The Seattle Seahawks worked their magic in the fourth quarter once again, this time without any disputed touchdown calls.
Russell Wilson threw a last-minute touchdown and the Seahawks came back from a two score deficit to upset the Patriots 24-23 on Sunday in Seattle.
"If guys didn't believe in him," Seattle safety Earl Thomas said to the Associated Press, "I guarantee they believe in him now."
Wilson's pass came with just over a minute left in the game and allowed the Seahawks to improve to 4-2 on the season, leaving them in a three way tie for the division lead.
The NFC West, which has been called the weakest division in football in recent years, currently has four teams with .500 records or better, the only one in the entire league to have that. The Seahawks are tied with the San Francisco 49ers and the Arizona Cardinals for first place.
Seattle head coach Pete Carroll earned a win against a franchise he used to coach back in the 90s.
"I hadn't even thought about that. That was a long time ago and there have been a lot of games," Carroll said. "I really love Robert Kraft, he's a great man and he's been great throughout the years about our separation of sorts. I respect the heck out of him. But I'm a competitor and, heck yeah, I want to win against those guys."
After making a comeback in the fourth quarter, Wilson threw a perfect 46-yard touchdown to Sidney Rice that landed just over the Patriots secondary and into the end zone. The touchdown tied the game at 23 and the extra point put Seattle ahead with just a minute left in the game.
According to ESPN.com, Russell Wilson is the first rookie quarterback since the merger to throw two game-winning touchdown passes in the last two minutes of a game in the same season. He also did it on Monday night football against the Green Bay Packers in a disputed call that gave the Seahawks a controversial win.
The game pitted two of the best units in football against each other: the No. ranked Seattle defense and the No. 1 ranked Patriots offense. Something would have to give on this Sunday.
New England took an early 7-3 lead on a 46-yard touchdown pass from Tom Brady to Wes Welker, before the Seahawks moved ahead at the end of the first quarter, with Wilson throwing a pass to Doug Baldwin to go up 10-7.
The second quarter was all Patriots, with Brady hitting Aaron Hernandez for a 1-yard pass and Stephen Gostkowski converting a field goal to push the lead to 17-10. Gostkowski added two more field goals, giving the Patriots a 23-10 lead in the fourth quarter and setting up a chance for Seattle's improbable comeback.
Wilson was able to convert on a fourth down and hit Braylon Edwards with a touchdown to cut the lead to 23-17. The Seahawks defense played extremely well at the end of the game, stopping the Patriots multiple times to allow Wilson to make a comeback.
"I wasn't surprised. As a defense we want the game on our shoulders," Seattle linebacker Bobby Wagner said. "We have the confidence in us; we know Pete has the confidence in us."
Wilson used a play-action pass on Seattle's final drive of the game, freezing the defense just enough to hit Rice with the winning score.
"It was a heck of a throw. When I came out of my break, the whole time I was looking at the ball in the air and it was so pretty," Rice said. "I was just running, I was like 'You've got to catch up to it, you've got to catch up to it,' and I was able to track it down."
He finished the game with 293 yards passing, the most this season, and also had three touchdowns.
"I think I'm always comfortable no matter the situation, I think I'm just more experienced," Wilson said. "Being in those situations you have to trust what you see, you have to be quick with your decisions, but also believe in your decisions and just be decisive with the football."
Brady did all he could in the game, throwing for 395 yards and two touchdowns.
"You lose by one point and here are a lot of things we could have done better to not be in that situation," Brady said.
Wes Welker had a huge game for the Patriots, catching 10 balls for 138 yards and a touchdown in the losing effort. The Patriots had no success rushing the ball, gaining only 87 yards on 26 attempts.
