EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Believe it, Seattle — after 38 years, the Seahawks are finally Super Bowl champions.
In fact, by the time it ended, the only thing unbelievable about this one was how easy it was, as the Seahawks cruised to a 43-8 win over the Denver Broncos to take Super Bowl XLVIII in front of 82,529 at MetLife Stadium on Sunday night.
A young and brash Seattle defense made Peyton Manning and Denver’s record-setting offense merely look old and slow, dominating the action from the start and forcing two first-half turnovers as the Seahawks jumped out to a 22-0 halftime lead, the third-largest in Super Bowl history.
Percy Harvin then ended any thoughts of a Denver comeback as quickly as possible, returning the opening kickoff of the second half 87 yards for a touchdown to give Seattle, which entered the game as 2.5-point underdogs in most sports books, a 29-0 lead.
Harvin’s touchdown, as did a safety on the first play of the game, came 12 seconds into the half — a symmetry that Seattle’s fans, the self-named 12’s, surely found fitting on a day when everything went the Seahawks’ way.
The Super Bowl title is the first championship for a Seattle team in one of the four major professional sports leagues since the now-departed Sonics captured the NBA title in 1979.
And it came in the Seahawks’ second Super Bowl appearance, Seattle having lost to Pittsburgh 21-10 in Detroit following the 2005 season.
The game turned Seattle’s way from the start, as a mis-timed snap on Denver’s first offensive play led to a Seahawks safety, credited to Cliff Avril, just 12 seconds into the game — the fastest score in Super Bowl history.
Read more about this story in tomorrow's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.