Marshawn Lynch, Russell Wilson shine in defeat

Through the entire season, the Seattle Seahawks were carried by two players on offense, as Russell Wilson and Marshawn Lynch were two of the most valuable players in the NFL throughout the year. I know it was Bobby Wagner who earned Tony Dungy‘s MVP vote, but if anyone deserved an outside-the-box vote on the Seahawks, then either Lynch or Wilson would have made much more sense.

Take a look at what both of them did today against the New England Patriots. Even though they lost, it’s obvious that neither player can be faulted, and the Seahawks most likely would have won this game had they simply ran the ball with Lynch. It might seem like I’m blaming Wilson for the interception, but the fact of the matter is that it was a risky player, and Malcolm Butler deserves much more praise than Wilson does blame for what happened.

Interception aside, Wilson played a fantastic game against the Patriots defense if you are willing to look past the completion percentage in his 12-21 line. He turned those 21 pass attempts into 247 yards and two touchdowns, averaging an astounding 11.8 yards per attempt. It’s usually difficult to burn the Patriots secondary like that, but Wilson managed to achieve this by taking advantage of the size mis-matches.

As we saw in 2013 when he had a better wide receiver corps, Wilson throws arguably the NFL’s best deep ball, as his arm strength and placement are both perfect. He painted some absolutely perfect “pitches” today, particularly to Chris Matthews. Just as his receivers have to understand leverage when going up for passes, so too does Wilson understand where to place the ball to give the defensive back less of a shot at the pick while giving his receiver a better opportunity to make the big play.

Today’s performance shows why Wilson’s four-pick day against the Green Bay Packers was such an anomaly, though he did benefit from the lack of size in the Patriots secondary, as Kyle Arrington and Logan Ryan were frequently victimized. That said, it’s a testament to Wilson’s ability as a passer that he can work with any receiver you put around him, and maybe only Brady is better at “doing more with less” at the wide receiver position. Bereft of a true No. 1 wideout in the regular season, Wilson was still one of the league’s best QBs, especially when it came to limiting mistakes.

He did make a mistake on the last play of the game, but it would be unwise to pin that on him, especially since he averaged 20.6 yards per completion and beat an elite Patriots secondary with his arm strength and head. He also showed his slippery scrambling ability by gaining 39 yards on three carries, showing off his trademark elusiveness and agility to extend plays.

But for as impressive as Wilson was at generating exciting plays and nearly leading his team to victory, Lynch might have been even more impressive. He ran for over 100 yards against a solid Patriots defense, and he could have had more yards had the Seahawks been able to run the ball more late in the game, as it started to become clear that he had worn down Chandler Jones, Rob Ninkovich, Vince Wilfork, and the rest of the Patriots front seven.

Lynch’s game has always been about toughness, and he regularly moved piles and even forced some silly missed tackles against one of the NFL’s most disciplined run defenses. His numbers weren’t as eye-popping as usual, but he had some trademark runs, went over 100, and deserved to score that game-winning touchdown.

In a loss like this one, there are always plenty of positive performances to highlight, and both Marshawn Lynch and Russell Wilson deserve plenty of praise for putting this offense on their backs during the entirety of the season, including the Super Bowl. These are two of the best players at their respective positions, and while we’re busy kicking deserved praise to Tom Brady and Julian Edelman, let’s also send some love to the two big names on the Seahawks offense; they did everything they could to win a second straight Super Bowl.

Next: Julian Edelman as valuable as Brady in SB

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