Super Bowl winners and losers: Drake Maye got dropped in the Seahawks’ blender

What we watched just wasn’t fair. A young quarterback, excited about performing in his first Super Bowl, only to get thrown to the pitcher and subjected to the Seahawks blender. There’s no shame in losing to that defense, because it’s unlike anything we’ve seen before — and every team in the NFL is going to be trying to emulate it.

In the lead up to Super Bowl 60 many of us predicted this would happen. Heck, in our own Super Bowl predictions here’s what I said in picking Seattle to hoist the Lombardi Trophy.

“It’s very difficult for opposing offenses to understand where the pass rush is coming from, or who is dropping in coverage, which creates confusion, and the Hawks love confusion. […] We have a situation brewing where Seattle could put New England in a blender and make it very difficult for them to dig out of their hole.“

I predicted a 34-10 win for the Seahawks; it ended up being 29-13 — so sue me. The prevailing fact is that the Seahawks absolutely deserved to be the Super Bowl champions. They were on another level defensively and came into the game better prepared. It was far from the prettiest Super Bowl that we’ve seen, especially after being conditioned on so much offense over the years — but it was a great game for lovers of defensive football. It was a heavyweight fight where both teams peppered each other with jabs for three quarters, only for Seattle to assert their will and pull away.

There’s no shame on Drake Maye for this game. There’s only so much a quarterback can do with the abysmal protection he got throughout the game, and we’re going to touch base on that soon — because it was a total mess. Instead we can salute Sam Darnold for making it through, Mike Macdonald for putting it all together, and the defense for executing. It was a masterclass.

Now more winners and losers from the Super Bowl …

Winner: Jason Myers and Michael Dickson

The Seahawks special teams were a major difference maker in the Super Bowl with Myers setting the NFL record for most field goals in a Super Bowl, and Dickson pinning the Patriots back at their goal line more times than we can count.

In a very real way these two guys won the Super Bowl in a game where offense was so difficult to come by.

Winner: Christian Gonzalez

The Patriots lost, but nobody was working as hard as cornerback Christian Gonzalez for the Pats. He saved multiple explosive plays, was all over the field, and just needed some more support. There’s a timeline where New England is somehow able to pull out a win and Gonzalez would be the MVP.

Winner: Bad Bunny

One of the best Super Bowl halftime shows ever, with a beautiful message about love conquering hate, Everything was perfect tonally, and the whole show was just fun — which is what a halftime show should be all about.

Loser: Everyone who wasted their time watching Kid Rock

Don’t let an imaginary culture war keep you from appreciating actual culture. Y’all got grifted, sorry.

Loser: Will Campbell

I don’t want to be too tough on a rookie, but good God, man.

Get ready to learn offensive guard, buddy.

Loser: Super Bowl ads

It’s not even worth tracking these anymore. Nothing was inspiring, nothing moved the needle. It’s as if no talented advertising agencies were consulted, and everyone just used AI to write their ads instead. It showed, and this year’s commercials just sucked.