Marshawn Lynch had already worn down the St. Louis Rams defense with his previous 22 carries when he took a handoff and zipped through a hole on the left side of the Seahawks’ offensive line.
It was probably about that time, then, that a Seattle fan reached the bag of Skittles that found its way into the endzone roughly two-tenths of a second after Lynch did.
The score gave the Seahawks a 30-13 lead — the final margin by which they defeated the Rams before a Monday Night Football national television audience on ESPN.
It also gave Lynch a touchdown in nine consecutive games, which tied Shaun Alexander (2005) for the longest such streak in franchise history.
And being as this was Seattle’s second consecutive game before a national audience — though it’s unclear how many casual fans actually tuned in to this snooze-fest to see the Seahawks beat a very bad Rams team for the second time this season — the Skittles movement is gaining more traction than ever before.
Seattlepi.com reporter Amy Rolph detailed Lynch’s Skittle exploits in a couple of different stories following the Seahawks’ dismantling of Philadelphia in Week 13. But Lynch offered only a brief, non-Skittle-related statement to reporters after that game, before ducking out of the locker room.
On Monday, he said he was surprised to see so many folks so enamored with his love for the fruit-flavored candy.
“I think a lot of people have got it mixed up, that it’s a prize that I get Skittles for scoring touchdowns,” Lynch said. “But if you want to know the truth, you’ve got to ask my mama.”
The truth, as Lynch revealed in this hilarious NFL Films segment, is that his mother used to provide him with a bag of Skittles before each game he played in high school. He ate the candy throughout each game on the sidelines, and apparently continued the tradition throughout his college days at California.
And he’s developed a cult following in Seattle because of it. One fan, pictured at right, donned a Skittles costume. Others toted Skittle and Beast Mode-themed signs.
Lynch wore a black “Beast Mode” t-shirt during warmups prior to the game, then supplied one to former Seahawks owner John Nordstrom — the grandson of John W. Nordstrom, who founded the clothing company that bears his name — in the locker room afterward.
Nordstrom proudly wore the shirt as he made his way around the locker room, congratulating the rest of the Seahawks players on a win that keeps them in the NFC wildcard playoff race.
Lynch finished with 115 yards on 23 carries — the fifth time in Seattle’s past six games that Lynch has rushed for more than 100 yards. He’s now just 31 yards shy of becoming the Seahawks’ first 1,000-yard rusher since Alexander in 2005.
And while Lynch’s Skittles routine is all fun and good, there is little argument that rookie receiver Doug Baldwin was the team’s most valuable player on Monday.
Baldwin took a reverse pitch from Leon Washington on the game’s opening kickoff and returned it to the 43-yard line. When the Seahawks were forced to punt, it was Baldwin who raced down the field and downed the ball at the Rams’ 6-yard line.
And when the Rams punted shortly after, it was Baldwin who came unblocked off the left side of St. Louis’ protection formation, nearly taking the ball clean off the foot of Rams punter Donnie Jones. Seahawks fullback Michael Robinson scooped the ball and sprinted 17 yards to give the Seahawks a 7-0 lead in the first quarter.
Baldwin wasn’t done. He caught a 29-yard touchdown pass with six seconds remaining in the third quarter to put the Seahawks ahead 20-6 — an insurmountable lead against the struggling Sam Bradford and St. Louis’ anemic offense.
“Every chance you give him, he does something,” coach Pete Carroll said of Baldwin, who caught seven passes for 93 yards. “He’s just such a battler. He’s a great competitor and I’ve said it before, he’s got a chip on his shoulder that drives him to be a tough guy and a playmaker.”
All of a sudden, it appears the Seahawks have more than a few of those.
“Everybody knows that without special teams, that game could have gone any way,” Lynch said. “Our special teams — that’s something that they do. They practice hard on that and they executed.”
