Seahawks’ Russell Wilson came of age in first meeting against Patriots

Seattle quarterback Russell Wilson became a household name when he led the Seahawks to a Super Bowl championship a year ago.

The endorsements with American Family Insurance, Alaska Airlines and Bose headphones, to name a few, are testament to that.

But Wilson came of age as an NFL quarterback in his rookie year of 2012 in a game against the New England Patriots, the team he’ll be facing today oin Super Bowl XLIX. Wilson will further etch his name in history if he can become the first quarterback to win two Super Bowls in his first three NFL seasons.

In 2012, Wilson, an undersized third-round draft pick, had beaten out high-priced free agent Matt Flynn for the Seahawks‘ starting job — clinching it largely based on his play in a 44-14 preseason win over the Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium — but Seattle’s offense struggled in the first five weeks of the season.

The Seahawks were 3-2 at that point and had scored but 60 points in those five games. Wilson, who had thrown for more than 200 yards in just one game, met with coach Pete Carroll and said it was time to open the offense and let Wilson cut loose.

“I remember going to coach Carroll’s office and talking to him and in the conversation, telling him, ‘Let me go … I’m ready to go,’ ” Wilson recalled. “He completely agreed, saying, OK, I’m going to let you go.’

“I’m better when I can just play ball, I think. I’m not a close-minded person, so I just want to have it all on my plate and just go for it. I think that lets me relax … because I put all the work in, so when the game just comes to me, that’s usually when I play my best. That was something that went into that week we talked about, and sure enough we went for it and found a way to win.”

It wasn’t easy against the Patriots, who were coming off a Super Bowl season when they visited Seattle. The Seahawks trailed 23-17 when Wilson hit Sidney Rice with a 46-yard touchdown pass with 1 minute, 18 seconds to go for a 24-23 victory.

“To go back to my rookie season, and to play the Patriots, I truly think that was one of the biggest games for me personally, just to be able to come back against a great team and to take the lead throwing the ball to Sidney Rice,” said Wilson, who threw for 293 yards and three touchdowns in the game.

“That was a huge comeback for us. I think that was kind of the momentum starter for the past three years really, to be honest with you.”

The Patriots remember that experience well.

“The way he can extend plays,. and the plays he had against us, you could just tell that he was for real,” said veteran New England nose tackle Vince Wilfork. “He’s done nothing but get better over the years. When you can go to back-to-back Super Bowl games, it starts somewhere, and one of the places it starts with is the quarterback position.”

The comeback against New England was only the beginning of Wilson’s ability to rally his team from behind. Some teammates point to a comeback at Chicago later in Wilson’s rookie season that confirmed his status as a star in the making.

Seattle trailed the Bears 14-10 when Wilson gave the Seahawks a 17-14 lead with 24 seconds left in regulation. The Bears tied the game with a field goal at the end of regulation, but Wilson drove the Seahawks to victory with a 13-yard pass to Rice on the first possession of overtime.

In fact, Wilson threw a game-winning touchdown pass in the final 2 minutes of regulation or overtime three times in 2012, the most ever by a rookie at least since the 1970 merger and won another game with a 1-yard run. The Seahawks would go on to finish 11-5 and reach the second-round of the playoffs.

“Chicago was another big game for our offense, and for me personally,” Wilson said. “So, I think back to those games and just remember the experience, the grit that it takes to win, especially against a big-time quarterback like Tom Brady and their football team and what they do so well.”

In all, Wilson has executed 15 fourth-quarter or overtime comeback victories in 55 career games, more than any other quarterback since 2012, including five this season.

The most recent comeback was in this year’s NFC Championship Game against Green Bay. Wilson, who had thrown four interceptions in the game, bounced back and overcame deficits of 16-0 and 19-7 with 2:13 remaining. Wilson’s 35-yard strike to Jermaine Kearse gave the Seahawks the third-biggest comeback in championship game history.

“The biggest difference between me in my rookie year against the Patriots and now,” Wilson said, “is the experience, the composure, all the reps that I’ve had, all the practices, all the games, all the big games … I try not to look at them as big games, I just try to look at them as great moments, and you just try to add up those moments and more great moments than bad moments.

“You just trust the guys you have around you. You think about my rookie year we had so many young guys. We’re the youngest team in the National Football League. We’re probably still the top-five, top-six youngest teams in the league if you look across the board. Just the development of the receivers, with Doug Baldwin, with Jermaine Kearse, those guys are lights out for us. … My relationship with Marshawn Lynch and all the other guys as well. We’ve got a lot of really great football players on our team, and so guys really step up for us, and I just trust the guys that I have around me.”

Wilson has won 36 regular season games, good for the most by a starting quarterback in his first three seasons in the Super Bowl era; and his 42 total victories are the most in a quarterback’s first three seasons. That makes Wilson, who is paid just $662,000 base salary, the best bargain in football until after he hits free agency after the 2015 season.

Wilson’s sudden success did not surprise his teammates.

“You can go from his rookie year, lots of ups and downs from that season,” said center Max Unger. “He is as advertised. Nobody works harder than him. I honestly didn’t know how long he was going to last putting the time in that he was putting in.

“He was there during OTAs all day long, we’re talking 12-hour days. We’d come in at noon, and he’d be there until midnight. He won the job, and he’s still doing it. It’s amazing.”

Carroll says Wilson is as elite a mental athlete as he is a physical athlete.

“I don’t know how we could play at the level he plays at and have the expectations and able to live up to those expectations in the most challenging of times without a tremendous mind,” Carroll said.

“I don’t think we can have a better guy for the Seahawks than Russell Wilson. He gives us such a dynamic approach to the quarterback position. We’ve always wanted our quarterback to be the point guard and distribute the ball to different players, and Russell has been fantastic in doing that … and he’s just getting started. It’s a really, really exciting journey we’re following here.”

It’s a journey to a second Super Bowl that Wilson began thinking about moments after the Seahawks beat Denver in last year’s title game.

“Honestly, I started thinking about this year as soon as I put the trophy down last year,” Wilson said. “It was kind of like now it’s time to think about next year and what we can do. That’s my mind-set, maybe call me crazy, maybe call me insane, I don’t know that’s just the way that I think.

“How can I get prepared for the next opportunity, and I think throughout the summer and throughout the training, too, you think about it all the time, consistently. How do I get back there, how do we get prepared, how do I prepare my body, how do I prepare my mind, how do I prepare my teammates, and how do we get ready to go to try and repeat?

“That’s not necessarily the words you use, the repeat word, but how do you try to be the best in the game of football again, as a team? That’s what we look at.”

This story was originally published January 31, 2015 at 5:54 PM with the headline "Seahawks’ Russell Wilson came of age in first meeting against Patriots."