Didn't want this game to come and go without saying something here. Not sure if any of you are interested, but here goes:
As a lifelong Patriots fan, I went into Super Bowl week(s) not knowing much about the Seahawks. I mean, I had obviously watched a number of their games over the last 3 years, and I was aware of many of the players, but I never really spent much time thinking about the team. Most of my Seahawks memories are from the early 1990s and involve Rick Mirer.
Anyway, as an outsider really focusing on the Seahawks for the first time over the past 2 weeks, here's my conclusion: I REALLY like this team.
I was surprised by this realization, but it's true... even though I hope the Patriots win by 45 points tomorrow.
- Carroll: Obviously it starts here with a former Patriots coach. He infuriated me at times while coaching the Patriots, and although I don't follow college football I understand he had a somewhat dubious departure from USC. Still, after watching him this week, I have been deeply impressed with him and his defensive schemes. The guy just seems to have so much fun coaching football and seems to genuinely love his players. Maybe I'm a sucker, but I loved his self-depricating asides during the joint presser with Belichick ("My therapist tells me to talk about getting fired a lot.").
- Wilson: He's just an incredibly impressive young QB. Outside of that bizarre meltdown against the Packers, he's been amazingly consistent and solid. He rarely tries to do more than he should, he doesn't make many mistakes, and he also seems willing to take a shot downfield when the situation is right. And as the FC guys highlighted earlier this year, a few times a season he'll just do something a QB shouldn't be able to do -- evade 5 rushers, wiggle out of a few tackles, and make an incredible play. Take that 2-point conversion against the Packers in the NFCCG, for instance. That play has been overlooked in the aftermath of that game, but 1) the Seahawks would be golfing right now if it hadn't worked (the Packers FG would have won the game), and 2) how many other QBs have the presence of mind to chuck it up instead of throwing it away there? It went against every instinct for a QB, but on those plays he remembered that there was no negative consequence. Incredibly impressive.
- Lynch: He's just such a pleasure to watch run. He's everything an RB should be -- he's tough, he's elusive, he's fast, he's intimidating. I always regretted that I never got to watch Earl Campbell play, but I imagine it was something sort of akin to watching Lynch truck defenders and create his own running lanes.
- "Legion of Boom": I like their swagger off the field and most especially love their discipline on it. To my mind they aren't anything like, say, the Jets, who for the last few years have seemed to me to be a bunch of loudmouths who are all bark and no bite (laying down to the Bills in that snow game in Detroit, for instance). Watching them on film, I'm just so impressed by everything that Chancellor, Thomas, and Sherman do. They're so precise with their routes and in general they're so smart about playing defense. And while I should probably hate Sherman's antics, I found myself giggling while watching his Sound F/X last weekend -- he was yawning while covering Joe Webb on the Vikings, telling him it was a "Waste of my time." Hell, watching Chancellor time the Panthers FG snaps and leapfrog the center on two consecutive plays was one of the most amazing sequences in the NFL this season. They're just fun to watch.
So... anyway.
I hope the Seahawks are down by 45 in the first quarter and forfeit the game at the some point out of embarrassment... but damn do I respect this team.
In other words:
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmTK_eSOCN4[/youtube]
