###OFFICIAL SUPERBOWL XL THREAD###

[Jack of Arcades]

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Sorry, the Seahawks have the best front 7 in all of football.

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They can be one of the best front 7, but they are very undersized. Where was Indy's front 7? Same type deal... great speed but undersized.

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The worry I have is that we didn't run particularly well in that game. The inability to close it out with the run burned us there. Obviously the interception made the game much closer that it should have been but had Pittsburgh ran the ball well in the second half it wouldn't have been close anyway.

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That's the thing. Pittsburgh's running game simply isn't that good, or to put it another way - it's above average but usually doesn't factor heavily in the outcome of the game. The running game helps them win by running the clock out but most of the time they get the lead through their defense and their passing game. We've seen that so far in the playoffs.

Problem from Pittsburgh is that the Seahawks actually have a better running game than the Steelers do.

This game is going to come down to Roethlisberger vs. the Seattle Secondary. If Seattle's smart about it, they'll be able to put up 20+ on Pittsburgh; they scored at will against Carolina and put up a good showing against Washington, two great defenses. Pittsburgh is an entirely different thing, but teams have demonstrated a way to beat it using max-protect.

[Kneel B4 Zod]

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Almost certainly under 50. Pit has sucked at running the ball for the last 5 or so weeks.

I expect them to get like 35~39 yrds.

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mm you're probably right. 50 is too high, but I think 35-39 is too low. for JOA purposes, I'd like to change to 43 [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[Kneel B4 Zod]

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If Seattle's smart about it, they'll be able to put up 20+ on Pittsburgh; they scored at will against Carolina and put up a good showing against Washington, two great defenses

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Carolina really looked like a broken team. SEA scored 37 total points in 2 games against the Redskins, 13 against Dallas, and 14 against Jacksonville, for an average of 16 PPG against these good defenses. really not that impressive. They put up a TON of points/stats in their 7 games against bad defenses, though.

[Dids]

Hawks by at least 7. I think it might be over early. I don't think anybody understands just how good the Hawks offense or defense really is.

[Josh W]

My question is, what does Seattle have to do to get respect? I know they've had an easy schedule. I'm not arguing that. However, they've done fabulously since week 1...

If they win by 20, will people call them a great football team?

Simple question.

Josh

[Kneel B4 Zod]

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Hawks by at least 7. I think it might be over early. I don't think anybody understands just how good the Hawks offense or defense really is.

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Dids,
I'll take SEA -7 for a large sum of money. just say the word

[Banks2334]

24-17 Seahawks.

[IggyWH]

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That's the thing. Pittsburgh's running game simply isn't that good, or to put it another way - it's above average but usually doesn't factor heavily in the outcome of the game. The running game helps them win by running the clock out but most of the time they get the lead through their defense and their passing game. We've seen that so far in the playoffs.

Problem from Pittsburgh is that the Seahawks actually have a better running game than the Steelers do.

This game is going to come down to Roethlisberger vs. the Seattle Secondary. If Seattle's smart about it, they'll be able to put up 20+ on Pittsburgh; they scored at will against Carolina and put up a good showing against Washington, two great defenses. Pittsburgh is an entirely different thing, but teams have demonstrated a way to beat it using max-protect.

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This is so wrong. The Steelers "appear" to not be able to run the ball because the last 3 games have been against defenses that put 8 men in the box. The thought around the league (and very much so on this forum a couple months ago) was Ben couldn't a game with his arm.

Ben has proven he can and probably Seattle's biggest weakness in defense is pass protection. Because of this, I don't see Seattle packing the box. I see a lot of Cover 2 from Seattle, meaning the Steelers running game will have a ton of room to work with.

This is also why I think Jerome will have a big game. With < 8 men in the box, the Steelers want to run a power game.

[Kneel B4 Zod]

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My question is, what does Seattle have to do to get respect? I know they've had an easy schedule. I'm not arguing that. However, they've done fabulously since week 1...

If they win by 20, will people call them a great football team?

Simple question.

Josh

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I don't think they've been getting a 'lack of respect' any more than a typical SB underdog. the spread is fairly close, compared to recent SB's.

as for your question, it depends how they win. the Patriots beat the Rams as 14 point dogs - I'm not sure that made them a great team as much as it made them a team who played a great game. They were certainly not nearly as good as the great Patriots teams that beat Philly or Carolina.

it's also somewhat a question of semantics - what do you consider a 'great' football team to be? Is there one every year?

[Josh W]

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My question is, what does Seattle have to do to get respect? I know they've had an easy schedule. I'm not arguing that. However, they've done fabulously since week 1...

If they win by 20, will people call them a great football team?

Simple question.

Josh

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I don't think they've been getting a 'lack of respect' any more than a typical SB underdog. the spread is fairly close, compared to recent SB's.

as for your question, it depends how they win. the Patriots beat the Rams as 14 point dogs - I'm not sure that made them a great team as much as it made them a team who played a great game. They were certainly not nearly as good as the great Patriots teams that beat Philly or Carolina.

it's also somewhat a question of semantics - what do you consider a 'great' football team to be? Is there one every year?

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I already consider them great [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

No, seriously, my question is if they will be considered a great team (not by me, but by public opinion at large).

As for them not getting disrespected...yeah, the spread is close, but its the 6 seed vs the 1 seed (granted, teh 6 seed is tremendous, and is the 6 seed only due to reg. season injuries, and they were favored on the road in the first round at the 3 seed, but still....)

Just wonderin what they gotta do....

Josh