The two teams that can’t lose a Super Bowl have advanced to the game and will meet on February 8th at Levi’s Stadium. One will have to lose Super Bowl LX … but going in there are reasons neither will, or at least shouldn’t.

The Seattle Seahawks are only the second team ever to advance to a Super Bowl with the best defense in terms of average yards allowed both against the rush and pass. The only other Super Bowl team to do that was the 1974 Pittsburgh Steelers. In that game, Super Bowl IX, the Steelers became the first team to win while making their initial Super Bowl appearance against a team that had been there before.

The Oakland Raiders made their initial Super Bowl appearance against the Green Bay Packers, who had won Super Bowl I, and lost. The Miami Dolphins completed the 1971 season with a loss in their first shot at the Vince Lombardi trophy against the Super Bowl experienced Dallas Cowboys, who had lost the prior year to the Baltimore Colts. The following year, the Dolphins won the Super Bowl to complete their perfect season against the Washington Redskins, who were making their first trip to the big game.

The Minnesota Vikings had lost a pair of Super Bowls before meeting the Steelers in January 1975. The Vikings were upset as double-digit favorites by the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl IV and lost the year before they met the Steelers to two-time winning Super Bowl Champion Miami.

From an experience perspective, Super Bowl IX was clearly in favor of the Vikings.

The game wasn’t.

The Steelers won the first of four Super Bowls they would win that decade with a dominating performance led by a defense that shut the door on offenses like a hurricane slams the door on a barn in the open range. Led by Joe Greene and a room full of players that would cap their careers with inductions into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, the Steelers Steel Curtain slammed the Vikings in Super Bowl IX, 24-7.

That’s what we can expect from the best defense in football.

This year, the Seahawks entered play last week, allowing 3.7 yards per rush and 5.4 yards per pass attempt, both the best figures in the league. In other words, they can’t lose with their defense.

Done.

Bet the Seahawks.

Not so fast.

The New England Patriots limited their opponents to 23 or fewer points while scoring 23 or more points ten straight games this season. Only five other teams in pro football history had ever done it as many as seven times in a row and they all won their league championships that year. The first to do it at least seven times was the 1949 Philadelphia Eagles, and they won the National Football League championship that year.

In 1961, the Houston Oilers of the American Football League had the 23/23 stat nine weeks in a row and they won the AFC title that year. In the Super Bowl era, three teams before the Patriots this year, had put together at least seven weeks with a minimum of 23 points scored and a maximum of 23 points allowed, and they all won the Super Bowl.

Those teams were the 1984 San Francisco 49ers, 1999 St. Louis Rams and 2024 Philadelphia Eagles.

Now the Patriots have established a new record, 10, for the number of weeks of allowing fewer than 23 points and scoring at least that many.

In other words, no team has ever lost a Super Bowl with those credentials.

Clearly, it is the Patriots in Super Bowl LX.

After all, the Patriots are not only going to win, by the 23/23 calculations, but they are getting points on the spread. They opened as a 3½ point underdog and the line has already grown to 4½ points. The last five Super Bowl winners have all been point spread underdogs.

This couldn’t be easier, neither team can lose.