We got ready the night before. I found all of our gear including ponchos just in case it rains, our see-through plastic game tote, our tickets from Del downloaded onto our phones, gas in the vehicle and some hope that our team would play all four quarters instead of a few and peter out then win the game by three or something. We wanted a huge win. We wanted a game that didn't shave years off our our lives.
We got up by 9, started getting ready and ate some cereal. We needed to leave by 10-10:30 to get there at a decent time, find parking and make it to our seats before kick off at 1:05. We weren't sure how traffic was going to be headed up to Seattle. It's always a crapshoot. We drove the Escape up there. I always tried to find a place to park that was free. Sometimes I was lucky and sometimes I was not and it cost me at least $20. Today, we were lucky. We didn't have to pay for parking.
I found a place off of Massachusetts and 8th near the DSHS building. This is where we've always tried to park. I hid all the stuff that would entice people to steal, grabbed all the stuff we needed, locked the Escape and started walking towards the stadium. This time we walked down Holgate down to First Ave so we could see tailgate ally. It's too bad we didn't get to do this every home weekend with people we knew. It would be awesome. While we walked through tailgate ally, there were lots of people drinking, making food, watching other games on their TV's and we just happen to walk past a porta potty someone had custom made into a Seahawk 12th Man Can. Hahaha!
We got closer to the stadium and stood in the security line to get into the field house. We wandered around the field house for a bit, took a couple pictures and got our faces painted. Ben highly considered getting his hair colored green and blue but he decided not to.
We made our way up the stairs so we could get into the stadium. Ben took out his phone and the ticket taker scanned the tickets. We found what section we were at and started hiking to our seat since we were in the 300 level. It was going to take a bit to get there wading through everyone.
We found the ramps and walked up. By the time we had reached where we needed to be I was sweaty. Ben decided that before we go to our seats he wanted some food since we had breakfast before we left and it is now almost one. I told him that he would be waiting in line for a bit and we might miss kick off. He said he was okay with that and we found some Ezell's Famous Chicken because he wasn't feeling burgers or hotdogs. I wasn't really hungry but would have a strip and some fries just to hold us until the game got over.
We finally made it to our seats and missed the first few minutes of the game. The Seahawks let Tampa Bay march down the field on their first possession and scored a touchdown within four minutes. They led 7-0. Tampa Bay hasn't been all that great this year but if we let our guard down they will make us pay. We could not afford to lose to a team like this at this point of the year especially with a couple months left of the regular season. We were the favorites by four points.
On our first possession, we made our way down the field in about three minutes and scored our first touchdown when Russell Wilson threw it to Tyler Lockett. The place went nuts. We high fived all the people sitting next to us. Jason Myers made the kick. We were now even at 7.
We just needed to play better defense and start taking advantage of their offense. Before the end of the first quarter we let them run down the field in nine plays that resulted in a touchdown and a point after. They led 14-7. I asked Ben, what are we doing?!! Why are we letting them get easy plays for several yards?! I didn't come to watch us look silly against the worst team in the NFC South. Come on guys play better!!
Most of the second quarter was back and forth without any scoring. With less than five minutes left to go, our defense gave up another touchdown and extra point to the Buccaneers. It was now 21-7. Ouch! We went into hurry up offense when we got the ball back. It took us about two minutes to go 60 yards in four plays and Wilson hit Jacob Hollister in the end zone to chip away at TB's lead. Unfortunately, Meyers missed the extra point when it bounced off of the uprights. That sucked the life out of the crowd before halftime. We went into the locker room down 21-13. We were only down by eight but could be worse.
The third quarter was just as boring. Not enough scoring. Each team had a scoring play. We scored a touchdown with eight minutes left in the quarter. Wilson threw another pass to Lockett and instead of a point after, we needed as many points as possible. We went for the two point conversion. Wilson found DK Metcalf in the end zone for two. It was now tied 21-21. The crowd got back into it again. Lots of high fives and hugs were being shared. The Bucs only got a field goal out of their attempt which was both bad and good for us. We didn't let them have the touch down but they did score some points to keep them ahead. At the end of the third Tampa Bay led 24-21.
I sat there as we started the fourth quarter very upset on how our defense was playing. I know they are better than this. I really didn't want this game to go into overtime. It looks like its about to head that way. Most of our games this season have been very close. We've won most of them by less than three points. It was rough to be a Seahawks fan during the games but we all endure it because we love it. Our first two possessions yielded made field goals by Meyers. It chewed about seven minutes off the clock. We were up 27-24 with about five minutes left on the clock. This was getting everyone a little squirrely in their seats.
On the Buc's next possession we allowed them a field goal, which tied up the score at 27. We got the ball back and in three plays we scored a Wilson to Metcalf touchdown and a Myers made kick which put us up 34-27.
However, we scored too quickly and left a bunch of time on the clock for Tampa Bay to try to at least tie it up. With less than five minutes to go in regulation, the Seahawks played very loose defense and Jameis Winston found Mike Evans a lot. Seahawk fans were holding our breath. We were hoping for an interception or some failed plays. This wasn't looking good. In all reality I smelled overtime. It's like they weren't even trying to play defense. TB scored a touchdown in ten plays that ate almost three and a half minutes off the clock. Ugh. They decided to go for the tie and the kicker made the extra point. It was now tied 34-34 with less than 50 seconds to play. We got the ball and made it within field goal range-ish of our kicker, which was on the 47 yard line. We gave ourselves a chance to win the game. This was going to end good or very badly. He already missed one today that resulted in us being in this position. They line up, the ball is hiked, held, kicked and Myers misses it. It sailed wide. The life was literally sucked out of the stadium. Nooooooooo!!
Overtime. I hate overtime!
The NFL rules for overtime need to change. It's very one sided. Basically, whoever wins the coin toss will usually win the game. Of course things could go wrong for that team like we've seen in the past but it's not usually that likely. If you are the team that gets the ball to start out with and only get a field goal the other team gets an opportunity to score. If they don't it's essentially sudden death. First team to score wins too bad if you're the other team who doesn't get the opportunity to posses the ball.
Let's see what happens.
We won the toss and of course we got the ball. We were going to end this now. Ten minutes were put on the clock, and TB kicks it off to the Seahawks. We moved it down the field with some complete short passes and some incomplete long passes. There were two penalties that pushed us back a bit. We were on TB's 10 yard line when Wilson found Hollister again for the game winning touchdown pass! The crowd went wild!! Yes! This game nearly gave me a heart attack. But then again all the games have almost given me a heart attack. Why do they do this to us?
Wilson threw for five touchdowns, we had 31 first downs and we won 34-27 in overtime. This game had some serious ups and downs. Ben and I made our way down to the 100 level to get a picture of us with the field.
I can't believe we pulled that off. We walked back to the Escape, got onto I-5 and headed back home. It was going to get dark soon. We got home, we got showers and got ready for the upcoming work week. I only had to work two days this week and I was super stoked. I hope Del can't go to another game next year but we will see. Go Hawks!
Next Adventure: Traveling to Pittsburgh, Sight Seeing, Geocaching and Photos
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