News

Many have called the Seattle Seahawks a team of destiny. On Sunday afternoon at CenturyLink Field, that assertion gained a little more credibility.

In a NFC Championship Game they were supposed to dominate, Seattle fell behind the Green Bay Packers early, trailed by 16 at halftime and still found themselves down 12 with just over two minutes to go—the result of an afternoon where nothing seemed to click for the defending Super Bowl champions.

Their two star defensive backs, Earl Thomas and Richard Sherman, were walking wounded, Earl with a shoulder injury and Sherman with an elbow injury, but both players kept grinding, aiming to complete an improbable if not impossible comeback.

Nobody expected it. Nobody saw it coming. Nobody thought they still had a chance—except the Seahawks themselves. Seattle rallied for 15 points in 44 seconds to take their first lead of the day, only to watch Green Bay drive right down the field to tie the game with a field goal.

But in overtime, the Seahawks completed the impossible comeback on a touchdown heave from Russell Wilson to Jermaine Kearse that sewed up Seattle’s second straight NFC title and a return trip to the Super Bowl with a 28-22 victory over the Packers.

“We never gave up,” said an almost speechless ET III after the game. “We fought. Playing football, it’s awesome. God is so good. It don’t get no better than this.”

BANG-UP JOB

Earl did much of his fighting with a brace on his shoulder, thanks to the first injury of his NFL career.

It came in the second quarter when Earl made one of his five tackles on the night, taking down Green Bay’s dynamic playmaker, Randall Cobb, to force a 3rd-and-3 deep in Seahawks territory. I was a play that helped the Hawks hold the Pack to just a field goal, but it came at a price.

The All-Pro safety dislocated his shoulder when he hit Cobb and after being checked by trainers jogged to the locker room as the city of Seattle held its breath. But Earl was fitted with a harness and missed just one three-play series before returning to the game and playing the duration of it through the pain.

“I love this game, I put my heart in it,’’ Earl said. “There’s too much at stake for me to be sitting in here while my teammates are out there battling.”

Despite playing the rest of the game with his shoulder in a bulky wrap, No. 29 was a big reason the Hawks allowed just six points in the second half. The Pack had just two plays over 20 yards all game long.

“I know who I am, I’m a warrior, bro,” ET said. “If I can play I don’t care if I can’t function really well. I know if I can help the team I’m going to be in there.”

Early in the second half, ET showed off his warrior mentality.

Despite the injured shoulder, the 5’10”, 202-pound Earl took on Green Bay’s star power running back Eddie Lacy, who is listed at 230 pounds, and rocked him out of bounds to hold him to just a short gain.

The violent hit from No. 29 sent the bruising back flying 15-plus feet through the Seattle sideline, where he crashed into the Seahawks bench. Lacy took a seat for a second before regrouping and heading back to the field.

The fearless play from Earl earned him some high praise from head coach Pete Carroll after the game.

“Earl hurt his shoulder and he comes back and hits Lacy on the sidelines with the harnessed shoulder as hard as you could possibly hit the guy and knocked him out of bounds,” Carroll said. “That’s just total guts.”

ET’s Legion of Boom partner, Sherman, showed some incredible guts on Sunday as well.

The All-Pro corner hyperextended his elbow while making a play in the fourth quarter and played the rest of the game, essentially with just the use of one arm.

He even made a key tackle on Green Bay’s final offensive play that forced the NFC’s No. 2 seed to settle for the game-tying field goal. Afterward, he made sure everyone knew: There is no way he, Earl or any L.O.B. member will be watching the Super Bowl from the sideline.

“We got tape for the warriors,” Sherman said. “I guarantee you in our next game, we will all be out there.”

SEAHAWKS STUMBLE EARLY

Though Seattle trailed for most of the day, the afternoon got off to an impressive start for the L.O.B.

Green Bay began the game with possession and MVP favorite Aaron Rodgers led his Packers all the way down the field on a well-choreographed first drive. But on 3rd-and-10 from the Seattle 29, he tested Sherman with a pass intended for Davante Adams and that pass was intercepted by Sherman in the end zone.

Unfortunately, the Seattle offense couldn’t do anything with that momentum swing, and on 3rd-and-7 of the ensuing drive, Russell Wilson faced the same fate, as Rodgers when he was intercepted by Green Bay’s Ha Ha Clinton-Dix. Green Bay took over on Seattle’s 17-yard line, but Earl and the Hawks defense held strong, forcing the Packers to settle for a field goal to go-ahead 3-0.

This trend continued throughout the first half on both sides of the ball.

