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Super Seahawks win Super Bowl in blowout
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The Seattle Seahawks’ mantra all season was to make each day a championship day.
They made Super Bowl Sunday the best day of all with one of the greatest performances in a National Football League title game — sparked by a defense that ranks among the best ever.
The Seahawks won their first Super Bowl crown in overpowering fashion, punishing Peyton Manning and the Denver Broncos 43-8. That masterful defense, the NFL’s stingiest, never let the five-time Most Valuable Player get going, disarming the highest-scoring offense in league history. “The only way we could say we were the best defense was to take down the best offense,” linebacker Bobby Wagner said.
Seattle (16-3) was too quick, too physical and just too good for Denver, and that was true in all areas. What was hyped as a classic matchup between an unstoppable offense and a miserly defense turned into a rout.
“We been relentless all season,” quarterback Russell Wilson said. “Having that mentality of having a championship day every day. At the end of the day, you want to play your best football and that is what we did today.”
Punctuating Seattle’s dominance were a 69-yard interception return touchdown by linebacker Malcolm Smith to make it 22-0, and Percy Harvin’s sensational 87-yard kickoff runback to open the second half.
Smith was the game’s MVP, the first defender in 11 years to win the award.
When Seattle, up by 29 points, forced a Denver punt early in the third quarter, the 12th Man — and there were legions of them in MetLife Stadium — began chanting “L-O-B, L-O-B.” As in Legion of Boom, the Seahawks hard-hitting defensive secondary line, part of a young team with an average age 26 .
“This is an amazing team. Took us four years to get to this point but they never have taken a step sideways,” coach Pete Carroll said. “These guys would not take anything but winning this ballgame.”
The loss by the Broncos again raised questions about Manning’s ability to win the biggest games. He is 11-12 in the postseason, 1-2 in Super Bowls. After the game, he brushed off questions about his legacy.
“Certainly to finish this way is very disappointing,” he said.
Seattle forced four turnovers; Denver had 26 all season.
The Seahawks looked comfortable and at ease, and not just their defense, which lost All-Pro cornerback Richard Sherman to a high ankle sprain in the fourth quarter.
Wilson, who has an NFL-record 28 wins in his first two pro seasons, including playoffs, had a 23-yard TD pass to Jermaine Kearse late in the third quarter to make it 36-0.
Wilson also hit Doug Baldwin for a 10-yard score in the final period in what was one of the most lopsided Super Bowls. The Seahawks lost in their only previous Super Bowl to Pittsburgh.
The kickoff temperature of 9.4 degree Celsius in East Rutherford, New Jersey, was 10 degrees warmer than the coldest-ever Super Bowl from 1972 in New Orleans, a far cry from fears of bitter cold and snow at the first outdoor Super Bowl in a cold-weather city.
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