Super Bowl 2026: Seattle Seahawks beat New England Patriots in masterclass to win Super Bowl 60 as Drake Maye endures grueling day | NFL News

Sam Darnold capped his stunning comeback with once-unthinkable glory, Aden Durde made British NFL history and the Seattle Seahawks became Super Bowl champions for the second time by beating the New England Patriots 29-13 at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara on Sunday.

It would be fitting that it was Mike Macdonald's number one defense that had the final, defining masterclass on the 2025 NFL season by sacking Drake Maye six times and intercepting him twice while snatching a fumble in a suffocating performance against the second-year Patriots quarterback.

Uchenna Nwosu scored a 44-yard interception return, Darnold threw a touchdown pass to AJ Barner, Jason Myers made a Super Bowl record five field goals and Julian's Love's fourth-quarter pick extinguished any threat of a Maye fightback.

Playing on his fifth team and eighth season, Darnold entered improbable football immortality as the 2018 third overall pick buried his written-off past and premature career obituaries to reach the football pinnacle after signing a $100.5 million contract with the organization last offseason.

Meanwhile, Durde, the Seahawks' defensive coordinator and London native, became the first British-born coordinator to coach in a Super Bowl, with the former London Warriors coach and founder of the league's International Player Pathway program instrumental in leading Seattle's breakneck “dark side” defense.

Kenneth Walker starred on the field with 135 rushing yards as he won the Super Bowl MVP, Derick Hall and Byron Murphy II recorded two sacks each and Darnold Barley had to call on NFL receiving leader Jaxon Smith-Njigba as the California defense reigned supreme.

Bad Bunny made history as the first Latino and Spanish-speaking artist to perform the Super Bowl halftime show solo, making Levi's a beacon of California diversity and the NFL's commitment to its global audience.

The Puerto Rican artist closed his performance by serenading Latin American flags with the words “The only thing more powerful than hate is love” written on the big screen, a symbol of unity coming during a time of heightened tensions across the United States amid concerns over Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.

Statistics leaders:

sea ​​hawks

• Passage: Sam Darnold, 19/38, 202 yards, 1 TD
• Rushing : Kenneth Walker III, 27 carries, 135 yards
• Reception : Cooper Kupp, 6 catches, 61 yards

Patriots

• Passage: Drake Maye, 27/43, 295 yards, 2 TD, 2 INT
• Rushing : Drake Maye, 5 catches, 37 yards
• Reception : Mack Hollins, 4 catches, 78 yards, 1 TD

Maye's streak of consecutive turnovers, one of the few blemishes of his otherwise stellar campaign, haunted him late in the third quarter when he was sacked by Hall to cede possession.

Darnold was one-handed in punishing his second-year counterpart with a 16-yard touchdown to Barner, who had crossed the formation in a tight alignment before sneaking around a corner and getting wide open to catch his quarterback's pass for a 19-0 lead with 13.24 to play.

At the first sign of life from the Patriots offense throughout the game, Maye attacked a tight window in the middle of the field with a beautifully placed dagger to Mack Hollins for a 24-yard gain. He then returned to his favorite target on the ensuing play with a back shoulder fade to Hollins for a 35-yard touchdown, cutting the deficit to 19-7 with 12.27 to play.

Suddenly, Maye and Josh McDaniels had sparked, with the former appearing to gain confidence until disaster struck when he was intercepted by Love at the Seahawks' 27 with 8.49 to play.

He then packed a pick-six that would embody Seahawks football at full throttle and at its scary best, with Devon Witherspoon burning from the edge to incite a Maye fumble that found the sharp hands of Nwosu, who returned it for a 44-yard home run.

Maye's final remarks after a grueling day were a late consolation touchdown pass to Rhamondre Stevenson, but the damage had long been done. The 2024 third overall pick was looking to become the first quarterback since Tom Brady in 2001 to win a Super Bowl in the same year as his NFL playoff debut.

Charlie Puth's voice had merged with a thunderous Air Force flyover, some cute pyrotechnics and a raspy “is this Seattle?” crowd in a perfect Super Bowl cocktail before kickoff. The arrival of Tom Brady among the other Super Bowl MVPs, including Joe Montana, caused an eruption of patriotism among the Patriots. Levi's Stadium was bouncing, brimming with unpredictability, an aura of mystery sweeping Santa Clara ahead of a decisive game that few had predicted.

What followed was what many might have expected. A tough, stubborn duo from two of the league's best defenses, with some physical runs from Walker and three field goals from Myers giving Seattle a 9-0 lead at the break. Seattle quickly extended its kicking cushion with Myers' 41-yard field goal at the end of a 10-play drive early in the second half.

The tone of a defensive day was underscored on the final drive of the second quarter when Patriots cornerback Christian Gonzalez broke up a potential touchdown pass to Smith-Njigba on the edge of the end zone.

It became his second crucial break of the first half after a superb leap forward to deny Rashid Shaheed's surge from one of the few deep shots in the opening two stanzas.

The Patriots were virtually nonexistent on offense during a first half that saw Maye be sacked three times and record just 48 passing yards.

The loss denied the Patriots an NFL-record seventh Super Bowl title, while the Seahawks avenged their loss to New England in Super Bowl 49, which ended with Malcolm Butler's iconic goal-line interception.

It brings the curtain down on one of the most wide-open NFL seasons in recent memory, with the Seahawks catapulting to the top of the tree at the end of what, according to the odds, had been the most improbable Super Bowl game in history.