Sunday, February 05, 2006Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
DETROIT -- The Seattle Seahawks bring an impressive resume into their Super Bowl matchup with the Steelers tonight at Ford Field. Of course, they do. They're a championship team, having won the NFC title with a dominating, 34-14 victory against the Carolina Panthers.
Everything about the Seahawks says they're good -- from quarterback Matt Hasselbeck, to NFL MVP running back Shaun Alexander, to a deep and talented group of receivers, to a strong offensive line and to a good-enough defense.
A team doesn't go 13-3 in the regular season and advance to the Super Bowl without being something special.
Or does it?
While so much about the Seahawks looks good, there's one troubling aspect on their resume. And that would be this: They've yet to face a championship-caliber team at full strength.
Their schedule has been little more than a joke, and it casts doubt on their ability to compete at the highest level. They've spent the majority of the season beating up on cream puffs and, on the occasion when they had to play a good team, good fortune often was on their side.
For starters, the Seahawks play in the NFC West Division, which is the worst in the NFL. The three other teams in the division, San Francisco, St. Louis and Arizona, were a combined 15-33. Right away, the Seahawks are 6-0.
Their cross-conference scheduling matched them up with the AFC South and two more softies, Houston and Tennessee, teams with a combined 6-26 record.
As for the other two teams in the AFC South, they lost to Jacksonville and beat Indianapolis under extenuating circumstances. The Colts were reeling from the death of the son of coach Tony Dungy some 48 hours earlier.
Additionally, the Colts, having clinched home field in the AFC, rested some of their regulars, including Peyton Manning, for part of the game.
The Seahawks also beat a disintegrating Philadelphia team, without Donovan McNabb, in December.
Their best wins were all at home -- where they were undefeated in 10 games this season -- and all by three points against Atlanta, Dallas and Washington. Hardly convincing stuff.
In the playoffs, they drew the offensively challenged Washington Redskins in their first game and won, 20-10. A nice victory, but nothing approaching what the Steelers have done to their playoff competition. Their decisive win against Carolina in the NFC title game was clouded by the fact the Panthers were down to their fourth-string running back by the time the first quarter was over.
The Steelers, coming in with highly impressive victories against Cincinnati, Indianapolis and Denver, are playing at a higher level than the Seahawks because they were doing pretty much the same thing but against better competition.
Does this mean a decisive Steelers win, similar to the pastings they handed Cincinnati and Denver and, to a lesser extent, Indianapolis, is in the offing?
Such a scenario is possible, but just because Seattle isn't a great team doesn't mean it's not a good team capable of playing the Steelers close, capitalizing on late breaks and winning the game.
It's imperative the Steelers run the ball better than they did against the Colts and Broncos, games in which their yards-per-rush was a puny 2.7. A lot of that, but not all of it, had to do with their opponents gearing up to stop the run and challenging Ben Roethlisberger to beat them.
That's exactly what Roethlisberger did -- his passer rating in the playoffs is 130.5 -- and Seattle obviously will adjust to compensate for his outstanding play. That should leave some running room for Willie Parker and Jerome Bettis.
If that happens, the Steelers can continue to score a lot of points. They're averaging 32 points in their past five games and 29 in their three playoff victories, which is a remarkable total considering the level of competition.
Seattle presents a formidable offense. Alexander was the NFL's leading rusher with 1,880 yards. Hasselbeck was fourth in the league in passer rating, less than a point behind Roethlisberger, and has been playing better as the season has progressed.
In the past six games, Hasselbeck has thrown for 12 touchdowns and one interception. His passer rating over that stretch is 127.7.
So what we have are two teams playing at a high level in the biggest game of the year. The difference is this: The Steelers have been dominating against elite teams. The Seahawks haven't faced such competition -- until tonight.
The Steelers by 10.
(Post-Gazette sports columnist Bob Smizik can be reached at bsmizik@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1468.)
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