The confetti has fallen on the AFC Championship Recreation in Denver and the NFC Championship Recreation in Seattle, and we now have our Tremendous Bowl LX matchup: the AFC’s second-seeded New England Patriots towards the NFC’s top-seeded Seattle Seahawks.
When the 2 groups take the sphere at Levi’s Stadium on Feb. 8, it’s going to mark the primary Tremendous Bowl in NFL historical past during which each beginning quarterbacks (the Patriots’ Drake Maye and the Seahawks’ Sam Darnold) and each head coaches (the Patriots’ Mike Vrabel and the Seahawks’ Mike Macdonald) are in both their first or second season with their respective groups, per CBS Sports activities Analysis.
Maye versus Darnold will even be simply the third Tremendous Bowl matchup prior to now 40 years during which each quarterbacks entered the season with no playoff wins, becoming a member of the 1999 season’s Kurt Warner vs. Steve McNair and the 2021 season’s Matthew Stafford vs. Joe Burrow.
The Patriots franchise returned for its NFL-record twelfth Tremendous Bowl look as the primary workforce to succeed in the large sport after a 13-plus loss season. (New England went 4-13 in 2024.) The Seahawks broke by means of for his or her fourth Tremendous Bowl look and first since Tremendous Bowl XLIX towards the Patriots in 2014.
New England made it rain in free company, signing large receiver Stefon Diggs, cornerback Carlton Davis, defensive lineman Milton Williams and edge rusher Harold Landry, whereas additionally drafting offensive lineman Will Campbell fourth total. These strikes helped raise the Patriots again to the Tremendous Bowl six seasons after Tom Brady’s departure to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Seattle additionally reshaped its roster, swapping out Geno Smith for Sam Darnold at quarterback, elevating Jaxon Smith-Njigba to the WR1 spot after buying and selling DK Metcalf to the Pittsburgh Steelers, and signing Professional Bowl edge rusher DeMarcus Lawrence and former Tremendous Bowl MVP large receiver Cooper Kupp in free company. The modifications helped the Seahawks attain Tremendous Bowl heights as soon as once more.
So what is going to occur in Tremendous Bowl LX between the Patriots and Seahawks? Get pleasure from an early breakdown and prediction to kick off your two-week look forward to the large sport.
The place to look at Tremendous Bowl 2026
- Date: Sunday, Feb. 8 | Time: 6:30 p.m. ET
- Location: Levi’s Stadium (Santa Clara, California)
- TV: NBC | Stream: Fubo (attempt free of charge)
- Observe: CBS Sports activities App
- Odds: Seahawks -4.5, O/U 46.5 (through DraftKings Sportsbook)
The previous adage that “protection wins championships” would not all the time ring true, but it surely definitely has within the 2025 NFL season. Seattle completed with the league’s No. 1 scoring protection within the common season (17.2 factors per sport), whereas New England wasn’t far behind, permitting 18.8 factors per sport, the fourth-fewest within the NFL.
New England performed a bend-but-don’t-break type with the NFL’s eighth-best whole protection, permitting simply 295.2 yards per sport. Seattle’s unit was led by each a top-10 cross rush (47 sacks, tied for the seventh-most) and a top-10 protection group (77.9 passer score allowed, fourth-best).
Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald’s protection might pose a litany of issues for Maye, the Patriots’ 2025 second-team All-Professional quarterback, significantly on the subject of cross safety. Maye turned the primary quarterback ever to be sacked at the least 5 occasions in three video games in a single postseason, taking precisely 5 sacks in every AFC playoff sport.
Having a leaky offensive line might doom him towards 2025 second-team All-Professional defensive deal with Leonard Williams, Professional Bowl edge rusher DeMarcus Lawrence, 2025 second-team All-Professional linebacker Ernest Jones and 2025 second-team All-Professional cornerback Devon Witherspoon. Patriots left deal with Will Campbell, the fourth total choose within the 2025 NFL Draft, has endured loads of rookie struggles in these playoffs. His three sacks allowed and 9 quarterback pressures allowed are each probably the most within the NFL this postseason.
Darnold led the league in turnovers with 20 within the common season, however like Patriots archnemesis Eli Manning in 2007, he is discovered one other degree within the playoffs. Darnold has performed turnover-free soccer by means of Seattle’s divisional spherical and NFC title sport wins, throwing for 470 whole yards and 4 touchdowns whereas finishing 69.8% of his passes (37 of 53).
Now, he has a shot to finish a Manning-like path with a victory over the Patriots within the Tremendous Bowl. Smith-Njigba, who led the NFL with 1,793 receiving yards in 2025, is clearly Seattle’s go-to goal, however he’ll have a worthy adversary in Patriots Professional Bowl cornerback Christian Gonzalez in Tremendous Bowl LX.
Early Tremendous Bowl 2026 prediction
Maye and the Patriots profitable three consecutive playoff video games regardless of him absorbing 5 sacks in each is a historic anomaly. Maye joined Tony Eason (1986) and Craig Krenzel (2004) as the one quarterbacks because the 1970 AFL-NFL merger to win three straight video games whereas taking 5 or extra sacks in every, per CBS Sports activities Analysis.
In Eason’s case, his three-game streak of luck — additionally with the Patriots –came to an finish with a 31-7 regular-season loss to the Cincinnati Bengals after he took six sacks in Week 14 of the 1986 season. As for Krenzel, a 41-10 loss to the Indianapolis Colts in Week 11 of the 2004 season adopted his three-game run, and he took 4 sacks that day.
Maye overcoming that degree of poor cross safety for a fourth straight sport to emerge victorious can be a historic first, and that simply will not occur towards the Seahawks’ No. 1 scoring protection. Seattle wins Tremendous Bowl LX by a number of possessions.
Early choose: Seahawks 27, Patriots 13 | Seahawks -4.5, Below 46.5
