Once struggling Seahawks and Pats surging into Super Bowl

The top two teams from each conference will duel in Super Bowl 49, but for a time this season the championship chances of both Seattle and New England seemed slim.
After a lackluster 3-3 start to the season, the Seahawks fell to 6-4 after a 24-20 loss at Kansas City in November -- a defeat that dropped them three games behind Arizona in the NFC West division with six games to play.
They won them all, starting with a triumph over the Cardinals the following week, and after two playoff victories will take on the Patriots riding an eight-game winning streak.
"We played a tough team in Kansas City and we lost a tough game we felt like we should have won," Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson recalled.
At a players' only meeting they discussed what needed to be done to salvage their bid for a second straight Super Bowl crown.
- Swagger and unselfishness -
"We had to take away any selfishness, worrying about stats, worrying about this or that," Wilson said. "We had to focus on being selfless for one another, to play for each other.
"Across the board, the togetherness that we have and just the swagger, the fight that we play with, the energy level that we play with, it's tough to beat."
In the latter stages of the season, the vaunted Seahawks defense reasserted itself.
Over the final six games the regular season Seattle allowed just 6.5 points and 202 yards per game while collecting 24 sacks. And the Seahawks offense out-scored their opponents 134-39.
Now they're poised to become the first team in a decade to win back-to-back Super Bowls, and the only thing standing in their way is the last team to repeat -- the New England Patriots.
New England will play in the eighth Super Bowl in franchise history and Tom Brady will become the first quarterback to start six Super Bowls, but the dynasty appeared to be on shaky ground with an ugly 41-14 loss at Kansas City in September that dropped them to 2-2.
Brady was limited to 159 passing yards and intercepted twice by the Chiefs, sparking suggestions that the 37-year-old signal caller, winner of three Super Bowl titles, was in decline.
But like the Seahawks the Patriots struck back.
Brady threw for 292 yards and two touchdowns as they rebounded with a win over Cincinnati that launched a seven-game winning streak. They became the first team in league history to win three straight games by 20 or more points and each of those games came against a team with a winning record.
Tight end Rob Gronkowski, limited to seven games in 2013 by a troublesome knee, played a key role in the offensive surge, once he and Brady began to click.
- Sticking together -
Gronkowski ended the regular season with 1,124 yards on 82 catches with a dozen touchdowns in 15 games.
"This year we stuck together as a team," Gronkowski said. "We fought all year long."
The battles haven't come only on the field.
After they romped to the AFC title, the Patriots were embroiled in "Deflategate" and the NFL is still investigating how the footballs they used in the 45-7 win over Indianapolis came to be improperly inflated.
Brady and the rest of the Patriots say they are putting the matter aside until the Super Bowl is over, but the whispering and finger-pointing goes on.
"We just come here to work," Patriots safety Patrick Chung said. "We can't really worry about what everybody is saying. We can't worry about things we can't control. We are just going to keep working like we did all season. It's the best stage to do it."
Source: AFP