Ben Deihl | sports editor

“… Pass is intercepted at the goal line by Malcolm Butler! Unreal.”

For 11 years, Al Michaels’ words haunted Seattle Seahawks fans as Russell Wilson threw away their second straight championship at Super Bowl XLIX, falling to the New England Patriots dynasty led by Tom Brady.

After one of the most legendary plays in Super Bowl history, the Seahawks and Patriots will face off for a rematch concluding the 2025-26 NFL season with the surprise matchup in Super Bowl LX on Sunday.

This is now the most improbable Super Bowl matchup from preseason betting odds, according to theScore. Seattle had 60-1 odds to reach the bowl, while New England’s odds sat at 75-1.

For such an improbable matchup in the big game, there had to have been a plethora of mixups in the regular season to eventually get to where we are now.

The Patriots were just coming off a 4-13 season, their third-worst year in franchise history. In Drake Maye’s first season, he wasn’t an instant starter in Foxborough. First-year head coach Jerod Mayo decided to roll with veteran Jacoby Brissett, which put the Patriots in a 1-4 hole to start their year.

From there, New England relied on a rookie signal caller to carry a struggling offense with no clear receiving threat and a crumbling offensive line, leading to the 4-13 record. But with the poor record came a high draft pick, and the Patriots selected tackle Will Campbell with the 4th overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft, along with trading for wide receiver Stefon Diggs to give Maye both protection and a receiving threat.

Gifted with the easiest strength of schedule in 2025, the Patriots steamrolled through the regular season to complete the best two-year turnaround in NFL history, adding nine wins from their 2024 record.

New England also had a fortuitous playoff run, with their defense forcing five Houston turnovers in their divisional win before facing second-string quarterback Jarret Stidham in the AFC title game, also dealing with a Denver blizzard in the defensive stalemate.

The Patriots really haven’t been tested in their Super Bowl run, matching up with the likes of playoff Justin Herbert, who has solidified himself as a postseason choke artist, turnover-prone C.J. Stroud who committed seven turnovers in two playoff games and a backup quarterback who hadn’t played since last season. While their defense is in the top five, New England’s offense has stumbled into the biggest game of the year.

Following a 10-7 season in Head Coach Mike MacDonald’s first year in Seattle, many analysts felt a down year coming for the Seahawks. They traded Geno Smith and franchise cornerstone DK Metcalf, took a gamble on Sam Darnold and relied on a mid-tier defense.

In fact, Bleacher Report’s Moe Moton predicted that the Seahawks would finish dead last in the NFC West this season, falling behind the offensive powerhouse that is the Los Angeles Rams and the well-rounded San Francisco 49ers.

“Darnold will regress behind an offensive line with question marks on the interior,” Moton wrote, “resulting in Seattle taking a slight step back in the standings in a seven- or eight-win campaign.”

Seattle was able to shore up their interior line with first-round pick Grey Zabel, and Jaxon Smith-Njigba’s emergence from a strict slot receiver role to leading the league in yards helped power a stagnant Seahawks offense. MacDonald kept his defensive prowess he showed in Baltimore, conducting the best scoring defense in the NFL and leading the Seahawks to a 14-3 record, rolling to the Super Bowl through a gauntlet of NFC West teams.

The game will boil down to two essential battles between the familiar foes — which quarterback commits less turnovers, and which defense can hold for the longest. Darnold had a league-leading 20 turnovers through the regular season, but has played turnover-free football so far in the postseason.

Maye has broken out in his second year, becoming an MVP finalist, likely finishing just behind Rams QB Matthew Stafford. He’s only thrown 10 interceptions through the regular and postseason, but fumbles have become an issue. He coughed the ball up four times against Houston in the divisional round, and totaled 15 fumbles in 20 games played.

A Patriots offense that has been consistently inconsistent throughout the regular and postseason up against one of the best defenses in the league in points and yards allowed seems like a mismatch in Seattle’s favor, combined with the Seahawks’ +220 point differential in the regular season.

Maye has proven he can be one of Seattle’s weak spots through the season — a dual-threat quarterback. His 65 rushing yards and rushing touchdown were crucial to New England’s AFC Championship victory, and if his wheels are on full display in Santa Clara, the Patriots will stand alone as the franchise with the most Super Bowls in history.

But as the late Bear Bryant said, defense wins championships. Super Bowl LX will feature the number two and number four scoring defenses, while both defenses also ranked in the top 10 in yards allowed per game.

The game will boil down to what defense can get their crucial stop when it matters most — and when the lights are at their brightest. Both teams climbed Everest to get here, making Super Bowl LX one for the ages.

Ben Deihl can be reached at deihlb1@duq.edu