Super Bowl 2015 Score: Quarter-by-Quarter Breakdown of Patriots vs. Seahawks

As one would expect in a Super Bowl with as many unexpected twists as the 2015 edition produced, each quarter of the New England Patriots' 28-24 win over the Seattle Seahawks felt like a separate game in itself.

The early ones came and went quickly, while the last couple seemed to drag on forever with anticipation mounting. Heck, one of them even failed to include a single scoring play from either team. But every quarter brought new, unforeseen storylines and happenings to the surface.

And as is mandatory in any historic Super Bowl such as this one, the fourth quarter stole the show.

Let's break down each quarter of the Super Bowl below.

Team	1	2	3	4	Final
New England Patriots	0	14	0	14	28
Seattle Seahawks	0	14	10	0	24

First Quarter

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After all of the anticipation, the first quarter of the Super Bowl came and went in a flash.

The two teams traded short drives as they got their feet wet, but it was Tom Brady and the Pats who looked poised to strike first. But on the 13th play of a drive that reached the Seahawks' 10-yard line, Brady threw a surprising interception to Jeremy Lane in the end zone with New England lurking late in the opening frame.

That was about all of the action the first quarter produced, with the Patriots holding a 19-6 advantage in total offensive snaps for the quarter. But more surprising than anything was how fast the opening frame ended, as told literally by Sports Illustrated's Andy Benoit and figuratively by Peter King:

But if I told you that was a precursor for how the game would unfold, it would be a straight-up lie.

Second Quarter

Score	Scoring Summary	Time	Plays-Yards
NE 7-0	Patriots TD: Tom Brady 11-yard pass to Brandon LaFell	9:47	9-65
7-7	Seahawks TD: Marshawn Lynch three-yard run	2:16	8-70
NE 14-7	Patriots TD: Tom Brady 22-yard pass to Rob Gronkowski	0:31	8-80
14-14	Seahawks TD: Russell Wilson 11-yard pass to Chris Matthews	0:02	5-80

All of the flair lacking in the first quarter was more than made up for with a high-flying second period of play.

Looking to make up for his red-zone gaffe in the previous drive, Brady got the ball back early in the second and went to work. He threw the ball on seven of the Pats' nine plays, the last of which went to Brandon LaFell on an 11-yard slant route that opened up the game's scoring.

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Two quick three-and-outs back and forth followed, but both offenses found their stride again just before Katy Perry took the stage at halftime.

The Seahawks finally got things going on the ground, establishing Marshawn Lynch in their fourth possession of the game. Unlike the previous three, they found the end zone on this one as Lynch scored from three yards out. 

New England seemingly took the lead heading into the halftime break when Brady found Rob Gronkowski for a 22-yard score with 31 seconds to go. But that was just enough time for the Seahawks to find the end zone and take the momentum entering the halftime break.

Seattle got down the field in a hurry, and helped by an 11-yard score by Chris Matthews with one second remaining, the Seahawks tied it up. It was quite the coming-out party for Matthews, as told by ESPN Stats and Info:

The first quarter may have dragged along slowly, but a back-and-forth, unpredictable second quarter left a much more realistic expectation for what was to come down the stretch.

Third Quarter

Score	Scoring Summary	Time	Plays-Yards
SEA 17-14	Seahawks FG: Steven Hauschka 27-yard field goal	11:09	7-72
SEA 24-14	Seahawks TD: Russell Wilson three-yard pass to Doug Baldwin	4:54	6-50

The Seahawks are known for running away with games in the fourth quarter, but Sunday night, they took aim at a second straight Super Bowl title by trying to do so in the third.

It began with a Steven Hauschka field goal after the Seahawks got all the way to the eight-yard line, but Seattle wouldn't be denied the next time it got the ball. Thanks in part to Brady's second interception of the game, the Seahawks got the ball near midfield with a chance to take a commanding lead.

That's just what they did. Seattle kept it going offensively with a couple of big running plays, and it got into the end zone this time, as Doug Baldwin separated from Darrelle Revis and got free for a three-yard touchdown catch, as SportsCenter shared:

Along with Seattle finding its stride on offense, the defense began to dominate Brady and Co. for the first time all game and forced some quick stops. After finding success in both of the first two quarters, there was nothing going for Brady's offense in quarter No. 3.

And with 15 minutes left in the game, it put Super Bowl No. 4 in doubt for him and the Patriots.

Fourth Quarter

Score	Scoring Summary	Time	Plays-Yards
SEA 24-21	Patriots TD: Tom Brady four-yard pass to Danny Amendola	7:55	9-68
NE 28-24	Patriots TD: Tom Brady three-yard pass to Julian Edelman	2:02	10-64

The fourth quarter is when champions make their push, and both the Seahawks and Patriots made their pushes in the final frame of a historic Super Bowl.

But look no further than the Patriots defense as the tone-setters for said fourth quarter, as they forced a couple of key stops of the Seahawks offense when the game could have been put away.

Those stops gave Brady the ball with a chance to lead the Patriots back, and that's just what he did. When New England got the ball with 12 minutes to go sporting a double-digit deficit, Brady led them down the field with short passing and converted a four-yard touchdown pass to Danny Amendola to cut the gap to three.

Another defensive stop followed, meaning it was time for Brady to execute the money drive that he's done all too often on the Super Bowl stage. He took them down the field again, finding Julian Edelman on a three-yard out route with 2:02 left to take the 28-24 lead.

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But Seattle wouldn't be denied with a chance to win the game, going all the way to the goal line thanks to a fluke catch from Jermaine Kearse as he brought the ball in while on his back. That put the Seahawks in position to run it in, but on 2nd-and-goal, they made a fateful play call, as Wilson threw an interception on the goal line trying to thread the needle to Ricardo Lockette.

The airwaves lit up with folks questioning why the Seahawks didn't just give it to Marshawn Lynch, but don't count the Seahawks running back among those people:

There are soul-crushing ways to lose a Super Bowl, and then there's what happened to the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday night. It's simply inexplicable that the Seahawks didn't get into the end zone with 30 seconds and one yard keeping them from a Super Bowl repeat, but it simply didn't go their way.

This year's Super Bowl left plenty to talk about in the coming weeks and months of the NFL offseason, that much is for sure. That's largely thanks to a memorable ending to an instant-classic Super Bowl.