Drake Maye will have his work cut out for him vs. Seattle's defense in today's Super Bowl LX at Levi Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif. (AP photo)

SANTA CLARA, Calif. – The defenses have never rested, and they will be the key to who wins today’s Super Bowl LX at Levi Stadium.

The New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks are both here because of those units, despite the success of quarterbacks Sam Darnold (Seattle) and Drake Maye (New England). Seattle’s defense ranks first in points allowed per game (17.2) and sixth in both takeaways and turnovers. They’ve come up with the name “The Dark Side”.

For the Patriots, no name needed, as their defense is ranked fourth in points and yards allowed. Perhaps they can harken back to the Miami Dolphins “No-Name Defense” that won them back-to-back Super Bowls, including one in an undefeated season, in 1972-73. Seattle’s defense evolved in the team’s second year under head coach Mike Macdonald, the team’s primary play caller, and Seattle is a supreme tackling team after missing the playoffs last year despite being 10-7.

New England will be seeking its seventh Super Bowl title, first since its last appearance seven years ago. Seattle has one title, and is in the game for the fourth time, the last being ironically against the Patriots 11 years ago.

Macdonald credits defensive coordinator Chris Partridge in how well this team tackles. They have a program called EAT – effort, angle, tackling.

“When it hits, it’s powerful stuff; when you don’t it can get kind of ugly.”

Both teams have huge success against the run, mainly because of their play up front on the defensive line.

“They play with great technique, they play with great effort,” Patriots coach Mike Vrabel said. “They’re talented. Different skill sets. Look at (Byron) Murphy, and he has one skill set. Leonard Wiliams, different skill set. … If you don’t move the line of scrimmage it’s going to be tough to run the football.”

Enter Patriots defensive lineman Milton Williams. When Williams was healthy the first half of the seaason, the Patriots didn’t allow a running back to get over 50 yards a game. When he missed six weeks with a bad ankle, the Patriots allowed an average of 130 yards on the ground. He returned after the team’s last loss, Dec. 14 vs. Buffalo. It’s no wonder they haven’t been beaten since.

A key will be the Patriots ability to pressure Darnold, but also their ability to cover top Seahawks receive Jaxon Smith-Njigba, likely with heralded corner Christian Gonzalez and safety help.

“Obviously (the Seahawks) are going to target him, and they should, rightfully so,” Vrabel said. “We’ll have to be very aware of him, just like we’ll have to be very aware of stopping the run and other things that they do really well.”

Macdonald wanted to change the feeling around the Seahawks, working with GM John Schneider two years ago in getting key types of players.

“It’s their love for football, something that we shared,” Macdonald said. “The toughness factor, the grit factor, those types of things.

“Our goal was to be here and win this game, but you can’t do that unless you become a championship team,” Macdonald said. “That was our goal from the get-go. We have to become the team that can win a game like this. … And here we are.”

While with the exception of brining in Darnold, Seattle had a lot of the building blocks in place a year ago, thanks in part to the Russell Wilson trade to Denver that produced a haul, at least five key players in their lineup, Vrabel overhauled a lot of the roster – especially on defense.

“Felt like we were intentional about what we did in the off-season about building a team,” Vrabel said, “bringing guys together from every background and every different experience.”

There was one other key, Vrabel said.

“I think getting the right people in the building,” Vrabel said. “We were intentional about trying to make sure when the players returned (to start OTAs), there was a program in place that they could look at, that they could believe in, that they wanted to be a part of and that they wanted to protect.”

And today they will try to protect it one last time.