The Super Bowl clash tonight will see either the Seattle Seahawks be the first team to defend their title in the past decade, or the New England Patriots win their fourth title under the same regime. The stakes couldn’t be higher. 

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This will be the sixth Super Bowl for Patriots quarterback Tom Brady and coach Bill Belichick, who have come up short in their past two appearances on the NFL’s grandest stage. A fourth Super Bowl win, coming 10 years after their last triumph, would put Brady and Belichick in rarefied air.

“It’s hard to compare, year to year. I think every situation’s different,” Brady said. “We’ve had a lot of good teams in the past. This one is going to have to win a very important game to kind of leave our legacy.”

New England built a dynasty in the early 2000s, but the Seahawks are on the doorstep of constructing their own.
Seattle can become just the eighth team in league history to claim back-to-back titles and the first since the Patriots in 2005. 

As Brady did earlier in his career, Russell Wilson can lead the Seahawks to a second championship in his third year as a starting quarterback.

“There’s an opportunity here that is really exciting, to see if we can play another good championship ball game here and keep something going,” Seattle coach Pete Carroll said.

“I think to talk about that when you’re playing games and in the middle of all this is really – there’s kind of no place for it. It’s just something that you look back at and you see after the fact.”

Last year, the Seahawks thrashed the Denver Broncos in the Super Bowl in what was billed as the top defence meeting the top offence.

 

Similarly in this match-up, Brady’s prolific attack will face Seattle’s formidable defence, which has been unrelenting of late.
In their past eight games, from the playoffs to the regular season, the Seahawks have allowed a total of 78 points.

Not only did the unit rank first in the league during the regular season in opposing passing yards 
allowed with 185.6, they also finished third with an average of 81.5 opposing rushing yards allowed.

Even for New England, who implement a gameplan to take advantage of their opponent’s weaknesses, Seattle’s defence will be a challenge.

“They kind of do what they do. They line up and it’s not always so challenging of where they’re going to line up,” said Brady. 
“They do a great job with their discipline and their responsibilities. We put together a plan that we like and we think can exploit some of the things that we see.”

One way or another, history will be made when the final seconds of the NFL season tick off the clock.