Sunday Rundown: Key takeaways from Super Bowl LX

Sunday Rundown recaps the most important developments from the day's action and examines their significance moving forward.

Defense wins championships

The prevailing sentiment coming out of this game will be that Super Bowl LX was a bit of a flop. And sure, a more competitive matchup would have been the ideal way to cap off a season that finally delivered parity. Some semblance of offensive fireworks probably wouldn't have hurt the watchability factor, either.

But don't let the relative lack of drama cause you to brush off everything the Seahawks just accomplished. The reason this game wasn't close is less about one team being a fraudulent participant, and more so a matter of the other being that damn good. And considering the way in which Seattle separated itself from the rest of the league, it should be easy to appreciate what we just witnessed.

The Seahawks are, quite literally, built different. In a league dominated by superstar quarterbacks and offensive masterminds, Seattle found the ultimate counterpunch. Mike Macdonald, hired away from the Ravens in 2024, needed all of one year on the job to build one of the NFL's most suffocating defenses.

Nobody runs the ball on the Seahawks. Their 0.21 EPA/rush in the regular season was the best mark of any team since 2020. And as the Patriots found out Sunday night, this is the last defense you want to try solving in obvious passing situations.

Whether it was an overwhelming four-man rush, or some beautifully designed pressure packages involving second-level defenders, New England had no chance to block Seattle's defense. Drake Maye was under pressure 28 times on the night, the Seahawks' most in the Next Gen Stats era, and his six sacks were one shy of a Super Bowl record. Factor in three turnovers, including a pick-6 for the fourth-quarter dagger, and the result is the best defensive performance in a Super Bowl by EPA/play since 2015, according to TruMedia.

After so many years of teams cycling through hotshot offensive play-callers trying to find their own version of Kyle Shanahan or Sean McVay, perhaps Macdonald's instant success in Seattle can kick the door open for qualified candidates on the other side of the ball.

Walker's big day

Kenneth Walker saved his best for last.

As spectacular as the Seahawks had been for much of the year, the run game was largely a source of frustration. The commitment never wavered, but a bottom-five rush success rate fell well short of what we'd come to expect from a Shanahan-esque, wide-zone system. The efficiency did start to tick up down the stretch, though, and the run game was there when it mattered most in the playoffs.

Walker was an especially interesting player to track this season. The explosive plays were never an issue - he recorded 10 runs of 20-plus yards, tied with Jahmyr Gibbs for third among all players at the position - but the down-to-down consistency wasn't quite there.

Perhaps he just needed a little more time in the system to start making the most of his natural gifts. Or maybe a true feature role, which was thrust upon him when Zach Charbonnet went down with a torn ACL in the divisional round, was always going to be necessary for him to find a rhythm.

Whatever the case may be, Walker delivered the most impressive performance of his career to lead Seattle past New England. His 135 rushing yards were the most in a Super Bowl since Terrell Davis in 1998. Crucially, he recorded a season-high 42 rush yards over expected, gaining an extra 79 yards on nine broken tackles, according to Next Gen Stats. The Patriots didn't concede more than 35 yards off missed tackles in any other game this season, and Walker's rushing total was the best individual rushing performance they allowed since 2023.

Walker earning Super Bowl MVP honors, and becoming the first running back to do so since Davis, is a dream way to head into free agency for the first time in his career. The Seahawks will undoubtedly want him back, and it's probably fair to assume that he'd prefer to stay. But there will be competition for an ascending back coming off this kind of performance under the brightest of lights.

Super Bowl Sam

Who could have imagined that we'd one day be talking about Sam Darnold as a Super Bowl champion quarterback?

Darnold wasn't necessarily at his best against the Patriots, completing just 19 of 38 passes for 202 yards and a touchdown, but he didn't have to be. It quickly became clear that this game could swing in either direction if one quarterback succumbed to the pressure being thrown his way.

There were some close calls early on, but Darnold did no such thing. After leading the league with 20 turnovers in the regular season, Darnold joined Drew Brees as the only quarterbacks to complete a turnover-free run to the Super Bowl this century. He also deserves credit for helping the Seahawks avoid negative plays in general, as he was sacked just once despite the Patriots turning up the heat and sending extra rushers at a 57.5% clip.

