Ted Zahn is a Seattle Seahawks fan stuck in the heart of Green Bay Packers country. He loves everything about Wisconsin except the Packers. A member of the Field Gulls staff since 2023, he specializes in Seahawks history and opinion pieces.
This will be a weekly article series throughout the season looking back on what happened for the Seattle Seahawks 40, 30, 20, and 10 years ago this week.
Well, I always knew this day would come as we couldn't avoid it forever. Up until this point, I've never rewatched Super Bowl 49 against the New England Patriots nor even looked at a box score. Just thinking about this game and the eventual ramifications still makes me sick to my stomach to this day. Maybe this will be therapeutic?
Doubtful, but here we go anyway.
One thing I want to point out is how injured the Seattle Seahawks secondary was before the game even kicked off. Earl Thomas had dislocated his shoulder and was playing with a harness. Richard Sherman damaged elbow ligaments in the NFC Championship game against the Green Bay Packers. Then, just two days before Super Bowl 49, Kam Chancellor was injured in the second-to-last play of practice, sustaining a torn MCL and deep bone bruise in his knee. Three quarters of the Legion of Boom was severely compromised.
And it would get even worse early on in the contest at University of Phoenix Stadium, a harbinger of things to come at that venue. The Patriots got the ball first and gained a few yards before punting to the Seahawks who went 3-and-out. New England had the ball again and drove down to the SEA 6 before Tom Brady was picked off by Jeremy Lane on the goal line. Lane, Seattle's excellent nickel corner, was injured on the return both tearing his ACL and breaking his wrist. There goes a key member of the secondary along with the host of injuries that the others were playing through.
Seattle managed a first down before punting back to the Patriots who marched down the field, finishing with an 11-yard TD pass from Tom Brady to Brandon LaFell for the 7-0 lead about 5 minutes into the 2nd Quarter. Both teams went 3-and-out on their next drives, as Seattle took over on offense at their own 30. They were still sputtering a bit, garnering only short gains until Russell Wilson found Chris Matthews for a 44-yard gain. That gave the offense the spark they needed and 3 plays later, Marshawn Lynch rumbled into the end zone from 3 yards out to tie the game at 7-7. Tom Brady wasn't fazed, however, and he led another scoring drive culminating in a 22-yard TD pass to Rob Gronkowski for the 14-7 lead. Seattle got the ball back with 36 seconds left before halftime. Maybe they would play for the field goal? Nope. With chunk plays coming from unexpected players like Robert Turbin and Ricardo Lockett (aided by a facemask penalty), the Seahawks had the ball at the NE 11 with 6 seconds left. That was just enough time for Russ to find Chris Matthews for the 11-yard TD to knot the game at 14-14 at the break.
The Seahawks took the first drive of the 2nd Half down into the Patriots red zone, helped along once again by a long Chris Matthews catch of 45 yards, but the drive stalled and they settled for a 27-yard FG and their first lead of the game at 17-14. Bobby Wagner picked off Brady on the next drive, however, Cliff Avril was injured on the play. He entered concussion protocol and never returned to the game, another huge blow to an already beat up defense. Seattle started in New England territory and drove right down the field with Russ finding Doug Baldwin for a 3-yard TD and an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for pretending to drop a deuce on the ball.
Unfortunately, that was not the only sh-ty thing to happen to the Seahawks as the game would continue.
The teams went on a punting spree with the next notable drive coming in the hands of Tom Brady beginning on the NE 32 with 12:10 remaining in the game and Seattle still holding a 24-14 lead. The drive actually started off well with an 8-yard sack by Bruce Irvin on 1st down. Then, Brady did Brady things as he found Julian Edelman for two separate 21-yard catches on the drive that would eventually end up in the end zone with a 4-yard TD pass from Brady to Danny Amendola to make the score 24-21. Let's get back to Edelman because he was smacked by Kam Chancellor on one of those receptions and was clearly concussed on the field. Did they take him out of the game to evaluate him similar to Cliff Avril? Nope. Do I believe he would've been let back into the game? Absolutely not.
Why is that important? Well, after Seattle went 3-and-out, Brady took over on offense again with 6:52 left in the game at his own 36 yard line. Again, he led them right down the field and threw a 3-yard TD pass to - guess who - Julian Edelman as the Patriots went ahead 28-24 with 2:06 left in the game. The Seahawks still had life and plenty of time. The drive got off to a good start with a 31-yard pass from Wilson to Beast Mode on the first play. Seattle converted another 3rd down with an 11-yard catch by Ricardo Lockette to put the ball at the Patriots 38. Then, came what likely would be remembered as one of the best catches in Super Bowl history had the game turned out a different way. Russ threw a deep shot to Jermaine Kearse who, after a few deflections, ended up catching the ball while lying on the ground and got up attempting to score before he was pushed out at the NE 5 yard line.
That would be important, folks.
It was 1st and Goal from the 5 with 1:06 left and Seattle was down to their final timeout. They ran the ball with Beast Mode who was barely tripped up at the 1. New England surprisingly didn't take a timeout and the clock was still running.
Now, here's where I interject with my own thoughts and feelings. It's 2nd down, the clock is running, and Seattle has only 1 timeout left. They're on the 1 yard line, but if they run the ball and don't get it there goes the last timeout. Then, you're almost certainly passing on 3rd down. Here, the Patriots brought in their goal line package, so it made sense to throw the ball and preserve the timeout where you could run it on back-to-back plays if need be. I agree with that logic. What I don't agree with was the type of throw that was called nor the personnel in the game at that point. If you want to throw it to Doug in a pivotal situation, I'm all for it. No offense, Ricardo Lockette.
We all know what happened. Brandon Browner recognized the play from the start and blew up the attempted pick by Jermaine Kearse which allowed Malcolm Butler to break on the ball and pick it off. The players were shell shocked and so were we, as fans. The game ended with some fighting and Bruce Irvin was thrown out of the game.
Russell Wilson was 12/21 for 247 yards, 2 TD, and 1 game-defining INT. Marshawn Lynch had 24 carries for 102 yards and 1 TD. Chris Matthews came out of nowhere with 4 catches for 109 yards and 1 TD.
Bobby Wagner and Jeremy Lane each had 1 INT. Bruce Irvin had 1.0 sack, which was all the defense could muster on Tom Brady
Yeah, so that wasn't cathartic for me at all. I felt physically sick after watching that game for a few days and even just writing this article is raising my blood pressure. This game for all intents and purposes broke the Seahawks and caused irreparable rifts between players and coaches. Had they won the game, they very well could have kept the train rolling and dominated the 2010's.
As such, it's a painful memory that will probably never heal. I want to thank all of you for reading these articles throughout the season. I hope you've enjoyed them and intend to continue them next season if the demand is there, which will be the 20 year anniversary of the 2005 Seahawks. At least they won't have a soul-crushing moment to write about like we had this year with the 2014 squad, right?