Mike Vrabel is not selling his players a revenge story. Seven months after his Patriots were beaten in Super Bowl LX, the head coach used Tuesday’s press conference to point his squad past February and toward the trip to Seattle.
“We’re focused on just competing against Seattle, not competing for something that’s going to happen in February,” Vrabel told reporters on 1 September.
“Wednesday night’s when everything has to be ready to go.”
First Wednesday opener since 2012
Kick-off at Lumen Field on 9 September is set for 5:20pm local time, with NBC and Peacock carrying the broadcast. The midweek slot is unusual: it is the first Wednesday season opener since 2012. The league moved off Thursday to accommodate a Netflix-exclusive Rams vs 49ers game in Melbourne, Australia, on 10 September.
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Only one previous season has begun with a Super Bowl rematch. In 2016 Denver hosted Carolina after beating the Panthers in Super Bowl 50.
29-13 in Santa Clara
Seattle won their second Lombardi Trophy by grinding out Super Bowl LX at Levi’s Stadium on 8 February. Jason Myers kicked four field goals before any touchdown reached the scoreboard, and Kenneth Walker III took MVP honours after running for 135 yards on 27 carries.
Sam Darnold managed the game with 202 passing yards and one scoring pass to AJ Barner. Drake Maye threw for 295 yards for New England but was picked off twice, one of them returned 45 yards by Uchenna Nwosu for a touchdown.
The teams finished within four yards of each other on total offense (Seattle 335, New England 331), but the Patriots turned the ball over three times and did not reach the end zone until the fourth quarter, with both scores coming after the game was out of reach.
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Macdonald: “We’re not defending anything”
Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald has spent the off-season pushing back on the “defending champions” tag.
“We’re not really saying we’re running anything back, we’re not defending anything. That’s just not really our attitude,” he said in March.
“We’re a new team, and we have to rebecome the team that we’re destined to be.”
He has been blunter about the tactical reality.
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“We know that we’re target No. 1 now,” he said the day after the Super Bowl.
Oddsmakers still favour Seattle. The Seahawks opened as 3.5-point home favourites, with the total set at 44.5 points. Since 2004, defending Super Bowl champions have gone 16-5 in season openers.
New England is not an underdog to be dismissed. Maye led the Patriots to their first AFC East title since 2019 and to the Super Bowl in his second season as a starter, and Vrabel returns his “core guys” for a second run.
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