{"id":705720,"date":"2026-01-26T06:22:18","date_gmt":"2026-01-26T06:22:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/705720\/"},"modified":"2026-01-26T06:22:18","modified_gmt":"2026-01-26T06:22:18","slug":"seahawks-patriots-are-last-2-standing-for-super-bowl-lx-in-santa-clara","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/705720\/","title":{"rendered":"Seahawks, Patriots are last 2 standing for Super Bowl LX in Santa Clara"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you think the Faithful are bitter about the Seattle Seahawks crashing their home stadium for Super Bowl LX, just think how they\u2019ll feel when they win it.<\/p>\n

Seattle had the look of a champion Sunday with a 31-27 win over the Los Angeles Rams<\/a>\u00a0at Lumen Field in the NFC Championship Game, and the Rams weren\u2019t far behind.<\/p>\n

As for their opponent, the New England Patriots, it\u2019s hard to know exactly what to expect after a 10-7 win over the host Denver Broncos<\/a>\u00a0in the AFC Championship Game. The day\u2019s early offering was decided by snow and an ill-fated decision by Broncos coach Sean Payton before the weather took over and dominated both sides for the rest of the game.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re a 49ers fan, it\u2019s impressive and depressing at the same time. Impressive because your team somehow won 13 games and would likely be pretty competitive with either the Patriots or Broncos. Depressing because they aren\u2019t even in the same stratosphere with the Seahawks and Rams.<\/p>\n

Based on the way the Rams played a Seattle team that thoroughly dominated the 49ers 13-3 in Week 18<\/a> and 41-6 in the divisional playoff round<\/a>, there\u2019s a significant gap in the NFC West between the top two teams and where the 49ers are located at No. 3.<\/p>\n

Seattle and Los Angeles played three times, with the Rams winning 21-19 and the Seahawks winning 38-37 and 31-27. The biggest thing that kept the Rams from Levi\u2019s was a muffed punt by Xavier Smith at the 17-yard line that set up a touchdown strike on the ensuing play to Jake Bobo and a 24-13 lead.<\/p>\n

The Rams fought back, but it was the mistake they couldn\u2019t overcome. The teams are virtually dead even.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s one thing to tout culture and chemistry<\/a> to as the reason for surprising success. It\u2019s another to be on the same plane as teams that also have culture and chemistry but are better at locating talent and at least equal when it comes to coaching. There\u2019s not much to choose from between Seattle\u2019s Mike Macdonald, the Rams\u2019 Sean McVay and the 49ers\u2019 Kyle Shanahan.<\/p>\n

The 49ers beat the Rams 26-23 in overtime behind Mac Jones in early October, a win that ranks with their 42-38 win over Chicago and wild-card win over Philadelphia as the highlights of the season.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not that hard to envision Brock Purdy, given the proper support, thriving in shootouts with the likes of Sam Darnold of Seattle and Matthew Stafford of the Rams. He is in their realm as both a playmaker and processor of information in running an offense.<\/p>\n

As for everywhere else \u2014 the trenches on both sides, wide receivers, the secondary as a whole \u2014 the 49ers don\u2019t belong in the Super Bowl this year, even if it is being held at their own stadium.<\/p>\n

The last two times the 49ers played Seattle, they gained 409 yards in eight quarters and scored nine points. The last two times the Rams played the Seahawks, they gained 1,060 yards in eight quarters plus and overtime and scored 64 points.<\/p>\n

A few thoughts on the championship Sunday and what to expect going into Super Bowl LX, with much of the festivities in San Francisco with the teams residing in the South Bay and practicing locally at Stanford and San Jose State:<\/p>\n

\"NewNew England quarterback Drake Maye hands the ball off in a snowstorm in a 10-7 AFC title game win against Denver.\u00a0A.P. Photo<\/p>\n

Darnold and Drake<\/p>\n

Not exactly the quarterback duel you were expecting back in September? If Seattle wins, Darnold sheds whatever unkind labels that have been attached to him ever since he was sentenced to an early purgatory with the New York Jets and Carolina Panthers. He completed 25 and 36 passes for 346 yards and three touchdowns, had no turnovers and outplayed presumptive MVP Stanford by a razor-thin margin.<\/p>\n

As for New England\u2019s Drake Maye, also an MVP candidate, he threw for all of 86 yards in a borderline blizzard but had 65 yards worth of scrambles.<\/p>\n

