Wild-Card Weekend
Saturday, January 8, 2011
In an incredible game that many figured would be a blowout in favor of the defending Super Bowl champions, the Seahawk stunned the Saints in front of their home crowd at Quest Field. The first team to win their division and earn a playoff appearance with a 7-9 record, Seattle showed NFL fans that they deserved the spot many felt they had taken from teams like the New York Giants and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who each won 10 games.
Analysts gave Seattle very little credit in the week leading up to this game, but a healthy Matt Hasselbeck made all the difference. He lit up the field as nearly every pass was thrown in as perfect a place imaginable. He finished the day with 4 touchdown passes and just one interception.
After going down 10-0 early in the first quarter, Seattle marched down field and responded with a touchdown and continued their rally in the second quarter where they outscored New Orleans 17-10 on their way to taking a 24-20 halftime lead.
Seattle came out firing to start the second half, and their defense held tight to help their offense extend their advantage to 34-20 by the end of the third quarter. The Saints didn’t give up though. A touchdown and a field goal later, the score was 34-30 and Seattle looked on the verge of an offensive collapse. However, terrible tackling by New Orleans, and a showcase of strength on the part of Marshawn Lynch, effectively sealed the deal in Seattle.
The Saints put up a fight and scored a touchdown to pull to within 5 (41-36), but failed on the two-point conversion. After a failed onside kick, all the Seahawks had to do was have Hasselbeck sit on the ball and time ran out on New Orleans, almost before it began.
The Saints hadn’t been given much chance to get to the Super Bowl, but very few seriously expected them to be sent packing so soon. Meanwhile, the Seahawks earned an opportunity to prove that they deserved to be in the postseason by showing up the following week. As the #4 seed, winning this game did not tell them who they would be playing the following week, only that they would be playing in the Divisional Round. Until the next day, they only knew they would either be playing as the visiting team, either in Chicago (where they won early in the season) or Atlanta (a team that beat them fairly handily in Seattle back in week 15).
Was this game a fluke, or were the Seahawks really as dangerous as they appeared in this Wild-Card game against the Saints. The answer to that question came the following week. The story on that will be available Wednesday evening.
Final Score: Seattle Seahawks – 41, New Orleans Saints – 36
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