You’re going to hear it this week, and hear it often, that the Seattle Seahawks defense is one of the best in recent memory. And they are. You may even hear some experts and fans calling them one of the best ever. And as good as they are, and have been all season long, they are not one of the best ever, just outside that group actually, and that needs to be heard as well as understood. That's not a knock against them, rather a reminder of their unfinished business.
Just to clarify, in order to be considered one of the best ever, the expectations are rather simple, even if meeting those expectations is nearly impossible with today’s pass happy teams and rules geared toward favoring offense. To be in the conversation, your defense needs to hold opponents to under 13 points and 300 yards per game. Simple, right? It's an accomplishment so rare that only the 1973 Rams, 1976 Steelers, 1977 Falcons, 1985 Bears, 1986 Bears, 2000 Ravens, and 2002 Buccaneers have pulled it off. That’s where the bar is set to be considered. This does not change the fact that the Seahawks defensive unit is very, very good. Elite even. They will always be the best defense to play in 2013. They came extremely close to breaking both benchmarks, allowing under 15 points and less than 280 yards per game. They're just not one of the best ever. But so what?
None of that "best ever" water-cooler-waste-of-time garbage really matters anyway, and do you know why? Because the old adage is that defense wins championships, not “defenses fuel debates,” and the Seahawks have an opportunity to do exactly that this Sunday, an opportunity the 73 Rams, 76 Steelers, 77 Falcons, and 86 Bears never seized, in fact none of those four teams even played for a championship.
What matters on Sunday is which team walks out of MetLife Stadium hoisting the Lombardi Trophy over their heads, not who can get farther in to all of the greatness and legacy debates. You may have heard that Peyton Manning is facing the Seahawks on Sunday, he of all the shiny and new passing records. He of the "Manning vs. Brady vs. Montana greatest of all time" chatter. The old man (by NFL standards) on his last ride, trying for one more ring before riding off in to the sunset.
The truth is that neither Seattle as a team nor Peyton Manning as an individual have enough titles to shut the mouths of their detractors, but both have more than enough stats this year to last them a while, so titles will be the concern, not who's the greatest defense or who's the greatest QB.
The biggest of big games is what matters, and by the numbers leading up to the Super Bowl, this is a game Seattle can win.
Against top 15 NFL defenses this year, Denver went 6-3, beating the number 5 (Kansas City) unit twice, while averaging 30 points a game over those nine contests. They faced the numbers 11 (Chargers) and 10 (Patriots) defenses in the playoffs, dispatching of them both, but only averaging 25 points per game, well below their regular season average of 38, which will probably not get the job done against the number 1 defense that Seattle fields, but this is the same offense that scored over 600 points and rolled up over 7000 yards in the regular season while breaking 50 points three times, so a lot can happen, and it can happen in a hurry.
By comparison, the Seahawks faced four of the NFL’s top 15 offenses during the regular season and playoffs, going 5-2 along the way and allowing an average of 16 points. 16 points allowed per contest against some of the very best offenses the NFL had to send them. The only top ten offense they faced, the pass happy New Orleans Saints, managed to score just 22 points TOTAL in two games against the vaunted Seattle secondary and lost both contests to Seattle, one in the regular season and one in the divisional round. In two playoff games this year against the Saints and 49ers, the Seahawks won both contests, and allowed only 32 points combined, maintaining their average of 16 points allowed to top 15 offenses.
At the end of the day, it's a tough matchup to figure out. Traditional wisdom would tell you that the team built to play in the wind and cold can outlast the finest passing team. The stats say that Denver averages 38 points and 450 yards per game, Seattle allows 15 points and 280 yards. Both teams have a quality running game and field one the best and most accurate kickers in the league, so if it comes down to it, both sides can drain the clock and kick their way to victory if need be. So what will it come down to? A last second touchdown? A game winning kick? A game winning interception?? Possibly. Who knows.
It's the first time the best offense in the league has faced the best defense in the league with the Super Bowl on the line. I think it's fair to say no one knows what will happen. And that's not a cop out (per se).
What I will tell you, is that the outcome of Super Bowl 48 won't determine the greatness or legacy of Seattle or Manning. And it will either live up to the hype, or it won't.
What it will do, like the other 47 Super Bowls before it, is crown this year's champion. And after all, that's what we're all there to witness.
Now it's all up to Seattle to decide if they just want to be in the GOAT discussion, or if they're a defense that wins championships. On Super Bowl Sunday, we'll know for sure.
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