Seattle Seahawks upstage New England Patriots 24-23
SEATTLE (AP) - Tom Brady and the best offense in the NFL got upstaged by an undersized rookie.
In the final minutes, it was Russell Wilson and the Seattle Seahawks making all the big plays.
"If guys didn't believe in him," Seattle safety Earl Thomas said, "I guarantee they believe in him now."
Wilson found Sidney Rice behind the secondary for a 46-yard touchdown with 1:18 remaining, and the Seahawks rallied for 14 points in the final 7:31 to stun the New England Patriots 24-23 Sunday.
The matchup between the Patriots' No. 1 ranked offense and Seattle's No. 1 defense instead turned in to a starring performance for Wilson. And a shocking rally that gave Pete Carroll a win in the first matchup against the franchise he coached for three seasons in the late 1990s. Carroll was bouncing around the sideline in celebration after one of his biggest pro victories.
"I hadn't even thought about that. That was a long time ago and there have been a lot of games," Carroll said. "I really love Robert Kraft, he's a great man and he's been great throughout the years about our separation of sorts. I respect the heck out of him. But I'm a competitor and, heck yeah, I want to win against those guys."
Wilson hit Braylon Edwards on fourth down for a 10-yard TD to get the Seahawks within 23-17. After a pair of holds by Seattle's defense, Wilson found Rice streaking open on a double move for his third touchdown pass of the game. Steven Hauschka's extra point gave Seattle (4-2) the lead with 78 seconds remaining.
Brady had a final chance to make up for all the opportunities the Patriots (3-3) squandered. Starting at his 20 with 1:14 left, Brady missed Brandon Lloyd then was sacked by Jason Jones, the first sack all day by Seattle. His pass for Aaron Hernandez, back after being out since Week 2 with an ankle injury, was incomplete, and Wes Welker was stopped short on fourth down.
Seattle's winning touchdown came after Carroll showed confidence in his defense. The Seahawks went three-and-out with 3:20 left and Carroll risked never seeing the ball again and punted.
Even though Seattle had three timeouts and the two-minute warning, it was still a risky proposition.
"I wasn't surprised. As a defense we want the game on our shoulders," Seattle linebacker Bobby Wagner said. "We have the confidence in us; we know Pete has the confidence in us."
Seattle forced the Patriots into just their fifth three-and-out of the season and only 14 seconds elapsed before Zoltan Mesko punted. Leon Washington returned the punt 25 yards and Seattle started its winning drive at its 43.
Wilson faked a handoff and looked deep. Rice was on an option route, and the coverage directed Rice to the middle. After faking to the outside, he was wide open.
"It was a heck of a throw. When I came out of my break, the whole time I was looking at the ball in the air and it was so pretty," Rice said. "I was just running, I was like 'You've got to catch up to it, you've got to catch up to it,' and I was able to track it down."
Wilson finished 16 of 27 for 293 yards, the best day of his young career. He added Brady to an impressive list of quarterbacks he's topped this year: Tony Romo, Aaron Rodgers and Cam Newton. It was also the fifth time in six games Wilson found himself in a late drive with the game on the line.
"I think I'm always comfortable no matter the situation, I think I'm just more experienced," Wilson said. "Being in those situations you have to trust what you see, you have to be quick with your decisions, but also believe in your decisions and just be decisive with the football."
Brady finished 36 of 58 for 395 yards and touchdown passes of 1 yard to Hernandez and 46 yards to Welker in the first half. Welker had 10 catches for 138 yards, his fourth straight game over 100. Brady topped 300 yards passing for the 49th time, but was intercepted in the second half by Richard Sherman and Thomas after going 179 attempts without being picked off. One of Brady's interceptions came in the end zone, yet another squandered chance by the Patriots.
New England came away with just one touchdown in six trips inside Seattle's 20. The most damaging came at the end of the first half when coach Bill Belichick opted to throw with 6 seconds remaining instead of kicking the field goal from the Seattle 3. Brady was flagged for intentional grounding and the ensuing time runoff ended the half.
"You lose by one point and here are a lot of things we could have done better to not be in that situation," Brady said.
Seattle's defense gave up a season-high 475 yards after not allowing any of its first five opponents to top 300. The Patriots went eight consecutive drives without punting, and ran 85 offensive plays to the Seahawks' 55, yet could not get the touchdowns to put Seattle away.
NOTES: Hall of Fame DT Cortez Kennedy had his No. 96 retired during a halftime ceremony. He joins Steve Largent (No. 80), Walter Jones (No. 71) and Seattle's 12th Man crowd (No. 12) as the only retired jerseys in team history. ... Lynch's 41 yards were his fewest since Week 8 of 2011, when he was held to 24 yards by Cincinnati. ... Brady's 58 pass attempts were most ever against Seattle.
