The game was tied at 13 with 5 minutes to go in regulation. The Seahawks had just forced the St. Louis Rams to punt and had the ball on their own 10 yard line, 90 yards from the go ahead score. Enter Russell Wilson. To this point in the game the Rams had been very tough, sacking Wilson 6 times and harassing him constantly. Going into this last drive Wilson was special on this day more for what he hadn’t done than what he had done. Despite the constant pressure and the hits he took he did not make the big mistake; the costly fumble or interception, and in a defensive struggle like this one that is often all that it takes to keep your team in the game. Russell Wilson had done that.
But now, with 5 minutes to go, it was game time…the time that the great ones step up and take over; the time that legends are made. Wilson did not disappoint.
The drive started with a Marshawn Lynch 8 yard run followed by a near disastrous play in which Lynch fumbled the ball forward. A scrum ensued as players from both teams dove after and fought for the ball. Tense seconds passed while the refs unstacked the bodies but when they were done it was Seahawk wide receiver Golden Tate at the bottom of the pile and the Hawks had the ball and a first and ten on their own 22. Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, it was time for Russell Wilson to go to work.
On the next play, once again under heavy pressure, Wilson threw the ball away. Following a Wilson 5 yard read option gain to the right side the Seahawks had the ball with a third and five on their own 27. It is plays like the next play that are coming to define Russell Wilson. He took the snap from the shotgun and retreated a few steps to pass. A Ram defensive lineman somehow got around his blocker and spread his arms to engulf Wilson for another sack…only to come up with an armful of air. Wilson had somehow evaded the lineman, broke out of the pocket to his right and while on the run delivered a perfect pass to Golden Tate for a 44 yard gain. The Hawks had the ball, first and ten on the Ram 29 yard line.
The rest of the drive had the air of the inevitable to it. A short Wilson pass to fullback Michael Robinson was followed by another Lynch run. The two plays gained ten yards and as the teams went into the two minute warning the Hawks had the ball with a first and ten on the Ram 20 yard line. Whatever spirit the Ram defense had left was broken on the next play when Wilson faked a handoff to Lynch and then sprinted around the left end for 15 yards to the Ram 4. Two plays later the Hawks scored the go ahead TD on a short Wilson run when he once again broke from the pocket and running to his left scampered across the goal line. With the game on the line at the end of the 4th quarter Wilson had driven the Seahawks 90 yards to a TD in 4 minutes.
Game over!
But the legend of Russell Wilson is just beginning…
2 Responses
First off I want to say fantastic blog! I had a quick question which I’d like to ask if you do not mind. I was curious to find out how you center yourself and clear your mind prior to writing. I’ve had a tough time clearing my thoughts in getting my thoughts out there. I truly do enjoy writing however it just seems like the first 10 to 15 minutes tend to be wasted just trying to figure out how to begin. Any ideas or tips? Cheers!|
HI Domenica!
Thanks for the nice comment about the blog.
As to your question, the problem you bring up I am sure is common to most writers and aspiring writers. Usually, I do not start writing until I have a clear idea of what my purpose is for the article, and the message I want to convey. Ahead of this I do my research so I know what I am writing about. This last is very important to me. Usually I start with the general subject, (for example, the Vietnam War) then I do my research, and the specific motif for the article emerges and then I write. That is usually how I do it. I don’t write a lot of fiction, but if I did the pattern would be similar, research your general subject area, get your story idea, then write it. Lastly, I will say that “writer’s block”, I have discovered, is simply a reduction of the writer’s mental energy, which is used by the gallon when a writer is imaging things and getting ideas of things. It is all done in the writer’s mind before he ever pounds a keyboard key. There are mental factors at play here that can make you feel like you cannot create more ideas and mental images. Simply said, that is “writers block”. The solution is to get up and go take a walk around the neighborhood, making sure that you are actually looking at and touching the large physical universe objects, like trees, rocks and fences, as you see them and walk by them. The whole idea is to get you to stop thinking and exteriorize your attention, from your mind and to the world around you. You will start to feel better as you do this (do not stop until you DO fell better) and your mental creativity returns. You never actually lose it, but through the process of creating you expend energy, which can make it seem that way. Those are my “tips” to you. Good Luck! Mark