The New England Patriots defeated the Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl XLIX last night. You know this even if you didn't watch the game because it's all people have been talking about in your office. Hell, you may even have a vivid picture in your head of the final two minutes based on all the snickering at Darrell Bevell's expense and reveling at Tom Brady's excellence.
But what about the other three quarters?
The first 45 minutes Sunday night provided an interesting theatre of their own. A scoreless first beget a wild second, which was followed by a third in which the Seahawks looked like they'd skate to a second straight Super Bowl. It's not an exaggeration (though it may be a cliche) to say each quarter was a game within itself.
In that spirit, let's treat each quarter like its own contest. Rather than recapping the game as a whole, we're going to go quarter-by-quarter here and discuss the biggest happenings as the Patriots pulled off a thrilling 28-24 victory.
As a warning: I'd stop after Quarter 3, Seahawks fans. No need to go through that again less than 24 hours later.
Quarter 1: Patriots 0, Seahawks 0
This was by far the quickest first quarter in a Super Bowl I can remember seeing. Receiving the ball first, the Patriots dominated possession for most of the first 15 minutes, running 19 plays to only six for Seattle.
As New England would the entire game, it had a ton of success by taking advantage of the Seahawks secondary underneath. Tom Brady led a 13-play, 58-yard drive on the Patriots' second possession, passing the ball seven times without gaining more than 11 yards on a single attempt. Brady's final toss was the first meaningful turning point in the game, as Jeremy Lane picked off an ill-advised pass in the Seattle end zone to halt a sure scoring drive.
That interception also reshaped Seattle's defense. Lane suffered a "significant" broken arm when tackled by Julian Edelman while returning the pick and did not return. The Seahawks were forced to put starter Byron Maxwell into the slot for Lane the rest of the game while Tharold Simon, a former fifth-round pick who was used sparingly all season, took Maxwell's place outside opposite Richard Sherman.
New England's game plan didn't change much, and the passing game was effective with Lane in the lineup, so it's hard to say how much his injury altered the outcome. At the very least, it gave the Patriots another advantage as they were exploiting some of the few weaknesses in the Seattle defense.
As a whole, though? The first quarter was a pile of meh.
Quarter 2: Patriots 14, Seahawks 14
So it was only right that the excitement meter ramped up to 10 in the next 15 minutes. The Patriots got things going on their first drive of the second quarter, getting right back to work with a nine-play, 65-yard drive culminating in a Brady touchdown to Brandon LaFell for the game's first score.
By that point, the Brady blueprint had become quite clear: Dink-and-dunk your way down the field, avoid big shots down the field, and use the passing game as a pseudo-running game to drain the clock. It worked like a charm. The Patriots ran 72 plays to Seattle's 53, holding the ball for nearly 34 minutes.
In the first half, New England's ball-control tactics rendered Russell Wilson nearly irrelevant. He did not complete a pass until there were less than six minutes remaining in the first half. Of course, two plays later, Wilson's second completion—a 44-yard bomb to the heretofore unheard-of Chris Matthews—helped set up a Marshawn Lynch touchdown run to tie the game.
At about this juncture, we were provided a prelude of what would happen two quarters later. Similarly, it all began with another Brady go-ahead drive. The Patriots signal-caller executed a near-flawless two-minute drill, finding Rob Gronkowski matched up against a linebacker from 22 yards out to give the Patriots a 14-7 lead.
Leaving only 31 seconds on the clock and pushing Seattle back to its own 20, more conservative coaches probably would have taken a knee going into halftime. Pete Carroll put the trust in his offense and was rewarded with a momentum-shifting drive.
Wilson pushed the Seahawks 69 yards in four plays, leaving six seconds on the clock to set up what would have been a rather reasonable field-goal try. Carroll, again showing his fortitude, allowed Wilson to throw one last pass. It landed in Matthews' hands with two seconds remaining to tie the game at 14 going into the break.
Then we all watched Katy Perry ride a mechanical lion.
Quarter 3: Seahawks 24, Patriots 14
The third quarter was pure, unadulterated dominance from Seattle. The Seahawks were Missy Elliott to New England's Katy Perry after the break. Seattle scampered down the field on its opening possession to set up a Steven Hauschka field goal, picked Brady off on the Patriots' ensuing drive and then punched the ball in on a three-yard Wilson pass to Doug Baldwin to put the Seahawks up by double digits.
Potent throughout the first half, Brady's dink-and-dunk strategy appeared to be running out of steam in the third. New England's three third-quarter drives accounted for 21 total yards, featuring two three-and-outs and an interception. Seattle's worst drive of the quarter accounted for 12 more yards than the Patriots' total.
You couldn't have been blamed for thinking the game was over at this point. It was beginning to look eerily like the NFC Championship Game, where the Seahawks righted themselves down the stretch and clearly established themselves as the better team (even if it took some luck).
Anyone recapping the game (raises hand) was spending more time wondering whether Wilson, Matthews or Lynch would wind up MVP than considering a potential comeback.
Quarter 4: Patriots 28, Seahawks 24
In a nutshell: Brady. Jermaine Kearse. The play call that changed it all.
We'll start with Brady, who perhaps cemented his legacy as the greatest quarterback in NFL history. Having been thwarted for a quarter-and-a-half, Brady finally got the offense humming again in the fourth. He took the Patriots 68 yards in nine plays, hitting Danny Amendola from three yards out to bring them within a field goal. A three-and-out opened the door for another classic Brady drive, where he threw his fourth (and game-winning) touchdown to Julian Edelman.
Against one of the best secondaries in NFL history, Brady finished with 328 yards and four touchdowns. He set records for single-game completions (37) as part of a contest where he set or tied nine such Super Bowl records, per John Breech of CBS Sports. Even if you subtract something for injuries to Lane, Richard Sherman, Earl Thomas and Kam Chancellor, it was a performance for the ages—regardless of the result.
An all-time great catch, a questionable play call and an errant Wilson throw ensured Brady would walk away with a win.
The grab, made by Kearse, could have gone down in the annals of history. A 33-yard attempt from Wilson was tipped up for grabs and hauled in by Kearse, who needed to tip it back to himself and hold on as he was falling to the ground. Anyone who didn't have David Tyree flashbacks probably wasn't watching the game.
Seattle then punched the ball to the Patriots 1-yard line on first down and had a seemingly obvious call to make: Give the ball to Lynch and salt away the game. Instead, the Seahawks called a pass play, Wilson's pass to Ricardo Lockette was a hair too far outside, and Malcolm Butler jumped the route to finish off the win.
Then we talked about that weird shark on the left in Katy Perry's performance.
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