On the ensuing kickoff, Doug Baldwin fumbled the return, giving Green Bay the football on Seattle’s 23.

But despite already facing their third defensive series just seven minutes into the game, Earl and Co. once again battened down the hatches and held the Packers to another field goal.

However, Seattle continued its slow offensive start, and a three-and-out gave the Packers great field position yet again on their own 44-yard line. This time, Rodgers took his squad all the way down the field and found Randall Cobb for a 13-yard score, making it 13-0 as the first quarter came to a close.

Wilson threw two more uncharacteristic interceptions in the second quarter and although the Hawks stayed strong defensively and held the Packers to just three points, they trailed 16-0 at the break.

Even with the defense playing well, things were looking grim for the Hawks. But as Earl’s partner in crime, safety Kam Chancellor said after the game, it all seemed to set up the team’s unbelievable comeback.

“God is great. It was supposed to happen like that,” Chancellor said. “Everything happens for a reason. We were down, we were making bad plays, but it all happened for a reason: for us to prevail, for us to stick together even harder and finish in overtime like we did…Adversity builds character.”

THE COMEBACK

Seattle started the second half with the ball trailing 16-0, but continued to struggle offensively and the opening drive of the second half produced another three-and-out.

Then, on Green Bay’s first offensive play of the third quarter, an angry ET III laid the lumber on Lacy, a hit that lit a fire under his squad. The key tackle set the stage for a GB three-and-out, and on the next drive, the Hawks finally found their way onto the scoreboard.

Early in the drive, it looked like another opportunity might fall by the wayside. Green Bay’s star linebacker, Clay Matthews, sacked Wilson for a 15-yard loss to set Seattle back into a 3rd-and-19. But with his back against the wall Wilson broke out his funk and found Baldwin for a 29-yard gain to move the chains.

The drive stalled again shortly thereafter and Seattle appeared primed to settle for a field goal on 4th-and-10 from the 19 just to get on the scoreboard with less than five minutes to go in the third. However, Seattle coach Pete Carroll made the gutsiest call of the day, a fake, which punter and holder Jon Ryan executed to perfection.

As the snap came through, Ryan, Seattle’s holder pulled the ball off the ground, rolled out left and lobbed a pass to 6’6”, 306-pound tackle Garry Gilliam—who played tight end in college at Penn State. Gilliam hauled in Ryan’s heave and walked into the end zone for a crucial touchdown to get the Hawks back in the game.

After the Hawks got on the scoreboard, the teams traded punts on their subsequent drives, and Green Bay began the fourth quarter with the ball deep in their own territory. But a 32-yard run by James Starks on the first play of the fourth set the Packers up in Seattle territory with a chance to add to their lead. The Seahawks defense bent, but did not break and forced Green Bay to settle for another Mason Crosby field goal, which extended their lead to 12, 19-7 with just less than 11 minutes remaining in regulation.

On the ensuing drive, the Seattle offense found a rhythm they’d been lacking all day and marched into Packers territory. But on the first play from the other side of the 50, Wilson was sacked for a loss of five yards back to the 50 and the drive stalled out at midfield. On 4th-and-15, Wilson pleaded with Carroll to leave the offense on the field, but the Seattle coach trusted his defense, as he has all year long.

Earl and Co. made that decision pay off instantly, as they held the Packers to a quick three-and-out. However, on the first play of Seattle’s next drive, a Wilson pass hit off the hands of Jermaine Kearse and was intercepted by Morgan Burnett, who slid down near midfield with just over five minutes remaining and the Packers holding a two-possession lead.

Looking to run out the clock, Green Bay ran three running plays and gave up four yards of ground on the series. But they forced Seattle to use two of their timeouts and ran more than a minute off the clock before punting back to the Hawks with under four minutes to go.

In a 12-point hole with time running out, the Seattle finally started to click on all cylinders. Big plays from Baldwin and Lynch eventually set up a one-yard scoring scramble by Wilson that made it 19-14 with 2:09 to go.

With just one timeout his pocket, Carroll had little choice but to go for the onside kick—and once again, the Seattle special teams unit came through in a big way.

A perfectly placed kick from Steven Hauschka glanced off the facemask of Green Bay tight end Brandon Bostick, and bounced into the hands of Seattle receiver Chris Matthews. The former Kentucky Wildcat, who was in the Canadian Football League just a year ago, went to the ground immediately, ensuring that he secured perhaps the biggest onside kick recovery in Seahawks history.

