New England Patriots Just Might Be The Underdogs Against Seattle Seahawks [Opinion]
Thanks to yesterday’s exciting games (well perhaps not so exciting if you happened to be a Colts fan…), we have our Super Bowl match-up: It will be the Seattle Seahawks against the New England Patriots in a classic East Coast vs. West Coast showdown!
Both the Seahawks and Patriots can boast that they’re each the big fish in their respective ponds, but often the Super Bowl is the great equalizer, the place where hype goes to die. Just ask the Seattle Seahawks former Super Bowl opponents, the Denver Broncos.
Led by the usually formidable Peyton Manning, the Broncos crumbled in a rather embarrassing fashion last year, allowing the Seahawks to beat them in a humiliating 43-8 loss.
Are the New England Patriots likely implode in such a horrific manner? Probably not. However, the Super Bowl hasn’t exactly been a welcome playing ground for the New England Patriots within the past decade.
Indeed, we’re a long way from the early 2000s, where the Patriots managed to win three of the four Super Bowls in which they played between 2002 and 2005. Since then, things haven’t exactly gone New England’s way. Both trips in 2008 and 2012 saw them fall to the New York Giants in disappointing near misses.
The Patriots may be grateful to get a psychological reprieve from the Giants in the form of the Seahawks, but this Seattle team may prove to be far more dangerous to New England than their previous run of bad luck.
#SuperBowlXLIX is set. @DangeRussWilson and the @Seahawks will take on @Revis24 and the @Patriots. #TeamBose pic.twitter.com/KROcI76NpI
— Bose (@Bose) January 19, 2015
The Seattle Seahawks won their first Super Bowl in franchise history, after what was only their second visit to the big stage. The Seahawks now know what it’s like to stand on the summit, and now they are on the threshold of being their again.
To go from one of the lowest featuring teams in Super Bowl history to the potential to write their names in NFL history as back-to-back champions is certainly on the Seattle Seahawk’s mind. Odds are the Seahawks see no difference between the Patriots and Broncos… and that might be bad for the Patriots.
Like the Broncos, the Patriots have a much-respected, record-breaking, and talked-about quarterback in Tom Brady. The team also has the arrogance of being regularly featured in Super Bowls, unlike the fledgling Seattle Seahawks.
One. More. Game.
@Seahawks and @Patriots set to square off in @SuperBowl XLIX. http://t.co/X2snZE7s84 pic.twitter.com/cQIb0KguY1
— Good Morning America (@GMA) January 19, 2015
But underneath that presumed excellence is cold hard fact: The dominance at this level of the game once synonymous with the Patriots is all but gone. They will have to earn it back by beating the Seattle Seahawks, a team that anyone can see isn’t scared of them, and possess their own swagger.
The psychological advantage doesn’t seem to be with the Patriots; without a scared underdog to play against, it’s highly possible they may find themselves in that role. With or without the fear.
Will the New England Patriots prove their losses to the New York Giants to be tremendous flukes, or are we on the verge of a Seattle Seahawks dynasty?
[Image Credit: Today Show Twitter]
