Malcolm Smith wasn’t even invited to the NFL scouting combine out of college three years ago and only started half the Seahawks’ games in the regular season.
Now he’s the Super Bowl MVP.
Move over Larry Brown and Dexter Jackson, because there’s a new No. 1 on the list of most unheralded players to win The Big Game’s ultimate individual trophy after Smith claimed it for his opportunistic handiwork in Seattle’s 43-8 thrashing of the Broncos in Super Bowl XLVIII on Sunday night.
A seventh-round pick out of USC known mostly as the younger brother of former Giants and Eagles wide receiver Steve Smith, Malcolm Smith isn’t an unknown anymore after the outside linebacker was in the right place at the right time for the second huge game in a row.
“You don’t think it’s going to get any better,” Smith said. “It feels like a little bit of a dream right now. I’ve just had some fortune to make some big plays lately.”
That would be an understatement.
After saving Seattle with an end-zone interception on the final play of the NFC Championship Game, Smith provided the signature moments for the Seahawks defense Sunday night with a 69-yard interception return off a tipped Peyton Manning pass in the first half and a key fumble recovery early in the third quarter.
You could just about take your pick of Seahawk defenders who helped make the night at MetLife Stadium miserable for Manning, but Smith’s pick-6 of the reigning NFL regular season MVP just before halftime was the first sign that this might be a 1980s-style Super Bowl rout.
The Seahawks were up 15-0 at the time, but that wasn’t considered insurmountable by any means against a Hall-of-Fame passer who had thrown an all-time record 55 touchdowns in the regular season.
But when Manning dropped back from the Seattle 35 with 3:21 left in the second quarter and had his arm hit by Cliff Avril on a short throw to running back Knowshon Moreno, Smith officially turned this one into a laugher.
While Moreno inexplicably froze, Smith pounced on the fluttering pass, then zig-zagged his way down the left sideline — right in front of the Broncos’ bench — 69 yards the other way for a score that deflated the heavily orange-clad crowd of 82,529.
“It felt like it hung up in the air forever,” Smith said. “There was great coverage on the back end, and Cliff got to the quarterback. I got a couple of good blocks, and the next thing I know, I was in the end zone. It didn’t feel real until I got to the sideline.”
It was reminiscent of the play Smith had made two weeks before in the NFC title game, when he grabbed cornerback Richard Sherman’s deflection in the end zone on the final play to end the 49ers’ comeback and seal Seattle’s 23-17 victory.
Any microscopic hope of a Manning-led comeback in the second half also was doused by Smith.
Down 29-0, the Broncos had driven to the Seattle 45 when Manning connected with Demaryius Thomas on a 23-yard completion that appeared to put Denver in business until Thomas was blasted by Seahawks corner Byron Maxwell.
Thomas fumbled, and Smith was on the spot again, recovering it to end what would be the Broncos’ final legitimate threat to make this one remotely interesting.
It culminated quite a postseason for Smith, a seventh-round pick out of USC in 2011 who had been a solid but hardly spectacular contributor to Seattle’s top-ranked defense during the regular season with two interceptions and 41 tackles in eight starts.
“I think he took a lot from my experience and just savoring the moment and knowing it can be done any time, things change in a minute,” said Steve Smith, who also won a ring with the Giants in 2008. “He really took advantage of his opportunity.”