Malcolm Smith of the Seahawks won the Super Bowl's MVP award, a fitting representative for an underrated Seattle defenders who combined to make a fearsome whole.<\/p>\n
11:00 p.m. Eastern:Searches for the word rout are currently spiking on Merriam-Websters website. Thats really all you need to know about tonights Super Bowl. <\/p>\n
Subscribe Today to the Monitor <\/p>\n
Click Here for your FREE 30 DAYS of The Christian Science Monitor Weekly Digital Edition <\/p>\n
The perfect ending to Peyton Mannings historic season proved doomed from the first bad snap, which resulted in a safety for the Seahawks. Somehow, his day only got worse from there. The Seattle defense held Manning to 280 yards, one touchdown, and two interceptions, pedestrian numbers for a guy who has been anything but. Malcolm Smith, the Seattle linebacker who grabbed Mannings first interception and recovered a fumble, was named the games Most Valuable Player, but it could have just as easily been any number of players on Seattles defense. Richard Sherman had an uncharacteristically quiet game before his injury, but thats because Denver mostly avoided throwing the ball anywhere near him. <\/p>\n
Seattles defense did pretty much what theyve done all season. The Seahawks offense, though, didnt, and that was a good thing. Russell Wilson had 206 yards for two touchdowns and zero interceptions. That doesnt seem like much, but it didnt matter because the Seahawks used several players like they were number one weapons. Four different Seahawks were credited with at least one touchdown. Eight different players had receiving yards. <\/p>\n
Smith as MVP, though, is a fitting representative for the rest of the Seahawks, a group of roundly overlooked individuals who combined to make a fearsome whole. He was drafted in the seventh round in the 2011 draft and didnt even start for the Seahawks until Week 15. Seattle is full of similar stories: Richard Sherman was a fifth rounder ; Russell Wilson was drafted in the third round, after a punter. But developing that underrated talent has allowed Seattle the freedom to spend elsewhere in free agency, ultimately giving them a team that was too well-rounded for anyone to stop. Wilson and Sherman both made under $1 million in salary this season; under the terms of the most recent CBA, Wilson has to go at least another before the Seahawks can even think about paying him more. The real MVP of Seattles Super Bowl then, was a front office willing to take risks and some really good accounting. <\/p>\n
-Schuyler Velasco <\/p>\n
10:15 p.m. Eastern time Billed as one of the best matchups ever, the clash between the record-setting offense of the Denver Broncos and the top-ranked defense of the Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl XLVIII was a total wash. <\/p>\n
In the end, the Seahawks, one of the leauge's youngest teams and without any Super Bowl experience, dominated both sides of the ball, winning 43-8. The Bronco's, led by their 37-year-old quarterback Payton Manning, who was coming off the most remarkable single-season passing performance the NFL has ever seen, could not match the Seahawks intensity and speed. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
View post:<\/p>\n
Super Bowl 2014 live blog: Seahawks rout Broncos, 43-8<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Malcolm Smith of the Seahawks won the Super Bowl's MVP award, a fitting representative for an underrated Seattle defenders who combined to make a fearsome whole. 11:00 p.m. Continue reading