New England Patriots
The Patriots are 4.5-point underdogs for Super Bowl LX, but that’s just one of the many things you need to know ahead of Sunday’s game.
After two weeks of waiting, Super Bowl LX is nearly here.
The Patriots are set to take on the Seahawks in Super Bowl LX in Santa Clara, California, in the year’s biggest sporting event. Drake Maye and Mike Vrabel have helped quickly help New England return to prominence, with the second-year quarterback sitting on the precipice of history after finishing as the runner-up in MVP voting.
Seattle is a familiar foe in the Super Bowl for New England, too. The two teams played in Super Bowl XLIX in Arizona back in February 2015. Of course, that game ended with Malcolm Butler making one of the greatest plays in Super Bowl history, getting a goal-line interception to seal a Patriots win.
Will we get a game as epic as that one? Who knows, but let’s take one last deep and closer look at Super Bowl LX. Here are 60 things to know about Sunday’s game, from stats that could determine who wins, fun facts about the key figures involved, and some trends to potentially help with whatever wagers you might make.
1: The Patriots are playing in their 12th Super Bowl in NFL history, extending their NFL record. No other team has more than eight.
2: This is the Seahawks’ fourth Super Bowl trip, with all four appearances taking place over the last 21 seasons. Seattle is 1-2 all-time in the Super Bowl, with its last appearance being its loss to New England in Super Bowl XLIX.
3: This is the 11th Super Bowl rematch in NFL history. Teams that won the first Super Bowl matchup are 6-3 in the second Super Bowl meeting. (Note: the Cowboys and Steelers have met in the Super Bowl three times.)
4: If the Patriots win on Sunday, it would statistically be the greatest single-season turnaround in NFL history. No other team has gone from winning four games to 18 games in back-to-back seasons. Only one other team has won a Super Bowl after winning four or fewer games in the previous season.
5: The Seahawks had the NFL’s sixth-best defense in terms of yards allowed in the regular season, making them the worst defense the Patriots have faced this postseason in that regard. The Patriots’ three wins over teams with a top-five defense in the regular season are the most ever by a team in the playoffs.
6: However, the Seahawks led the league in scoring defense this season (17.2), while the Patriots were second in scoring in the regular season (28.8 points per game).
7: In terms of DVOA, the Seahawks are one of the best teams ever. They have the sixth-best DVOA since 1978, per FTN Fantasy’s Aaron Schatz. Only one of the five teams with a DVOA better than theirs didn’t go on to win the Super Bowl: the 2007 Patriots.
8: Patriots star wide receiver Stefon Diggs has had a pretty quiet postseason. He’s logged just 11 receptions for 73 yards and a touchdown following his 1,013-yard regular season.
9: Could Hunter Henry have a big day in Super Bowl LX? The Seahawks allowed 63.9 receiving yards per game to opposing tight ends this season, which was the fifth-worst mark in the league and the worst among playoff teams.
10: Drake Maye will be the second-youngest quarterback to start a Super Bowl, with Dan Marino being the only other quarterback younger than him to start a Super Bowl. If the Patriots win, Maye would be the youngest quarterback ever to win a Super Bowl at 23 years old.
11: Maye was the NFL’s best deep passer (throws that traveled at least 20 yards down the field) in the regular season, posting a 132.7 passer rating on such passes.
12: However, Maye’s passer rating on deep passes in the postseason has dropped to 75.8. He’s also completed 34.6 percent of those throws after completing 61.2 percent of those passes in the regular season.
13: Maye has already been sacked 15 times this postseason, which is the most sacks taken by a quarterback to reach the Super Bowl since the AFL-NFL merger in 1970.
14: The Seahawks don’t have much trouble generating pressure. They have the fourth-highest pressure rate (38.1 percent) despite having the fifth-lowest blitz rate (22.3 percent) this season.
15: Maye has been good against pressure this season, though. His 103.3 passer rating under pressure is the best mark in the NFL, per NFL senior researcher Tony Holzman-Escareno. Maye’s passer rating under pressure without a blitz is 94.5, which is the fourth-best mark in the league.
16: Maye has also been one of the league’s top scrambling quarterbacks this season. His 46 carries for 330 yards and 16 first downs on first- and second-down scrambles lead the NFL this season, per Next Gen Stats.
17: But there is one stat that historically doesn’t favor Maye. All-Pro quarterbacks are 1-5 all-time when facing the league’s No. 1 scoring defense in the Super Bowl, per CBS Sports researcher Doug Clawson.
18: No player on the Seahawks had eight sacks or more this season, but Leonard Williams (58) had the second-most pressures among defensive tackles, per Pro Football Focus.
19: Patriots offensive tackle Will Campbell might not have a one-on-one matchup with Williams. But his 11 pressures allowed are tied for the most, and his 6.9 pressure rate allowed is the fourth-worst among offensive tackles, per Pro Football Focus.
20: The Patriots have rushed for just four yards per carry in the postseason, down from the 4.4 mark they had in the regular season.
21: The Seahawks, meanwhile, had the best run defense in the NFL this season in terms of opponents’ yards per carry (3.7).
22: Patriots running back Rhamondre Stevenson has seen a bit of a resurgence in recent weeks, though. He has 613 yards of total offense in the Patriots’ last six games. He’s also averaging 5.7 yards per carry over that stretch.
23: We could see plenty of Stevenson and TreVeyon Henderson in the passing game, too. The 39.2 receiving yards the Seahawks allowed to opposing running backs per game was the sixth-worst mark in football.
24: Could this game be determined on special teams? Seahawks wide receiver Rashid Shaheed has three return touchdowns in 11 games since the team traded for him in November, logging two kickoff return touchdowns and a punt return touchdown.
