SEATTLE — Amidst the pandemonium that followed one of the most stunning finishes in NFL playoff history, Michael Bennett rode a bike.
More specifically, the Seattle Seahawks’ defensive end commandeered a Seattle Police Department mountain bike and took it on a victory lap around CenturyLink Field following his team’s 28-22 overtime victory over the Green Bay Packers in the NFC championship game. And that moment — a 274-pound defensive lineman cruising around on a cop’s bike while confetti rained down on his teammates — was only about the 10th weirdest thing that had occurred on that field in the last half hour.
The Seahawks turned the ball over five times on Sunday; they were down 16-0 at halftime. And when they got the ball with 3:52 left in the fourth quarter, their Super Bowl hopes rested on getting two touchdowns out of an offense that so far had produced drives ending with: interception, punt, punt, interception, interception, end of half, punt, touchdown, punt, punt, interception.
Needless to say, things weren’t going well.
Yet in what will go down as one of the most memorable games in Seattle sports history, the Seahawks got the first touchdown they needed. Then Chris Matthews, a former CFL receiver who most casual fans had probably never heard of before Sunday, recovered the ensuing onside kick to keep hope alive. Marshawn Lynch gave Seattle the lead with a 24-yard touchdown run.
But of course on this crazy afternoon when no lead was safe, Aaron Rodgers answered with a 1 minute, 11 second drive that put the Packers in range for the game-tying field goal.
In overtime, the quarterback who had thrown four interceptions won the game by throwing two brilliant passes, the second of them a 35-yard touchdown to the receiver who up to that point had been targeted five times, resulting in four interceptions, two of which hit off his hands. In a vacuum that pass from Russell Wilson to Jermaine Kearse would have gone down in Seahawks lore as an all-time great, but considering the day both had been having up to that point, it completely defied logic.
“That’s the best game I’ve ever been in for sure,” Wilson said. “I think that may be one of the best games in NFL history. Just to be able to come back in the playoffs like that and in overtime; I can’t see a much better game than that.”
Just how crazy was this game? Wilson, a player teammates have jokingly called a robot for his never-wavering demeanor, broke down in tears during a postgame TV interview. He then stood on a stage and spoke with emotion he rarely, if ever, has shown in his Seahawks career.
“We just kept believing,” Wilson said. “There’s no doubt on this team. When we were 3-3, there was no doubt. When we were 6-4, there was no doubt. When the score was whatever the score was and we needed two touchdowns, there was no doubt.”
Just how crazy was this game? The infamous “Fail Mary” game that ended the referee work stoppage is now just the second-wildest finish between Green Bay and Seattle in this stadium.
“It’s a great memory,” Seahawks safety Earl Thomas said of the improbable finish. “I’ll never forget the bad of this game, and of course the good. … I’m enjoying this way better than last year. Especially after today.”
Just how crazy was this game? If not for a touchdown pass from a punter to a backup offensive tackle, the Seahawks don’t win. If not for a pass on a two-point conversion that had the hang time of a punt, the Seahawks don’t win. If not for an onside kick going right through the hands of Packers tight end Brandon Bostick and off his helmet to Matthews, the Seahawks don’t win.
“It’s not a designed play, it’s a play Russell made,” tight end Luke Willson said of his catch on the two-point conversion. “If we run that play call 100 times, that might happen once. It was an odd time for that one to happen, but it worked. It was pretty wild, but so was the whole game.”
The Seahawks have found a lot of ways to win games in recent years, and, “This week we used a fake field goal and have a whirly bird two-pointer throw in the air,” Willson said. “We’ve got a lot of playmakers in this team.”
The Seahawks might have matched the Mariners’ epic 1995 ALDS Game 5 win for most thrilling, “I can’t believe that just happened” games in Seattle history. And this victory was also the perfect metaphor for their season.
The Seahawks were a team that looked to be down-and-out after a 3-3 start and the stunning Percy Harvin trade; a team that was 6-4 and three games out of first place in November; a team that very much had to get over a Super Bowl hangover. So why not a little bit more — OK a lot more — adversity standing between them an a Super Bowl.
“It’s kind of a microcosm of our whole season,” cornerback Richard Sherman said. “It always seems like we’re down and out and everything done, we’re all out, there’s no way to turn it around, then we find a way to turn it around.”
Herald Columnist John Boyle: jboyle@heraldnet.com
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