This game was the story of the Seahawks’ defense and running game absolutely carrying them. Looking at just the final score and statistics is very misleading. Up until about late in the third quarter the game had an entirely different feel than it did going into overtime. This was a game controlled by Green Bay much more so than Seattle.

Green Bay had three first downs on the first drive of the game and took the ball all the way down to the Seattle 29. Aaron Rodgers then threw an interception. The following two drives (one following a Russell Wilson interception and the other following a fumble) the Packers had the ball at Seattle’s 1-yard line and failed to score touchdowns on both, they had to settle for field goals. Leaving points on the field against a team as good as Seattle proved to be the undoing of Green Bay. On another drive in the second quarter Green Bay got the ball via interception, got it all the way down to the Seattle 33-yard line, and ended up throwing an interception of their own. One of the biggest stories of this game was how many times the Packers were able to create turnovers and how few points they converted those turnovers into.

Another large component to this game was the dominance of Seattle running back Marshawn Lynch. In the first half Lynch only had nine carries for 37 yards. But the first half isn’t where Lynch kills defenses most of the time. That’s just where he wears teams down and sets them up for the second half. In the second half Lynch had 16 carries for 120 yards. The Packers just couldn’t stop Lynch even when they knew he was coming. Russell Wilson was having a terrible day and it seemed the Seahawks coaching staff wasn’t even trusting Wilson to attempt a throw so they gave the ball to Lynch. The Packers were well aware of this and at times would drop nine guys into the box and were still unable to tackle Lynch at times. This is how dominant of a second half Lynch had.

With Lynch being as dominant as he was and the Seahawks’ defense putting up an incredible performance given what their offense was giving them, the two biggest and most crucial plays of the game were on special teams. In the third quarter, with the score being 16-0 in favor of the Packers, the Seahawks had the ball at the Green Bay 19-yard line and it was 4th and 10. The Seahawks lined up for a field goal, it ended up being a fake, and their punter, Jon Ryan, threw a 19-yard touchdown pass to their offensive lineman Garry Gilliam. This is the play that completely changed the momentum of the game. The next crucial play came after Seattle scored a touchdown to bring the score to 19-14 with 2:13 left in the game. On the ensuing kickoff Seattle decided to go for an onsides kick and they ended up recovering it. This was the play that put them in position to win this game. Had they not recovered that onsides kick, Green Bay would’ve had the ball with great field position, just over two minutes left to play, and Seattle only having one timeout. In this game Seattle’s special teams played just as big of a role as their defense.

This was a game no one really saw coming. I’m very comfortable saying that no one predicted Green Bay to be up by more than two touchdowns at halftime, Wilson to finish the game with four interceptions, and the Seahawks’ punter to have the best quarterback rating on the team. And if someone predicted that, I’m certain they didn’t predict Seattle to come out on top despite all that. Some will say Seattle got lucky but when you build a defense like that and you make sure your special teams is able to make the plays they made, you can overcome four interceptions and a lost fumble to beat good teams.