the biggest game of the year, but usually, it is not as good as some of the other ones.' What they said held true as many games were blowouts and out of reach by the fourth quarter. Since 2000, there were only a couple games where blowouts happened yet all in all, most games had been close and entertaining as hell. The game on Sunday was not. Seattle destroyed Denver, 43-8, in a rout of all senses of the word as Seattle came up big defensively once again, their offense and special teams added big plays plus why this was the only way Peyton Manning's legacy could get hurt.
Seattle's defense is the most feared in the National Football League. Seahawks made their team with unorthodox players and made it work to the best of their abilities. Legion of Boom along with mean pass rushers. Seattle's defense could have won MVP as a unit as Deadspin's Barry Petchesky pointed out this morning. This team had everything working against one of the best quarterbacks of all-time. I felt like Kam Chancellor set the tone early on with a huge, clean hit on Demaryius Thomas in the first couple plays of the game. They harassed Manning all game long with big rushes from Cliff Avril and others forcing a couple Manning turnovers.
One of the game-changing plays was Malcolm Smith picking off a pass returning for a touchdown. People forget Smith made the interception when Richard Sherman deflected the ball against Michael Crabtree in the NFC Championship Game. Manning had drove Denver down to the 40 yard line with the Broncos down 15-0. Even though it was 3rd and 11 when Manning threw the pick, it seems like they would at least get a field goal attempt out of this drive. Yet Smith picked him off an errant throw that Avril disrupted leading to Seattle being up by 20+ points, something no one saw coming at 5:25 pm on Sunday. Russell Wilson is a young quarterback. People forget this because he acts like a 10 year veteran. He could have played out of control and seemed too big for the moment although that did not happen. Wilson played great on Sunday with a great game including two touchdowns. Darrell Bevell, Seattle's offensive coordinator, called a great game for Wilson early on. He did not have him do too much and stayed consistent with short runs. Given Marshawn Lynch was not really a factor on Sunday, Seattle needed Wilson to be resilient and he did just that on Sunday.
Seattle gave up a lion's share to get Percy Harvin on their team giving three draft picks. He only played three games this season, but he made it count on Sunday with a tremendous all-around performance. On the second play of the game for Seattle's offense, Harvin ran a fly sweep going for 30 yards immediately pushing the Seahawks down in scoring position. As the second half was set to begin with Seattle having a 22-point lead, Denver tried to keep the ball away from Harvin and did not work as he scooped up the ball near the ten taking it to paydirt to lead off the second half. This was the exclamation point in the Seahawks ass-kicking of Denver, and Harvin made sure Seattle would win this game.
I wrote on Monday that this game would have nothing to do with Manning's legacy unless he has a horrible game. By numbers, Manning did not have a horrible game as he threw for 280 yards and had 34 completions, a Super Bowl record, yet this felt like a horrible Manning game. The reason being is he threw a pick-six changing the outlook of the game as well as turn the ball over early to ensure Seattle's first touchdown of the game. He was responsible as anyone for this game being 22-0 at halftime. While he could not helped Harvin's kick return or Thomas' fumble, Manning struggled mightily for the first time this season leading to an offseason of questions.
Final thought on this game is there was nothing clearer than the NFC being the better conference than the AFC. Seattle-San Francisco felt like a Super Bowl game versus this one. AFC all year lived off smoke and mirrors of some of the better teams with bigger names than anyone in the NFC. Seattle's dominance will be remembered for a long time, and finally after 35 years of ineptitude, Seattle has a championship for the Pacific Northwest.
Charlie.
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