Super Bowl XLVIII - billed as the ultimate contest between the unstoppable Denver Broncos offensive force against the immovable Seattle Seahawks defensive object - proved to be a snooze-and-all-you-will-miss-is-another-play-or-two-of-Seattle domination rout of the highest order.
Peyton Manning and his Denver Broncos, the most feared offense in the league over the last season, and statistically the highest scoring offense in NFL history, was made to look like a pee wee football team trying to cut it against the big boys.
Seattle were relentless, ruthless and remorseless in a domination central performance that took them to their first ever Super Bowl win courtesy a 43-8 hammering of the Broncos.
The Seahawks' ridiculously powerful secondary came to the fore yet again, leading to cries, from Seattle's 12th man, of LOB, LOB - the Legion of Boom had shown their prowess yet again, with Manning, now 11-12 in the playoffs, and 1-2 in Super Bowls, having absolutely no answer.
The win was also a bit of redemption for coach Pete Carroll, whose credentials to lead in the NFL had been brought into question after a couple of difficult stints earlier in his career. After this performance, however, even the naysayers can only stand up and applaud Carroll and the team that he has built.
From kickoff, there looked like being only one team, as the Seahawks looked like a team primed for an assault on that Vince Lombardi Trophy, while the Broncos looked tentative and nervous.
Those nerves were only exacerbated when center Manny Ramires snapped the ball a little early to Manning, who could do nothing but watch the ball roll into his own end zone with Knoshown Moreno diving in for a safety.
That start set the tone for the rest of the game, as the Seahawks, sensing blood, capitalised in some style. In the blink of an eye - it would have of course felt a lot longer for the Broncos and its fans - Seattle were 22-0 up at halftime, leaving Denver with their biggest deficit of the season, a deficit they would not even come close to reducing.
The 22-0 lead was established courtesy that Seahawks defense, when Malcolm Smith, the game's MVP, pulled off an interception return touchdown, with Percy Harvin then twisting that knife into the Broncos just a little deeper with an outstanding 87-yard kickoff run to start the second half.
While everyone expected Manning to take the quarterback honors from the game, it was Russell Wilson that outshone his more illustrious opponent, throwing for two touchdown passes, one to Jermaine Kearse, and the second to Doug Baldwin, when the game was pretty much done and dusted.
Defence wins you championships they say, and nothing proved that old saying more than on Sunday at a packed MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, where an unbelievably dominating performance from the Seattle Seahawks set them on their way to their first Super Bowl victory, and also the right to be compared with those iconic defences of the 1985 Chicago Bears and the 2000 Baltimore Ravens.
