SEATTLE — After Peyton Manning led the Denver Broncos on a touchdown drive in the final minute of regulation, Russell Wilson and Marshawn Lynch returned the favor.

Wilson led the Seattle Seahawks on an 80-yard drive on the first possession of overtime, finishing with a 6-yard touchdown run by Lynch to give the Seahawks a 26-20 win.

“It was a tremendous game,” Wilson said. “It was one for the ages, and that’s what you want.”

The game was much closer than the last time the two teams met in the Super Bowl, but the Seahawks showed they still have Denver’s number, despite a big fourth-quarter Broncos rally.

“We knew this would be a prize fight type of environment,” Broncos coach John Fox said. “They are a very, very good football team.”

After an interception with just over two minutes to go in regulation seemed to end the Broncos’ comeback hopes, Manning led Denver 80 yards in less than a minute and hit Jacob Tamme down the left sideline for a 26-yard touchdown with 18 seconds left. Manning then found Demaryius Thomas deep in the end zone for the two-point conversion, sending the game to overtime tied at 20.

Denver receiver Emmanuel Sanders, who had a career high 149 yards on 11 catches, said after the Broncos scored to force overtime he thought they had the momentum and would come away with the victory.

“I think everyone on the sideline was thinking that,” Sanders said.

Instead, the Seahawks won the toss and got the ball to start overtime, and made sure Manning wouldn’t have another chance by moving down for the touchdown.

“That was a huge drive,” Seattle center Max Unger said. “That’s why we’re on the field. You want to be in situations like that. We’d like to make it easier on ourselves, and there were definitely opportunities to do that throughout the game, but when we needed to get it done we did it.”

Seattle had a 17-3 lead going into the fourth quarter, but Seahawk miscues gave the Broncos a chance at a comeback. Denver started the rally with a safety, and then an interception by Chris Harris Jr. led to a 3-yard shovel pass from Peyton Manning to Julius Thomas with 9:20 left, cutting Seattle’s lead to 17-12.

Denver got the ball again with six minutes to play and drove to Seattle’s 24 yard line before Kam Chancellor picked off Manning and returned it 52 yards, leading to Steven Hauschka’s 28-yard field goal with 59 seconds remaining that gave Seattle a 20-12 lead before Manning took the ball for the game-tying drive.

“We’re a battle-tested team,” Chancellor said. “We’ve been through it all.”

Wilson was 24 of 34 for 258 yards and rushed for another 40, including two big third-down scrambled on the overtime drive to move the chains. Lynch rushed for 88 yards and a touchdown on 26 carries.

Manning finished with 303 yards on 31 of 49 passing.

Although the Broncos came up short against the Seahawks again, at least one player thinks they will have another shot at Seattle before the year is done.

“I’d love to play them again,” said Harris, who also anointed Wilson “better than (Andrew) Luck.”

“We’ll see them again, if they make it to the final game. I believe we’re the best team, and I feel like we’ll see them again.”

What the Broncos said:

“We’re not saying, ‘Well, at least the score was better than the Super Bowl,’ or anything like that. We felt like we could come in here and win, and it didn’t happen that way. There’s nothing to be happy about.” — Nose tackle Terrance Knighton.

What the Seahawks said:

“They threw punches at us and we had to take them, and we were able to do that. The last drive, to go 13 plays, 80 yards and punch it in for the score for the game, that’s a testament to what this team has become.” — Wide receiver Doug Baldwin.

What we learned about the Broncos:

1. Never count Peyton Manning out. After his first shot at a comeback drive at the end of regulation was ended by an interception, Manning drove the Broncos 80 yards on six plays in less than a minute to tie the game in regulation with seconds left. “We just had to go 80 yards in under a minute with no timeouts, and that’s not easy to do against this defense,” Manning said. “I try to build off things like that.” Seattle players said they were motivated to score on the first possession of overtime to keep the ball out of Manning’s hands.

2. The Broncos couldn’t run against the Seahawks. Denver tried to establish the run early, but it was held to 36 yards on 20 carries for the game. Twice in the first half, the Broncos faced third-and-long, and Manning called for inside runs that were stuffed. Manning said the first time he saw a specific defense and called for a run. “We thought we had a chance to pop it,” Manning said. The second time he said there was a miscommunication with the center, and he wasn’t expecting the ball to be snapped. Denver moved away from the run almost entirely in the second half, rushing just six times.

–WR Wes Welker played for the first time this season after his drug suspension was reduced from four games to two. Welker caught six passes for 60 yards, most of the receptions coming in the second half. “It’s a big thing,” Welker said. “Just being out there with my teammates and trying to help out and not watching from a TV. It was great to be out there with the guys, and I wish we could have come out with a win.”

–RB Montee Ball fumbled on the first play of the game, and his second carry went for minus-5 yards. His day got only slightly better, as he finished with 38 yards on 14 carries. “I was trying to do too much,” Ball said. “Especially with a team like Seattle, you take what they give you. I was trying to jump around.”

–WR Emmanuel Sanders had a career-high 149 receiving yards on 11 catches one week after gaining 108 yards against Kansas City. His biggest catch came on the game-tying drive in regulation, when he got things started with a 42-yard grab. “My personal achievements don’t matter if we have an L in the loss column,” Sanders said.

What we learned about the Seahawks:

1. Even when it seemed as if the Broncos grabbed momentum, the Seahawks were able to come out and calmly convert on what may prove to be one of the biggest drives in the season. Russell Wilson matched Peyton Manning with his own impressive 80-yard drive in overtime. Wilson said when the Broncos were driving at the end of the game, part of him was rooting for Denver to score so he could have another chance. “I was almost hoping it would happen, that we would get the ball,” Wilson said. “I couldn’t wait for those moments, those big-time moments when you have to go up and down the field and make plays.”

2. The Broncos closed the gap from the Super Bowl blowout, but the Seahawks still have their number. “We really dominated this whole game,” safety Earl Thomas said. “Both sides had breakdowns, but we made this game hard on ourselves. When you really look at it, we were in control the whole game.”

–S Kam Chancellor forced RB Montee Ball’s fumble on Denver’s first play and also had an interception late in the fourth quarter that he returned 52 yards. He said he thought he was going to score, but, “My hamstring kicked in.” He also nearly had an third-quarter interception. “Wish I could go back and play that play again,” he said.

–OT Russell Okung left the game late in the second quarter with a shoulder injury, but he came back in the second half. “He was great against two really good defensive ends,” C Max Unger said. “I thought we ran the ball really well.”

–WR Ricardo Lockette not only caught his second touchdown pass of the season and prevented an interception, but he also had a big play in punt coverage in the third quarter, tackling PR Isaiah Burse for no gain. “I’m just trying to be the best player I can possibly be,” Lockette said. “I’m not thinking, ‘Make a play,’ I’m thinking, ‘Do everything you’ve been taught.’ If I do that, I think I’ll be successful.”

–P Jon Ryan’s first two punts were more than 60 yards, and he added a 58-yarder and two other punts that pinned the Broncos inside the 10-yard line. However, his longest kick came after the safety, when his free-kick punt traveled 79 yards in the air.