There was no overwhelming consensus who would win Super Bowl XLVIII, but there was a strong feeling it would be a tight game. Well, the mighty Seahawks dared to disagree. They looked as cozy in their New Jersey environs as they do in their crazed Pacific Northwest home, putting on display of pulverizing defense that intercepted Peyton Manning twice, caused him to fumble once and pounded away on the overmatched Broncos receivers with that ferocious Legion of Boom secondary.

This was no contest Sunday night from the start, as the Seahawks did as they pleased to embarrass Manning and the Broncos, turning the first New York/New Jersey Super Bowl into an absolute rout, a hard-to-believe 43-8 victory. The Seahawks led 8-0 after one quarter, 22-0 at halftime and 36-0 until the final play of the third quarter.

“We had a chance to shut ’em out,’’ marveled Seattle coach Pete Carroll. “Unfortunately we didn’t get that done.’’

Unfortunately for Manning, he ran into what might in time be considered an all-time defense. The Broncos have to be embarrassed with this terrible, non-competitive performance, as they were outplayed, outclassed and at times seemed to cower as the Seahawks pounded away. Manning really never had a chance. He looked jittery, his protection was suspect and if anyone wanted to use this game as a litmus test for his legacy, it would not bode well for his place in NFL history. He completed a Super Bowl record 34 passes, but it was as hollow a record as you can find.

“We played a great football team,’’ Manning said. “We needed to play really well in order to win, and we didn’t come anywhere close to that.’’

The Seahawks are the second-youngest team in the NFL, and Carroll, at 62, is the second-oldest coach in the league (only Tom Coughlin is older), and the combination clicked to give Seattle its first Super Bowl title. Fittingly, the Most Valuable Player was unheralded linebacker Malcolm Smith, who returned a Manning interception 69 yards for a touchdown and also recovered a Demaryius Thomas fumble. It’s not easy for a defensive player to get named MVP — especially when second-year quarterback Russell Wilson tosses two touchdown passes and compiles a passer rating of 123.1, and Percy Harvin returns a kickoff 87 yards for a touchdown — but defense is mainly what these Seahawks are all about.

“When they came across the middle they were getting hit,’’ Wagner said. “They’re not used to that. In the fourth quarter they started folding.’’

There were 82,529 on hand at MetLife Stadium, a place where Eli Manning struggled so mightily this past season for the Giants. The bad karma hung around long enough to ruin the night for big brother Peyton. This was a bitter fall for the newly minted MVP of the league, now 1-2 in Super Bowls after failing to do much of anything after his record-breaking regular-season performance.

The Seahawks scored touchdowns on offense, defense and special teams and started the game with a safety after only 12 seconds. Never has a team scored in such myriad ways in a Super Bowl.

All that talk, talk, talk about the weather in this first-ever outdoor Super Bowl in a cold-weather site? A lot of hot air … literally. It was a balmy 49 degrees at kickoff — it was colder in Seattle and Denver than it was in New Jersey. The ideal conditions figured to favor Manning and his high-octane passing attack, but this battle of the league’s No. 1 offense against the No. 1 defense was really no battle at all.

The Broncos scored an NFL-record 606 points this season, but they didn’t get their first first down until nearly 20 minutes had elapsed. Manning before halftime threw two interceptions, leading to 14 Denver points, the second with 3:21 left in the second quarter when he was hit as he threw by Cliff Avril, causing the ball to float into the air in the direction of Knowshon Moreno, who stood like a statue and watched the ball. That allowed Smith — the younger brother of former Giants receiver Steve Smith — to swarm in, pick the ball off and race 69 yards for a touchdown to make it 22-0.

The first quarter was a nightmare for the Broncos, who trailed 8-0 as, strangely, the Seahawks got three scoring plays — a safety (when the shotgun snap flew over Manning’s reach) and two Steve Hauschka field goals. The best way to beat Manning is to keep him off the field, and the time of possession was 11:41 for Seattle and 3:19 for Denver.

“At the end of the day there’s no excuses,’’ Broncos coach John Fox said. “It was our team against their team.’’

Their team was better. Much better.

•Excerpted from a New York Post report. Photo courtesy USA Today shows Byron Maxwell (41) and Malcolm Smith (53) celebrating Seattle’s victory.

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