2 Questions for those who are knowledgeable:
1. How do people rate the offensive and defensive lines of the Seahawks? And try not to over-focus on the last game.
2. How heavy are the offensive and defensive lines of the Seahawks? We all know the NEP struggle against the heavier lines on both sides of the ball.
Their DL is a bit on the small side. Their big guy, Kevin Williams, is a good penetrating DT and very strong against the run, but he only weighs 310#. Their other DTs run around 300#, and the ends are similar in stature to Nink and Jones, so the Pats have a size advantage on offense. Their LBs (the ones that don't play end) are fast and all under 250#, so I do think that the Indy game plan has carryover. Chancellor and Thomas provide strong run support, but if they are moving forward to stop Blount, that opens up big plays down the field and with 2nd level crossing routes.
The Seattle OL plays big. More importantly, they move well and run a zone blocking scheme, which has given the Pats fits on certain occasions (e.g., Miami on day 1 and Baltimore more recently). I do think the Pats will manage the Seattle zone blocking better than Kubiak's system, which emphasized backside cut blocks that sometimes had some of the Pats DTs playing scared against Baltimore. (To my mind, those backside cut blocks should be illegal, as they are more of less clipping, but I digress.) The challenge of stopping Lynch while fighting-off zone blocks is, to me, the number one concern going into the Superbowl. If the Beast can be contained without selling out and opening-up room for Wilson on the read option, I think that Pats win handily. That said, the Hawks are likely to make this competitive, because that running attack is just that tough. People say that Seattle isn't hot right now, but that running game is the real deal. We're in for an old-time, smash-mouth game in two weeks. Should be fun.
