Sharper effort needed against Patriots
Seahawks show resilience in comeback win, but Brady and company will be a challenge
Give it to me straight: Did I miss anything by not going to Seattle on Sunday? While we’re mulling that one over, here’s something that promises to be just as exciting, the musings and meditations on the world of sports:
That was the most beautiful, ugly, thrilling, impossible, brutal and, ultimately, epic championship encounter seen in a while on Sunday and it will be remembered as either the game that defined the Seahawks’ mini-dynasty or exposed the team’s flaws.
I mean, you’re not supposed to win championship games when you turn the ball over five times, allow your quicksilver quarterback to be sacked five times and spot the other team a 16-0 lead deep into the third quarter.
While we’re on the subject, you’d generally like someone other than your Canadian punter throwing your only touchdown pass of regulation and your crucial two-point conversion executed a little more smartly than a lob ball thrown across the field, which somehow finds your Canadian tight end.
Yes, the Seahawks authored one of the greatest comebacks in the history of the NFL, but if they think they can beat Bill Belichick and Tom Brady making those kinds of mistakes, they’re delusional.
Pete Carroll’s team is resourceful and resilient, but they’ll have to be a lot sharper in the Super Bowl. If you’re a Seahawks fan, you just hope they got it all out of their system against the Packers.
Been racking my brain trying to draw a comparable with Russell Wilson and came up with this: Roger Staubach 2.0.
Staubach was a little bigger, but the rest fits. They’re both hyper-mobile. They both played/play on teams with dominating defences. Other quarterbacks might have had gaudier numbers, but both had the supernatural ability to produce when the game was on the line.
Staubach played in four Super Bowls in his career, winning two. Wilson, who’s just 26, goes after his second this year against Brady, who’ll make his NFL-record sixth start in the Big Game. Joe Montana and Terry Bradshaw both finished 4-0 as Super Bowl starters and it’s hard to know how Wilson will ultimately be measured. But one thing’s for sure: You’ll want to stick around to find out.
Great quotes from Kevin Bieksa, Vol. XXXVII. A lot has been made this season about the speed at which the Canucks play. After the win in Philadelphia on Thursday, it was pointed out to the team’s resident wiseacre that the Canucks looked a lot faster than they did against Nashville two days earlier.
“Team speed always looks great when you win,” Bieksa said. “When you win, you look fast. When you lose, you look slow.”
There are a couple of interesting names on the list of potential unrestricted free agents this summer: Islanders defenceman Johnny Boychuk and Boston centre Carl Soderberg. Both would fill massive needs for the Canucks and both have a history with Canucks GM Jim Benning in Boston.
The Canucks aren’t over-burdened with excessive cap space, and regular forwards Shawn Matthias, Brad Richardson and Derek Dorsett are all set to become UFAs this summer. But it’s a situation that’s worth monitoring.
The announcement wasn’t exactly a shocker but, in extending head coach Carl Robinson, the Whitecaps sent a positive message to their fan base.
Robinson stepped in as the team’s second, or third, choice last season and still ran the team with confidence and conviction.
Ultimately, the gains were modest — they had to hustle to make the playoffs; then were ousted, under controversial circumstances, in the first round — but, in his first year, the Welshman left no doubt who’s in charge.
He’s young — 38 — as are the Whitecaps, and now they have a chance to grow together. You’d just like to see them both take another step this season.
And finally, they won’t cop to it, but the Canucks overcame a huge metaphoric hurdle with their three straight wins during the current road trip. As you may recall, this was precisely the point that the team’s biblical meltdown started last season and, a week ago, there was the fear, real or imagined, that they were heading down the same road.
OK, they remain a bubble team and likely will be until the final week of the season. But unlike last season, the complete collapse doesn’t seem possible because they have a clear identity and a clear idea of how they want to play. The strength of this team is its depth and, on any given night, that’s their winning edge. The question concerns their best players: Are Daniel and Henrik Sedin, Radim Vrbata and Ryan Miller good enough to be consistent difference-makers in the back-streettough Western Conference?
Come to think of it, that’s always been the question about this team. But it comes as some relief that it’s about the only one left to answer.