What we learned from Patriots’ Super Bowl loss to Seahawks

The New England Patriots ended their cinderella story of a season by getting unceremoniously kicked out of Super Bowl LX by the Seattle Seahawks. The lost with a final score of 29-13, and the game might not even have been as close as the final score would indicate: the Seahawks jumped to an early 19-0 lead, won the turnover battle 3-0 and throughout the day seemed in control, especially on defense.

Let’s get into what we learned from the Patriots’ final game and fourth total loss of the 2025 NFL season.

The Patriots just weren’t good enough

The Patriots had a heck of a season, and there are a ton of positives for a young team that came out of this year, but they just weren’t ready to play the type of top-end talent that the Seahawks have. After being the worst team in the league last year, just making the Super Bowl is pretty incredible, however, even though it hurts like hell to lose once you get there.

There are no such things as moral victories either, especially in the Super Bowl. So, we’re not taking many positives away from this horrendous game, but there are many of them from the season as a whole. On Sunday, however, the Patriots simply were not good enough against an outstanding and well-deserved world champion.

Drake Maye isn’t ready for prime time

The entire Patriots offense was bad on Sunday night, but only one of them was the MVP runner-up and central piece to the entire operation. If his team was going to have a chance to win this game, Drake Maye was going to have to be at his best, and he was not.

He finished the night with three turnovers, including a fumble that was returned for a game-sealing touchdown. The offensive line was porous at best, and we’ll get to them, but Maye just simply wasn’t good.

He missed open receivers, threw off-target passes, made questionable reads, and never seemed comfortable in the pocket even when he had time. It was the complete opposite of what we saw from him the vast majority of the season.

His deep balls all looked like ducks Sunday night, and passes which he threw with ease looked to be significantly more difficult for him. Whether it was an injury — he admitted after the game he received a shot to his injured right shoulder — the bright lights, Seattle’s defense, or a combination of all of those things, Maye was simply not up to the task in the biggest game of his life. There are no concerns that he will not be back to playing at a top-tier level next year, but he wasn’t able to deliver on the game’s biggest stage.

A playmaking receiver is a must

The Patriots got by with their receiving corps this year, and the room, as a whole, was much better than anticipated based off of last year. With that being said, the group is still missing that one truly dominant player at wide receiver — the type of guy that keeps defensive coordinators up at night thinking about how to stop him.

Seattle’s Jaxon Smith-Njigba is a player like that, and, even though he did not do particular damage to the Patriots on Sunday night, he opened things up for his teammates. It is going to be hard to find that guy in free agency, trade or when picking 31st overall in the draft, but the Patriots need to try to get their hands on a dominant receiver to help out their offense.

It is one of the biggest missing pieces, and Super Bowl Sunday made that clear.

The Patriots need another O-line overhaul

The offensive line on Sunday night was quite literally offensive. Not one player played even close to well enough for the Patriots to win, and there are questions across the board.

Campbell can still be a solid left tackle, but is there really a chance that they move him into guard? It is a position he has never played before, and he looked mostly solid before his MCL tear in November, but it also seems increasingly clear that Jared Wilson’s ceiling at that position has a cap and the Patriots should ultimately move him to center. But do they decide to move on from Garrett Bradbury to do it? Also, is Morgan Moses going to be back next, as he was brought in really as more of a band-aid?

There are more questions than answers on the line, and they are going to have to address the issues as soon as they can. Maybe they could sign or trade a legit starter, like the Bears did with Joe Thuney last spring. That would help stabilize the line a bit, but there is still a lot of work to do outside of that. That said, I would anticipate the Patriots devoting at least one pick in the first three rounds to an offensive lineman, and at least one veteran starter option to come in as well.

The line was far superior to last year’s, but when they played great competition, they simply weren’t able to hold up.

Christian Gonzalez is incredible

The Patriots might be looking for studs on offense, but they don’t have to look far down the roster to find one on defense. That’s because the guy wearing No. 0 just might just be the best overall player they have on the roster.

Christian Gonzalez showed his skill in the Super Bowl with three fantastic pass breakups, including one that saved a touchdown and one where he went airborne, drawing comparisons to the Stephon Gilmore PBU against the Jaguars in the 2017 AFC Championship. He is a piece that they can build around, and, with his increased role in stopping the run, he’s become an all-around great player.

Gonzalez is one of the best corners in the league, and the whole world could see it on Sunday. The Patriots are just scratching the surface of his potential, too, and there are a lot of good moments ahead for the young corner.

Craig Woodson is going to be a fantastic player

Another member of the secondary continued his meteoric rise in the Super Bowl. Craig Woodson, the fourth-round safety out of Cal, had a fantastic game on Sunday night. He was all over the place, and made multiple plays behind the line of scrimmage in the run game, as well as a few good plays in the pass game.

There were a lot of questions about Woodson this year, mostly because plenty of analysts just didn’t think he was worthy of the pick the Patriots used on him. But we have started to see what he looks like when he’s comfortable in a system. If he continues to grow and can play as fast as he did in the playoffs all the time, you are looking at a perennial Pro Bowl player at the safety position.

Having two Pro Bowl-caliber players in a secondary consistently, especially ones that are this young, should set the Patriots up for success in the next few years and beyond.

Kenneth Walker put on a show

When the game ended, there was only one real possible recipient of the MVP trophy, and that was Kenneth Walker. He was very good, and probably even better than his stats might indicate.

Even when he didn’t have great blocking, his patience and quickness opened up some holes for him. He finished with 135 yards rushing on 27 carries (the only time he was over 19 carries on the season), and added another 26 yards on a pair of receptions. He was the best player on the field for the Seahawks offense, and was responsible for driving them down the field on most of their six scoring drives.

The Patriots did a pretty good job for the most part on defense, but Walker was still able to make some big plays to set his team up for scores. He was a deserving MVP choice.

Special teams made a big difference

Jason Myers set a record with five field goals in a single Super Bowl. The Patriots punted the ball eight times and the Seahawks punted it seven times. The Patriots pinned the Seahawks inside the 20 four times and the Seahawks only did it three times, and yet, two of those Seattle plays landed inside the 5-yard line.

Meanwhile, Marcus Jones was never able to get anything going, and he had a very curious punt return where he let the ball bounce near the 20, and it was ultimately downed inside the 5.

At the end of the day, there were no explosive plays on special teams from either team, but the Seahawks played much consistently in that area. Because the Patriots were never able to get anything consistently going on offesne, they lost the field position battle, which turned into points for Seattle. 

The Seahawks defense is incredible

The Patriots offense was bad on Sunday, but we also have to acknowledge just how good that Seahawks defense was. They were flying to the football on every play, getting consistent pressure on Drake Maye with just four rushers, and confusing him in the secondary when he went back to pass.

This defense is among the five best all-time defenses, according to DVOA, and you could clearly see why. They are pretty young too, so that team is going to be a problem moving forward: they will just continue to get better and add to their talent already there. 

An uncertain future awaits

The Patriots had an incredible run, but it came to a screeching halt in San Francisco on Sunday. The real question now is: What do they do to try to get back here in the next few years?

First, they have to build around their young quarterback, which means bringing in more playmakers and linemen.

Then, they have to continue to build this young defense. The unit played incredibly well all playoffs, but there are certainly some places that could use some more playmakers: another solid edge rusher, and a playmaking linebacker would certainly help.

The biggest thing is that they are going to have to get over the sting of playing so poorly in the biggest game of their lives. They are going to have to show up to the next playoff game with confidence and not be afraid to make the same mistakes. It was a heck of a season by the Patriots, but they have to continue to build for the future because just getting to the Super Bowl is not the aspiration.