It all comes down to this. Super Bowl LX will bring an end to the NFL season, but before we drift into a football-less offseason for the next six months, we have four quarters to determine who will be lifting the Lombardi Trophy on Saturday evening from Santa Clara.

Seahawks surge to Super Sunday

Seattle came into this campaign after garnering some momentum last year in head coach Mike MacDonald’s season on the job. They finished 10-7, but missed the playoffs and made some big changes along the way. Quaterback Geno Smith set sail for Las Vegas and the Seahawks took a chance on Minnesota Vikings QB Sam Darnold who revived his career last season.

Darnold followed up his career high season with another rock solid year that solidified him as a staring quarterback in this league, and a damn good one. The Seahawks gamble paid off with Darnold, who’s numbers were good but not great. The running game was solid all year with Kenneth Walker III and Zach Charbonnet, but Charbonnet tore his ACL in the Divisional Round and will be out for the the Super Bowl.

The back bone of this team is the defense. They were one of the best units during the regular season. They allowed a league low 17.2 points per game and have carried this team all year. They have been prone to the occasional off day like in the NFC Championship when they gave up 27 points and almost 500 yards to Matt Stafford and the LA Rams, but they know it’s going to be up to them if the Seahawks are going to win this game from Santa Clara.

Pats back in Super Bowl

New England was terrible last year. They got the second pick in the draft because they were terrible the year before that too. Last year, there were signs of hope with their rookie QB Drake Maye who showed signs of brilliance but the team around him was no good. This year, that’s changed. Maye has a team, has the maturity and has a coach that came in and changed the culture to that which they had back in the dynasty days from Foxborough.

Mike Vrable came back to the place he called home for the majority of his playing career and immediately made things feel different in New England. A couple of big signings in the offseason to surround Maye with some talent out wide and some big bodies to protect on the line. They lost the opening game of the season to the Raiders, but the went 14-2 the rest of the way, winning all 9 of their home games.

They don’t have a lot of stars across the board. They call their defense a “no name” defense that has adapted the attitude of their Super Bowl winning coach when he was a linebacker in New England during the dynasty years. On top of that, their second year QB is in the MVP conversation after leading the Pats offense which was the second leading scoring team in the league at 28.8 ppg, and they finished third in yards per game with 379.4 an outing. Maye was also top in completing percentage at 72% and passer rating with a league best 113.5.

Odds, and prediction

The last time these two teams met in the Super Bowl it came down to the final seconds on a play from the one yard line. I don’t think this game will be as close. The Patriots have something to prove because they have had a historically easy path to the Super Bowl, but I think that run coms to an end on Sunday. Seattle is just too good of a team from top to bottom.

• Handicap: Seahawks (-4.5)
• Over/Under: 45.5
• Money line: Seahawks (-238), Patriots (+195)

I like the Seahawks to win, 27-13.

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