In the final minutes, it was Russell Wilson and the Seattle Seahawks making all the big plays.
"If guys didn't believe in him," Seattle safety Earl Thomas said, "I guarantee they believe in him now."
Wilson found Sidney Rice behind the secondary for a 46-yard touchdown with 1:18 remaining, and the Seahawks rallied for 14 points in the final 7:31 to stun the New England Patriots 24-23 Sunday.
The matchup between the Patriots' No. 1 ranked offense and Seattle's No. 1 defense instead turned in to a starring performance for Wilson. And a shocking rally that gave Pete Carroll a win in the first matchup against the franchise he coached for three seasons in the late 1990s. Carroll was bouncing around the sideline in celebration after one of his biggest pro victories.
"I hadn't even thought about that. That was a long time ago and there have been a lot of games," Carroll said. "I really love Robert Kraft, he's a great man and he's been great throughout the years about our separation of sorts. I respect the heck out of him. But I'm a competitor and, heck yeah, I want to win against those guys."
Wilson hit Braylon Edwards on fourth down for a 10-yard TD to get the Seahawks within 23-17. After a pair of holds by Seattle's defense, Wilson found Rice streaking open on a double move for his third touchdown pass of the game. Steven Hauschka's extra point gave Seattle (4-2) the lead with 78 seconds remaining.
Brady had a final chance to make up for all the opportunities the Patriots (3-3) squandered. Starting at his 20 with 1:14 left, Brady missed Brandon Lloyd then was sacked by Jason Jones, the first sack all day by Seattle. His pass for Aaron Hernandez, back after being out since Week 2 with an ankle injury, was incomplete, and Wes Welker was stopped short on fourth down.
Seattle's winning touchdown came after Carroll showed confidence in his defense. The Seahawks went three-and-out with 3:20 left and Carroll risked never seeing the ball again and punted.
Even though Seattle had three timeouts and the two-minute warning, it was still a risky proposition.
"I wasn't surprised. As a defense we want the game on our shoulders," Seattle linebacker Bobby Wagner said. "We have the confidence in us; we know Pete has the confidence in us."
Seattle forced the Patriots into just their fifth three-and-out of the season and only 14 seconds elapsed before Zoltan Mesko punted. Leon Washington returned the punt 25 yards and Seattle started its winning drive at its 43.
Wilson faked a handoff and looked deep. Rice was on an option route, and the coverage directed Rice to the middle. After faking to the outside, he was wide open.
"It was a heck of a throw. When I came out of my break, the whole time I was looking at the ball in the air and it was so pretty," Rice said. "I was just running, I was like 'You've got to catch up to it, you've got to catch up to it,' and I was able to track it down."
Wilson finished 16 of 27 for 293 yards, the best day of his young career. He added Brady to an impressive list of quarterbacks he's topped this year: Tony Romo, Aaron Rodgers and Cam Newton. It was also the fifth time in six games Wilson found himself in a late drive with the game on the line.
"I think I'm always comfortable no matter the situation, I think I'm just more experienced," Wilson said. "Being in those situations you have to trust what you see, you have to be quick with your decisions, but also believe in your decisions and just be decisive with the football."
Brady finished 36 of 58 for 395 yards and touchdown passes of 1 yard to Hernandez and 46 yards to Welker in the first half. Welker had 10 catches for 138 yards, his fourth straight game over 100. Brady topped 300 yards passing for the 49th time, but was intercepted in the second half by Richard Sherman and Thomas after going 179 attempts without being picked off. One of Brady's interceptions came in the end zone, yet another squandered chance by the Patriots.
New England came away with just one touchdown in six trips inside Seattle's 20. The most damaging came at the end of the first half when coach Bill Belichick opted to throw with 6 seconds remaining instead of kicking the field goal from the Seattle 3. Brady was flagged for intentional grounding and the ensuing time runoff ended the half.
"You lose by one point and here are a lot of things we could have done better to not be in that situation," Brady said.
Seattle's defense gave up a season-high 475 yards after not allowing any of its first five opponents to top 300. The Patriots went eight consecutive drives without punting, and ran 85 offensive plays to the Seahawks' 55, yet could not get the touchdowns to put Seattle away.
NOTES: Hall of Fame DT Cortez Kennedy had his No. 96 retired during a halftime ceremony. He joins Steve Largent (No. 80), Walter Jones (No. 71) and Seattle's 12th Man crowd (No. 12) as the only retired jerseys in team history. ... Lynch's 41 yards were his fewest since Week 8 of 2011, when he was held to 24 yards by Cincinnati. ... Brady's 58 pass attempts were most ever against Seattle.
It's kinda interesting that the Seahawks are losing the games they were expected to win, but winning the game they were expected to lose. Â That should be a good trend to keep for the next game against 49ers. Â Go Hawks!!!
