New Orleans Saints vs Seattle Seahawks Match Player Stats On Jan 08, 2011

All the Seattle Seahawks were trying to do was run out the clock, but Marshawn Lynch ran the defending Super Bowl champions out of the playoffs in the process.

Lynch broke a 67-yard touchdown run, bouncing off and running through tacklers all the way, to put the punctuation on the Seahawks' 41-36 victory against the New Orleans Saints on Saturday at Qwest Field.

The first team in NFL history to win a division title with a losing record, the Seahawks (8-9) looked like anything but losers Saturday – at least after the first nine minutes.

New Orleans (11-6) jumped to a quick 10-0 lead but Seattle, buoyed by a raucous home crowd, rallied to take the lead on the third of Matt Hasselbeck's four touchdown passes – a 45-yard strike to Brandon Stokley – and took a 24-20 lead into halftime.

Lynch finished with 131 rushing yards on 19 carries, but until his punishing touchdown run, it was Hasselbeck who sparked the Seahawks' offense.

After sitting out last week's division-clinching win against St. Louis with a hip injury, Hasselbeck beat Saints quarterback Drew Brees at his own game. Hasselbeck completed 22 of 35 passes for 272 yards with four touchdowns — two to tight end John Carlson and one apiece to Stokley and Mike Williams.

After Lynch's touchdown run made it 41-30, Brees drove the Saints down the field and hit Devery Henderson for his second touchdown pass, but Carlson covered Garrett Hartley's onside kick attempt to seal it.

Brees threw for 404 yards and a pair of scores on 39-of-60 passing and Julius Jones ran for two touchdowns for New Orleans.

The Seahawks will await the winner of Sunday's Philadelphia-Green Bay game to learn their next opponent. If the Eagles win at home, Seattle would travel to Atlanta, but if the Packers win, the Seahawks would head to Chicago.