ALL THE PRE-GAME speculation, hype and build-up was finally over and it was time to play some football.
The Denver Broncos’ high-flying offence took on the mean Seattle Seahawks defence. At quarterback, future Hall of Famer Peyton Manning came up against the young upstart Russell Wilson.
Our open thread was a little different this year. We still wanted to hear your thoughts on the game in the comments, but we were also updating the article with videos, gifs and the odd piece of commentary from Super Bowl XLVIII.
If you spotted anything you think we should include, or you have any questions, let us know in the comments below, email me at steven@thescore.ie or tweet us @thescore_ie.
Seattle Seahawks 43 – 8 Denver Broncos
Hello fellow night owls and welcome to our Super Bowl XLVIII open thread!
First thing you should know tonight is that the beer in your hand is a lot cheaper than what they’re paying in the stadium:
Image: Darren Rovell
Secondly, and most importantly, how do you think this one is going to go?
My money’s on Seattle but it has been from the start of the year so it;s very difficult to change even with the weather not affecting Denver as much as we all expected.
The big question 50 minutes from kick off is where is Nat Coombs on Channel 4?
With that in mind, will you be watching on Sky, Channel 4 or, eh, elsewhere?
I don’t know about you, but I’m with Andy:
Until Channel 4 bring Nat back, we’ve switched over to Sky. They have Jeff, Jeff’s great:
#FREENAT
Unless you’ve been applying to live on Mars for the last week you’ve probably seen this but one betting company is offering 200/1 on this particular result:
Would you take it?
Lots of boos for Seattle as they come out to The Verve’s Bittersweet Symphony.
Denver, on the other hand, seem to have the advantage with the crowd but their choice of scaring a horse to death in the pre-game build up means it’s advantage Seahawks.
The over/under on the US national anthem is 2’22″.
I’m going with over. She’s an opera singer, they like to showboat.
JOE NAMATH’S COAT!
SAFETY! – And we’ve the quickest score in Super Bowl history with the Seahawks taking advantage of a horrible Denver snap to make it 2-0 with a safety:
Image: SB Nation
And the Broncos have gone Safety, three and out in their first two drives. Not the start Denver fans would have wanted.
You just knew this was going to be a thing, didn’t you?
INTERCEPTION – Peyton Manning gets fooled again by the Seattle defence and it’s the game’s first turnover thanks to Kam Chancellor’s pick.
This is how bad it was for Denver in the first quarter:
TOUCHDOWN – And the Seahawks have finally found the endzone with Marshawn Lynch scrambling home from a yard.
PICK SIX – After a long drive, on which the Broncos converted four times on third down, Peyton Manning throws his second interception — this time by Malcolm Smith — and this one is returned for a touchdown:
This is the greatest meeting of cultures since we brought hurling to the States:
It’s half time and I don’t think anyone would have predicted this scoreline.
Is there anyway back for Denver?
KICKOFF RETURN – Denver try to limit the impact of Percy Harvin on the kick return by kicking it short…and he returns it for a touchdown. That is surely the game?
FUMBLE – Just when the Broncos make a big passing play, Thomas gives the ball up and it’s another turnover.
TOUCHDOWN – Seattle have scored again and Denver’s defence are worse than the Raiders’:
Captain Picard is happy:
TOUCHDOWN – Broncos are finally on the board as Demaryius Thomas makes a pretty good grab in the endzone to make it 36-8 after the two-point conversion:
TOUCHDOWN – Any hope of a comeback is put in it’s place as Russell Wilson throws his second touchdown of the game, this one to Doug Baldwin. Denver’s tackling is awful again:
What do a Waterford hurler and the Super Bowl have in common?
And that’s the game. Pete Carroll and the Seattle Seahawks have won their first ever Super Bowl.
Hard to argue the best team won.
This is what it looks like to win a Super Bowl:
Congratulations Seattle Seahawks, Super Bowl champions:
The League of Ireland is in a sorry state. This carry on is is not going away. As a Drogheda United we know more than most what its like when ones club chases the rainbow. How any player in the lower echelons of League of Ireland think its a good idea to be a footballer in Ireland is beyond me. All of these players will be out of contract at the end of the season, claim the dole and then go back to earning peanuts again. Its hardly a long term career plan. The FAI should use the their competition as a measure of how they as an association are performing….well its failing miserably. I’d love to see it get better, even to see it get to a Scottish standard with stadiums, facilities and televison deals would be enough but we are light years away from that.
@Patrick McHugh: so long as we keep ploughing our money into the EPL and the plastic paddy’s up north then we will never have a decent domestic league. Always love coming on here and seeing guys who proclaim to be Irish fans but will then on an EPL thread announce themselves as fans of UTD or Liverpool. The FAI don’t help though that much is true. If ever proof we’re needed then just look at the photos of Delaney or Mo’N in Inchicore poring over plans for the Richmond Bowl and on TV saying how good it will be for the game here. Oh, wait you can’t, Because they don’t exist!
@David Lawlor: Hi David, what do you mean by ‘ploughing money into the EPL and the plastic paddy up north’?
@Sean McFadden: Spending millions on trips to England and Glasgow Celtic. Non Irish teams.
@David Lawlor: Ok I get the EPL connect. The other part a reference to Hoops supporters from the North in particular?
@Sean McFadden: where does it say anything about people from the North? Very clearly talking about Celtic being north of England
fai imposes stoopid faux “licencing” bs scheeme on clubs wastes money on junkets 4 blazers & psuedo corporate fluff stuff (eg. Consultants) organization needs complete restructure & repurpose. Ireland’s soccer set up is unsustainable for long term ignoring grass roots development & proper investment in & development of local LofI &subsidiary league clubs & structures.
All our senior clubs have faced financial crises in recent times. The dundalks corks rovers etc included all hv faced financial catastrophe. FAI top brass response 2 ongoing recurring situations is 2 further distance itself from domestic scene.
Soccer is no.1 sport in ireland in terms of active players and reach, yet unlike other orgs like gaa irfu fai is appalingly run wthout proper strategic leadership or direction
When will the FAI realise that you can’t sustain a two division league system in this country and how many more teams have to go out of business for them to realize this and how do many of them get a licence year on year .Have one league with 14/ 16 teams but we all know its about money from UEFA ????????
@James Kelly: I think there’s some stipulation that you have to have at least 2 leagues to allow teams qualify for European competitions. I think
@Zossima: Nah, Gibraltar (the obvious one I could think of!) only have one division.
Love to see what that chancer Fran Gavin has to say about this.
It’s sad when this happens a club . Players have to be paid at the end of the day ! Some junior players are getting paid and they hold down jobs also , this is a stumbling block also to the clubs , why would a guy bother playing and travelling all around the country to train and play ! FAI have a lot of work to do when they get their heads out of the sand