Steelers vs. Seahawks: Five questions with 12th Man Rising
By Kim Myers
It’s the Steelers in Seahawks in a Super Bowl XL rematch with playoff implications on the line for both teams. Here’s the scoop direct from the enemy.
The Steelers return from their bye week just in time to travel west to take on the 5-5 Seattle Seahawks. The Seahawks are coming off of a home win against the San Francisco 49ers and are in a must-win scenario in order to get themselves into the post season.
Throughout the season Still Curtain will be taking you inside to get the dirt on the opposing team through the FanSided network. We’ll be interviewing the opposing teams’ site to get you the inside info on the opposition.
This week we have Keith Myers, editor of 12th Man Rising, FanSided’s Seattle Seahawks-themed site. Myers will be giving us the dirt on the Seahawks’ playoff hopes, the impact of the Marshawn Lynch injury as well as a prediction with score for the game.
The Seahawks are leading the league in rushing yards per game but will miss Marshawn Lynch for potentially several games. Is the run game still a strength for the Seahawks even without Lynch?
It is still very much a strength for the Seahawks. Some would even argue that the Seattle’s offense is tougher to defend with Lynch out.
Thomas Rawls, Lynch’s backup, is quicker and runs better on the outside. He makes defenders have to defend a much wider area, which makes things easier on the offensive line.
Of course, no one in the NFL is as hard to tackle as Lynch is. Losing him hurts, but Rawls is capable of carrying the load for Seattle’s offense.
With the Steelers’ offensive weapons like Antonio Brown and Martavis Bryant, what will the coverage be like? Do you expect to see Richard Sherman shadowing Brown the whole game?
There’s no cornerback in the NFL that can cover Antonio Brown one-on-one. Because of that, I don’t think we’ll see Sherman shadow him.
Instead, I expect to see Sherman shadow Bryant. The coaches will trust that he can cover Bryant without help, which will allow the team to double Brown on just about every play.
We’ll see though, the Seahawks finally benched Cary Williams last week, and they’ll have Jeremy Lane back for the first time this season.
No one knows what to expect from that other cornerback spot in this game. The coaches could surprise everyone with the game plan this week.
With the Seahawks 5-5 and currently in the hunt with a couple of teams fighting for a Wild Card spot what has been the biggest disappointment of the season so far?
The team has been inconsistent and at times coming out playing looking unmotivated and unprepared.
Seeing as this is a rematch of Super Bowl XL are Seahawks fans still upset about the officiating in that game or is that all history since the Seahawks have had such success recently?
The answer here is that it is a little of both. Seattle’s recent success, especially the Super Bowl 48 win, has definitely calmed some of the anger.
Notice I said some, and not all. There are still some fans whose anger burns with the heat of the surface of the sun. They’ll likely never get over what happened in Super Bowl XL.
The apology from Bill Levy to the Seahawks and the city of Seattle certainly didn’t help the way he thought it would either. Instead, it just served to reinforce that anger.
I should note that those fans don’t represent the majority of us. They are just really vocal when someone gives them a platform.
What is your prediction for the game with score?
A prediction here is much more difficult than it should be because I have no idea which Seahawks team is going to show up. If they come play Seattle will win a close game. If they come in unprepared and unmotivated like they did against Arizona, then the Seahawks will get blown out.
I’ll guess that the Seahawks recognize the importance of this game and decide to show up and play well. Seattle 23 – 21 Pittsburgh
Next: Steelers 30 greatest moments
There you have it, Steeler Nation. What would you have asked differently about the Steelers and Seahawks matchup?
Here we go Steelers! Here we go!