Seahawks 43, Broncos 8
– The Seahawks began with a safety. It happened on the first play from scrimmage when a botched Manny Ramirez sailed the snap over Manning’s head. Ramirez apparently didn’t hear the snap count, thanks to the great Seattle fans who traveled well. Knowshon Moreno dived in the ball to limit the Seahawks to just two points.
– Seattle then kicked two field goals. The team drove down the field, but stalled in the red zone because of some strange plays, as well as a horrible call by the official on a review where Wilson clearly crossed the first-down marker, yet he was oddly ruled behind the line to gain. However, Wilson was great otherwise, converting clutch third down after clutch third down. The Seahawks converted 7-of-12 third downs, but that’s misleading because some of their failed tries came late in the game when they were running out the clock. I actually thought Wilson would win MVP; though his numbers don’t look too impressive at first glance – 18-of-25, 206 yards, 2 TDs; 3 carries, 26 rush yards – he misfired on just seven passes and made all of the big throws.
– Kicking field goals wasn’t going to be enough to beat the highest-scoring offense of all time, so Seattle’s first offensive touchdown was key. Wilson nearly hit Luke Willson for a score, but the tight end had the ball knocked out of his hands. Marshawn Lynch was eventually able to find the end zone, however. He appeared to score once, but the officials once again made an incorrect call by marking him short. That didn’t matter because Lynch scored on the very next play. Lynch didn’t have much room to run early on, but he eventually had some nice scampers. The stats don’t show it – 15 carries, 39 yards – but he had quality carries in the second half when Denver’s defense was worn out.
– Seattle’s second touchdown of the opening half came via a pick-six (more on that later). It was 22-0 when Bruno Mars took the stage at intermission, so despite being completely outplayed, the Broncos weren’t totally out of it. That quickly changed when Percy Harvin took an awkwardly bouncing kickoff to the house right after the break. At 29-0, Denver was pretty much done.
– The Seahawks added two more scores during the remainder of the second half, both of which were Wilson scores to Jermaine Kearse (4-65) and Doug Baldwin (5-66), who abused Champ Bailey all evening. Those two wideouts were half of the Seattle players who caught multiple passes. The others were Golden Tate (3-17), who drew a pass interference in the end zone on Tony Carter, and Willson (2-17).
There’s no debating that Manning choked yet again – he wouldn’t have won his only Super Bowl had he not been battling the utterly incompetent Rex Grossman – but his offensive line also deserves blame for letting him down. He was under pressure quite frequently, and the center was guilty of the early snap that resulted in the safety.
Given Manning’s ineptitude and the offensive line’s poor blocking, the Broncos had immense issues moving the chains. In fact, Denver didn’t register a first down until 20 minutes into the game. The team was so bogged down on this side of the ball that it just quit in some instances. For example, down 29-0 early in the third quarter, the Broncos opted to run a draw on third-and-14 near midfield.
For more thoughts, check out my updated NFL Power Rankings, which will be posted Tuesday morning.
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