Superbowl Sunday has been and gone for another year and what a day it was. The afternoon involved the usual food grab to stock up on chips (crisps for us English folk) and dips, pizza, chicken and all the good stuff to keep us going through the night. Superbowl Sunday also involves the traditional Superbowl preview game on Madden between myself and the Big Dog Mickey Hogg with the winning team on the game usually winning the main event in real life.
Anyway now onto the game and it is fair to say that this was one of the most anticipated Superbowls of recent times with the two best teams in the league facing off against each other. Both Denver and Seattle were not only the number one seeds in their respective conferences but they were also the number one offence and number one defence.
All day Sunday I was eagerly awaiting kick-off wondering if come the final whistle it would be the ‘Legion of boom’ from Seattle or the ‘Squadron of Scores’ from Denver that would be victorious. It turns out that it was not just me that wanted the game to start but even Joe Namath tried to toss the coin before it had even been called by the away team, luckily the official was on hand for the interception before it hit the ground!
Seattle won the toss and decided to put their defence out on the field first which was a bold statement of intent from Pete Carroll and his Seahawks. You may have noticed that I have been known to overuse the term that a game started off with a bang but in this case it is perfectly justified because on the first snap Peyton Manning walked up to the line to call an audible just as the centre snapped the ball. Peyton watched in horror as the ball went flying over his head into the endzone behind him, luckily it was recovered by Knowshon Moreno meaning only a two point safety score for Seattle.
Following the safety punt from Denver, Seattle took over the ball at their own 36 yard line and within two plays they found themselves in field goal range thanks to a 30 yard end around from Percy Harvin. Harvin has himself spent most of the season injured but I’m sure Seattle fans will agree that his performance in the Superbowl alone was more than worth what they traded for him last offseason but more about that later!
Following the big run from Harvin the Seahawks could only manage a field goal on the drive and it was time for the ‘Legion of Boom’ to take the field once more against the Broncos offense. Thinking of the Seattle defence it is often quite easy to be distracted by everything that Richard Sherman has to say and I think that works in their favour because teams are that focused on the one man you forget that in Earl Thomas III and Kam Chancellor they have two of the best safeties in the game at the moment. For the record they can also hit very hard as Chancellor showed on Demaryius Thomas when he caught a two yard crossing route from Manning on second and seven.
Seattle managed to force a four and out from Denver and following the punt they took over possession deep in their own half again, this time at their 28 yard line. Seattle then proceeded to again drive the ball into field goal range thanks to the running of Marshawn Lynch and a big completion from Russell Wilson to Doug Baldwin for 39 yards before being stopped by a resilient Denver defence.
At this point I have to give a lot of credit to the Denver defence as despite the poor execution from their offence they had kept Seattle to just eight points. On Denver’s next drive came the first of the turnovers as on third and seven, Peyton Manning's pass intended for Julius Thomas was intercepted by Kam Chancellor. It was not looking good for Denver as any further scores would make it very difficult for them to come back from.
Unfortunately for Denver that is exactly what happened as Marshawn Lynch completed Seattle’s drive with a one yard touchdown run making the score 15 - 0 with just over 12 minutes left to go in the half.
On the next drive just when it looked as though Denver were finally moving the ball well and had managed to get it into the Seattle half things went from bad to worse. On third and thirteen from the Seattle 35 yard line, Peyton dropped back to throw and just as he was bringing his arm forwarded it was struck by Cliff Avril and the ball floated nicely into the hands of Seattle linebacker Malcolm Smith who took it back 69 yards for a pick six, it was now 22 - 0 to Seattle and that is how they went into halftime.
I bet the Denver fans have never been more excited to see Bruno Mars as it meant that their team was taking a break from getting one hell of a beating! As far as halftime shows go this was definitely another good one, you can judge for yourselves of course by checking it out below:
22 - 0 down at halftime is never a good score and as was pointed out to me last night, no team has ever overturned more than a ten point deficit to win the superbowl. To be fair to Denver though they were the number one offence and if anyone could get three unanswered scores to tie the game it would be them surely?
Unfortunately the second half started just as badly for the Broncos as Percy Harvin returned the kickoff 87 yards for a touchdown once again showing his explosiveness. At this point the game was over and although there was one touchdown scored by Denver by the end of the game it was Seattle who went on to win 43 - 8. The margin of victory was 35 points and I am sure that even the most hardcore of Seattle fans did not see that coming.
To catch up on the remaining scorers and all of the game highlights please click on the picture below:
This was certainly the most one sided Superbowl in a long time and full credit has to go to the ‘Legion of Boom’ and their entire coaching staff for a faultless execution on the biggest stage of them all. The only negative from Seattle’s point of view was the injury to Richard Sherman who left the game in the fourth quarter with a high ankle sprain. We do wish him a speedy recovery.
Well folks that wraps it up for ‘The Lo Down’ for another season but we do hope you check out our upcoming episodes of ‘Spitball’ in which we review the Superbowl and there will also be a special season review.
Not only do you have ‘Spitball’ to keep you occupied in the offseason but don’t forget to check out the Legends Football League (LFL) which starts again in the US in April. Finally we also now have a dedicated LFL podcast called ‘Legends Talk’ with the first episode landing in the ‘Legends Lounge’ at the beginning of March. Trust me you don’t want to miss it!!
Until next time football fans, take care, stay safe and as always ‘Thanks for Stopping By’.