The Seahawks return to Seattle with the city’s first championship trophy in professional sports since the ‘79 Supersonics victory in the NBA Finals, soaring over the Denver Broncos in a 43-8 victory.

The tone that would ultimately remain stagnant for the remainder of the game was set within the first 15 seconds, when miscommunication in a play call resulted in Broncos center Manny Ramirez snapping the football over quarterback Peyton Manning’s head and into the Denver end zone where it was downed for a safety.

When asked about the miscue, Ramirez took full responsibility for the muffed snap even though Manning deemed it “nobody’s fault” and credited the noise for creating the situation. “[Manning] was already walking up to me because he had already said the cadence, and I snapped it. But again, I take full responsibility for that. It’s just something that we should have been able to overcome, and we weren’t able to. It’s not an excuse. It shouldn’t have happened.”

This seemingly harmless mishap quickly turned disastrous for the Broncos as the Seahawks proceeded to score two field goals, a 1-yard touchdown run by Marshawn Lynch, and a 69-yard interception return for a touchdown by the end of the first half putting Seattle up a staggering 22-0 at halftime.

All hope for resurgence by the Denver Broncos was crushed after Percy Harvin returned the halftime kickoff 87 yards for a touchdown, establishing a tone for the second half analogous to the one set by the miscued snap on the first play of the game.

The remainder of the contest was essentially anticlimactic as the Seahawks continued to dominate on both sides of the ball with their defense recording two interceptions (one returned for a touchdown), one sack, and two recovered fumbles. Quarterback Russell Wilson threw for 206 passing yards and completed 18 out of 25 pass attempts, averaging 8.2 yards per completion. He also contributed 26 out of Seattle’s 135 rushing yards, accompanied by Harvin with 45 yards, Lynch with 39, and Robert Turbin with 25.

Seahawks linebacker Malcolm Smith became the third linebacker in NFL history to be honored as the Super Bowl MVP this year.

The Denver Broncos did end up on the board with a 14 yard touchdown pass from Manning to Demaryius Thomas in the third quarter, followed by a successful two-point conversion to Wes Welker.

When asked whether or not he was ‘embarrassed’ by the heart-wrenching loss after the game, Peyton responded, “It’s not embarrassing at all. I would not use that word. There’s a bunch of professional football players in that Denver locker room who put in a lot of hard work to play in that game. The word ‘embarrassing’ is an insulting word, to tell you the truth.”

Manning completed 34 out of 49 passes for 280 yards with two interceptions and one touchdown to Thomas who had 13 receptions for 180 yards in the defeat.