Unlock the Secret Twist That Changes Everything in This Untold Story

They say all roads lead to Rome, but when it comes to Super Bowl 60, the routes taken by the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks couldn’t be more different — one a smooth cruise, the other a rugged mountain climb. Yet, here we are, on the brink of football’s biggest showdown, and the question burning hotter than a midday summer sun is: does the difficulty of the journey truly dictate who’ll hoist the Lombardi Trophy? The Patriots breezed through what’s been rated the second-easiest path among 70 teams since ’91, while the Seahawks battled through the 11th toughest gauntlet — so is grit forged in fire better than polish gained on ice? Buckle up, because beneath the surface of records and rankings lies a fascinating tale of contrasting trials and triumphs that might just redefine what it means to be “battle-tested.” Ready to dive deep and unravel who’s really got the edge when the chips are down? LEARN MORE.

They’ve faced vastly different schedules en route to Super Bowl 60. How they finish will mean more than how the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks have gotten there.

The path to a Super Bowl is never easy, but how the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks advanced there this postseason was quite different.

On one hand are the Patriots, who sprinted to the top of the AFC East with a 14-3 record before winning three playoff games to reach Super Bowl 60.

Then there are the Seahawks, who powered their way through the NFC West during the regular season and followed it up with two playoff wins as the NFC’s No. 1 seed.

In the end, both teams will compete for the Lombardi Trophy on Sunday at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara.

We used TRACR to examine the paths taken by both teams to get to the Super Bowl. TRACR uses advanced metrics and contextual factors to calculate how many points per 10 drives better or worse a team is than a league-average opponent.

The Patriots netted out as having the second-easiest overall path – regular season and postseason combined – among the past 70 Super Bowl participants dating back to 1991. The Seahawks, meanwhile, have faced the 11th-toughest path in that time.

Some might look at those numbers and consider the Seahawks as clear Super Bowl favorites, and maybe believe the Patriots are overrated. But before anointing one team as a more likely champion over the other, let’s take a deeper look at how each team got here.

Patriots: Dominant Results, Historically Easy Path

Much has been written about New England’s extremely favorable schedule, and the numbers support it. The Patriots’ opponents had a combined winning percentage of .391 in the regular season – the lowest among all 32 NFL teams.

Even their trip to the Denver Broncos for the AFC championship game was a little less daunting because their top-seeded opponent was without starting quarterback Bo Nix.

Among Super Bowl teams since 1991, only the 1999 Rams faced an easier combined regular-season and postseason path.

Easiest TRACR Faced (Super Bowl Outcome)

• 1999 St. Louis Rams: -3.32 (win)
• 2025 New England Patriots: -3.02 (Sunday vs. Seahawks)
• 1991 Buffalo Bills: -2.91 (loss)
• 2000 New York Giants: -2.19 (loss)
• 2006 Chicago Bears: -2.10 (loss)

This isn’t meant as an indictment of the Patriots’ resume.  They capitalized fully on their opponents, which is exactly what good teams are supposed to do when handed a last-place division schedule. First-year head coach Mike Vrabel leaned into that advantage, riding his young quarterback, Drake Maye, all the way to the franchise’s record 12th Super Bowl appearance.

History, however, doesn’t favor New England.

Not only are the 1999 Rams the only team of the five with the easiest Super Bowl paths to post a win to date in the season’s final game, but the record expands to just 5-15 among the 21 easiest paths (excluding this year’s Patriots).

There are several possible explanations. Most notably, when competition is light, it can be difficult to determine whether a team is truly elite or simply the beneficiary of a fortunate schedule. The Patriots appear to be a mix of both.

They ranked second in scoring offense (28.8 points per game) and fourth in scoring defense (18.8 points allowed) during the regular season. Their efficiency metrics, however, didn’t fully match those rankings, likely a byproduct of the competition they faced.

That disconnect became more pronounced in the playoffs.

The Patriots ranked fourth in offensive success rate during the regular season, but are 13th during the 14-team postseason. Defensively, they ranked 23rd during the regular season, but have jumped to second-best in the playoffs.