With the ball near midfield, Wilson immediately sent the Hawks forward with a 15-yard scramble. A short run by Lynch took the game to the two-minute warning and on the other side of hit, Russell Wilson hit his tight end Luke Willson for a first down. With a fresh set of downs and plenty of time remaining, Seattle handed off to Lynch and Beast Mode took the carry 24 yards to the house to give the Seahawks their first lead of the day, 20-19, just 44 seconds after they’d recovered the onside kick.

Holding a tenuous one-point lead, Seattle had no choice but to go for a two-point conversion, and on the the try, Wilson appeared to be dead to rights. After rolling out almost all the way to the right sideline, the quarterback was flushed almost 15 yards behind the line of scrimmage. But before the Packers could bring him to the ground, the Seattle star tossed all the way back across the field to tight end Luke Willson, who caught the ball on the goal line near the left pylon and surged into the end zone to give the Hawks two crucial points and a three-point lead, 22-19.

However remarkable it was that the Hawks had scored 15 points in less than a minute, the quick scoring strike did have a downside, as it gave Green Bay possession with over a minute to work with. Rodgers led the Pack down the field, but the L.O.B. held strong and kept Green Bay out of the red zone. Instead, the Packers settled for Crosby’s fifth field goal, which tied the game at 22 and forced overtime.

Despite watching the lead disappear in the final seconds, Seattle took all the momentum into the extra period and CenturyLink Field that was brimming with playoff energy.

When the Hawks won the toss, the 12s knew: Victory was coming.

Wilson and Co. wasted no time moving the chains twice, the second time on an enormous 35-yard reception by Baldwin, making up for his fumble earlier in the night.

Then, on the very next play, the game came to a fitting end.

All four of Wilson’s interceptions earlier in the game were intended for the same receiver: Jermaine Kearse. But with the game on the line, Seattle’s signal caller audibled into a play that featured Kearse on a post route and went right back to the third-year receiver, who grew up in nearby Lakewood.

Wilson’s pass down the middle of the field hit Kearse in stride 35 yards down the field and the receiver who was having the roughest game of his career hauled in the the game-winning pass, thrown by the quarterback who was having perhaps the worst game of his career, in tight coverage to send Seattle back to the Super Bowl.

The ending, as Earl, Kam Chancellor and others explained, was the epitome of Seattle Seahawks football.

“He’s a winner,” Earl said of his quarterback, Wilson. “You saw all the bad plays, but he overcame that. Just like we did. We had injuries, my shoulder — we’re warriors, man, we love what we do.”

NEXT UP

The battered and bruised Seahawks will get a much-needed week of rest before defending their Super Bowl crown on Feb. 1 against the New England Patriots at at University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona.

Seattle heads to the Super Bowl with the top-ranked defense for the second year in a row, a remarkable accomplishment. The last team to reach consecutive Super Bowls was Brady and the Patriots, who did so a decade ago.

New England was the AFC’s No. 1 seed, and they too used home-field advantage to make it to the World Championship game, first topping the Baltimore Ravens 35-31 last week before drubbing the Indianapolis Colts 45-7 in the AFC title game on Sunday night.

The Hawks and Pats have only played each other once since Earl was drafted back in 2010, and that was two seasons ago in Seattle.

In that game, which the Seahawks won 24-23, Earl and Sherman each picked off Tom Brady once, and Seattle mounted yet another impressive comeback. New England held a 23-10 lead with eight minutes left, but the Seahawks put up 14 points and shut out Brady for the rest of the game to earn the win. The rematch comes with the stakes quite a bit higher.

Super Bowl XLIX is scheduled for a 6:30 p.m. ET kickoff on Sunday, February 1 and can be seen nationwide on NBC.

RELATED LINKS

• Seahawks cap epic comeback with overtime win in Seattle (ESPN, January 18, 2015)
• Earl Thomas postgame interview (ESPN, January 18, 2015)
• Earl Thomas and Richard Sherman expect to play in Super Bowl (ESPN, January 18, 2015)
• Early Super Bowl preview (NFL.com)
• Patriots dynasty tries to stop up-and-coming Seahawks dynasty (USA Today, January 19, 2015)
• The Seahawks never stopped believing (Rolling Stone, January 19, 2015)
• Uh-oh: Richard Sherman, Earl Thomas ailing after win (NY Post, Jan. 18, 2015)
• Seahawks injury update—Sherman, Thomas say they’ll play (Seattle Times, Jan. 18, 2015)
• Richard Sherman, Earl Thomas play through pain, vow to play in Super Bowl (The News Tribune, Jan. 18, 2015)
• Sherman, Thomas: We’ll play in SB (ESPN, Jan. 18, 2015)