What is your favorite sports memory?

Leslie Roda

Staff Writer

Down 24-10 to the defending Super Bowl champion, Seattle Seahawks, in the fourth quarter, I thought the game was over. I did not think the Seahawks defense would give up 14 unanswered points in the fourth quarter. Their defense was too good.

In the 2014 regular season, the Seahawks were the first ranked defense in the National Football League, otherwise known as the NFL. On average, they allowed 15.9 points a game. Between the number one ranked defense and the number two, the Detroit Lions, there is almost a two-point difference, with the Lions at 17.6 points allowed per game. The Seahawks only allowed, on average, 267.1 yards per game.

The Seahawks were one step closer to becoming a dynasty. If they held on to win, they would have won the Super Bowl for the second straight year. After the Seahawks were able to score with 4:54 left on the clock in the third quarter after a touchdown pass from Russell Wilson to Doug Baldwin, the complexion of the game changed. The Patriots defense was able to stop the Seahawks offense by making them punt their next three possessions.

I remember sitting in my friends’ room in Wachusett Hall, not being able to look at the television. When the Patriots were down 24-14, I was ready to go back to my room, but I did not. I knew there was still a lot of time left in the game. When you have Tom Brady on a team, anything is possible. For most of the fourth quarter of that game, I could not bear to watch. I was literally sitting with my back to the television.

Against one of the best defenses, in the Seahawks and the Legion of Boom, Brady led the Patriots to their fourth Super Bowl in franchise history. He did it in convincing fashion. Julian Edelman and Danny Amendola in the fourth quarter both caught touchdown passes from Tom Brady to give them the 27-24 lead.

Then comes the infamous play call from Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll. With 2:02 left in the game, the Seahawks got the ball and were driving down the field. With 26 seconds left in the game, the Seahawks have the ball at New England’s one yard line. Second down on the one. Instead of running the ball with Marshawn Lynch, what do they do? They pass it. And well. It is none other than an undrafted player, Malcolm Butler, who jumps the route and intercepts the ball to seal the victory for the Patriots.

When the Seahawks were at the one, I could not bear to look at the television. I thought the game was going to go into overtime at least. I thought the Seahawks were going to score regardless. This game, was the beginning of the end for a potential Seahawks dynasty. Even to this day, it seems as though the players were not happy with their coach’s decision to throw it at the one yard line, especially since they had a running back like Marshawn Lynch.