MINNEAPOLIS — Who said the cold wouldn’t matter?
“Personally, I underestimated it,” Seahawks leading receiver and Florida native Doug Baldwin said following Seattle’s grinding, 10-9 win over Minnesota Sunday in the NFC wild-card playoffs.
They played Sunday’s game with the temperature 6 below zero and a wind chill of minus-25.
It was the third-coldest game in the history of the NFL — which has been around since 1920. Almost none of the 52,090 heartiest souls on Earth sat on the aluminum bleachers at the University of Minnesota’s stadium. They stood, many on the cardboard and foam authorities suggested they bring to stand on in an attempt to keep their feet from presumably falling off.
“I was able to push through it, but it was a lot tougher than I thought it would be,” said Baldwin, who scored the game’s only touchdown in the fourth quarter on a 4-yard pass from Russell Wilson. “We had to focus on it.”
It took only minutes in Minnesota’s first frigid air of this winter before ears were stinging then numb. So the Seahawks’ equipment staff taped the helmet openings. Under the helmets, most players wore ski-like masks. It made them appear more equipped for a day at Crystal Mountain resort than an NFL playoff game.
Some made statements — manhood ones, not fashion — by defiantly going sleeveless. Those included: running back Fred Jackson, who played nine years in Buffalo, rookie wide receiver Tyler Lockett, right guard J.R. Sweezy, safety Kam Chancellor and linebackers K.J. Wright, Bobby Wagner and Bruce Irvin (who had said he couldn’t be a punk and wear sleeves and that he would rag any teammate that did).
Defensive backs Earl Thomas and Richard Sherman wore single arm sleeves, more the remnants of arm and shoulder injuries dating to last season than protectants from the cold.
Wilson didn’t wear the gloves his Minnesota quarterbacking counterpart Teddy Bridgewater did. He, like most backs and receivers, had a muffler-like pocket around his waist under his jersey that Wilson used between plays and right up to each snap. He said the cold didn’t bother his throwing; he was 13 for 26, far below his team-record completion rate of 68.1 percent in the regular season. He said one pass that fluttered to Baldwin who’d been wide open at the goal line that ended up broken up was affected by him getting nudged from behind by a Viking.
Wilson said the cold did affect his ability to change plays at the line. He said he couldn’t yell to teammates because his mouth was frozen.
The extreme cold was why head coach Pete Carroll decided not to try a 48-yard field goal on fourth and 13 from the Vikings 30 in the second quarter with Minnesota leading 3-0. He said the pregame determined Steven Hauschka was unlikely to make it from that far at that, open end of the field, the side closer to the frozen-over Mississippi River nearby. Carroll chose to pass instead, and Fred Jackson caught a short throw then got tackled well short of the first-down line.
Baldwin and cornerback DeShawn Shead said their fingers turning numb was the biggest issue. That didn’t prevent Baldwin from making the most ridiculous catch of this Seahawks season and his five-year career.
Wilson sent one of his many high throws over the middle on the third play of the third quarter. Baldwin leaped and snared the ball with his one, outstretched, right hand — with the tips of his middle three fingers, in fact — for a 17-yard gain.
“The best catch I’ve ever seen,” Wilson said.
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