Patriots edge Seahawks in Super Bowl

Sport360 staff 09:19 02/02/2015
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  • Star man: Tom Brady lived up to the hype once again dictating the Super Bowl victory for New England Patriots.

    Tom Brady and the New England Patriots rallied to defeat Seattle 28-24 in Super Bowl 49 on Sunday, denying the Seahawks a second consecutive NFL championship in dramatic fashion.

    With their fourth Super Bowl triumph, and first in a decade, the Patriots reconfirmed their status as the league’s dominant team of the past 15 years while Brady cemented his legacy as one of the NFL’s greatest quarterbacks.

    “It has been a long journey,” said Brady, whose team recovered from a lackluster start to the season and dealt all week with suggestions they purposely under-inflated footballs used in a playoff win over Indianapolis.

    “It’s just a great win,” Brady said. “We left it all on the field.”

    The Patriots rallied from a 24-14 third-quarter deficit, with Brady’s three-yard touchdown pass to Julian Edelman putting them ahead with 2:02 remaining.

    Rookie Malcolm Butler’s goal-line interception of a pass by Seattle quarterback Russell Wilson with 20 seconds remaining preserved the victory in a title showdown that lived up to its billing as a clash of titans.

    Brady Super Bowl MVP    

    Brady threw two of his four touchdown passes in the fourth quarter to rally the Pats against the most feared defensive unit in the league.

    Brady joined boyhood idol Joe Montana and Terry Bradshaw as the only quarterbacks with four Super Bowl wins, having also led New England to the title after the 2001, 2003 and 2004 seasons.

    He set the record for most career Super Bowl touchdown passes, taking his tally to 13 to surpass the 11 of Montana, and matched Montana with his third Super Bowl Most Valuable Player award.

    The Seahawks, who rallied in the final minutes of the National Conference final to book their return to the Super Bowl, looked like they might pull off another miracle in the waning moments.

    Wilson hit Marshawn Lynch with a 31-yard pass to put the Seahawks in Patriots territory.

    Then Jermaine Kearse came up with a stunning catch as he fell to the turf, corralling a ball that had appeared to have been certainly deflected out of his reach.

    That put Seattle on the 5-yard line. Lynch was stopped just short of the goal line on the enusing play, but the Seahawks didn’t go to him on the next play.

    Instead, Wilson attempted a short pass to Ricardo Lockette that Butler seized to end Seattle’s hopes.

    “I just guessed and went and made a play,” said Butler. “It’s crazy man.”

    The fight kick offs towards the end of the game

    Added Seahawks coach Pete Carroll: “It’s a miraculous play that kid made to get in front of that route.

    “I hate that we have to live with that because we did everything right to win the football game,” Carroll added.

    The Patriots wasted a first-quarter scoring chance when Brady was picked off near Seattle’s goal line, but went up 7-0 with a methodical 65-yard scoring drive capped by Brady’s 11-yard touchdown pass to Brandon LaFell.

    Wilson and the Seahawks offense, meanwhile, got off to a stuttering start, with Lynch stymied and Wilson unable to find a reciever.

    Wilson connected with Kearse on a six-yarder to end the drought and his second completion of the game was a deep ball down the sideline to little used receiver Chris Matthews beat cornerback Kyle Arrington to make the first catch of his NFL career.

    Matthews’ accrobatic effort set up a 3-yard touchdown run by Lynch.

    The Pats struck back with an 80-yard, eight-play drive that ended with a 22-yard touchdown pass to tight end Rob Gronkowski with 31 seconds remaining in the first half.

    Tense battle  

    But Seattle kept the see-saw battle going as Wilson hit Matthews with an 11-yard touchdown pass that knotted the score at 14-14 with two seconds on the clock.

    The throw capped a drive that saw Seattle march 80 yards in 29 seconds.

    The Seahawks took the lead for the first time in the third quarter with a 27-yard field goal from Steven Hauschka and pushed the lead to 24-14 after Bobby Wagner intercepted a Brady pass.

    What an interception from Malcolm Butler

    The Seahawks needed only six plays to find the end zone, with Wilson connecting with Doug Baldwin on a three-yard scoring pass.

    Brady answered with a 68-yard drive that ended with a four-yard touchdown pass to Danny Amendola that cut the deficit to 24-21.

    “Hard work pays off,” Amendola said. “All the work pays off. All the work we’ve put in all year, all the adversity, dealing with everything that we have, it’s paying off and it’s the best feeling in the world.”

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