Let’s remember the Seahawks’ “Beast Quake” game that happened on this day in 2011 (January 8)
When the Seahawks met the New Orleans Saints in the playoffs in the 2010–11 season, few people gave the Seahawks a chance. New Orleans were ten point favorites and defending Super Bowl champions. The Seahawks were the first team in NFL history to make the playoffs with a losing record (7–9). They got in because someone from one of the historically worst divisions had to make the playoffs. By Seattle winning the NFC West conference, it meant that the Saints — who had a much better 11–5 record, but were a wildcard team by finishing behind the 13–3 Falcons— would be on the road.
The game went mostly according to script, with the Seahawks making a few costly mistakes early on (including kicker Olindo Mare sending the opening kickoff out of bounds). But then in the fourth quarter of a surprisingly close game, a play that SB Nation called “the greatest run in NFL playoff history.” They tell it:
Marshawn Lynch took the handoff on second-and-10 and ran into a pile of bodies at the line. Watching from the stands behind the southern end zone of then-Qwest Field, I processed the fallout: the Seahawks, the woeful NFC West’s lowly playoff representative, would face third-and-long, run a draw play to bleed more time off the clock, and punt. The Saints, reigning Super Bowl champions, would get the ball back with a timeout and the two-minute warning, and erase Seattle’s unlikely four-point lead with a game-winning drive.
Except the play wasn’t over. Lynch, somehow still on his feet, staggered out of a mass of bodies, a lateral displacement so quick it looked like a video game glitch. His legs churned, accelerating, cannonballing along the right hashmark. Would-be tacklers reached for him and slid to the turf. He hit the open field and we beckoned him toward our end zone with our voices, already hoarse from shouting for three hours. Tracy Porter put his arms on Lynch’s shoulder pads, and Lynch swatted him away like a grizzly knocking a coho to a riverbed. Teammates and opponents hustled downfield, closer to us, closer to pandemonium. A final cutback and Lynch was diving into the end zone.
Marshawn Lynch breaking nine tackles to score a game-clinching playoff win is the stuff of legends, of course, but the reaction from fans immortalized the play. As the academic journal Seismological Research Letters wrote, “Through the response of the roar and stomping of the tens of thousands of feet, the ground shook enough that the vibrations were recorded by the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network (PNSN) strong-motion station KDK, a block or so away.” So yes, an NFL touchdown registered on an actual seismograph.
It was awesome.
Let’s enjoy it one more time, with commentary from the man himself:
Further reading:
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