Last Sunday, many a Seahawks fans awoke early to watch the morning matchup against the Houston Texans. By halftime, a loss in the Seahawks’ future seemed inevitable, as they trailed 20-3. Seattle RB Marshawn “Beast Mode” Lynch fumbled for a turnover, Russell Wilson was sacked twice, and Houston QB Matt Schaub scorched the Seattle D, leading a 90-yard TD drive in less than three minutes. Things weren’t looking pretty, let alone promising.
What were Seattle fans to do? By nature we are sore losers, blindsided by our arrogance and irrational love for noisemaking (read: “F@%$ you, Ref, that was not defensive pass interference on Richard Sherman!” or my personal favorite, “Super Bowl XL was rigged!”). So, wallowing in frustration, we changed the channel––perhaps to watch the Bucs-Cardinals debacle, or the series of (five) unfortunate Joe Flacco interceptions. Either way, pressing that little button on the remote was a bigger mistake than any of the errors the Seahawks had committed during the first half. The 12th Man missed their team going 4-0 for the first time in franchise history, and proof that the Seahawks are already primed for another postseason run.
To recap the game for those who never turned the game back on the play continued to be mediocre at best throughout the third quarter. Then, as if Pete Carroll had delivered a locker room speech equivalent to that of Rudy, Seattle remembered how to play football. Lynch ran in a three yard TD unscathed, and Seattle D then quickly forced the Texans to punt only 44 seconds of possession and sack for a loss of nine yards. After that, Wilson and Schaub exchanged interceptions, as Sherman returned latter for a pick six to tie the game with 2:40 remaining in the fourth quarter.
It is my theory that, as the game went into OT, both Seattle and Houston knew who was going to win the game. The Seahawks had the momentum of a freight train barreling down a mountainside, while the Texans were like a bug hovering above the tracks, realizing their proximity to conductor’s windshield. This was not going to be some ambiguous 49ers-Rams tie, but rather the moment when the Seahawks proved that they want it all, and that all of it is possible.
In my past twelve years of Seahawks fandom, I have never categorized the Seahawks as a second-half team. Rather, I once joked that Seattle knows how to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Now, with the most recent comeback against Houston, in addition the 2012 Patriots game (and the near-upset of the #1 seed Falcons in the postseason), the Seahawks have earned enough respect that I will never again change the channel no matter how far behind they are in a game.
