SEATTLE — It would have been interesting to see the Seattle Seahawks defense take the field one more time.
Their last two series couldn’t have been more opposite, and it would have been intriguing to see which persona showed up for overtime.
But the offense took the overtime kickoff and drove for the game-winning touchdown in a 26-20 NFL victory over Denver, so we’ll never know.
The overall sentiment in the Seattle locker room after Sunday’s game at CenturyLink Field was that the Seahawks defense played well. After all, they held the Broncos, who last season set an NFL record for points scored, to 20 points.
And the Seahawks won the game.
“I thought the guys played fantastic,” Seattle head coach Pete Carroll said of his defense. “I mean, that is a great, great offense and a great quarterback and a great system. I loved the way our guys matched it up today.”
But at the end of regulation, with no timeouts available, Denver (2-1) drove 80 yards in six plays and 41 seconds to score a touchdown and then added a two-point conversion to tie the score at 20 with 18 seconds left.
It’s the sort of thing that should not happen, especially when you are the defending Super Bowl champions and you pride yourself on defense, even if the quarterback is Peyton Manning.
“(I am) a little bit stunned that we let it happen so easy,” Carroll said. “That was lousy.”
On the previous series, with Seattle trying to protect a 17-12 lead, safety Kam Chancellor intercepted Manning at the Seattle 13-yard line and returned it 52 yards to the Denver 35 line with 2:12 left in regulation.
On third-and-11 from the Seattle 24, Chancellor dropped deep and quickly into the right seam and was able to leap high enough to pick off a ball intended for Denver wide receiver Wes Welker, who was trying to find open space between Chancellor and the deep coverage.
“What I saw was a route that I was familiar with,” said Chancellor, who also intercepted Manning in the Super Bowl in February. “I saw Peyton’s eyes. I saw him look right at it. I broke back, jumped at it and caught the ball.”
He said he thought he played the coverage so well that he was a little surprised that Manning tried to make that throw.
“I was. I was right there in position to make the play,” Chancellor said. “But he is a great quarterback, and he makes risky plays sometimes, and sometimes you make them and sometimes you don’t. That is a part of being great, high risk, high reward.”
After Chancellor’s long return, the Seahawks (2-1) got a first down, forced the Broncos to burn all their timeouts, and kicked a field goal to make the score 20-12 with 59 seconds left.
For all the world it felt like the game was over.
“We thought we had the game won,” Carroll said, “But those guys came out and threw just a championship drive.”
Manning shredded the Seattle defense, covering 80 yards on only three completed passes. The two biggest were a 42-yard strike to wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders and the touchdown pass, a 26-yard throw to tight end Jacob Tamme.
Both went down the left sideline, and Seattle defenders said after the game that both routes were the same, although out of different formations and to different receivers.
“It’s the same play, and we were in the same defense. Same thing,” Seattle cornerback Byron Maxwell said.
With two receivers out to the left, the outside receiver ran a post route toward the middle of the field, trying to draw Maxwell away from the sideline. The slot receiver ran an out-and-up and both times was able to take advantage of a moment’s hesitation by Maxwell to get up the sideline and behind the coverage.
Maxwell said that he had responsibility for the deep outside third on both plays and was supposed to release the corner route to free safety Earl Thomas and get back to the outside.
“I’ve got to get back over to that,” Maxwell said. “It’s really attacking the thirds, and I’ve got to get back over the top.”
Several defenders said those were the only times Denver ran that route in the game, although San Diego had some success with it last week against Seattle.
“On that same drive they ran that play twice,” Thomas said. “We didn’t see that this week at practice. It was something new that they brought to the table. But we have to do a better job of adjusting.
“It’s principle ball. We need to be keyed in to what we need to be keyed in to,” Thomas said. “We’ve just got to get that communicated. But it’s great when you can learn valuable lessons and still win.”
They said the breakdowns had nothing to do with backup nickel corner Josh Thomas being in the game for the injured Marcus Burley. Burley took a hellacious hit from Chancellor on the first play of the series as they converged on Sanders to break up a pass. Burley missed the rest of the series but was not seriously hurt.
Altogether, the Broncos’ final drive was an ugly way for the Seattle defense to finish its day.
But all’s well that ends well.
“That’s why we’re a championship team, because we deal with adversity,” Chancellor said. “We deal with adversity, we always stick together, and we’ve always got each other’s back. That’s why we’re a championship team.”
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