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"From what I understood from the officials it was a simultaneous catch. Tie goes to the runner. Good call," Seattle coach Pete Carroll said.
Green Bay should not have found itself in the position of watching Wilson's final heave be open for debate.
The Packers shook off a disastrous first half in which Aaron Rodgers was sacked eight times and completely controlled possession in the final 30 minutes. Green Bay ran 41 offensive plays in the second half, got field goals of 29 and 40 yards from Mason Crosby and Cedric Benson's 1-yard TD run with 8:44 left to take a 12-7 lead.
Rodgers finished 26 of 39 for 223 yards and no turnovers. He had quite a different opinion of the disputed catch.
"It was awful. Just look at the replay. And then the fact that it was reviewed, it was awful," he said. "That's all I'm going to say about it.
"We shouldn't have been in that position."
It was Tate's second touchdown of the game after his 41-yard catch in the second quarter gave Seattle a 7-0 lead. He finished with three catches for 68 yards, while Wilson was 10 of 21 for 130 yards.
Green Bay averted disaster when John Kuhn fumbled on the first play after Seattle missed on a fourth-down pass attempt from the Packers' 7 with 2 minutes remaining. Center Jeff Saturday recovered the fumble, but the Seahawks held and forced a punt from the 4 with 57 seconds left. The 41-yard punt set Seattle up at the Green Bay 46 with 46 seconds remaining.
Wilson hit Sidney Rice for 22 yards on a slant then went for Tate in the end zone, but the ball was batted away with 18 seconds left. He threw over the head of Evan Moore on second down, leaving 12 seconds on the clock, and missed Tate again at the 5.
Wilson took the final snap with 8 seconds remaining. He appeared to be looking for Rice on the right side of the end zone, but rolled left and threw for Tate, who was in a crowd of three defenders. His shove of Shields was obvious and it was never clear in real-time who had possession between Tate and Jennings.
"I was just trying to keep possession of the ball. The guy who was fighting me for it, he's strong. I was just trying to hold onto it until our guys pulled them off of me," Tate said. "I didn't know if they called touchdown, interception, incompletion . I didn't know what was going on. Couldn't hear anything and I just tried to keep fighting for the ball."
NOTES: Seattle rookie DE Bruce Irvin had two of Seattle's eight sacks on Rodgers in the first half. Chris Clemons led the way with four sacks, tying an NFL record for most in the first half of any game. ... Benson finished with 45 yards rushing after having just 4 yards at halftime. ... Seattle RB Marshawn Lynch just missed his seventh straight 100-yard rushing game at home with 98 yards on 25 carries. ... Green Bay finished with a 7-minute advantage in time of possession after the teams each had 15 minutes of possession in the first half.
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