The schedule explains that reversal. In the playoffs, New England has faced three elite defenses in the Los Angeles Chargers, Houston Texans and Broncos, who have ranked sixth, first and fifth, respectively, in defensive success rate among postseason teams. All three also ranked among the top six defenses during the regular season, meaning offensive struggles against that caliber of competition are understandable.

And it certainly didn’t help that there was inclement weather to deal with in the last two games.

Defensively, however, the Patriots have benefited from weaker opposition – and the rain/snow. Among the 14 playoff teams, the Chargers, Texans and Broncos are ranked 10th, 11th and 12th, respectively, in postseason offensive success rate. Only the Patriots and Steelers have been worse on that side of the ball.

Placed in historical context, the profile is concerning. Among playoff teams since 2016, the Patriots rank 120th defensively and 96th offensively (out of 131 teams). 

It would be disingenuous to say the Patriots aren’t, at least in part, a product of their schedule. They are not among the most efficient playoff teams of the past nine seasons, and their path was historically easy compared to most Super Bowl participants.

That doesn’t mean they can’t beat Seattle, only that the margin for error is thinner against a team that proved itself against elite competition.

Seahawks: Tested Early, Hardened Late

Seattle’s path to the Super Bowl was significantly more demanding.

As noted earlier, the Seahawks have faced the 11th-toughest overall path to the Super Bowl since 1991, and it includes the 14th-hardest regular-season strength of schedule (.498). Including the playoffs, Mike Macdonald, Sam Darnold and Co. faced the San Francisco 49ers and Los Angeles Rams – both NFC West rivals – three times each.

And yet, Seattle made it look manageable.

Like New England, the Seahawks were 14-3 in the regular season. They did so overwhelmingly despite tougher competition, with a plus-191 point differential (second in the NFL), the league’s third-ranked scoring offense (28.4 points per game) and No. 1 scoring defense (17.2 points allowed per game).

Seattle also has posted the second-best offensive success rate and fourth-best defensive success rate during the 2025 postseason. Those figures rank seventh and 26th, respectively, among all playoff teams since 2016.

This is where history tilts in Seattle’s favor. Among the 21 teams since 1991 that have faced the toughest Super Bowl paths (excluding the Seahawks), teams are 15-5.

Toughest TRACR Faced (Super Bowl Outcome)

• 2012 San Francisco 49ers: 2.74 (loss)
• 1993 Dallas Cowboys: 2.53 (win)
• 2003 New England Patriots: 2.18 (win)
• 2002 Oakland Raiders: 2.17 (loss)
• 2014 New England Patriots: 2.08 (win)
• 1992 Dallas Cowboys: 2.04 (win)
• 2015 Denver Broncos: 1.98 (win)
• 2005 Pittsburgh Steelers: 1.90 (win)
• 2019 Kansas City Chiefs: 1.90 (win)
• 2011 New York Giants: 1.78 (win)
• 2025 Seattle Seahawks: 1.75 (Sunday vs. Patriots)

Does a Team’s Path to the Super Bowl Matter?

The regular season and postseason have to mean something. If they don’t identify the league’s best teams outright, they should at least prepare them to face elite competition on the sport’s biggest stage.

Super Bowl 60 then becomes less about matchups and more about validation.

For the Patriots, it’s a chance to prove that dominance – even against a soft schedule – still translates when the opponent is elite.

They did everything asked of them. History doesn’t strip teams of trophies because the road was smooth, but it does demand proof when the lights shine brightest.

For the Seahawks, the question is whether surviving a gauntlet forged a champion or merely exhausted a competitor. They’ve beaten playoff-caliber opponents, absorbed blows and answered every challenge.

The resume is sound. Now comes the final test, when only one win matters.

And that’s what makes Super Bowl 60 compelling. It’s not about who took the better path, but which path actually prepared one team more for its showdown.

For more coverage, follow on social media at Instagram, Bluesky, Facebook and X.

The post Traveling Different Paths to Super Bowl 60, Either Patriots or Seahawks Will Find Validation appeared first on Opta Analyst.

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