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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
Sport
Andrew Lawrence in Santa Clara

Welcome to the Dark Side: Seattle’s brutal, Super Bowl-winning defense is here to stay

Seattle Seahawks defensive tackle Rylie Mills celebrates sacking New England Patriots quarterback Drake Maye.
Seattle Seahawks defensive tackle Rylie Mills celebrates sacking New England Patriots quarterback Drake Maye. Photograph: John Angelillo/UPI/Shutterstock

Super Bowl LX was a two-score game with less than five minutes remaining. New England had the ball on the Seahawks’ 44-yard line and – after reaching the end zone in the fourth quarter, finally – that familiar sense of possibility. But that quickly vaporized when Devon Witherspoon knifed in on a corner blitz and jarred the ball loose from the Patriots quarterback, Drake Maye, mid-throw. Uchenna Nwosu snatched it in stride and rumbled 45 yards to the end zone, sealing Seattle’s 29‑13 victory.

That the league’s top defense was able to punctuate this moment, more than a decade in the making, with an interception as the Super Bowl XLIX hero Malcolm Butler looked on made the Seahawks’ revenge all the sweeter. “They lived up to the Dark Side today,” the Seattle head coach, Mike Macdonald, said of his defense. “It’s going to go down in the history books.”

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