For the encore, Pete Carroll says his schedule the next two weeks will follow the identical script from a year ago, the first time he brought his Seahawks into the Super Bowl.
“We’re exactly the same,’’ Carroll said Monday. “We kind of like the way it worked out.’’
Yeah, the Seahawks would like to see everything unfold this time around the way it did after the 2013 season, when they took complete ownership of the first New York/New Jersey cold weather Super Bowl with a 43-8 beatdown of the Broncos at MetLife Stadium. The Seahawks are the first team in 10 years to get to consecutive Super Bowls and awaiting them in Glendale, Ariz., will be the last franchise to do it, the Patriots.
No one on the outside looking in was counting on the Seahawks making a successful run at back-to-back championships when they were 3-3 after six games and 6-4 after 10. And no one expected the Seahawks to escape the clutches of the Packers in what was shaping up for them to be a disappointing NFC Championship Game, with Russell Wilson (four interceptions) imploding and facing a 19-7 deficit late in the fourth quarter. But the Seahawks scored 15 points in an incredible 49-second span and went on to win 28-22 in overtime, with the irrepressible Wilson hitting Jermaine Kearse with a 35-yard touchdown pass to send a dagger through the heart of the Packers’ Super Bowl dream.
“Really proud to be part of that event,’’ Carroll said the day after. “It was really an event as it turned out. Few of us have anything to compare to that. We’re all real grateful we were a part of it and had the opportunity to be faced with so much adversity and so much of a challenge. It wasn’t a one-play thing, a lot of stuff had to happen.’’
Some of the stuff that happened was painful, as cornerback Richard Sherman and free safety Earl Thomas, two of the four members of the Seahawks Legion of Boom secondary, came out of the game with injuries.
Thomas came away with a dislocated left shoulder after a punishing tackle on Randall Cobb in the second quarter and, with the Seahawks trailing 16-0, Thomas was sent to the locker room for evaluation. He did not stay off the field for very long, as he was back out there before the two-minute warning — only after getting fitted for a protective harness.
Sherman incurred possible ligament damage in his left elbow. On the first play of the fourth quarter, he pushed James Starks out of bounds after a 32-yard run and then was hit by friendly fire from teammate Kam Chancellor, who as a 232-pound strong safety, packs a wallop. Clearly in pain, Sherman did not move his left arm much after the collision. Later, on a 6-yard reception for Jordy Nelson, Sherman did not tackle Nelson, but he did manage to get him to the ground.
“Honestly I just kind of threw him around and hoped I could get enough squeeze to get him down,’’ Sherman said.
Carroll said “I’m not going there’’ when asked to consider a Seattle defense without Sherman and Thomas. Both players have vowed to play in two weeks against the Patriots.
“It’s worth mentioning again the effort those guys put out,’’ Carroll said. “Both those guys were in dire straits. And they didn’t flinch, not for a second. And when they played, they played their hearts out. Their courage and their toughness in standing up for who they are and what they mean to this team couldn’t have been more evident, in their willingness to throw their body out there again and finish this game.’’
The Seahawks are the 12th team in NFL history to reach the Super Bowl a year after winning it the previous year. They are looking to become the ninth team to capture back-to-Back Super Bowl victories. To get it, Carroll must beat Bill Belichick, the man who replaced him as the Patriots head coach. Carroll’s tenure in New England lasted three years; he went 10-6, 9-7 and 8-8 before he was fired after the 1999 season.
“It’s a little bit personal because we were there and it’s a great place and I have great respect for what they have done, the family, what they have pulled off over the years,’’ Carroll said on the radio in Seattle.
“The Kraft family, they’ve done amazing things, historic things in the league and in the last 15 years or however long it’s been. … They’ve been the best of the best and they’ve proven it. So we’re fortunate to get a chance to get to play a team like this and a club like this.”