Tich’s Take
One quarterback who takes the field in Super Bowl XLIX may go down as the best to ever play the position. The other quarterback is Tom Brady.
Before you laugh, rip up this page of the paper and burn it, just read a little more.
Three years into his pro career, Russell Wilson is doing things nobody has done before. His record as a starter (including playoffs): 42-13. No quarterback in NFL history has been at the helm for 42 wins in his first three seasons.
At home, Wilson and the Seahawks simply do not lose. They are 26-2 at CenturyLink Field during his tenure. There is a better chance of walking four blocks in downtown Seattle and not spotting a coffee shop than beating the Seahawks at home with Wilson.
Of course, a win-loss record is a gross oversimplification of the merit of a single player, but to say Wilson is without personal merit is plain dumb. He has been called a game manager, product of the system, etc. But the fact is there are very few, if any, quarterbacks in the NFL as dynamic as Wilson. Trent Dilfer was a game manager.
Alex Smith is a game manager. Russell Wilson is not a game manager.
Sure, Wilson is not among the league leaders in passing yards, but he does not need to be. The Seahawks would be dumb not to hit opposing teams over the head with a heavy dose of Marshawn Lynch. Plus, the Seahawks have made a habit of building big leads, allowing Wilson to comfortably hand off in the fourth quarters of most games instead of slinging the ball around, piling up inflated stats in a comeback effort.
Not to say Wilson cannot engineer a comeback. Over the past two seasons, Wilson has led all quarterbacks in fourth-quarter comebacks, according to pro-football-reference.com. And of course there was his late-game performance in an otherwise nightmarish NFC Championship against Green Bay a few weekends back.
After throwing his fourth interception of the afternoon with under five minutes to go, the Seahawks looked left for dead down 19-7. Then Wilson and Seattle woke up.
Wilson completed four of his five passes for 64 yards on the next two Seattle drives, with some help from Marshawn Lynch, putting the Seahawks up 22-19 with 1:25 remaining. After a Green Bay field goal, the Seahawks won the toss in overtime and Wilson surgically marched the offense down the field, sliding a perfectly-placed rainbow into Jermaine Kearse’s waiting arms for the game-winning touchdown.
A Delhomme-esque disaster of a game turned into one of the gutsiest playoff performances ever in the matter of a few minutes. It was inexplicable. But it was Russell Wilson.
Wilson’s stat line through the first 56 minutes: 8-22 passing, 75 yards, four rushes, five yards, zero total touchdowns and four interceptions. His stat line on the Seahawks’ final three drives: 6-7 passing, 134 yards, three rushes, 20 yards, two scores and zero picks.
Resiliency, luck, whatever you want to call it, it was about as impressive of a comeback as there has ever been in the NFL, and Wilson was the catalyst behind it.
With one of the most in-sync, stable, talent-laden organizations in the NFL, there is no reason to believe Wilson’s unprecedented start to his career will not continue.
Overlook him if you want — Wilson has thrived on being underappreciated his entire life — but you may very well be watching the best quarterback to ever play when you turn on the big game on Sunday. And it is not the guy wearing No. 12 for the Patriots.
TICHENOR is the sports editor.