Thunderous Defense and Crowd Lift Seahawks to Super Bowl Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman deflected a pass that linebacker Malcolm Smith (53) intercepted, clinching the N.F.C. title and sending Seattle to its second Super Bowl. SEATTLE - It was loud, so, so loud at CenturyLink Field on Sunday. The press box shook and the crowd rumbled and heaved and Pete Carroll, the Seahawks" coach, paced the sideline raising his arms, pleading the crowd for more, more, more. This happened throughout the fourth quarter of the N.F.C. championship game, a frenetic final 15 minutes of a frenetic second half of a frenetic game featuring the two best teams in the conference, maybe the league - teams that care for each other not at all, and with each fierce hit it showed. And when it was over, when the Seahawks had completed their 23-17 victory over the San Francisco 49ers, a victory secured on an improbable interception with 22 seconds left, the fans jumped and sang and danced, and noise enveloped this stadium, this city, like an oversize parka. For the first time in eight years, the Seahawks advanced to the Super Bowl, where they will tote the league's top-ranked defense - a unit stretched and tested by the elusiveness of San Francisco's dynamic quarterback, Colin Kaepernick - into a matchup with the top-ranked offense of the Denver Broncos. Ronald Martinez/Getty Images "We're going to have fun with it," said linebacker Malcolm Smith, who foiled what could have been a winning touchdown by grabbing a deflected pass by Kaepernick in the end zone. This is a game where you could just let it all go. We'll be happy to see them. During the Seahawks" dominant year, this city doubled as a blue-and-green mosh pit, brimming with energy and the expectation that, come Feb. 2 at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., the Lombardi Trophy will be hoisted, finally, for the first time in franchise history. The Seahawks have been around for 38 seasons; what's another two weeks? Their fans can pass the time hailing elements that escorted Seattle to this point, and that appeared again on Sunday: the audacity of Carroll, the snarl of a defense that forced turnovers on San Francisco's final three possessions and the sense of occasion by Richard Sherman. Sherman maneuvered in front of receiver Michael Crabtree to tip the ball to Smith, and, in what was just a prelude to fiery interviews with Fox's Erin Andrews on the field and with a larger news media contingent at the lectern afterward, directed a choking gesture toward Kaepernick. "When you try the best corner in the game with a mediocre receiver, that's what happens," Sherman said. Crabtree said: "He's a TV guy. I'm not a TV guy. I play ball. He makes one play and he talks. Good play. Such is the hostility between these teams. Even as the nation was charmed earlier in the day by a quarterback duel, by Peyton Manning and Tom Brady in Denver, the A.F.C. championship seemed more of an amuse-bouche to the proceedings here. That the N.F.C. title game featured the Seahawks and the 49ers was as inevitable as sunrise. No matchup would have been as delicious (or entertaining) as a third installment of the league's most vicious rivalry, teeming with such contempt and scorn that during the week, Sherman said he doubted there would be postgame handshakes. He welcomes his role as villain, much as the Seahawks" unheralded receiving corps embraces the perception that it is inferior in talent and in pedigree. Seattle's Marshawn Lynch running for a 40-yard touchdown that tied the score, 10-10. He was the first player to rush for at least 100 yards in a game this season against San Francisco. Seattle, unable to contain Kaepernick, trailed by 7 points at halftime and by 4 after three quarters before the game turned on a bold decision by Carroll - and a spectacular catch by one of those receivers - on fourth-and-7 from the San Francisco 35. Mainly, Carroll, who called a timeout after initially sending out the field-goal team, went for it. When San Francisco jumped offside, giving Seattle a free play, the Seahawks changed their call, sending all three receivers on vertical routes. Russell Wilson flung the ball downfield, toward a crowd, toward Jermaine Kearse, who locked eyes with Wilson and tracked it into his arms for a 35-yard score. "It just shows the trust he has in us, us pedestrians," Kearse said of Carroll, referring to the claims that he and his fellow undrafted receivers, like Doug Baldwin (six catches, 106 yards), were barely average. He added, "I'm just a pedestrian trying to walk my way to the Super Bowl." Kearse's touchdown propelled the Seahawks to their first lead, 20-17. They tacked on a Steven Hauschka field goal, his third of the game, before withstanding a fumble at the San Francisco 1 and the 49ers" furious final drive. It all seemed so familiar to the 49ers, whose season expired, for the second consecutive season, on a wayward Kaepernick pass intended for Crabtree in the back right corner of the end zone. The 49ers seemed poised to earn a return trip to the Super Bowl, an all-weather team that had won its final six regular-season games and two more in the playoffs, triumphing in frigid Green Bay and in the Carolina sunshine before engaging the Seahawks in the cold and the din of CenturyLink Field. "It was a 15-round fight right down to the last," 49ers Coach Jim Harbaugh said. For the first time in the rivals" last 11 games, the team that rushed for more yards lost. Most of the 49ers" rushing yards were gained by Kaepernick, who with his long, loping strides looked as if he were running full speed through a minefield. With Seattle limiting Frank Gore to 14 yards, Kaepernick rushed for 130 and threw for 153 more but was undermined by his three turnovers. San Francisco Coach Jim Harbaugh, right, congratulated his counterpart, Pete Carroll. "I'll take that matchup every time," Kaepernick said of Sherman's coverage on Crabtree. I didn't throw it far enough. Seattle's superb secondary felt it could bully the 49ers" receivers, intimidate and neutralize them, and for the first half, it did: Anquan Boldin, Crabtree and Vernon Davis combined for one reception for 2 yards. Early in the third quarter, on the drive after Marshawn Lynch - the first player to rush for 100 yards in a game this season against San Francisco - evened the score at 10-10 with a 40-yard touchdown, Kaepernick stepped up in the pocket and whipped a pass toward the back of the end zone. It glanced off the hand of Seattle's All-Pro safety, Earl Thomas, and into those of Boldin, for a 26-yard touchdown. The Seahawks" offense, which had teetered for the last six games, was slowly gaining traction, with runs by Lynch and smart passes by Wilson, who overcame a slow start - on the game's first play, Aldon Smith stripped the ball from him and fell on it at the Seattle 15, setting up a field goal - to finish 16 of 25 for 215 yards. "It's just one of those things that you stay in the moment," Wilson said. You believe in yourself. You believe in what you're doing, and there's tons of game left. The teams" last two meetings in Seattle had been demolitions by the Seahawks, who won those games by a combined 71-16, including a 26-point victory in Week 2. In those losses, Kaepernick fumbled and threw four interceptions. His ball security on Sunday was not a problem early. By the end of the 49ers" third series, Kaepernick had rushed for 101 yards, with 58 coming on an electrifying jaunt to the Seattle 10 that preceded a 1-yard touchdown by Anthony Dixon. After last week's victory against New Orleans, Seattle receiver Golden Tate said that he would rather play Carolina than San Francisco. He cited the 49ers" familiarity with the CenturyLink clamor. Tate seemed prescient for the first half. The first three quarters, too. But then came those frenetic final 15 minutes, and now there is no doubting the best team in the N.F.C. The Seahawks are the best. The Seahawks are going to the Super Bowl.