Seahawks make valiant stand to stop Patriots
THE Seattle Seahawks engineered a stout-hearted goalline stand in the final seconds to beat New England 31-24 on Sunday and gain a small measure of revenge for losing Super Bowl 49 to the Patriots.
New England (7-2) had a first-and-goal and failed on four tries. On the final attempt Tom Brady lobbed a pass in the direction of tight end Rob Gronkowski, who drove into Seahawks safety Kam Chancellor and the two hit the ground as the ball fell incomplete.
The stand came at the end of what would have been a 75-yard scoring drive in the final 4:24 in front of a crowd of 66,800 at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Massachusetts.
It didn’t make up for the Super Bowl two years ago but did take away some of the sting.
“It is an awesome win. Coming on the road and to get a big win in a big hyped- up game feels great,” running back CJ Prosise said.
“We had a hard time getting the running game going, but the offensive line opened up holes for me.”
It reminded people of how the Seahawks lost the Super Bowl when Malcolm Butler picked off a quarterback Russell Wilson pass at the goal line after coach Pete Carroll declined to have his quarterback hand the ball off to Marshawn Lynch on the 1-yard line.
Instead, the Seahawks decided to pass and the result was one of the most dramatic moments in Super Bowl history as undrafted rookie Butler intercepted the ball at the goal line.
Here, the Seahawks (6-2-1) earned their second victory in a row. Seattle’s Wilson finished 25 of 37 for 348 yards, and he tossed three touchdown passes to Doug Baldwin. Steven Hauschka kicked four field goals, and Prosise gained a combined 153 yards on the ground and through the air.
“We came up clutch. It was a phenomenal win,” said Wilson. Baldwin said that there was a “phenomenal emotional feeling in our locker room” after the game.
Wild finish
Brady, who threw the team’s first interception of the season, was 23 of 32 for 316 yards. It was the 75th 300-yard passing game of Brady’s career.
Denver safeties Justin Simmons and Will Parks were the heroes on Sunday in New Orleans, where the Broncos seized victory with a stunning defensive score on the Saints’ attempt at a game-winning extra point.
In one of the wildest NFL finishes, Simmons hurdled the offensive line to block the extra point kick after the Saints had tied at 23-23.
Parks gathered the bouncing ball and returned it 84 yards for a two-point defensive conversion that gave the Broncos an astonishing 25-23 triumph.
“It’s a desperation play because all you have to do is touch one guy [and the block is nullified],” Denver coach Gary Kubiak said.
“The kid did a great job timing his leap and wins the game for us . . . It’s something you work on all the time. There are certain situations in games where you say it’s worth the risk – that was one of them.”
Parks raced up the sideline and his scoring run held up on review after some Saints players and coaches indicated they thought he had stepped out of bounds.
The Kansas City Chiefs pulled off an improbable victory in Carolina, rallying from a 17-point deficit to stun the Panthers 20-17.
The defending NFC cham- pion Panthers had appeared to be shaking off a sluggish start to the season with backto-back wins.
But the Chiefs forced two late turnovers and sealed their fifth victory in a row on a 37yard field goal by Cairo Santos on the final play of the game.
Rookie running back Ezekiel Elliott scored two of his three touchdowns in the fourth quarter to lift the Dallas Cowboys over the Pittsburgh Steelers 35-30 in a tense duel that saw seven lead changes.
Elliott’s third TD came with just nine seconds remaining as the Cowboys won their eighth straight game.