Neither quarterback is one to go much behind \u201ctaking it one game at a time\u201d and extolling the virtues of their teammates. They\u2019ll do it endlessly during Super Bowl week. It was learned in CBS production meetings Maye, a Carolina Panthers fan as a kid, traveled to Levi\u2019s Stadium at age 13 with his father for the Panthers\u2019 24-10 loss to Denver in Super Bowl 50 a decade ago.<\/p>\n

Twice, Maye was asked about it postgame. Once by Tracy Wolfson, once by Jim Nantz. He basically gave a non-answer. He might want to get a little more creative because he\u2019s going to be asked about it at least 50 times in the days ahead.<\/p>\n

Goal-line history<\/p>\n

The only time Seattle and New England met in the championship game was Super Bowl LXIX in Glendale, Arizona. The Seahawks famously attempted a pass from the 1-yard line on second down with 26 seconds to play instead of giving the ball to power back Marshawn Lynch.<\/p>\n

Malcolm Butler intercepted Russell Wilson\u2019s pass and New England won 28-24. Hopefully the game can have that kind of drama. The first Levi\u2019s Super Bowl saw Denver defensively dominate Carolina and quarterback Cam Newton, who was so discombobulated he didn\u2019t even pursue his own fumble.<\/p>\n

The outdoor conundrum<\/p>\n

I get it. Football is played in the elements. Lombardi and the Packers, the Ice Bowl, Jerry Kramer and Bart Starr, etc. But imagine you\u2019ve sacrificed for an entire season for a shot to get to the Super Bowl and you\u2019re playing in a snow drift.<\/p>\n

We still don\u2019t really know whether the Broncos (15-4) or Patriots (16-3) are the class of the AFC. Had Payton of the Broncos taken a chip-shot field goal early in the game before the weather took over \u2014 Denver failed on fourth-and-1 \u2014 it could have been the Broncos returning to Levi\u2019s.<\/p>\n

The Patriot way<\/p>\n

Coach Mike Vrabel operates in a much more personable way than Bill Belichick. But he\u2019s done something Belichick never did: get to the Super Bowl without Tom Brady as his quarterback. It\u2019s come largely on the strength of a defense that in three postseason games has given up two touchdowns and four field goals against 37 offensive possessions by the Chargers, Texans and Broncos.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ll find out if that\u2019s legitimate with Seattle up next, because the Chargers and Houston were pretty bad offensively and Denver was in borderline unplayable conditions.<\/p>\n

A longtime Patriots\u2019 strength under Belichick was taking the opposing team\u2019s top weapon away. Good luck doing that with Jaxon Smith-Njigba, who caught 10 passes for 153 yards and a touchdown in 12 targets against the Rams.<\/p>\n

The ones that got away<\/p>\n

Davante Adams was available as the 49ers were navigating the Brandon Aiyuk and were in the process of determining whether to void his guarantees. Adams got a nominal offer from the 49ers before signing a two-year guarantee with the Rams with $26 million guaranteed. Adams already had a working knowledge of the Shanahan system based on his time in the Green Bay system with Matt LaFleur.<\/p>\n

Seattle got Rashid Shaheed for fourth- and sixth-round draft picks in November. Shaheed had the game-opening 95-yard kickoff return against the 49ers and had a 51-yard downfield strike from Darnold in the title game. They don\u2019t currently have a speedster on the roster, unless you\u2019re counting rookie Jordan Watkins.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t think either player would have made a difference as it pertains to this year, given the wide gulf between the 49ers and their NFC West foes, but it gives an idea of the kinds of players John Lynch and the personnel department should be seeking in free agency.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you think the Faithful are bitter about the Seattle Seahawks crashing their home stadium for Super Bowl…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":705721,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2080],"tags":[220,258,833,7,3872,16132,58,32,249,6,1878,1161,252,2624,2623,261,16165],"class_list":{"0":"post-705720","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-francisco-49ers","8":"tag-49ers","9":"tag-denver-broncos","10":"tag-drake-maye","11":"tag-football","12":"tag-jarrett-stidham","13":"tag-levis-stadium","14":"tag-los-angeles-rams","15":"tag-matthew-stafford","16":"tag-new-england-patriots","17":"tag-nfl","18":"tag-sam-darnold","19":"tag-san-francisco","20":"tag-san-francisco-49ers","21":"tag-sanfrancisco","22":"tag-sanfrancisco49ers","23":"tag-seattle-seahawks","24":"tag-super-bowl-lx"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115959965113594330","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/705720","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=705720"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/705720\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/705721"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=705720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=705720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=705720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}