Darnold isn't a perfect quarterback, but he's a champion now. He got the Seahawks here with a sensational NFC title game performance against the Rams, and navigating the chaos against the same Patriots franchise that once had him "seeing ghosts" is one heck of a way to complete an all-time redemption arc.

Maye crumbles

Maye coming up short in his first Super Bowl appearance takes nothing away from a spectacular sophomore season. The Patriots quarterback was a deserved runner-up to Matthew Stafford for MVP honors, and the final vote was exactly as close as it should have been. All of that can be true while we concede that Maye simply wasn't good enough Sunday night.

The Seahawks' defense is a challenge for any opponent, and the mismatch that group had against an underwhelming Patriots offensive line was bound to make this a particularly difficult task. Again, Seattle had Maye under duress on 28 dropbacks.

But there were also opportunities for him to make plays in the passing game, and he couldn't deliver. Is it possible that Maye's shoulder injury was more of an issue than the team let on? Or was this simply a matter of a young quarterback feeling the heat, even when he did have time in the pocket?

Either way, this wasn't the same budding superstar that we saw throughout the regular season. There were some bizarre misses in the Super Bowl, and an inexcusable pick deep down the middle on a second-and-3 in the fourth quarter all but sealed the game in favor of the Seahawks.

This may only be the beginning for a New England team that was supposed to be in the first year of a full-scale rebuild. With another offseason to continue stockpiling talent, this group could be in for another significant jump. But getting so thoroughly outplayed in the Super Bowl is a reminder of the work still left to do. Maye can't be asked to do it all himself if the Patriots are to narrow the gap between them and the Seahawks.

Vrabel's costly decisions

Mike Vrabel pushing all the right buttons in his first year on the job culminated in a record-tying 10-win turnaround and Coach of the Year honors. It feels a little strange to be nitpicking game-management decisions for a Cinderella team in the Super Bowl, but hey - this is the big leagues.

If the Patriots stood a chance at knocking off the powerhouse Seahawks, it was always going to require an expertly managed game. Vrabel didn't pass that test. First, it was opting to punt on fourth-and-1 from his own 41-yard line while trailing 12-0 midway through the third quarter. If ever there was a time to give your offense a spark, that was it.

Then came the decision to not attempt a two-point conversion after a touchdown made it 19-6. Settling for the single PAT ensured that the Patriots would still need two more touchdowns no matter what the Seahawks did from there on out. This one shouldn't even have been up for debate.

Seattle was the better team by such a wide margin that it's possible neither decision would have mattered in the end. But your head coach committing needless errors like that only ramps up the difficulty of pulling off an upset.

Campbell a future guard?

Anyone looking to be optimistic about the Patriots' chances of dealing with a ferocious Seahawks pass-rush likely would have pointed to the possibility that Will Campbell might look rejuvenated after the bye week. The first-round rookie had really struggled since making his late-season return from a knee injury, giving up three sacks and 11 pressures across New England’s first three playoff games.

Unfortunately for the Patriots, the results only got more disastrous in the Super Bowl. Campbell surrendered 14 pressures against the Seahawks, the most by any player in a game this season, according to Next Gen Stats.

There was a lot of talk heading into last year's draft that Campbell, who doesn't quite have the length teams are looking for on the outside, might be better suited at guard. The Patriots evidently didn't see it that way, selecting him over several other tackles with the No. 4 overall pick. Again, it's possible the injury was a major factor in his playoff performance, so we probably shouldn't make any sweeping conclusions just yet. Perhaps he gets back on track in that spot after an offseason to get healthy.

But the Patriots will have to keep a close eye on Campbell's development, and the staff shouldn't be afraid to make a change if necessary. Campbell can still be a long-term building block for this team on the interior of the offensive line. If that ends up being the move, a left tackle immediately becomes the team's No. 1 roster-building priority.

Dan Wilkins is theScore's senior NFL writer.