Super Bowl XLIX: Three Ways Seattle Can Win

Tackle

An obvious football fundamental, but particularly important against the backfield that the Seahawks are going to have to limit. LeGarrette Blount was an absolute monster in the AFC Championship Game against Indianapolis (30 carries for 148 yards and three touchdowns), and the Colts showed, again and again, an inability to bring the big man down. Granted, the big man from Oregon runs like a battering ram, but it was as poor a tackling effort on a big stage as I’ve seen in some time.

Although we never know for sure with the way Bill Belichick plans his offensive schemes for any given game, you’d imagine that Blount will see a lot of the football on Sunday evening, and the Seahawks will need to be a lot better than the Colts were. If Blount has any of the same success he had against Indy, it’s going to be a long day for the ‘Hawks – and probably not one where they come out on top. On the other hand, if the Seattle front can stuff the run, immediately the pressure switches to Brady and the passing game.

Harass Brady and get takeaways

If anyone can do it to Brady, it’s this Seattle D. They are experts at performing in big games, as Peyton Manning and the Denver Broncos can attest from last year. Super Bowl XLIX is another one of those games pitting a great offense against a great defense, and we saw fifty two weeks ago that the great defense made that great offense look pretty bad.

The Broncos had a torrid time of it, and if Seattle can reproduce that sort of effectiveness against Brady, they’re likely to win the game. Brady is statuesque in the pocket, and if the Seattle front can get to him and sack him, or force a bad throw, there’s a high chance they’re going to get turnovers.

As I wrote in my corresponding article on three ways New England can win, teams who score a defensive touchdown are undefeated in the previous 48 Super Bowls. It’s a massive momentum swinger either way. Seattle have the horses to force these turnovers, but, in saying that, there are injury clouds (and personal issues) hanging over some of their key guys. Whether Richard Sherman plays - not a given, with the potential game-day birth of his son - and the sort of impact of some other important defensive cogs may have on the field is going to really alter the course of the game, either way.

Stop Rob Gronkowski

Last but not least, Seattle must contain the big man of the Patriots offense because, simply, no one can hurt them offensively like the Brady-to-Gronkowski combination can. We’ve read plenty throughout the last two weeks, and a lot of it centres on the best-equipped Seattle defender to do the job. Make no mistake, if it’s done well, if Gronk is limited in his offensve production, chances are the Seahawks are going to win the game, and their second-straight Super Bowl championship. This is, in many respects, where the game will be won or lost.

Cameron Mee analysed the Seahawks options perfectly earlier this week on The Roar, and I have a feeling that Kam Chancellor and Bobby Wagner are likely the keys here. Wagner, especially. When he’s on the field, Seattle’s opponents average 4.4 yards per play. When he’s on the sideline, it’s out to 5.1 yards. 

In what figures to be a close, tightly-contested defensive Super Bowl, Wagner’s presence might be the different. If he and the rest of the Legion of Boom can drastically limit his effectiveness for Brady, then the Seahawks, you’d think, have the upper hand. It’s going to be a fascinating duel, and potentially a game-deciding one.