The Seahawks’ history in conference championship games?
It’s on their side.
Three has been their magic number in the NFC. Their perfection, in fact.
Sunday’s NFC title game against the Los Angeles Rams at Lumen (used to be Qwest, used to be CenturyLink) Field (3:30 p.m., FOX television, channel 13 locally) will be the fifth time in the 50-year history of Seattle’s NFL franchise it has played for a conference championship. Four have been since 2002, the season the Seahawks moved from the AFC they had played in since 1977.
All three of their previous times in the NFC title game, the Seahawks were as they are now: The conference’s top seed having won their first playoff game in the division round, at home.
Seattle is 3-0 all-time in the NFC championship games, all at home. Those are the three times the franchise has played in the Super Bowl.
I’ve covered each of Seattle’s NFC title games. But, no, I’m not so old to have covered their first conference championship, way back in the AFC 42 years ago.
Here is the Seahawks’ history in conference title games:
Jan. 8, 1984: Raiders 30, Seahawks 14
Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum
On Christmas Eve 1983, coach Chuck Knox’s Seahawks, then in the AFC, smashed John Elway and the Denver Broncos 31-7 in the Kingdome in the wild-card round for the first victory in the eight-year-old franchise’s history. The next week Seattle went into Miami’s Orange Bowl on New Year’s Eve as an 8-point underdog in the divisional round and upset Dan Marino’s Dolphins in the South Florida rain.
That set up the AFC title game in L.A. against Jim Plunkett, Marcus Allen and the Raiders.
It wasn’t close.
The Raiders took a 20-0 lead before halftime. It got to 27-0 in the third quarter. The Seahawks didn’t score until 19 minutes remained in the game, on a pass from Jim Zorn to Dan Doornink. The Raiders out-gained Seattle 401 yards to 167.
Dave Krieg, who had outplayed the mighty Marino in Miami the week before, completed just 3 of 9 passes with three interceptions and three sacks. Knox benched him for Jim Zorn, who threw two more interceptions. Curt Warner, the Seahawks’ 1,449-yard rusher during the regular season, had just 26 yards on 11 carries as Seattle fell behind by so much so quickly Knox had to abandon his beloved running game.
The Raiders went on to win Super Bowl 18 two weeks later over Washington, 38-9.
It would be 22 years before the Seahawks would get back to a conference title game.
Jan. 22, 2006: Seahawks 34, Panthers 14
Qwest Field
Coach Mike Holmgren’s 2005 Seahawks went a franchise-record 13-3 behind running back Shaun Alexander. He was the league’s most valuable player that season. Alexander was concussed in the divisional-playoff win at home over Washington eight days before. He was cleared to play in the first conference title played in Seattle.
Alexander’s return was thunderous. He steamrolled through the fifth-seeded Panthers for 132 yards on 34 carries, with two touchdowns. When he scored his first TD, in the first minute of the second quarter, the Seahawks led 17-0.
Matt Hasselbeck completed 20 of 28 passes for 212 yards, with touchdowns to Jerramy Stevens and Darrell Jackson.
The defense held Carolina to 212 total yards. Lofa Tatupu, Marquand Manuel and Michael Boulware each intercepted passes from Jake Delhomme. Seattle forced four turnovers and didn’t commit one.
The Seahawks advanced to their first Super Bowl, Super Bowl 40 two weeks later in Detroit. That day, the offense stalled amid controversial penalties. Pittsburgh took advantage of Manuel being injured at safety during the game for a trick-pass touchdown on his replacement, practice-squad call-up Etric Pruitt. And the Steelers beat the Seahawks 21-10 for the NFL title that still eluded Seattle.
Jan. 19, 2014: Seahawks 23, 49ers 17
CenturyLink Field
To this day, the game that’s remembered for Sherman’s Tip.
Coach Jim Harbaugh’s fifth-seeded 49ers took a 10-0 lead early. Marshawn Lynch, who would finish this title game with 109 yards rushing, cut left then high-kicked right for a 40-yard touchdown on third and 1 to tie the game in the third quarter.
And it was on.
The 49ers re-took the lead later in the third. The Seahawks took it back 1:16 into the fourth quarter, on Russell Wilson’s touchdown pass to Jermaine Kearse. Steven Hauschka added a field goal to put Seattle ahead 23-17.
Then San Francisco began a drive from its own 22-yard line with 3:22 remaining, needing a touchdown to win and go to the Super Bowl. Colin Kaepernick completed 5 of 6 passes to move the Niners into the red zone with 30 seconds left.
With the stadium in SoDo rockin’, Kaepernick threw a pass high for Michael Crabtree into the end zone down the right sideline. It wasn’t high enough. Richard Sherman, Seattle’s 6-foot-3, All-Pro cornerback on the league’s top-ranked defense, leaped to tip Kaepernick’s pass away from Crabtree and back to Seahawks teammate Malcolm Smith, who was arriving late in the play. Smith intercepted Sherman’s tipped ball in the end zone.
The Seahawks went to Super Bowl 48. Sherman famously crowed to Fox Sports’ Erin Andrews on the field in an internationally televised interview minutes after his play.
“I’m the best corner in the game!” Sherman shouted into the microphone and camera. “When you try me with a sorry receiver like Crabtree, that’s the result you’re going to get!”
Two weeks later, Sherman and the Seahawks dominated Peyton Manning and the Denver Broncos 43-8. It remains Seattle’s only Super Bowl championship.
Jan. 18, 2015: Seahawks 28, Packers 22 (OT)
CenturyLink Field
The Seahawks’ repeat Super Bowl appearance came in the most improbable way, in one of the most unfathomable games in Seattle’s history.
Aaron Rodgers, and specifically Green Bay’s defense, took it to the Seahawks for the first 2 1/2 quarters. It was 16-0 Packers deep into the third quarter when punter Jon Ryan knelt to be the holder for a field-goal attempt by Hauschka to try to get Seattle some points, finally.
Except it wasn’t a field goal. Coach Pete Carroll, notoriously averse to trick plays, ordered one with the season on the line. Ryan got up from his holder’s kneel, rolled out and threw a touchdown pass to offensive lineman Garry Gilliam. The stadium rocked.
With 85 seconds left in regulation, Lynch scored on a 24-yard run. That gave Seattle its first lead, 20-19. On the ensuing 2-point conversion attempt, Wilson frantically scrambled back and forth across the field before finally shot-putting a pass. Tight end Luke Willson plucked the ball out of the air just across the goal line. Impossibly, the Seahawks led 22-19.
Rodgers and the Packers rallied to tie the game on a field goal by Mason Crosby with 14 seconds left in regulation to force overtime.
On the first drive of the extra period, Wilson and Jermaine Kearse, the Lakewood High School and former University of Washington standout, caught the Packers in an all-out blitz with no safeties in the deep middle of the field. Wilson’s rainbow throw dropped onto Kearse’s hands just inside the goal line with the Packers defender on his back.
Touchdown. Bedlam. Seahawks win 28-22.
Two weeks later, the Seahawks come within 1 yard of winning their second consecutive Super Bowl.
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