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New England wins first Super Bowl in a decade 28-24

Your 2015 NFL season begins now.

By ianhenson
Robert Deutsch-USA TODAY Sports

The New England Patriots have beat the Seattle Seahawks 28-24 to win their first Super Bowl in a decade.

Aside from Deflategate and Richard Sherman's incoming child, the story lines heading into the Super Bowl were a bit calm this year.

The NFC had won four of the last five Super Bowls prior to this game, but the Seattle Seahawks were there to try and make it five of the last six while the New England Patriots were trying to ensure head coach Bill Belichick and Tom Brady did not lose their third straight Super Bowl.

It would take six and a half minutes into the game for the first first down to occur on the Patriots' second drive. New England would employ a six-man offensive line and short passes just past the first down marker to extend the drive all the way inside of the Seahawks' 10-yard line before cornerback Jeremy Lane would pick off Brady in the end zone and return the ball 14 yards.

Lane would exit the game at that point with an air cast wrapping his right arm.

The first quarter would end 0-0 with Lane's interception being the lone highlight and Seattle driving 94 total yards between both teams. Russell Wilson would not complete a pass.

After one more drive that ended in a failed conversion for the Seahawks and only one pass attempt by Wilson, Seattle would punt the ball back to the Patriots.  New England put together a four-minute, 10-second drive that started at their own 31-yard line and ended with an 11-yard touchdown pass to Brandon LaFell with 9:47 left in the first half.

The Patriots were seeing success up to this point defensively by covering the Seahawks' wide receivers one-on-one and shutting down Marshawn Lynch (who had just 20 yards going into Seattle's fourth possession of the game).

The Seahawks would finally see pay dirt off of a six-run, two-pass drive with 2:16 left in the first half. A 44-yard connection from Wilson to wide receiver Chris Matthews led to three Lynch runs for 11 yards and a touchdown.

With the score even at seven a piece at the two-minute warning in the first half, New England would control the drive with meticulous, quick out routes and slants across the middle culminating in a 22-yard Brady to Rob Gronkowski touchdown. Gronkowski was not covered by Kam Chancellor on the play for what must have been one of the first times in the half.

With only 31 seconds left in the first half, Wilson fought all the way down to the Patriots' 11-yard line and took a final shot with six seconds remaining on the clock. He would connect with Matthews for a Seahawks' touchdown and that's half.

Katy Perry would come out to sing about kissing girls and liking it while the score was even at 14 and Seattle receiving the ball coming out of halftime.

Perry went on to sing a medley of her hits of the last year, including the exotic dancer anthem "Dark Horse." Pepsi propaganda infiltrated viewers' eye balls, accompanied by Hunger Games star Lenny Kravitz and the triumphant return of Missy "Misdemeanor" Elliott who would go on to take over the second half of Perry's performance.

If you really didn't watch the Super Bowl and are dependent on this recap to understand what was happening at this moment, the commercials up until now opted for depressing and serious as opposed to funny. As if it could get worse for people who weren't fans of either team.

Even the NFL was in on it, rubbing it in Broncos' fans faces one day after Terrell Davis failed to be voted into the Hall of Fame:

The first drive of the second half would see Seattle's Matthews continuing to add on to his career yardage total (he had not had a career catch prior to this Super Bowl), leading the Seahawks down to the New England eight-yard line and a field goal.

On the Patriots' first possession of the second half, the Seattle defense brought the heat, pressuring Brady as only they can and great deception by Seahawks linebacker Bobby Wagner led to Brady's second interception of the night.

Doug Baldwin would give Seattle a 24-14 lead on their second possession of the second half. New England's Darrelle Revis was on coverage and was picked by a referee, the touchdown would lead the Seahawks' Richard Sherman to gesture to the camera insinuating that he was the best cornerback in the NFL.

NBC would cut-away from Baldwin's obscene touchdown celebration to Sherman's hubris.

After going the entire first quarter without a completion, Wilson now averaged 20.1 yards per completion and leaned on two touchdowns.

Run blitzes would be the solution for New England's defense, but Brady and the offense could not convert on their defense's prowess and the score would remain 24-14 Seattle into the fourth quarter.

It would not be for three more possessions until the Patriots neared scoring distance and a four-minute, 15-second, 68-yard drive would be capped off by a four-yard touchdown pass from Brady to Danny Amendola, making it 24-21 Seahawks with 7:55 left in the game.

The Patriots would do just that with Brady connecting a four yard pass to Julian Edelman which made the score 28-24 New England.

And then every nightmare that Patriots' fans have had since their last Super Bowl came back in a new form:

Seattle would take the ball inside the Patriots' two yardline and then:

Rookie cornerback Malcolm Butler guaranteed that the New England Patriots would win Super Bowl XLIX.

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