SUPER BOWL WATCH: Soaring Seahawks cruising toward Super Bowl victory

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EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – A look at the Super Bowl on Sunday night between the Denver Broncos and Seattle Seahawks at MetLife Stadium.

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HILLARY’S ANALYSIS: Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton didn’t seem to mind Seattle’s Super Bowl rout of Denver. “It’s so much more fun to watch FOX when it’s someone else being blitzed & sacked!” she Tweeted.

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SCORING SEAHAWKS: Seattle started the fourth quarter with another touchdown drive, upping its lead to 43-8 and becoming the seventh team to score at least 40 points in a Super Bowl.

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RECORD-SETTER: Broncos receiver Demaryius Thomas set a Super Bowl record with his 12th reception.

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BRONCOS ON THE BOARD: Peyton Manning hit Demaryius Thomas with a 14-yard touchdown pass late in the third quarter and Denver finally broke through on the scoreboard. The Broncos’ TD and subsequent 2-point conversion pass to Wes Welker made the score 36-8 heading into the fourth quarter. There has never been a shutout in the Super Bowl.

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SHERMAN SHAKEN UP: Seahawks star Richard Sherman was briefly shaken up on Denver’s first possession of the second half. The talkative cornerback went down with an apparent leg injury, but jogged off the field and was back in the game quickly.

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12 SECONDS TO GLORY: Seattle scored 12 seconds in to the first half and 12 seconds into the second half.

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HALFTIME SHOW: Not long after Bruno Mars and the Red Hot Chili Peppers finished at rocking Super Bowl halftime show, Seattle struck again. Percy Harvin, the oft-injured receiver, returned the opening kickoff of the second half 87 yards for a touchdown and a 29-0 lead. Harvin missed much of the season with a hip injury and missed the NFC championship game with a concussion.

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SUPER BLOWOUT: Seattle led 22-0 at halftime of the Super Bowl. It was the third-largest halftime lead in Super Bowl history. Denver was on the short end of the other two as well. The Redskins led 35-10 against the Broncos in the 1988 Super Bowl. The 49ers had a 27-3 lead at the half against Denver in the 1990 Super Bowl. The current Broncos have the highest scoring offence in NFL history, but Peyton Manning and Co. are the first team to be shut out in the first half of a Super Bowl since the New York Giants against Baltimore in 2001.

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PICK-6: Peyton Manning threw another interception and this one was returned 69-yards for a touchdown by Seattle linebacker Malcolm Smith to make the score 22-0 in the second quarter. In recent years, the Super Bowl has delivered a string of close games. The last time a team led by at least 20 points in the first half of a Super Bowl was 1995, when the 49ers jumped out to a 28-7 lead in San Diego.

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ALL SEATTLE: Camera-shy running back Marshawn Lynch scored the first touchdown, a 1-yard plunge in the second quarter, to give the Seahawks a 15-0 lead. The TD came after Kam Chancellor intercepted Peyton Manning’s pass in Denver territory. Manning’s third Super Bowl could not have started much worse. He threw for 11 yards in the first quarter, the fewest for the NFL MVP since a regular-season game 2002.

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5-0: After scoring a safety on the first play from scrimmage, the Seahawks added a short field goal in the first quarter to become the first team in Super Bowl history to lead 5-0. It was the third straight year a safety was scored in the Super Bowl.

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THAT WAS FAST: The Seahawks needed just 12 seconds to put points on the board, the fastest score in Super Bowl history. Appropriately, it came with the Seattle defence on the field. On the very first snap of the game, Peyton Manning was going through his typical complex calls, looking away from centre Manny Ramirez, when the ball suddenly went sailing past him and into the end zone. Knowshon Moreno fell on it to prevent a Seahawks touchdown, but the safety gave Seattle a 2-0 lead.

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NO COLD: The game-time temperature was chilly — by Miami standards. The 49 degrees felt nothing like February in the Northeast. So much for all the concerns leading up to the first outdoor Super Bowl in a cold-weather city.

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TAILS NEVER FAILS: Broadway Joe was looking the part: Joe Namath, New York football royalty as MVP of the third Super Bowl for the Jets, wore a gaudy fur coat for the coin toss. After a false start on the first attempt, the Seahawks called tails, and they were right. Seattle deferred to the second half.

