This will be the second meeting in the Super Bowl between the two teams. The first meeting came at Super XLIX back in 2015. The Patriots beat the Seahawks by a 28-24 score, with cornerback Malcolm Butler snagging a game-winning interception at the goal line.<\/p>\n
Things have changed this time around with second-year quarterback Drake Maye leading the charge for a rebuilding Patriots team in its first year under head coach Mike Vrabel. On the other side, it’s second-year head coach Mike Macdonald and veteran quarterback Sam Darnold looking to complete a magical season for the Seahawks.<\/p>\n
Both teams will be looking to write their chapter in NFL history. For the Patriots, it will be about finishing one of the most improbable turnaround seasons of all time.<\/p>\n
After finishing with a 4-13 record in back-to-back years, the team suddenly finds itself back in a Super Bowl with a chance to make history by hoisting another Lombardi Trophy.<\/p>\n
Expert NFL picks: Exclusive betting insights only at USA TODAY.<\/a> Follow Patriots Wire on\u00a0Twitter<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Facebook<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Feb. 1, 2026, 12:45 p.m. ET The New England Patriots will not be playing today. Their next game…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":722112,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2050],"tags":[95878,7,1167,249,2326,2094,6,208,96851,96852,95882,96127,95893,96853,95896,96854,95888,95895,95906,96163,96177,95883,95894,95881],"class_list":{"0":"post-722111","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-england-patriots","8":"tag-accessfree","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-new-england","11":"tag-new-england-patriots","12":"tag-newengland","13":"tag-newenglandpatriots","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-patriots","16":"tag-sstssportsnflpatriots","17":"tag-sstsnpatriots","18":"tag-tagamerican-football","19":"tag-tagdrake-maye","20":"tag-tagfacebook","21":"tag-tagmike-vrabel","22":"tag-tagnational-sports","23":"tag-tagnew-england-patriots","24":"tag-tagnfl","25":"tag-tagnfl-hub","26":"tag-tagoverall-positive","27":"tag-tagsam-darnold","28":"tag-tagsmg-breaking-wire","29":"tag-tagsports-news","30":"tag-tagtwitter","31":"tag-typestory"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115997123759133008","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/722111","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=722111"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/722111\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/722112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=722111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=722111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=722111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1769975538_998_86371878007-cardis-1.jpg\")