Apparently when the Seattle Seahawks play the New Orleans Saints at CenturyLink Field, there’s a 100% chance of seismic activity.
According to the Seattle Times, a University of Washington seismometer near the field registered “a magnitude 1 or 2 earthquake” on the Seahawks first touchdown of the night.
With a dominant 34-7 win over the Saints, the Seahawks are now guaranteed a spot in the playoffs.
Regarded as the second-best team in the NFC coming into this game, the Saints were expected to attack a depleted Seahawks secondary without Brandon Browner or Walter Thurmond.
Instead, Drew Brees finished with 147 yards passing and the first touchdown pass he completed was to Seahawks defensive end Michael Bennett. The play was credited as a strip and sack by Cliff Avril, but the ball never touched the ground as the Seahawks took a 10-0 lead and causing the aforementioned tremor.
Seattle finished up the first quarter with a 17-0 lead following a 60-yard pass to Zach Miller where he got behind the Saints defense and nearly scored. Miller finished the drive by catching a 2-yard pass for the score.
The only moment of the game the Saints had to celebrate came in the second quarter when Jimmy Graham caught a 2-yard pass from Brees. The Saints didn’t score for the rest of the night.
With less than two minutes left in the second half, Seattle had one of their most impressive drives to cap off an impressive half of football. Two catches by Jermaine Kearse and runs of more than 10 yards by Marshawn Lynch, Robert Turbin and Wilson led up to a 4-yard touchdown catch by Doug Baldwin.
At halftime, Seattle led 24-7. At that point it was all up to the defense and they didn’t disappoint. The Saints were shut out in the second half.
Coming into this game, the Seahawks were rated as the third best defense in the league covering the tight end. Graham finished the game with only three catches for 42 yards.
There were so many impressive statistics and accomplishments that came out of this game. It’s going to be tough to make sure they’re all included here.
The Seahawks’ run defense was impenetrable. The Saints ran the ball 17 times and managed only 44 yards. The longest run of the night was 12 yards by their fullback Jed Collins.
Seattle’s defense held this Saints team to less than 200 yards of offense.
Jon Ryan continues his quest toward punting immortality with another day of zero punt return yards. A 7-yard return was called back due to a penalty on the Saints for continuing to block Jeremy Lane when he was halfway to taking a seat on the bench. Ryan and the Seahawks have allowed 15 yards in punt returns TOTAL for the entire season.
Russell Wilson is now 14-0 at CenturyLink and he is now tied with Ben Roethlisberger for the most wins by a quarterback in his first two seasons.
I’m sure I missed something significant, but the point is this team played extremely well in all facets of the game.
One thing I can’t forget to mention was perhaps one of the most spectacular plays of the night (maybe tied with the interception return), which was a touchdown catch by fullback Derrick Coleman to put the Seahawks up 34-7.
On the 8-yard line, Wilson rolled to his right looking for tight end Kellen Davis. The pass bounced off Davis’ hands and Coleman with his heels nearly out of bounds was able to catch the ball and dive across the goal line for the final score of the game.
In addition to registering seismic activity, the 12th MAN took back the Guinness World Record for loudest crowd roar from the Kansas City Chiefs fans. According to the Seahawks’ website, the record was set with a roar of 137.6 decibels during the second quarter.
The mark measured at Arrowhead Stadium was 137.5.
The Seahawks may have a spot in the playoffs locked up, but what’s more important is a win over the 49ers next weekend that would earn Seattle an NFC West title and a guaranteed playoff game at home.
So in summary: Seahawks beat the team with the 2nd best record in the NFL, earn a playoff birth and break a record for noise.
It’s no wonder the ground was shaking at CenturyLink.