Recapping The Insane Seahawks Comeback In The NFC Championship

I usually put together a roundup of all the best plays from the weekend to run on Monday morning, but Seahawks-Packers owned the weekend so you're getting a roundup of one of the craziest games to decide a trip to the Super Bowl in recent memory. This game had everything. It was wild from the start; both teams were turning it over as if they were personally offended by the ball, there were big plays on offense, bigger plays on defense, and enormous plays on special teams. We were entertained by all three phases of the game. Russell Wilson looked alternatingly awful, hurt, and brilliant while engineering the Seahawks comeback. And there was a grown man riding a bicycle because he could.

The game was dramatic before it even started, too, because the NFL threatened to literally eject Marshawn Lynch if he wore a pair of gold cleats, which seemed…drastic. The closest comparison I can find is Earl Bennett in Chicago. He was fined in consecutive weeks in 2011 for wearing orange cleats and mentioned the league threatened more fines in the weeks ahead followed by a delay of game penalty and "maybe kick [him] out of the game." The NFL went nuclear on Lynch from Jump Street and he complied, but we still got to see some flashes of gold, in slow motion and instant replay.

Then the game started and it was exciting, though sloppy. Aaron Rodgers was picked off in the first 45 seconds by Richard Sherman and it felt like Seattle was going to cruise at home.

But Russell Wilson gave it right back to the Packers on the next drive with an interception of his own to Ha Ha Clinton-Dix.

Jermaine Kearse couldn't control the pass and it was an easy pick for Clinton-Dix. After the Packers got a field goal on the ensuing drive, Doug Baldwin fumbled the kickoff and Green Bay recovered. Baldwin, like Kearse--and like most of the Seahawks for that matter--had a rough start to the game, but they both factored in huge at the end.

Things calmed down some, but Russell Wilson was still looking awful and threw another interception to Clinton-Dix in the second quarter, with Green Bay up 16-0. On the return, Clay Mathews nailed Wilson in the head and was flagged for a blindside block, and it looked bad. Wilson stayed in the game, but looked shaky through most of it.

The reason you know this was a crazy game is because there was a Fat Guy Touchdown on a fake field goal and I am only now mentioning it. This was Seattle's first score of the game: a pass from the punter and field goal holder to a rookie offensive tackle from Penn State who went undrafted last May. Any other game and that's probably one of the top one or two plays. Here, it's almost an afterthought.

Green Bay added a field goal to push the lead to 19-7, but with 2:13 left in the fourth quarter, Seattle scored on a Russell Wilson run from the one yard line to make it 19-14. The Hawks went for the onside kick and, oh man, Brandon Bostick must feel like human garbage. The Packers tight end got his hands, arms, and face on the ball, but could not hang on to it. If you didn't already believe the Seahawks were going to win, you were sure now.

Seattle recovered, obviously, and then it was the Marshawn Lynch show. He scored the go-ahead touchdown on a 24-yard run with just about 90 seconds left in the game, gave his customary two-ball salute, and then did something a little uncustomary: he politely shook hands with his teammates.

The Packers, to their credit, weathered all of this and efficiently worked their way down field to tie the game with a field goal--a 48-yarder, nothing to sneeze at--in the final seconds of the fourth quarter. To their discredit, they lost the coin toss in overtime and watched as Seattle marched down the field and won a trip to the Super Bowl in thrilling fashion.

It took six plays in overtime for the Seahawks to win, and the last two accounted for 70 yards total. Doug Baldwin, he of fumbled-kickoff fame, made a huge 35-yard catch on third-and-seven that flipped the field for Seattle, and set up this unbelievable finish.

The pass went to Jermaine Kearse, who was having a brutal game full of dropped passes and tipped balls that went for interceptions. But he caught that one.

In the immediate aftermath of the game, Jen Mueller, working for KIRO in Seattle, got both Kearse and Baldwin on the air, and they were unhinged. It was awesome. Doug Baldwin dropped an F-bomb, and later went on to rant some more to reporters outside the Seattle locker room.

It's one of the most exciting games I can remember, and the only thing I really hope is that some day fans outside of Seattle get to experience what it was like to watch their team do that because it was great fun and I didn't even care about either of these franchises.