The Seattle Seahawks “Dynasty”?????

Call us crazy, but listening to the self-proclaimed “experts” gushing about the Seattle Seahawks amidst all the hyperbole surrounding Sunday’s Super Bowl is striking us as mildly hilarious. One victory, over the quarterback infamous for throwing craps in the post season, the king of the one-and-done Peyton Manning, does not make a dynasty. Indeed the entire NFC, historically weak in our estimation, has combined to make this Seattle team appear much better than it is. The NFC East, represented by a severely under-powered Dallas Cowboys this year, was never a danger to go deep into the post season. The NFC North has belonged to the Green Bay Packers however their coaching deficiencies, particularly one Dom Capers, can only win by blowing teams completely out of the water, something not very likely against Seattle’s stout defence. The NFC South doesn’t have anything resembling a complete team as evidenced by their entry coming in with a losing record and, despite beating the quarterback-less Cardinals, were no real threat to anyone. The vastly over-rated NFC West is so quarterback-poor that a guy who averages 200 yards per game passing is being referred to as a franchise quarterback.

Don’t get us wrong, Seattle has a good team, but so does Baltimore, Pittsburgh (with a real running back), and New England. Manning is finished, San Diego was beset by injuries much like New England was last season, Kansas City has some great parts but not a great team, Indianapolis has a very good offence, and yet any one of those teams likely would have gotten to the Conference Championship if their conference was the NFC and they were one of the top seeds. While the same could perhaps be said for Seattle and Green Bay the result does not seem nearly so cut and dried. It took two separate terrible coaching mistakes by the Patriot’s staff to hand over the game to the Packers at Lambeau (not to mention an uncharacteristic hesitation on Devon McCourty’s part leading to Nelson’s first half-ending touchdown), Kansas City made pretty short work of the Seahawks and so-on. While there never is an answer to these NFC/AFC arguments this Sunday could prove to be illuminating.

From the AFC perspective, it is hard to imagine Bill Belichick not coming up with a solution the Seattle’s high school-like offence where they rely on the running back and the quarterback running out of trouble. Given the quality of New England’s secondary and the relative lack of a Seahawk passing game it is easy to see that the Patriots will be in man coverage for most of the day. They can go with a 5-3-3 defence, perhaps using a sixth defensive lineman in between Hightower and Collins, to shut-down the Seahawk’s running game entirely. Collins should be able to cover the tight end, Revis and Browner should be able to manage outside with McCourty playing centerfield for Seattle’s double tight-end sets when Lynch is in the game. So much has been made of the Seahawks defence this week meanwhile given the nature of the Seahawk offence it is not impossible to imagine the Patriots shutting them down completely, and yes we do mean shut-out, at least for touchdowns. The Patriots have a better defence than the Packers and the Packers shut-out the Seahawk’s offence for over three quarters.

The Patriots have the horses to score some points – That fact cannot be disputed. The Seahawk defence has weaknesses and Brady is a master at taking what is there. Add in the fact that Sherman and Thomas sustained significant injuries during the Packer game and that the Patriots have a beast of their own in Legarret Blount. It is hard to overestimate the importance of the safeties in stopping the running game and if the Patriots only have to worry about blocking Chancellor it could be a very short day for Thomas if Blount knocks him out of the game, or a very long one if he stays in. We believe that Belichick will be able to take Lynch out of the game until it is too late because that is what he does, will have the answer to stopping Russell Wilson and will let his secondary shut down the Seahawk’s anemic aerial attack. We also believe that Brady will put up 17 points in the first half and will put the game away in the third quarter. It won’t even be close.