Seahawks and Broncos book Super Bowl spots

It’s rare that the two best teams in the NFL make it through to the Super Bowl.

Next month’s showdown between the Seattle Seahawks and the Denver Broncos now means that just twice in the last 20 seasons have the top seeds in the NFC and the AFC successfully navigated their respective conferences.

The Seahawks won a 23-17 thriller at home to their arch-rivals, the San Francisco 49ers, on Sunday night while earlier in the day out in Colorado, the Broncos enjoyed a dominant 26-16 victory over the New England Patriots, giving quarterback Peyton Manning a third trip to the Super Bowl.

The next two weeks of build-up will focus on the prospect of the game’s best defence in Seattle hoping to find a way of cancelling out the NFL’s most potent attack.

And it was one of those Seahawks defenders, Richard Sherman, who stole most of the headlines on Sunday night after the corner back tipped away a Colin Kaepernick pass towards a game-winning interception to protect their 23-17 lead. As the home support celebrated their first trip to the Super Bowl in eight years, Sherman got into an altercation with opposing wide receiver Michael Crabtree.

“I’m the best corner in the game,” an impassioned Sherman said. “When you try me with a sorry receiver like Crabtree, that’s the result you are going to get.”

Crabtree was relatively measured in his response. “He’s a TV guy. I’m not a TV guy,” Crabtree said. “He didn’t make any other plays in the game. But he made a good play there. He can keep talking...you make one play and you talk? Good play.”

Seattle were noticeably improved in attack from their last outing, Marshawn Lynch running powerfully for yet another long-distance touchdown which brought his side level early in the third quarter. And then in the fourth quarter, Russell Wilson threw an incredible fourth down touchdown from 35 yards to Jermaine Kearse, an impressive gamble that the 49ers could not recover from.

Meanwhile in Denver, there was also a note of controversy as Patriots coach Bill Belichick slammed one of his former players for a tackle that he described as “one of the worst plays I’ve seen”.

Wes Welker took out New England corner back Aqib Talib in what would prove a key moment as the Patriots failed to recover from the loss of their best defender, ultimately losing 26-16.

“It was a deliberate play by the receiver to take out Aqib. No attempt to get open,” Belichick said. “I’ll let the league handle the discipline on that play, whatever they decide. It’s one of the worst plays I’ve seen.”

Broncos quarterback Manning threw for 400 yards and a pair of touchdowns, accumulating 289 of those yards after Talib departed. Demaryius Thomas was once again a key target while he also added a third quarter touchdown which extended the Broncos lead to an unassailable 20-3.

“Talib’s an excellent player,” Manning said, “but Demaryius was going to be a big part of the game plan either way.”

The Broncos are slight favourites for the Super Bowl on Sunday week in the New Jersey Meadowlands but with unpredictable weather conditions potentially being a factor, it’s as tight a decider as there has ever been.

“It will be a great match-up,” Seahawks coach Pete Carroll said. “I think it’s an extraordinary opportunity to go against a guy [Manning] that set all the records in the history of the game.”