25: Patriots cornerback Marcus Jones, meanwhile, has the best punt return average of all-time (14.3 yards per punt return) and has two punt returns for a touchdown this season.
26: Seahawks wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba won Offensive Player of the Year on Thursday after leading the league in receiving yards. That hasn’t been a great omen in recent years, though, as Offensive Player of the Year winners are 2-6 in the Super Bowl in the same season they win the award.
27: Patriots Pro Bowl corner Christian Gonzalez appears set to cover Smith-Njigba in Sunday’s game. Gonzalez gave up more than 50 yards in just two games in the regular season, but he’s allowed over 50 yards in each of the Patriots’ last two games.
28: Sam Darnold led the NFL in turnovers during the regular season with 20, but he has yet to turn the ball over in the playoffs.
29: Darnold also has a 7.2 percent turnover-worthy play rate when pressured, which was the worst mark among all starting quarterbacks, per Next Gen Stats.
30: The Patriots have a 41.4 percent blitz rate this postseason, up from the 27.4 percent blitz rate they had in the regular season. They’ve allowed fewer than three yards per play when they’ve blitzed this postseason.
31: Patriots edge rusher K’Lavon Chaisson (18) and defensive tackle Milton Williams (17) have the second- and third-most pressures this postseason, per Pro Football Focus.
32: Williams had two sacks and four pressures, along with a forced fumble when he helped the Eagles beat the Chiefs in the Super Bowl last season. He’s seeking to become the eighth player in NFL history to win back-to-back Super Bowls with two different teams.
33: Williams’s postseason prowess might give New England an advantage in at least one one-on-one matchup. Seattle right guard Anthony Bradford had the sixth-worst pass-blocking grade (40.8) among guards and has a 6.8 pressure rate this postseason, which is tied for the worst mark among guards, per Pro Football Focus.
34: If the Patriots want to get an advantage on defense, force a third-and-long. The Seahawks have the second-worst conversion percentage on third-and-longs (third-and-7 or longer) this season.
35: New England, meanwhile, has the third-best defense on third-and-long in terms of conversion rate.
36: The Patriots’ biggest strength on defense is stopping the run. They’ve allowed opponents to rush for just 3.5 yards per carry in the games that linebacker Robert Spillane has played this season.
37: Seahawks running back Kenneth Walker has rushed for 426 yards on 5.3 yards per carry and five touchdowns in the last five games.
38: The Seahawks also had the eighth-best run-block win rate (73 percent) this season.
39: The Seahawks are 11-0 when they score first this season and were the only team not to lose a game after scoring first in 2025.
40: The Patriots have either entered halftime with a lead (15 occasions) or tied (twice) in their last 17 games.
41: The Patriots are 5-0 this season in their all-white uniforms, which they’re wearing for Super Bowl LX.
42: The Patriots are also 4-1 in their last five Super Bowls in which they’ve worn their white jerseys.
43: The Seahawks are wearing their all-navy uniforms in Super Bowl LX, which they’re 6-0 in this season.
44: Teams that have worn their white jerseys in the Super Bowl are 16-5 in the last 21 years and are 37-22 all-time. But the last two Super Bowl winners wore their home jerseys for the game.
45: Bad Bunny is the halftime show performer. He’s the first Latin and Spanish-speaking singer to be a solo headliner for the Super Bowl halftime show.
46: Five of the last seven Super Bowl halftime shows have included a guest or surprise performer. There hasn’t been a guest performer announced yet, but there’s been some speculation that Stefon Diggs’s partner, Cardi B, will join Bad Bunny on stage. Diggs helped lend credence to the rumors in a social media post made by the Patriots on Friday.
47: Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald calls the team’s defensive plays. If Seattle wins, Macdonald will become the first head coach to call defensive plays for a Super Bowl-winning team.
48: Born in Boston, Macdonald spent his early childhood years in Scituate. He once had dreams of being the general manager of the Red Sox.
49: At 38, Macdonald would be the third-youngest head coach to ever win a Super Bowl.
50: Mike Vrabel is seeking his first Super Bowl win as a head coach, but he played in four as a player with the Patriots. He went 3-1 in those Super Bowls, as the outside linebacker even got a touchdown catch in two of them.
51: Vrabel is also seeking to become the first person in NFL history to win a Super Bowl as a player and a coach with the same team.
52: On top of that, Vrabel is seeking to become the first coach to win Coach of the Year and the Super Bowl in the same season since Bill Belichick did so in 2003.
53: The national anthem will be sung by Charlie Puth, who is an alum of Berklee College of Music.
54: A 30-second ad spot in this year’s Super Bowl is worth $10 million, according to multiple reports.
55: If you’re looking to wager on the Gatorade color that will be poured on the winning coach, orange has been the most frequent color in the last 24 Super Bowls (24.8 percent). However, in the last 10 years, blue has been tops (40 percent)
56: The Patriots are 4.5-point underdogs in Super Bowl LX. The underdog has gone 5-0 against the spread in the last five Super Bowls and is 4-1 straight-up.
57: Historically, underdogs haven’t been great in the Super Bowl, posting a 20-37 record straight-up. But underdogs of three or more points are 9-2 against the spread since 2003.
58: The winner of the coin toss is 25-34 all-time in the Super Bowl, so maybe you might want to root against your team winning the coin flip.
59: This is the third Super Bowl that will be held in the Bay Area. The designated home team won each of the first two Super Bowls in the Bay Area, and the Patriots are the designated home team for Sunday’s game.
60: The Patriots are seeking their seventh Super Bowl title, which would give them the most Lombardi Trophies in NFL history.
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