In the navy blue corner were the Seattle
Seahawks, the stingiest defence in the league, in terms of points, yards, and
passing yards conceded. In the white corner (as they were wearing their away
strips) were the New England Patriots, led by quarterback Tom Brady, who along
with coach Bill Belichick was making his sixth appearance in the Big Dance. The
bookmakers in Las Vegas couldn’t separate them going into the match, and we
were in for one of the all-time greatest Super Bowls.
Seattle kicked off, and the first quarter
was a scoreless affair in which the two teams traded early punts before the
Patriots spent most of the second half of the quarter in possession, only for
Brady to miscue a pass and for Seattle back Jeremy Lane to make the
interception.
The early stages of the second quarter saw
more of the same, before Brady threw an eleven-yard touchdown pass to Brandon
LaFell in the sixth minute. A seventy-yard Seahawks drive then levelled the
scores, Marshawn Lynch needing three bites of the cherry to rush the ball over
the line. With thirty-one seconds remaining, an eighty-yard Patriots drive was
converted, and the NFC champions looked like replying with a field goal before
opting instead for a throw. With two seconds to go, scores were tied at 14-14,
and one couldn’t wait for Katy Perry to get on with her halftime performance so
we could enjoy the second half of this magnificent tussle.
The third quarter saw the Cascadians take a
ten-point lead. Their first drive led to a field goal, but they pressed forward
again after intercepting the football on the halfway line. Forty-seven yards
later, and with under five minutes remaining in the period, quarterback Russell
Wilson only needed a short pass to find wide receiver Doug Baldwin. The
Patriots would need to mount the largest fourth-quarter comeback in the history
of the event in order to take home the hallowed Vince Lombardi Trophy.
The end of the third quarter and the start
of the fourth were a punter’s delight as both teams took turns at failing to
convert on the third down. Les bostoniens
had the first real chances of the quarter; Brady unsuccessfully tried to find
his wide receivers LaFell and Julian Edelman in the end zone before eventually
hitting Danny Amendola in the eighth minute. Quickly regaining possession, they
took less than six minutes to find another touchdown, this time through
Edelman, and with two minutes left, the beaneaters were ahead 28-24.
The Seahawks needed to advance the ball
eighty yards in those two minutes. Another solid run from Lynch got them to
within fifty, but Wilson’s next few passes were incomplete. Desperately needing
some yardage, he scoped out wide receiver Jermaine Kearse. Kearse and his
opponent went for the ball, Kearse got a hand to it, fell down, and caught it
on the third attempt after it had bounced off each of his thighs in succession.
With this, Seattle had possession five yards from goal, and they could taste
victory.
The Wilson-Lynch combination was once again
the preferred route to the end zone, but the latter was tackled within a yard
of the line. And then it happened. Wilson threw to Ricardo Lockette on the goal
line, but the Patriots’ cornerback Malcolm Butler hip-and-shouldered him out of
the way, intercepting with twenty seconds remaining. After all the hype about
Brady, it would be an undrafted, community college-educated rookie from
Vicksburg, Mississippi who would prove the match-winner.
There was still some business to attend to
before the Patriots could ceremonially tip the Gatorade bucket over Belichick’s
head. With the line of scrimmage set a yard from the Patriots’ goal line, Brady
had to advance it out of the end zone lest he concede a safety. The
Washingtonians’ eagerness got the better of them, however, and for moving
forward before the ball was snapped they conceded a penalty, ensuring that
Brady needed only to take a kneel on the last play to run the clock down. The
first attempt to run that play witnessed a good old-fashioned all-in brawl, as
both sides traded blows but the officials saw fit to penalise Seattle for its instigation.
After an outstanding season in which they emerged victorious in the gruelling
defensive struggle that is the NFC West, the Seahawks went home empty-handed,
while Brady took his rightful place in the annals of American sport, six times
a Super Bowl quarterback, four times a world champion, and three times the Most
Valuable Player in this, the greatest show on earth.
Seattle 24 – New England
28
Touchdowns: Marshawn Lynch 13’ Q2; Chris Matthews
15’ Q2; Doug Baldwin 11’ Q3 (Sea.); Brandon LaFell 6’ Q2; Rob Gronkowski 15’ Q2;
Danny Amendola 8’ Q4; Julian Edelman 13’ Q4 (N. E.)
PATs: Steven Hauschka 3/3 (Sea.); Stephen
Gostkowski 4/4 (N. E.)
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