I've resigned to letting someone who "knows about football" have the privilege of "writing about it."
And now to football…
I don’t really want to resort to a head to head comparison of each part of the two teams. I’m not sure it would actually in trying to analyze what will happen. Second, everyone and their mother writes a Super Bowl preview like that. So I’m just going to ramble for a bit about both teams.
I’ll start with the Seahawks. Fellow Northern Kentuckian Shaun Alexander, a.k.a. “The Truth”, plays for the Hawks, so I’m immediately predisposed to them. They have definitely had an easier road than the Steelers, but since you get two weeks off before the Super Bowl, the difficulty and strenuousness of the previous games rarely plays a factor. Games with more than one week of preparation usually have as much to do with coaching as the talent level of the teams. The coaches have two weeks to figure out what is coming at them, and devise a plan accordingly. To that end, I will say that the hallmark of Seattle’s more dominant wins (Philly, Carolina, etc.) is taking a one-dimensional team, having the audacity to recognize that they have basically one player stop on defense, and proceeding to develop a plan to stop that player. If quadruple teaming Steve Smith is what it takes, that’s what Mike Holmgren will do – and it usually only takes him a week to figure that out. Give him two… you’re in real trouble. Unfortunately, Pittsburgh is a decidedly multi-dimensional on offense. Score one for them.
Back when people were discussing the chances of Pittsburgh even making the playoffs, they got trounced by the Colts. Around this point, Pittsburgh’s offensive coordinator, Ken Whisenhunt, realized that to beat the Colts his team was going to have to be able to score about 30 a game (a fallacy disproved by Shawn Merriman and the Chargers, but whatever…). Having the audacity to realize that the running game wasn’t what it was last year (Whatever happened to Duce Staley?), which wasn’t good enough to win last year anyway, he opened up the offense. Wunderkind Ben Roethlisberger responded by putting up the best numbers of his short career, which still includes only 3 losses. Expect 25-30 passes from Roethlisberger during the Super Bowl.
I think the defenses will be the most intriguing part of the game. Both are led by exciting young guys from USC. Troy Polamalu is fun to watch, as is Defensive Rookie of the Year runner-up Lofa Tatupu. Earlier in the year, I would have said that Pittsburgh’s offensive is exactly the kind of one-dimensional unit that Seattle would have a field day with – but they opened it up. Roethlisberger is the key to Pittsburgh’s offense during this run, and Seattle leads the NFL in sacks. Score one for them. Also, Pittsburgh’s defensive strength is in stopping the run… but ain’t no offensive line like the Seahawks. Shaun Alexander will get his yards and TD’s. Score two or three for him. Also, Hasselback will be able to complete some passes. Score one for him. Holmgren has won a Super Bowl already. I’d say score one for him, but that was 9 years ago. Cowher’s trip was 10. Neither team can really play the “been there, done that” card. Pittsburgh is much closer to Detroit – they are even fairly similar towns in their blue-collar mentality. Seattle is losing their greatest asset and likely the reason they are even in the Super Bowl in not having home-field advantage. Score one for Pittsburgh. They’ve even got that whole win one for “the Bus” thing going.
Finally, some people are saying that Shaun Alexander may have been the best, but not the most valuable player. Well consider this – if Pittsburgh could trade any player on their team straight up for the corresponding position on Seattle, who do you think they’d take? Seattle makes the playoffs without Shaun Alexander. They may even make it to the Super Bowl. They are an all around solid team. Would they have done it without Hasselback... well, it depends on who his replacement is? There is no replacement for Shaun Alexander. He tips the scales. And in lieu of any other legitimate reason to favor one team over the other besides pulling for the hometown hero, I’m calling a Seahawks championship, 28-24. East cost bias, begone.
I don’t really want to resort to a head to head comparison of each part of the two teams. I’m not sure it would actually in trying to analyze what will happen. Second, everyone and their mother writes a Super Bowl preview like that. So I’m just going to ramble for a bit about both teams.
I’ll start with the Seahawks. Fellow Northern Kentuckian Shaun Alexander, a.k.a. “The Truth”, plays for the Hawks, so I’m immediately predisposed to them. They have definitely had an easier road than the Steelers, but since you get two weeks off before the Super Bowl, the difficulty and strenuousness of the previous games rarely plays a factor. Games with more than one week of preparation usually have as much to do with coaching as the talent level of the teams. The coaches have two weeks to figure out what is coming at them, and devise a plan accordingly. To that end, I will say that the hallmark of Seattle’s more dominant wins (Philly, Carolina, etc.) is taking a one-dimensional team, having the audacity to recognize that they have basically one player stop on defense, and proceeding to develop a plan to stop that player. If quadruple teaming Steve Smith is what it takes, that’s what Mike Holmgren will do – and it usually only takes him a week to figure that out. Give him two… you’re in real trouble. Unfortunately, Pittsburgh is a decidedly multi-dimensional on offense. Score one for them.
Back when people were discussing the chances of Pittsburgh even making the playoffs, they got trounced by the Colts. Around this point, Pittsburgh’s offensive coordinator, Ken Whisenhunt, realized that to beat the Colts his team was going to have to be able to score about 30 a game (a fallacy disproved by Shawn Merriman and the Chargers, but whatever…). Having the audacity to realize that the running game wasn’t what it was last year (Whatever happened to Duce Staley?), which wasn’t good enough to win last year anyway, he opened up the offense. Wunderkind Ben Roethlisberger responded by putting up the best numbers of his short career, which still includes only 3 losses. Expect 25-30 passes from Roethlisberger during the Super Bowl.
I think the defenses will be the most intriguing part of the game. Both are led by exciting young guys from USC. Troy Polamalu is fun to watch, as is Defensive Rookie of the Year runner-up Lofa Tatupu. Earlier in the year, I would have said that Pittsburgh’s offensive is exactly the kind of one-dimensional unit that Seattle would have a field day with – but they opened it up. Roethlisberger is the key to Pittsburgh’s offense during this run, and Seattle leads the NFL in sacks. Score one for them. Also, Pittsburgh’s defensive strength is in stopping the run… but ain’t no offensive line like the Seahawks. Shaun Alexander will get his yards and TD’s. Score two or three for him. Also, Hasselback will be able to complete some passes. Score one for him. Holmgren has won a Super Bowl already. I’d say score one for him, but that was 9 years ago. Cowher’s trip was 10. Neither team can really play the “been there, done that” card. Pittsburgh is much closer to Detroit – they are even fairly similar towns in their blue-collar mentality. Seattle is losing their greatest asset and likely the reason they are even in the Super Bowl in not having home-field advantage. Score one for Pittsburgh. They’ve even got that whole win one for “the Bus” thing going.
Finally, some people are saying that Shaun Alexander may have been the best, but not the most valuable player. Well consider this – if Pittsburgh could trade any player on their team straight up for the corresponding position on Seattle, who do you think they’d take? Seattle makes the playoffs without Shaun Alexander. They may even make it to the Super Bowl. They are an all around solid team. Would they have done it without Hasselback... well, it depends on who his replacement is? There is no replacement for Shaun Alexander. He tips the scales. And in lieu of any other legitimate reason to favor one team over the other besides pulling for the hometown hero, I’m calling a Seahawks championship, 28-24. East cost bias, begone.
posted by mike at 10:07 PM
3 Comments:
Michael, we have a bunch of your tax documents.
I'm surprised you didn't choose to blame the officials... phantom pass interferences, and whatnot.
Correlation implies causation
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