Drake Maye didn’t look quite like himself in Super Bowl LX. The New England Patriots quarterback appeared a step behind the action as the Seattle Seahawks defense wreaked havoc across the field. In the biggest game of the 2025 NFL season, Maye often found himself flat-footed, and part of the reason why may have been revealed by him after the game.
“I shot it up, so not much feeling,” Maye admitted to taking a pain-killing injection on his injured right shoulder, via ESPN. “It was good to go, and it felt all right.” Despite Maye playing with a dormant shoulder and admittedly being comfortable with it, he may have been affected by the injury throughout Super Bowl LX.
Either way—fully healthy or not—Maye and the Patriots were always facing a steep climb against the Seahawks’ defensive unit. If New England allowed Seattle to build any momentum, it would be all she wrote for the Patriots.
By ending the first half with an egg on the board—and remaining scoreless until the fourth quarter—the game was effectively over long before the clock hit zero at Levi’s Stadium. As a result, the Patriots’ quarterback bit the bullet after the game. In that regard, Maye made something clear to Vrabel and New England about his mistakes in Super Bowl LX, admitting he would love to go back and start from scratch.
Patriots couldn’t silence the narrative
Going into Super Bowl LX, there were no doubts on how great this Seahawks team was. The only question mark floated over Sam Darnold, who was still drawing skepticism around the league. As Darnold lifted his first Super Bowl at 28, he put all those claims to rest. However, the same can’t be said about Maye and the Patriots, who may have just proven the critics right.
Aside from their road win against the Buffalo Bills in Week 5, the Patriots didn’t really have a true statement victory during the 2025 NFL season. Yes, they deserve credit for reaching the Super Bowl in Mike Vrabel’s first year as head coach—and after finishing 4–13 in 2024—but their path to Super Bowl LX came with several asterisks. New England’s defense carried much of the load throughout the postseason.
The path to the Super Bowl
In the Divisional Round, Maye and the offense could barely move the football, yet the Patriots were led to victory by their defense as C.J. Stroud and the Houston Texans’ offense imploded.
The AFC Championship Game should have served as a true litmus test for Maye and the Pats, as they faced another elite defensive unit. However, once again, there was an asterisk: Bo Nix missed the game with a season-ending injury, forcing Jarrett Stidham to make his first start since the 2023 season.
If critics were searching for yet another reason to discount New England’s run, that matchup was played in blizzard conditions, which shut down both offenses in the second half. The Patriots scored just 10 points, and it was enough to win.
Day and night differences
No other team in the 2025 NFL Playoffs scored fewer than 20 points in a postseason victory—except the Patriots, who also managed only 16 points in their Wild Card triumph over the Los Angeles Chargers. Across the postseason, New England totaled just 67 points.
Meanwhile, the Seahawks scored 101 points—despite resting during Wild Card Weekend. Defense wins championships, and Seattle proved it in Super Bowl LX. But make no mistake: the Seahawks’ defense and special teams are effectively another way for them to score, not merely to hold opponents in check.