They can't win on the road. They have no offense. They're too young. They have no experience in big games. These were just some of the knocks against the Seattle Seahawks this season and they shattered every single one of them on their way to a victory in Super Bowl XLVIII.
In my lifetime, I have not seen a Super Bowl champion with as many detractors as the 2013 Seattle Seahawks. They plowed through three of the toughest teams in the league in the Carolina Panthers, San Francisco 49ers and Denver Broncos to get the Lombardi Trophy yet they're still getting snubbed by the fans and a majority of the league. Their success can't be argued, so why is next to no one giving them credit they deserve as champions?
For the two weeks leading up to the Super Bowl, the internet and the media just unloaded on the Seahawks. The Richard Sherman postgame rant heard 'round the world led to a series of angry, often racially-charged rants on social media and sports talk radio. Sherman was accused of being a "thug" and "a bully" and it seemed everyone outside of Seattle was condemning him and wanted the team to fail. Seahawks haters further attacked their legitmatcy because of their lack of a Super Bowl title and accused of them having a bandwagon-hoping fanbase that only started caring about the team in 2012 when they started to win games.
Then gameday came. An unusually warm day in New Jersey in February became even more unusual when Peyton Manning and center Manny Ramirez had a miscue on the first play of the game, leading to a fumble and safety for the Seahawks a mere 12 seconds into the game. The opening play was just the start of a long evening for the Broncos. The Seahawks absolutely crippled the Broncos high-powered offense, forcing Peyton Manning to throws 2 INT's including the 69-yard pick six that earned Malcolm Smith Super Bowl MVP. The Seahawks caused even more defensive havoc by shutting down the Broncos trademark short-passing game by all but eliminating yards after the catch for any of their receivers. Offensively, the Seahawks captialized off their defenses' takeaways and made every single play they needed to put points on the board. The Broncos couldn't even catch a break on special teams when Percy Harvin returned the second half kickoff for a touchdown and buried any chance the Broncos had at a comeback along with it.
Even after the final whistle blew and the confetti rained down on the Seahawks after their 43-8 victory, seemingly everyone was quick to discredit the Seahawks accomplishment. Claims like "Peyton Manning blew it" and "The Seahawks are lucky that Peyton Manning sucks" were lighting up the Twittersphere. Did anyone actually stop and think that the reason Manning wasn't in top form was because the Seahawks defense was so relentless with pressure and consisently made plays? Did anyone look at the stat line and see that Manning completed 69% of his passes and almost threw for 300 yards? The Seahawks simply prepared well for the game and ruined the flow that the Broncos typically get into.
Aside from the Kam Chancellor interception on a poorly-thrown ball, Manning was still very much on his game. His guys were open and mostly catching their passes, the Seahawks just prevented anything from coming out of a majority of those plays. If your getting the ball there and your guys are running their routes properly yet you're still get stopped; that's the work of a stingy defense, not a poor offense.
There hasn't been a defense as relentlessly physical and dominant as the 2013 Seahawks since the 2000 Baltimore Ravens, and there was not a single pocket-passing quarterback in the league that could've beat them. The Seahawks hammered Manning, they hammered Drew Brees twice, and they would've hammered Tom Brady too if the Patriots had advanced to the Super Bowl over the Broncos. The blame needs to stop being put on Manning's shoulders. The Seahawks defense came in and made one of the best offenses of all-time look disorganized and weak. This is a defense that is a force to be reckoned with and there was nothing the Broncos could've done to stop that.
What the detractors fail to realize is the level of disrespect was the driving force behind the Seahawks title run. Every step of the way, they were criticized and this just put more of a fire under them to succeed. Even after they won it all, no respect was earned. You can hate the Seahawks as much as you want, but the way in which they won and the amount of pure talent on this roster demands respect from everyone around the league. My message to the rest of the league is watch out for the next season because the Seahawks reign is just getting started and their critics are the catalyst behind it.
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