Dont get me wrong, I love the good old Hasselbeck, Alexander walter Jones teams but this is probably the most exciting team I have seen the Seahawks put on the field. We have never had such a deadly defense and defense is what wins championships and keeps teams good for a long time. I think the next 5-10 years is going to be exciting for Seahawk fans. I was a skeptic of Pete with some of his early moves but now I think he is a genius and we are lucky to have him. Keep it up Hawks, A win this weekend and we are in the drivers seat!
Great win!!! If we can open up the pass offensive attack like yesterday, we're legit to go deep.
Imagine that... all it took was a touchdown at 1:18 left in the game, and a defensive stand and no one paid attention to who the Republicans or Democrats were... for a couple hours we were all just Seahawk fans.
 @TruthinAdverts Well, not all of us. :p
 @TheJaxx  @TruthinAdverts True Jaxx, but you have to understand... you're a Pat's fan... you don't count.Â
I wanted to congratulate you guys on this victory. You deserved it.Â
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I'm a transplant from New England and I can only sit here and wonder what is wrong with my team. The amount of times they squandered opportunities is just not like the pats of the last decade. So I can only conclude that they are now in that downward cycle all teams go through.
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Good luck against the 49er's. I can't stand those putz's.
Gee thanks and better luck next game.
Great game. Really like the fact that Carroll open the play book a bit more for Russell. If he can keep this up and with our running game and Defense, we are gonna be a tough team to beat!
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That was a GREAT game!!!
Great game and hope the players can enjoy for today and then back to business for Thursday. GO SEAHAWKS!
I kind of thought it was funny, "Seattle Seahawks upstage Patriots...", just in case you guys didnt know which Seahawks they were referring to
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 @northwestsurfer It actually says "Seattle Seahawks upstage New England Patriots" as it should.
@Chitownhawksfan Did you ever think that the title has changed since I posted my comment? I copy and pasted my comment in quotes, directly from the title. Nice try though.
@Chitownhawksfan Yawn...
 @northwestsurfer  @Chitownhawksfan My mistake, I guess your the man then, you got them to change the title, You altered history. How do you nominate someone for the Nobel Prize?
Gotta a big game coming against the 49ers on Thursday, lets see what the Seahawks got left and a real division changer could be in the making, lets hope the dreaded Seattle trademark doesn't raise its ugly head....choke, choke, choke....
SF didn't look so great yesterday, so if the Hawks stay focused, they can do it again. There were some strange and close scores yesterday.  Go Seahawks!
Go Seahawkes It is games like this that make football  fun to watch although the first half was a bit stressful.Must of been awesome for the fans at the clink
 @rainiervalley60skid It has been a pretty schizophrenic season so far at home with all the lead changes and last minute drives. The one issue is that for the Green Bay, Cowboys, and the Patriots games there have been way too many opposing fans at the game such that you can actually hear them over our own crowd when things are not going well.But, more to the point, when Rice made that TD catch, the feeling was epic and added to the look on the Patriots fans was even better.
@Necrobio @rainiervalley60skid Seems like the Hawks have been this way over the years; unpredictable and semi-sloppy wins. Ive noticed that the defense wins a lot of their games for them as well
I love it. Richard Sherman was on Twitter last night talking trash to Tom Brady after Brady apparently told Earl Thomas and Sherman to meet him later after the Patriots win.
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This is a team with swagger!
A great win by the Hawks. A couple of major hits by the defense. I wished they could have gotten to Brady more but in the end when it counted they did. I love how mobile Wilson is and that he's not afraid to run the ball himself.
I hope we can kick the 49ers while their down.
Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet! I hope you guys know just how lucky you were pulling that one out. The defense truely saved the day the number of times the Pat's were in the red zone and denied! Niner's are next and they will be hungry after the whupping they got.. go get 'em!
 @SensationaLies Luck had nothing to do with it ...... That was all skill
Sweet, I can't stand Brady and the pats
That was a very entertaining football game. Both sides playing hard. Wilson was outstanding - not just at the end but during the entire game.
Outstanding performance. The Hawks are indeed the Real Deal. As noted elsewhere, this team is getting better every game. I expect a hiccup or two, but I seriously expect to see them in the playoffs this year. We seem to have one of the most complete teams we've had in a LONG time.
Seahawks finally look good in the eyes of ordinary fans
I'll tell you someone who's going to remember this game for at least a couple days. Wes Welker. That was an old-school, squared up, shoulder pad to the chest that stopped him cold. I was actually kind of surprised it didn't draw a flag. The NFL has gotten pretty mamby pamby about hard hits lately.
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Good to see the Hawks throw down the field today. Hopefully they'll continue that and help open things up for Lynch.
