Super Bowl LX has come and gone, and the Seattle Seahawks — including four former players and three former Michigan coaches — are now Super Bowl Champions.
For the final edition of Pro Blue of the season, let’s kick things off with the player who scored the first touchdown of the Super Bowl.
AJ Barner catches first TD of Super Bowl LX in fourth quarter
The defenses for the Seahawks and New England Patriots stepped up in the first three quarters of this game, with just 12 points getting scored in the first 45 game minutes, all Seattle field goals. But 96 seconds
into the fourth quarter, quarterback Sam Darnold found his red zone safety blanket, tight end AJ Barner, for a 16-yard touchdown to give the Seahawks a commanding 19-0 lead.
Barner was a consistent receiving threat for Seattle all night long, catching four passes for 54 yards. It caps off a career season for the second-year tight end, who caught 52 passes for 519 yards and six touchdowns.
Barner is one of four former Wolverines to win the Super Bowl, along with center Olu Oluwatimi — who got on the field late in the fourth quarter — defensive lineman Mike Morris, and running back Zach Charbonnet, who was out with a torn ACL.
Mike Macdonald becomes the third-youngest head coach to win the Super Bowl
The 29-13 win gave Mike Macdonald his first Lombardi Trophy and officially making the 38-year-old the third-youngest head coach to win the Super Bowl, behind only Sean McVay and Mike Tomlin.
The fingerprints of Macdonald and Jay Harbaugh, Michigan’s former special teams coach who now runs that same unit in Seattle, were all over this win. Linebackers coach Chris Partridge, who was fired from Michigan during the Connor Stalions saga and later exonerated for his alleged role, also won and played a big role in Seattle’s defense being as good as it was all season.
It was a dominant win for the Seahawks, as the defense managed to:
- Hold New England to 79 yards rushing
- Sack Drake Maye six times, breaking through a New England offensive line that included former Michigan guard Mike Owenu
- Forced Maye to turn the ball over three times, including a pick-six from Uchenna Nwosu that put out the embers of a New England comeback
Some late garbage-time yards helped Maye reach 295 passing yards, but this was a game where Seattle’s defense took over. New England could not get any offense going until late in the fourth quarter when the game was already decided, as the Seahawks forced the Patriots to punt eight times.
The Seahawks dominated in all three facets of the game, including special teams. Kicker Jason Myers went 5-for-5 on field goals and 2-for-2 on extra points, punter Michael Dickson averaged 47.9 yards per punt — 3.4 more yards than New England’s Bryce Baringer — and pinned the Patriots inside the five yard line multiple times. Combine that with solid tackling on kick returns, and this was a successful game for Harbaugh’s group.
All these former Wolverines will always be Super Bowl champions and will never forget what they did to earn this Super Bowl title. Props to them on a successful season.
