The Beast Quake was a National Football League (NFL) touchdown scored by Seattle Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch against the New Orleans Saints during a 2010–11NFCWild Card playoff game. Occurring in the fourth quarter while Seattle was up by four points, Lynch rushed for 67 yards and broke nine tackles to score a touchdown, which secured the Seahawks' eventual 41–36 victory. The play's name comes from Lynch's nickname "Beast Mode" and the subsequent celebration of Seahawks fans registering on a nearby seismograph.[1]
The Saints came into the game as the 5th-seeded wild card in the NFC. They had an 11–5 record for the season. The Seahawks had won the NFC West division with only a 7–9 record, making them the first team to reach the NFL playoffs with a losing record through a full season.[citation needed] The two teams had previously met during Week 11 of the regular season in New Orleans, with the Saints winning 34–19.
Two early Seahawks miscues enabled the Saints to build a 10-point lead. By halftime, the score was 24–20. The Seahawks increased their lead to 31–20 on their opening drive of the second half. New Orleans trailed 34–27 with 13:11 left. Then they forced a three-and-out and got the ball back on their 44-yard line, but Seattle's defense halted the drive at the 3-yard line, where the Saints settled for Hartley's third field goal to cut the lead to 34–30. After an exchange of punts, Seattle got the ball with 4:20 left in the game. On the first play of the drive, Lynch was stuffed for no gain. The Seahawks faced a 2nd and 10 at their own 33 yard line, protecting a 4-point lead with 3:38 remaining.
The run
Track of the run
With their base offense on the field, the Seahawks called "17 Power", a power run, for the first time in the game.[2] Seattle lined up in an I formation with tight end Carlson on the left and fullback Michael Robinson offset to the left. New Orleans lined up in a 2–5 "under" front with strong safetyRoman Harper crowding the line of scrimmage, putting eight defenders near the box.[3] Hasselbeck motioned wide receiver Ben Obomanu from the right to the left. At the snap, Seattle right guard Mike Gibson also pulled to the left.
Seattle had called zone runs for most of the game, but this call required man-on-man blocking.[2] Carlson was assigned to block New Orleans linebacker Jo-Lonn Dunbar, while left tackle Russell Okung was assigned to defensive end Will Smith and Obomanu to Harper. Left guard Tyler Polumbus and center Chris Spencer were to team up on defensive tackle Remi Ayodele and, ideally, push past him to block weak-side linebacker Scott Shanle. Robinson would push ahead and block New Orleans middle linebacker Jonathan Vilma, and Gibson would be free to lead Lynch and deal with any unblocked defenders. Meanwhile, on the right side of the formation, right tackle Sean Locklear would try to cut off defensive tackle Sedrick Ellis, and defensive end Alex Brown would be left unblocked on the outside.[3]
As the play actually developed, New Orleans was effective in frustrating the blocking scheme.[3] Dunbar pushed Carlson back and prevented Gibson from reaching the point of attack. Polumbus and Spencer were able to turn Ayodele away, but neither was able to get off his block and challenge Shanle, who correctly read the pulling guard and filled the gap. Lynch recalled, "So I see the guard coming around, and in my head, I'm thinking, backside A gap. But for some reason, it carried me to the front side."[4] Instead of rushing behind Gibson, Lynch rushed between Gibson and Robinson, finding an unblocked Shanle at the line of scrimmage. If Shanle had completed the tackle here, he would have limited Lynch to a 2-yard gain.[2]
Instead, Lynch bounced away from Shanle's tackle, while also running through the grasp of Ellis and Will Smith. As Lynch broke through the line, Ayodele and Saints safety Darren Sharper simultaneously dove to pull Lynch down as he ran past them, but were unsuccessful. Jabari Greer then caught up with Lynch from behind and tried to wrap him up, but could not hang on. Lynch then angled toward the right sideline, pursued by Tracy Porter, who was stiff armed to the ground by Lynch. Brown lunged for Lynch's heels, but fell short. Finally, Harper, being blocked by Polumbus, attempted one last diving tackle inside the 5 yard line. Already celebrating, Lynch leapt backwards into the endzone, with his right arm holding the ball aloft and his left hand grabbing his crotch, for the touchdown.
Aftermath
Seismograph readings from Lynch's touchdown run
With 1:52 left, Brees struck back with a 6-yard touchdown pass to Henderson, but the 2-point conversion failed, keeping the score at 41–36. Then Carlson sealed the victory by recovering Hartley's onside kick attempt, enabling Seattle to run out the clock.
It was later determined that crowd activity and noise was so great during Lynch's game-clinching touchdown run that a nearby Pacific Northwest Seismic Network station registered a small tremor, M=2 located at Qwest Field.[5] With the win, the Seahawks had a 6–3 record at home for the season.
In 2012, the NFL revealed that the Saints put bounties on several Seahawks players during this game, including Hasselbeck, Lynch, and Williams.[6][7]
Beast Quake 2.0
During a 2014 game against the Arizona Cardinals on the road, Lynch had a similar run, beating several would-be tacklers on his way to a career-long 79-yard touchdown.[8]
Similarly to the Beast Quake, the "Swift Quake", which has been widely compared to the Beast Quake, was an 2.3 magnitude event at Lumen Field in Seattle during Taylor Swift's Seattle dates during The Eras Tour. According to Jackie Caplan-Auerbach, a seismologist at Western Washington University, the shaking of the ground on both July 22 and 23 nights was more than "twice as hard" of the 2011 Seahawks game.[11] The Swift Quake had a 0.3 greater magnitude than the Beast Quake.
See also
Earthquake Game, a 1988 college football game in which crowd reactions also registered on a seismograph.
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