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OPERATIC ANTHEM: Soprano Renee Fleming hit some high notes on “land of the free” likely never heard before at a Super Bowl when she sang the national anthem. Regal in a long white cape over a black dress, Fleming finished in 2 minutes, 3 seconds, easily the under the 2:25 for the proposition bet.

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GRAND ENTRANCES: Seattle ran onto the field first, led by a soaring hawk and with linebacker Heath Farwell carrying the 12th Man flag. Denver followed a galloping horse.

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COLLEGE PRIDE: In honour of New York and New Jersey jointly hosting the Super Bowl, the marching bands from the states’ only colleges in the power football conferences — Syracuse (N.Y.) and Rutgers (N.J.) — performed together before the game. Among the songs: “Born to Run” by New Jersey’s own Bruce Springsteen.

Broncos fans might have thought Syracuse’s band was supporting Denver with its orange and blue colours.

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SEATS FULL: Fans clearly heeded advice to leave plenty of time for their commute. Security was slow at train stations, but by 5:15 p.m., 80,000 folks had already made it in. NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy said it was the earliest arriving Super Bowl crowd in at least 30 years.

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FAMOUS FANS: Beyonce, last year’s halftime performer, arrived with husband Jay Z wearing a hat with mouse ears about an hour before kickoff.

Beyonce performed for a smaller crowd Saturday night as Jay Z brought his wife out for a surprise cameo during his concert for DirecTV’s “Super Saturday Night” party on the eve of the Super Bowl.

Bruno Mars is this year’s halftime act.

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ROMNEY WANTS COLORADO WIN: Mitt Romney isn’t one to hold a grudge, at least when it comes to football: The former Massachusetts governor says he’ll be rooting for Denver, even though the Broncos whipped his Patriots in the AFC title game.

“I’ve got to be pulling for the Broncos, but only barely,” he said, noting the Patriots’ defeat. He added: “You know Peyton Manning is quite a story. We want to see how he performs against the best defence of the league.”

Romney had previously attended a Patriots Super Bowl.

“It’s great to be here, to see people from all over the country and actually some from other nations, come in here and celebrate a great sport,” he said.

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SCARY SITUATIONS: Emergency medical workers pushed their way through the crowd to treat several people who collapsed at a packed New Jersey train station on the way to the game.

Long lines came to a standstill in front of airport-style security machines at Secaucus Junction. People were squeezed together in an enclosed stairwell.

As more trains arrived, police tried to thin the sweating, jostling crowd by spreading people across the platform.

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POPULAR PICKS: Denis Leary is rooting for Russell Wilson to win it all because he thinks there needs to be a little parity when it comes to who owns the Lombardi trophy.

“The Manning family had three trophies,” the comedian and actor said, referring to Eli Manning’s two and brother Peyton’s one. If the Broncos defeat the Seahawks, Peyton Manning would get his second.

“I love Russell Wilson and they’re the underdogs so I’m rooting for them,” said Leary on the red carpet at MetLife Stadium before the game began.

Harry Connick Jr. was also a fan of Wilson but wasn’t ready to jump on the Seahawks bandwagon just yet.

“I’m happy to see a great game, but I can’t bring myself to root for a specific team,” the “American Idol” judge said.

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WELCOME TO NEW JERSEY: After nearly four years of speculation about a Super Bowl played in the freezing cold and swirling snow, the big day has come and it looks a lot like … spring.

As fans started to file into the stadium three hours before the game, many didn’t even wear jackets: A sweatshirt under a jersey was plenty. The temperature was in the low 50s under cloudy skies with a few raindrops, though snow in the forecast could make it tough for out-of-towners to make it home Monday.

Players in shorts warmed up on the field, and TV commentators stood around in their sport coats.

The record low for a Super Bowl appears safe — 34 degrees in 1972 in New Orleans, a mere 1,000 miles south of East Rutherford.

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AP Music Writer Mesfin Fekadu, AP Entertainment Writer Nekesa Mumbi Moody and Associated Press Writer David Porter and contributed to this report.

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