SANTA CLARA, Calif. – As excited roars filled the air at Levi’s Stadium on Sunday night, Devon Witherspoon rose to his feet, turned to see his teammate running toward the end zone and raised his hand in the air.
With one finger extended toward the night sky, Witherspoon announced Seattle’s ascension to the NFL throne. It was only right that he was the one who led them there.
Leading 22-7 and needing one more knockdown to send the Patriots to the mat, the Seahawks reverted to a tactic they had rarely used during their trip to Super Bowl LX. It required calling Witherspoon’s number, dialing up their flashing fox to knife through New England’s pass defense and wreak havoc one last time.
Witherspoon’s fourth-quarter blitz came like a heat-seeking missile launched under the cover of night, slipping untouched between New England’s right tackles and running back straight to Patriots quarterback Drake Maye. When Witherspoon arrived, the collision was explosive, and the ball shot straight into the arms of Seahawks’ Uchenna Nwosu, who grabbed it and sprinted toward bankruptcy.
It all happened so quickly, even Witherspoon was surprised by the outcome.
“I don’t even know he fumbled the ball to be honest,” Witherspoon said when asked about his reaction to the result. “It was kind of crazy, my reaction was quite late. I just live in the moment.”
The moment was perfect for Witherspoon — or maybe he was perfectly built for the moment. Either way, the result featured a dominating performance from a Seattle defense that took the NFL’s third-ranked offense, turned it into a pretzel, and tossed it like trash.
Before an explosive but ultimately irrelevant fourth quarter, New England had just 78 yards of total offense. Seattle hit New England ball carriers behind the line on over half of their designed runs, generated pressure north of 50 percent, sacked Maye six times and forced three turnovers.
The Patriots had the Seahawks running wild from the first possession and didn’t find an escape until it was far too late. Even then, thanks to the performances of players like Witherspoon, it wasn’t long before they were back in the clutches of Seattle, who blew through the final whistle in the Seahawks’ 29-13 victory over New England.
“That’s the nature of our defense. We float to the ball,” safety Julian Love, who blocked Maye in the fourth quarter, said afterward. “We make them line up and earn it every play. And it’s just a style, it’s a style. They were getting excited (when) they got a four- or five-yard run, and then we create a negative play the next play. It’s just us lining up again and again on defense to impose our will.”