Patriots, Seahawks navigated difficult Super Bowl roads
There was a point during the 2014 regular season that envisioning the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks in the Super Bowl seemed like a stretch.
No way the Patriots and Seahawks were supposed to be the last two teams standing for Super Bowl XLIX on Feb. 1 in Glendale, Ariz., after early adversity threatened to derail them.
Remember?
The championship window appeared to slam shut for the Patriots after a 41-14, rout by the Kansas City Chiefs in Week 4 ignited wide-spread assumptions that coach Bill Belichick and quarterback Tom Brady were past their prime.
It all happened weeks after the Patriots traded away guard Logan Mankins to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers Aug. 26. And Brady began the season under siege as the offensive line adjusted without a familiar piece in the line up.
That loss to the Chiefs jump started the 2-2 Patriots into a driven bunch that went on a 10-2 run. Tight end Rob Gronkowski made a 12-touchdown return from December 2013 knee surgery. While power back LeGarrette Blount was a 148-yard, three-touchdown bull in Sunday's AFC Championship rout of the Indianapolis Colts.
And the Patriots find themselves under scrutiny again with the league's Deflategate investigation. ESPN reported 11 of 12 balls used by the Patriots in the AFC championship game were below league-required limits.
"I would never do anything to break the rules," Brady said Thursday.
"I know my teammates, we've accomplished something really special getting to this point. I don't like the fact that this has taken away from some of the accomplishment of what we've achieved as a team. Hopefully, our best is still to come."
Brady and his teammates will surely be motivated by Deflategate critics.
"We have a lot of motivation," Brady said. "We've overcome a lot of adversity this year."
So have the Seahawks, whom some counted out at 3-3. They appeared to be in the throes of a classic post-Super Bowl hangover standing at a 6-4 with some players miffed by the Oct. 17 trade of mercurial receiver Percy Harvin to the New York Jets. Strong safety Kam Chancellor stood up at a team meeting before Seattle's Nov. 23 win against the Arizona Cardinals and demanded the selfishness and mistrust stop.
"It was mainly about us respecting one another," Chancellor told Paste BN Sports. "I said a lot of stuff that I felt needed to be said. We cleared a lot of things and became closer. We started trusting in each other a lot more.
"You have to have love for your brothers to win."
Seattle has won eight straight games since and allowed an average of 9.8 points a game.
Quarterback Russell Wilson shook off four interceptions to throw that 35-yard winning touchdown to Jermaine Kearse, stunning the Green Bay Packers 28-22 in overtime of the NFC Championship Game.
The play completed a comeback for Seattle that showed the team's resolve.
"The fight, resiliency we have, it's shown the whole year," Wilson said Wednesday. "That game is a sum-up of our seasons so far.
"It started off kind of ugly and finished strong."
This is arguably the best Patriots defensive unit in a decade given the additions of former Seahawks cornerback Brandon Browner and former Jets/Tampa Bay cornerback Darrelle Revis.
"He's great, positive leader," Brady said of Revis. "He's one of the most competitive guys I've been around.
"... He always seems to do a great job."
This will be the first meeting between these teams since Seattle beat the Patriots 24-23 Oct. 14, 2012, when Brady and cornerback Richard Sherman had words.
"He pretty much just said we were nobodies and that we should come up to him after they got the win," Sherman said. "And we should take that pretty well and just go, 'Can we get your autograph now?'"
The reigning champions are far from nobodies now.
Fitting that three-time Super Bowl winners Belichick and Brady meet former Patriots coach (1997-99) Pete Carroll's Seahawks.
The Patriots are driven to hoist a Lombardi Trophy for the first time in a decade against Carroll's No. 1 scoring defense on a mission to emerge the first team to defend its title since the 2004 Patriots.
"This is a great finishing team," Chancellor said. "No matter what you do to us, no matter how the pressure gets, no matter what you throw at us - no matter what happens, we bend.
"But we don't break."