL’s third-ranked offense, twisted it into a pretzel and discarded it like scraps.
Prior to an explosive but ultimately irrelevant fourth quarter showing, New England tallied just 78 yards of total offense. Seattle hit New England ball-carriers behind the line of scrimmage of over half of their designed runs, generated a pressure rate north of 50 percent, sacked Maye six times and forced three turnovers.
The Patriots were in the Seahawks’ vice grips from the first possession and didn’t find an escape until it was far too late. Even then, thanks to the performance of players like Witherspoon, it wasn’t long before they were back in Seattle’s clutches, pinned through the final whistle in the Seahawks’ 29-13 win over New England.
“That’s the nature of our defense. We swarm to the ball,” safety Julian Love, who intercepted Maye in the fourth quarter, said afterward. “We make them line up and earn it each play. And it’s just a style, it’s a style thing. They were getting excited (when) they got a 4- or 5-yard run, and then we create a negative play the next play. It’s just us lining up again and again on defense to just impose our will.”