OFFENSE: Two Reasons the Seahawks Have a Shot
The champs will be heavy favorites, of course. But I don't know that I would give up on the game before it starts - that's all we're sayin'. The Seahawks have enough of a chance, that it's worth stoking up for the game. Or so it says here.
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=== The Stud Card ===
Tony Dungy, speaking from a coach's perspective, complained about how hard it would be for New Orleans to prepare for two different quarterbacks.
It's not so often that a team is in genuine doubt about which QB will start, and especially not so often that two QB's play so differently. Whitehurst's emergence is very recent. This time next year, it won't even be possible to hold an opponent in confusion.
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Carroll emphasized, postgame, that the Seahawks'd had to prepare two fundamentally different offenses for the Rams game.
I believe him. Whitehurst is good at smoked flat passes with runs after the catch; Hasselbeck reads a network of routes and picks out the open slant.
Whitehurst has the arm strength to threaten defenses long, if they cheat too much, and Carroll said as much. Hasselbeck's plus is in his reliability in the 5-20 yard range.
Whitehurst rolls out, bootlegs, scrambles, escapes rushers ... even takes hits and doesn't even seem to notice the pain. Hasselbeck is fragile.
Hass is probably the superior QB overall, but the structure of the Seahawks' offense is radically different with either QB at the helm.
This means that New Orleans cannot properly prepare for either man. We've been around sports enough to know that while you're preparing for either of two possible teams, it's kind of like not preparing for either team. It's more like just advance-scouting.
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We also hear that the Saints' best defensive player is the free safety -- the man who would coordinate the defense against the passes. This player is injured for next week's game.
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=== Prep Time ===
Dungy also complained -- on the Saints' behalf -- that the Saints have both a long flight to Seattle and a short week to prepare.
We fans don't have a good feel for how much this matters, or doesn't. But coaches consistently tell you that it matters, a lot.
Carroll will be preparing, for six days, knowing what cards are in his hand. Carroll is good with X's and O's. The Seahawks seem genuinely positioned to win the X's and O's chess game on the offensive side of the ball.
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