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Seahawks/Steelers - How they match up on Super Sunday
By Stefani Rebekah Black February 4, 2006 |
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This is without a doubt, the best Seattle Seahawks team that has ever been assembled and the Pittsburgh Steelers want to prove that they could be as good as or better than the past Steelers teams of the 70s. When you think of the Steelers of the 70s, there’s Terry Bradshaw, Lynn Swann, and Mean Joe Green. The Steelers are going into their sixth franchise Super Bowl with their appearance on Sunday in Detroit. The Steelers have something to prove with the 2005-06 club with players like Ben Roethlisberger, Jerome Bettis, Troy Polamalu, and Head Coach Bill Cowher at the helm. For the first time in the Seahawks 30 year history, they are here in the Super Bowl. The Seahawks won their first playoff game in 21 years. The Seahawks carry plenty of players who have been to the Super Bowl with different clubs. From everyone on the Sportstalk air staff they mostly agree that this will be a tight Super Bowl match up in Detroit. Never mind the seeding of this thing, the Seahawks ranked #1 coming into post season and the Steelers ranked last. The Seahawks dominated and controlled some tough clubs through the playoffs and the Steelers won three different road games in the AFC playoffs to get here the first team to do that since the 95 Patriots. The Steelers’ road to Detroit went through Denver, and Pittsburgh’s 34-17 defeat of Denver was not only an upset, but also it marked Pittsburgh’s seventh straight win stretching back to the regular season. The Seahawks had a big victory over the Carolina Panthers at home to advance to the Super Bowl in the NFC Championship 34-14. The Seahawks went perfect on their home schedule. The quarterback situation is solid on both sides. For the Steelers, Roethlisberger who threw three interceptions in two playoff games in his rookie year last year threw only one pick off in three playoff games. Roethlisberger has thrown three touchdown passes in those three playoff games. "It has been like day and night. I'm seeing things a lot better and really understanding the team." said Roethlisberger. For the Seahawks Matt Hasselbeck had some tough luck as a starting quarterback in the past losing two playoff games but this season he's had all the confidence to get the job done his numbers speak for themselves going 20-28 for 219 yards in the game against Carolina. The week before that against Washington, Shaun Alexander the Seahawk running back went out with a concussion and Hasselbeck had to carry the rest of the load. Alexander a powerhouse in his own right and the NFC MVP went onto to carry 32 times in the NFC Championship for 132 yards with two touchdowns against Carolina. Either way it’s a balanced two teams coming into Super Bowl XL as the Steelers proved to themselves as a team winning those three post season games on the road to get to the Super Bowl from being the last seed. The Seahawks have a club very similar to the 49ers of the early 80s trying their hand at coming out of the gate and challenging their opponents and having flashes of brilliance like the New England Patriots. Stefani's Super Bowl XL footnotes: The NFL players Union President Gene Upshaw and the NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue met in Detroit, to discuss contract discussions between the league and the players, with the current contract that expires after the 2008 college draft. The both sides admitted that talks have been stalled as Upshaw described the talks as "one step forward and five steps back." Tagliabue said of the talks on Friday, "we are not making the kind of progress I think is necessary. We do have serious issues to be resolved. I'm not optimistic." The current CBA runs through the 2008 college draft and the sticking point to all of this has been the salary cap in like most other sports leagues. The NFL salary cap agreement comes to an end at the 2006 season which means that the players will be playing football without a salary cap in 2007. Upshaw did make it clear at negotiations that the players would never agree to a cap when the 2006 agreement is over. Tagliabue pretty much repeated the progress of the talks like Upshaw, saying the talks are going, "one step forward and several steps back." With the talks stalled the NFLPA and Commissioner intend to keep on talking and see what loop hole or round about will work to make sure there will be no work stoppage, "to some degree, positions are hardening when they shouldn't be hardening. Like a lot of things in life, things get done at the 11th hour and the 59th minute." If they don't get done at the 11th hour the owners much like the NHL owners in hockey may propose a lockout for 2007 if the players don't agree to some kind of a salary cap. Tagliabue agreed that worse case scenarios that if no cap is in place a lock out would be considered by the owners. Upshaw didn't call it a threat and knows that the owners will use a lockout as a bargaining chip and said he and the players intend to stand fast and hold their ground and not agree to a salary cap after the 06 agreement runs out. Stefani Rebekah Black is covering the Pittsburgh Steelers camp at the Super Bowl and co-hosts Sportstalk on 1110 KLIB Sacramento and raiderfanradio.com on Tuesday nights. |
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