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Seattle Seahawks

Overtime drive Wilson’s latest signature moment

SEATTLE – The Legacy Quarterback had just piloted his team on a drive for the ages – overtime, 80 yards, 13 textbook plays, using his feet when necessary, his arm when possible, his head every second. It was brilliant, and afterward in the visiting locker room, the victims took pause to acknowledge it.

“Keep talking up Andrew Luck,” spat Denver Broncos cornerback Chris Harris Jr. “Russell Wilson is better.”

Russell Wilson? What narrative is this, and from where had it come?

Hadn’t Americans been riveted to their big screens Sunday afternoon for the last minute of Super Bowl XLVIII II.0 to witness the rechristening of Peyton Manning as all that is good and holy (maybe the only thing good and holy) about professional football? And, dammit, he’d delivered – highlight reel heroics with a bullet to No. 1 in the NFL Films Archival Top 10. Even the poor, stunned saps in the seats at CenturyLink Field had bowed a knee and offered the old Sydney Greenstreet salute to an impossibly Manning moment.

Until Russell Wilson brought them to their feet again.

So forget Manning and his over-volleyed legacy. This cemented Wilson’s, and ranks as his signature moment, more so than even the Super Bowl victory scant months ago. It will serve as the final answer to the nitwits who cannot bring themselves to put his name and “great” in the same breath because he’s too short or runs too much or can’t produce the right pedigree.

The overtime drive with which Wilson rescued the Seattle Seahawks goes straight into the Big Book of 12s Lore.

The 26-20 victory is but another plus mark in another regular season, its worth dependent on the events of future weeks. But the drive and Wilson’s role in it have already taken on a greater significance.

“You always trust in him,” tight end Zach Miller said. “You know he’ll win the game for you at some point.

“And if he doesn’t, then they must have done something really amazing.”

Well, yes. About that …

If you have not seen the video compilation, get thee online and do so. Cue it up with 59 seconds left in regulation and the Broncos needing 80 yards and not just a touchdown to get it into overtime, but a two-point conversion as well. To this point, it had been a terrific game. From here, it was otherworldly.

Against the NFL’s most dominant defense – the one that had humiliated him last February in New Jersey – Manning got the Broncos into the end zone in six plays. Then he went right at ol’ Mr. Lockdown, Richard Sherman himself, and connected with Demaryius Thomas for the PAT.

Masterful. Surgical. Cold-blooded. And a challenge.

“Russell is a competitor,” Seahawks safety Earl Thomas noted. “I’m pretty sure in his mind he didn’t want Peyton Manning to come into his house and steal his show.”

You know what, Earl? He was rooting for it.

That is very much the competitor in him. He is barely into his third NFL season, and in head-to-heads against the likes of Manning, Aaron Rodgers, Tom Brady and Drew Brees he is 7-0. In those games, he has thrown 14 touchdowns. And one interception.

Yeah, he lost to Luck. Did anyone say he was perfect?

So on Sunday, even though his set appeared done after Kam Chancellor’s interception and a field goal put the Seahawks up 20-12, he and his offensive mates plugged in their amps one more time.

“It was almost – and I don’t mean to say this in the wrong way – I was almost hoping it would happen,” Wilson said. “That we would get the ball. I believed our defense would make a stop, but if it didn’t happen, I couldn’t wait for those moments – those big-time moments where you have to go up and down the field and make plays and have guys continue to believe in what we do.”

Thanks to the NFL’s curious overtime rules, the Seahawks had to have a touchdown or Manning would get another shot. Wilson made sure he didn’t. He ran the ball four times, twice on third down to move the chains. Five of his six throws came from outside the pocket.

And not against Denver’s chopped liver defense of 2013. The Broncos invested $128 million in free agents over the winter, and if the offense still got out-toughed in Seattle, the defense held its own – for nine innings.

Wilson could have probably taken the last at-bat himself, too, but characteristically it was an ensemble piece. Center Max Unger and James Carpenter pinched in on Denver’s Marvin Austin. Guard J.R. Sweezy bulldozed 330-pound Terrance Knighton. Tackle Justin Britt stood up Derek Wolfe. And Marshawn Lynch sailed through the hole and dove over cornerback Aqib Talib and into the end zone.

“Playing to the edge,” Wilson described the moment, “but not falling off the edge.”

Not an unappealing approach, as legacies go.