Seahawks Defeat Saints, Will Host NFC Championship

The Saints had their dreams of a Cinderella story squashed by the Seahawks on Saturday afternoon. Drew Brees was able to lead his team to a road win against the Eagles in Philadelphia last week, but just didn’t have enough to overcome that formidable Seattle defense and legendarily loud 12th Man at CenturyLink Field.

The game started off poorly for the Saints, who were blanked in the first half. The Seahawks hit a couple of early field goals before capitalizing on a Saints fumble and scoring their first of two touchdowns on the day. Brees was held to just 34 yards passing in the first two quarters and went into the locker room at halftime down 16-0.

It looked like a blowout in the making, but the Saints made a game of starting with Khiry Robinson’s one-yard touchdown run at 13:11 of the fourth. It was the first rushing touchdown the Seahawks had given up in nine games. Mark Ingram followed it up by converting on the two-point conversion, making it a one-score game.

Seattle’s Russell Wilson struggled mightily, particularly late in the game. He was just 9-of-18 for 103 yards on the day. The Seahawks leaned heavily on Marshawn Lynch, who rushed 28 times for 140 yards, averaging five yards per carry. He added a second touchdown on a 31 yard run with 2:40 remaining in the fourth, which ultimately put the game out of reach.

New Orleans kept fighting through the end though. Brees connected with Marques Colston for a nine yard touchdown, once again putting them within one score of tying it up. The Saints actually recovered an onside kick with just under 30 seconds, but an illegal forward pass took 10 seconds off the clock and ended the game.

Seattle will host either the 49ers or the Panthers in the NFC Championship next week. And the Saints don’t have to worry about playing on the road again for at least eight months.