SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- As an excited roar filled the air at Levi's Stadium on Sunday evening, Devon Witherspoon rose to his feet, turned to see his teammate running toward the end zone and raised his hand in the air.
With one finger extended toward the night sky, Witherspoon announced Seattle's ascension to the NFL's throne. It was only right that he was the one to lead them there.
Owning a 22-7 lead and needing one more knockout punch to send the Patriots to the mat, the Seahawks turned back to a method they had rarely used throughout their journey to Super Bowl LX. It required calling Witherspoon's number, dialing up their blitzing fox to knife through New England's pass protection and wreak havoc one final time.
It worked like a charm.
Witherspoon's fourth-quarter blitz arrived like a heat-seeking missile launched under the cover of night, slipping untouched between New England's right tackle and running back on a direct path to Patriots quarterback Drake Maye. When Witherspoon arrived, the collision was explosive, jarring the ball forward directly into the arms of Seahawks linebacker Uchenna Nwosu, who caught it and sprinted toward pay dirt.
It all happened so quickly, even Witherspoon was surprised by the result.
"I ain't even know he fumbled the ball, to be honest," Witherspoon said. "It was kind of crazy, my reaction was kind of late. I'm just living in the moment."
The moment was perfect for Witherspoon -- or perhaps he was built perfectly for the moment. Either way, the outcome punctuated a dominant showing from a Seattle defense that took the NFL's third-ranked offense, twisted it into a pretzel and discarded it like scraps.
Prior to an explosive but ultimately irrelevant fourth quarter showing, New England tallied just 78 yards of total offense. Seattle hit New England ball carriers behind the line of scrimmage on over half of their designed runs, generated a pressure rate north of 50 percent, sacked Maye six times and forced three turnovers.
The Patriots were in the Seahawks' vice grips from the first possession and didn't find an escape until it was far too late. Even then, thanks to the performance of players like Witherspoon, it wasn't long before they were back in Seattle's clutches, pinned through the final whistle in the Seahawks' 29-13 win over New England.
"That's the nature of our defense. We swarm to the ball," safety Julian Love, who intercepted Maye in the fourth quarter, said afterward. "We make them line up and earn it each play. And it's just a style, it's a style thing. They were getting excited (when) they got a 4- or 5-yard run, and then we create a negative play the next play. It's just us lining up again and again on defense to just impose our will."
Seattle's style is defined by the direction of coach Mike Macdonald, the human representation of defensive innovation in 2026. They're embodied, however, by Witherspoon, Macdonald's weapon of choice on Sunday in Santa Clara.
Typically a team that separated itself from the NFL pack in part because of its ability to generate pressure without dialing up blitzes, Seattle started the game with an uncharacteristically aggressive approach built around Witherspoon. With eyes trained on Maye and cat-like reflexes powering last-second blitzes, Witherspoon fired around the left side of New England's offensive line directly to his target wearing No. 10, Maye, forcing the MVP finalist to bail out of the pocket and heave the ball toward an unoccupied patch of grass.
The pressure forced the Patriots to punt and set a tone that would carry through the final whistle. Seattle's defense dominated the Patriots' top-tier offense, suffocating Maye with an unrelenting assault that came from all angles, with Witherspoon proving to be the tip of the spear.
Later in the first quarter on another third down on the outer reaches of Seattle territory, Witherspoon sprinted up to the line just before the snap and shot through New England's pass protection again, dumping Maye to force the Patriots back to their side of the 50 and punt.
Fittingly, Witherspoon delivered the fourth-quarter dagger.
"Spoon, man, from the jump. The soul of our defense," Love said. "Spoon is the heart of it. You can't watch tape, if you know football or love football and you watch our tape, 21 jumps off the screen every single rep. It's just raw talent, playing football the right way. He's just a ballplayer. And he's been that way since the first time he stepped in the building. So yeah, three Pro Bowls, a few All-Pros later, if he keeps on this trajectory, he will be an all-time great."
A willing soldier, Witherspoon admitted he reveled in the opportunity to play an integral role on the game's biggest stage. And when Seattle's defensive success pinned the Patriots into an undesirable corner they hadn't visited since Mike Vrabel took over as head coach, the Seahawks knew they had a chance of making history.
"I mean, we was aware," Witherspoon said when asked if his teammates knew they could become the first defense to shut out an opponent in a Super Bowl. "We kind of let off the gas a bit. ... We was kind of mad we gave them two touchdowns at the end of the game, but they went out there and earned it. It's all right, man. We played a hell of a game tonight."
Although Witherspoon revealed himself as an obsessive playmaker when he reflexively told reporters Seattle would correct the tape from Super Bowl LX -- a useless exercise at the end of a title-winning season -- the ending didn't matter much to the Seahawks, because they wrote the final chapter when Witherspoon sent the ball careening into Nwosu's arms.
"I asked 'who got that one off?' To be Spoon, I think, is really fitting," Love said of the final takeaway. "For as talented as he is and all the accolades he has, I still think he's unsung. There are a few guys on our defense that need to be talked about more in a special way, because Spoon's on a great trajectory."
Witherspoon made highlight plays, but make no mistake -- this Lombardi Trophy was won via a collective effort.
Seven different Seahawks defenders registered at least three quarterback pressures on Sunday. Six defenders registered at least one quick pressure, with Witherspoon leading the way with three. Three different Seahawks (Love, Nwosu and Byron Murphy) logged takeaways. Four different Seahawks recorded at least one sack, including the first of rookie Rylie Mills' career.
By the time the Seahawks officially became the new kings of the NFL, the conversation shifted from triumphant to all-time great.
"It says we handled our business the way we do all year," Witherspoon said. "A group of guys who play together out there, who give each other everything they need, have each other back out there, don't let a person down. It's everything you want in a defense."
Everything one wants in a defense, headlined by an individual who exudes everything a defense would want in a star. As Love said, Witherspoon embodies the style and soul of Seattle's title-winning defense and is "going to be an all-time great."
Naturally -- and perhaps perfectly -- Witherspoon explained it succinctly.
"Whatever my coach needs me to do, I go out there and do it."
