dogorama":3kh16y1h said:
KEARSE AND SHERMAN!
Both led to SB's, you would have a hard time convincing me there's anything bigger than that!
I get that, and I've been considering this topic for more than a day before responding because I was weighing that very concept in my head - How important is the circumstance vs the play itself, and what determines the importance of the circumstance?
Every play that went into the Super Bowl win has to be considered because it was a defining moment in franchise history.
However...
I still go with BeastQuake I. As important as the other plays were, and as amazing as the plays themselves were, BeastQuake defined who we were and would be for years to come.
We were a 7-9 playoff team - the first ever with a losing record - playing the winners of the previous Super Bowl. We had a college coach who was seen as the second coming of Dennis Erickson. We went all-in on a running back with a troubled past in a league where passing was king. We were a joke. No one took us seriously. We were there only because someone from our division had to be.
But after that run, everything changed. We proved to the nation and to ourselves that we had right to be in the playoffs. That we should be taken seriously. That we were a franchise on the rise.
But possibly the biggest thing it showed is that we were a team, not just a collection of individuals. That run was truly special by Lynch, but as he crossed the line it seemed like the whole offense was there with him. Nobody gave up on that play and everyone was still blocking WAY down field - I think Polumbus even made a block at the goal line and even Hasselbeck was there.