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On the first play from scrimmage of Super Bowl 48, former Detroit Lions offensive lineman Manny Ramirez snapped the ball before Peyton Manning was ready. The ball went rolling into the end zone, where it was recovered for a safety. Although the Seattle Seahawks only took a 2-0 lead on the play, the safety served as a perfect sign of things to come. The Seahawks kept rolling, while the Denver Broncos kept stumbling, and the end result was the first Super Bowl blowout in quite some time.
The Seahawks ended up beating the Broncos by a score of 43-8. After taking that 2-0 lead, Seattle added a pair of field goals by Steven Hauschka in the first quarter. In the second quarter, they pretty much put the game out of reach. Marshawn Lynch scored a touchdown on a 1-yard run, and Malcolm Smith intercepted Manning and returned it 69 yards for a touchdown of his own. The interception was made possible by big-time pressure from Cliff Avril, who helped force an earlier interception as well.
In case there were still any doubts about which team was going to win this game, Percy Harvin put them to rest to start the second half. The Broncos tried to contain him on the opening kickoff of the third quarter by leaving the ball short of the end zone so it took a hop off the turf, but the plan backfired. Harvin took the ball and went 87 yards for a touchdown, making this a 29-0 game. A 23-yard touchdown pass from Russell Wilson to Jermaine Kearse made it 36-0 in favor of the Seahawks, and the Broncos only managed to get on the board with a 14-yard touchdown pass to Demaryius Thomas as the third quarter came to a close. A successful 2-point conversion cut the lead to 36-8.
The Seahawks put the exclamation point on their Super Bowl victory with a 10-yard touchdown pass to Doug Baldwin to open the fourth quarter. They went on to win 43-8 in one of the most dominant performances in Super Bowl history. The Seahawks defense didn't allow Manning to do much of anything all day, and Seattle was the better team in all three phases of the game.
Congratulations to the folks over at Field Gulls on their championship, and allow me to pat myself on the back one more time for calling this way back on Sept. 3.
