Super Bowl 2015: Seattle Seahawks vs New England Patriots

After 266 matches in the 2014 NFL season, just one more remains. The Seattle Seahawks and the New England Patriots will compete in the 49th Super Bowl and this one has the makings of a classic.

For the second consecutive season the finale features the top two seeded teams, although the Patriots will hope to avoid the same fate as the Denver Broncos, who were humiliated by the Seahawks last February.

Despite being the NFL’s best, both teams faced immense adversity early in the season. The Seahawks were labelled one-season wonders after they lost three of their first six games. When the Patriots were hammered 41-14 in Kansas, leaving them with a 2-2 record, many said Bill Belichick and Tom Brady’s era of dominance was over. 

Both statements couldn’t have been further from the truth. Seahawks have lost once since October 19 and Patriots have tasted defeat just twice since that loss to the Chiefs, and one of those losses came when they had already clinched the number one seed in the AFC.

The Patriots’ preparations for the Super Bowl have been rocked by deflate-gate, a scandal which has made headlines worldwide. The inquiry into whether or not they intentionally deflated footballs in their AFC Championship win over the Indianapolis Colts has certainly made the Patriots the villain of this particular play. 

The Patriots will hope to make Lynch’s appearance on Sunday just as brief. Not many teams have been able to stop the man nicknamed Beast Mode but the Seahawks might be in trouble if they are left to rely on Russell Wilson’s arm. 

Darrelle Revis and Brandon Browner, who was on the Seahawks roster last season, make up half of what has been a consistently solid Patriots secondary, while the Seahawks’ Legion of Boom - cornerbacks Richard Sherman and Byron Maxwell and safeties Kam Chancellor and Earl Thomas III - has all the attributes to stake a claim for the best secondary in NFL history.Sherman and Co will certainly make Tom Brady work for his fourth Super Bowl. It is ten years since Brady won his last ring, an astonishing stat when you consider the Pats have been to six AFC Championship in that time.
 
Brady won three Super Bowls in his first five seasons; Wilson is bidding for a second in his opening three. The world awaits to see which of these winners is victorious come Sunday.