Wilson, Kearse go from awful to awesome

SEATTLE – Came time for confessions, and Jermaine Kearse didn’t dodge it.

For most of Sunday afternoon, he felt like Jermaine Cursed.

Five times Russell Wilson had targeted him against the Green Bay Packers – and the single best outcome was an incomplete pass. The four others resulted in interceptions – two through the hands of Kearse into the hands of Packers defensive backs Ha-Ha Clinton-Dix and Morgan Burnett, two when the 24-year-old Seattle receiver hadn’t been quick enough to change into defender mode when Wilson made ill-considered choices.

“What is going on?” Kearse admitted asking himself.

So naturally, when the NFC championship game needed to be won, Wilson and Kearse elected themselves to do it.

Oh, there were scads of other heroes in the Seahawks’ 28-22 overtime miracle that sent them to a second straight Super Bowl – this one SB XLIX in the Arizona desert in two weeks as defending champs against the New England Patriots.

Start with punter-holder Jon Ryan and tackle-eligible Garry Gilliam, whose improbable pitch-and-catch for a touchdown out of field-goal formation at long last got Seattle’s comeback off the ground in the second half.

There was little-used wide receiver Chris Matthews playing real hardball, leaping to snag an onside kick that the Packers’ Brandon Bostick miscalculated.

There was Marshawn Lynch – indefatigable and indomitable – rumbling through a tiring Green Bay defense for 157 yards and the go-ahead touchdown.

There was the Seahawks’ vaunted defense, and especially Richard Sherman, who played cornerback most of the fourth quarter not with one arm tied behind his back, but with it held tight to his chest after he suffered a hyperextended elbow.

Heck, there was backup QB Tavaris Jackson, calling the overtime coin toss that got Seattle first-ups.

But in the end – the very end – the Seahawks won on Wilson’s 35-yard bullet to Kearse, and never have two players worn redemption quite so nattily.

In Wilson, you’re talking about a player who, at kickoff, had the highest postseason quarterback rating in history. Whose rating at halftime – thanks to the first three of those four picks – was 0.0, matching Bluto Blutarsky’s grade-point average. Whose army of doubters love moments like these to keep him cooling his heels behind the velvet rope at Elite Quarterbackville.

And in Kearse, well, you have the poster child for undrafted, undistinguished and underappreciated. Well, unless it’s his teammate Doug Baldwin.

“My fellow pedestrian,” Kearse joked, invoking somebody’s popular description of Seattle’s wide receivers.

Any good 12 has watched at least that many times by now. How the Seahawks had to drive to the Packers 35-yard line in overtime, how Green Bay had brought nearly everyone into the box against Seattle’s two-tight end alignment, leaving Tramon Williams 1-on-1 against Kearse.

“I’m on the sideline watching the coverage,” said Baldwin, “and I look at my man Jermaine and I see that he’s dancing at the opportunity that just presented itself. I knew that there was no doubt.”

Not in Wilson’s mind. He audibled out of the run with no hesitation. Kearse used a pretty inside break to start his post route, and Wilson hit him in stride with Williams all over him like a buffalo robe.

“I wish every ball earlier in the game felt as easy as that one,” Kearse said.

Easy? Hell, Wilson called his shot.

“The funny thing is, I told (offensive coordinator Darrell) Bevell on the sideline when we won the coin toss, ‘I’m going to hit Kearse for a touchdown on a check,’ ” Wilson said. “Sure enough, we did.”

There had been a hint that Wilson had finally played through his struggles just the play before, when he found Baldwin with a pretty 35-yard boundary pass – an interesting shot on third-and-6 from your own 30 in overtime.

“There ain’t nothing more beautiful than that last play, though,” coach Pete Carroll insisted. “That was exquisite football, across the board for all the guys – to get the check and all of that to take advantage and execute it to perfection to win a game. That was pretty big time.”

So was the shake that 65,538 – not including a few hundred who’d given up hope and left – put to the Clink as Kearse tumbled into the end zone. Maybe some in their delirium remembered it was Kearse’s 35-yard catch that won last year’s NFC title game against the 49ers.

Baldwin remembered. He also remembered to stop by a holding area before the locker room opened and unleash a 60-second screed about media doubters that included no fewer than three ugly 12-letter scuds and concluded with this:

“We’ll see y’all at the Super Bowl,” said Angry Doug.

Cursed lifted and reporters cursed out. Everything the Seahawks did came full circle Sunday.