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Mike
bend over, spread 'em (or lie back and grab your ankles) and my tongue will tickle & explore your crack and big penis... I'll blow you too. all I ask is that you be a goodlooking young white jock over age 21 please -where I can slurp some juicy sperm out your brown hole after my boyfriend jizzes his load up your anus. slurping and burpin baby
Way to go HAWKS!!!!
Fans in Boston are dumping the blame on Brady. I love it. Good job you guys, entertaining game!
 @Hagar eh, Brady is just a full of himself p***ant.  Right on Hawks!
 @Smartypants  @Hagar Peasant?
 @Larry*X*K  @Hagar yeah, that's it  ;-)
I have been critical of Wilson all season, but today I have to give him his props. Hopefully we see the offensive output from him like today from this point forward than what we have seen in the previous 5 games. I still think he bails out of the pocket too quickly making it hard on his offensive tackles, but he seemed to hang in there much more today. Hopefully he is beginning to trust the pocket a bit more and stepping up instead of trying to go around. Good game all around, especially the defense.Â
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I can't wait for Thursday night. Hopefully the Alex Smith that showed up today against the Giants shows up on Thursday.
 @UWGrad_96 Giants defense held them to only 3 points hopefully are defense will do the same (if not better!)
@UWGrad_96 bend over, spread 'em (or lie back and grab your ankles) and my tongue will tickle & explore your crack and big penis... I'll blow you too. all I ask is that you be a goodlooking young white jock over age 21 please -where I can slurp some juicy sperm out your brown hole after my boyfriend jizzes his load up your anus. slurping and burpin baby
I would put this game into the top 5 games in the new stadium. #1 being the win over the Panthers in 2005 to get us to the Super Bowl.
Other top 5's are the Monday Night game vs Packers in 06 or 07 in the snow, playoff game vs Saints Beastquake, Romo botching the hold for go ahead field goal.
Feel free to talk amongst yourselves.
 @Hopp It was a great game yesterday!! My all time fav in this stadium is the MNF against GB in the snow. Man, it was an epic win!Â
 @Hopp How about GB 12' MNF
 @Hopp 2005 against the Giants.  11 False Starts
49er's lose, Cardinals lose, Rams lose, Hawks tied for first in the division. Thursday night WILL be the tell tale game of the year for this division.
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 @Joey Valentine How's your "ass" feeling today after your teams performance after the Giants' game?  Just shut it until the game is played - then, we'll talk.
@Joey Valentine @Doloresdecabeza You went to all of that work to sign up and get a free account to post that? Tsk Tsk.
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Come back Thursday night for your verbal beatdown - I'll show you how it's done.
Cortez Kennedy Karma.
"Seattle's #1 defense." There's a sentence you don't hear often...or ever.
@Mikeftm..... but I like the sound of it...
Hmm..I wonder if this will quiet all the Russell Wilson naysyers...believe it folks...he is something special and you should be happy you have him !
@Paud315 ....really though what can you expect from a rookie? A winning record at most. His critics crack me up when you ask them why is he even starting as a rookie? Because he beat out Matt Flynn. He gets better every week and does not make the same mistake twice (read Cam Newton). Another poster said he would abandon the pocket too quickly (true) but I saw that as running for his life as opposed to trying to make something happen. You are correct...I am happy to have him
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 @Paud315 As one that has been critical of him all season, I have to give him his props for his performance. It won't silence me until I see more performances like today vice the first five games. If he continues to put up numbers like today consistently, then I will start to believe. But one game doesn't yet convince me.
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The one thing I have been really critical of Wilson is his quickness to abandon the pocket and try to roll out, making it difficult for his tackles to keep up their blocks. I noticed today, he was much better at trusting his pocket more and stepping up instead of rolling out, giving him the time to find his receiver. I remember only once that he bailed out of the pocket prematurely and forced his tackle to hold on the play to keep him getting sacked. Hopefully he is putting more trust in his line and the pocket protection. I think that was really the big difference in his passing performance. It allows him to continue to attack the entire field instead of half.
 @UWGrad_96 I watched this kid play his entire college career. You will not find a smarter, more dedicated and humble player with great talent in the NFL. He will keep improving every game as he is very coachable. My brother in law was telling me after the GB game that he was ranked 31st in the league in passing and would never be a good passer in this league. This week he is now 18th in the league. He is a rookie and he knows he has a lot to learn but he has something intangible others don't have. Look for greatness from him in the future both on and off the field. He was the steal of the 2012 draft.
 @Paud315  @UWGrad_96 I do hope you are correct. We will see.
@Paud315 - if you heard Coach's press conference after the game, they had worked with him to scramble less (when appropriate) and find the open man.  That's why he appeared a bit out of sorts early in the game - he was working to do what the coach had asked of him. Once he settled down and got into it - he REALLY succeeded at it.
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This should start silencing his critics.
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