Championship Sunday winners and losers: Seahawks WRs find OT redemption
Championship Sunday winners
Dynasty talk: The Patriots will either add to the Tom Brady/Bill Belichick legacy with their fourth Super Bowl victory in the last 14 seasons, or the Seahawks will stake a solid claim as this decade's dynasty with the league's first Super Bowl repeat in 10 years (last done by the Pats in Super Bowl XXXIX).
Seahawks special teams: The 19-yard TD pass from P Jon Ryan (an ex-Packer) to eligible T Garry Gilliam on a fake field goal broke the ice for Seattle's first points Sunday in the third quarter. Later, Chris Matthews' recovery of Steven Hauschka's onside kick with 2:07 to go put the Seahawks in position to score their first go-ahead TD of the game 42 seconds later.
More Brady/Belichick: They continue to make history together. Belichick notched his 21st postseason victory, breaking a tie with Cowboys legend Tom Landry for the most ever among NFL coaches. (And kudos to Belichick's "We're on to Seattle" comment during the postgame celebration. What a comic.) Brady, who broke Peyton Manning's career mark for playoff passing yards Sunday, is again in position to tie fellow quarterbacks Joe Montana and Terry Bradshaw with his fourth Super Bowl ring.
Loving the linemen: Gilliam wasn't the only "fat guy" to score Sunday. Patriots LT Nate Solder, who also played some tight end while at the University of Colorado, caught a 16-yard TD from Brady on a tackle-eligible play. It was Solder's first NFL catch.
CenturyLink Field's juju: It appeared for most of Sunday that the Packers would break Seattle's home-field hex. Instead, after another improbable rally, the Seahawks are 26-2 in their building since Russell Wilson joined them in 2012. The team has not lost a playoff game in Seattle since the 2004 season.
Marshawn Lynch: Beast Mode put the Seattle offense on his back in the second half, running for a playoff career-high 157 yards, including a 24-yard TD run with 1:25 left in the game that nearly gave the Seahawks a victory in regulation. Lynch usually has his best games in the spotlight, averaging 119 yards in five postseason games at CenturyLink Field with five total TDs.
Richard Sherman: The all-pro cornerback's end-zone interception put out Seattle's first fire after the Packers opened the game with an efficient drive into Seahawks territory. But more impressive, Sherman gutted out the second half in obvious pain after enduring an injury to his left elbow that rendered him a one-handed defender, often against Pro Bowl WR Jordy Nelson.
Darrelle Revis: The longtime Jets star and one of the greatest players of this generation is headed to his first Super Bowl in a Patriots uniform. Revis, who picked off Colts QB Andrew Luck on Sunday, is following a similar path to the big game previously taken by Corey Dillon, Randy Moss and Chad Ochocinco, stars who reached the big game with New England after years of futility with their original clubs.
Seahawks defense:
It was consistently put in bad positions by the Seattle offense but only surrendered one touchdown amid the Packers' three forays into the red zone. The Seahawks' bid to be ranked among the greatest defenses in NFL history remains alive and well.
Packers defense: Five sacks? Five takeaways? A first-half shutout? This unit more than held up its end of the bargain.
LeGarrette Blount: He's officially a Colts killer. Blount trampled over Indianapolis for 130 yards and three TDs on Sunday, just 53 weeks after he bounced the Colts from the 2013 divisional round with 166 yards and four scores. Blount's November tantrum, which got him cut by the Steelers, worked out in his favor rather nicely.
Seahawks' 'pedestrian' WRs in OT: Undrafted wideouts Doug Baldwin and Jermaine Kearse, who have bristled at the notion they represent a chink in Seattle's armor as "pedestrian" players, combined for three catches and 80 yards in overtime, culminating with Kearse's game-winning 35-yard TD grab from Russell Wilson. Kearse also caught what proved to be the clinching touchdown (also from 35 yards) in last year's NFC Championship Game win over the 49ers. The tandem ended up looking perfectly capable of bringing home another pair of Super Bowl rings.
Championship Sunday losers
Seahawks 'pedestrian' WRs in regulation: Baldwin and Kearse were clearly a big part of the problem as Seattle muddled through much of Sunday's game. Kearse was targeted six times (his only catch was the OT score), and two of Wilson's passes deflected off his hands into the waiting arms of Green Bay defenders. Meanwhile, Baldwin fumbled away a kickoff in the first half and dropped a wide-open pass in the fourth quarter as the Seahawks were trying to dig out of a 19-7 hole. For a while, Seattle didn't look too wise after letting WRs Golden Tate and Percy Harvin leave in the past year.
Andrew Luck: He eschews the comparisons, but Luck continues to follow in many of the paths blazed by Colts predecessor Peyton Manning, who also lost his first AFC Championship Game appearance to the Patriots in Foxborough. Luck fell to 0-4 all-time against New England after the most forgettable performance of his young career (his 23.0 passer rating Sunday was easily the worst in his three NFL seasons). Still, Luck and the Colts have gone one step further in the playoffs every year since 2012 — meaning he's on track to take them to the Super Bowl next year and win it all after the 2016 season!
Mike McCarthy: Go big or go home, right? But the Packers' ninth-year coach settled for two field goals in the first quarter after Green Bay twice stalled on the Seattle 1-yard line after a pair of gift turnovers. Little doubt McCarthy will replay this game for the rest of his life after opting to play conservatively with the league's No. 1 scoring offense.
Reggie Wayne: He's only classified in this "loser" column after a quiet performance Sunday (two targets, zero catches), which saw him just miss reaching the Super Bowl for the third time in his remarkable 14-year career. Battered and slowing at age 36, we may have seen Wayne in football pads for the last time but will almost surely see him in a gold jacket a few years from now.
Brandon Bostick: The inability of the Packers' second-year tight end to corral Seattle's on-side kick in the fourth quarter probably proved to be Green Bay's biggest miscue on a day when it couldn't hold a 12-point fourth-quarter lead.
Colts defense: It wasn't the "Monster" coach Chuck Pagano envisioned against New England this season. Indianapolis allowed 87 points and 423 rushing yards in two losses to the Patriots over the past two months. Clearly the Colts aren't ready to take the Patriots' lunch money yet.
'Elite' quarterbacking: Luck, Wilson and Rodgers, the presumed league MVP, combined for two TD passes and eight INTs Sunday. Apparently — unless your name is Brady — it's not always a quarterback-driven league, even on one of the NFL's biggest stages.
Adam Vinatieri: The formerly beloved Patriot, now treated as a villain at Gillette Stadium while sporting a Colts jersey, missed just one field goal during the 2014 regular season. But he misfired Sunday, his second wayward FG try in postseason, in what was an unhappy homecoming to his first NFL home. Vinatieri's bid for a record-tying fifth Super Bowl ring fell two wins short.
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