The Seattle Seahawks are the hottest team in the NFL and, in my opinion, are going to win the Superbowl. The San Antonio Spurs have dominated the last decade of basketball for the same reason that the Seahawks are primed to hoist the Lombardi again this February, and the Atlanta Hawks have bought into the same blue print. Lebron James just doesn’t seem to grasp this concept. In short, the Atlanta Hawks are atop the eastern conference by 3 games currently, and this is why the Seahawks will win the superbowl: teamwork wins.
Criticize the eastern conference as much as you want to, but it takes a lot to be #1 in it, and Atlanta’s 26 wins are the third most in the NBA. But how are they doing this? How is last year’s EIGHT seed in the east all of a sudden grabbing the reins of the conference? Their leading scorer is Jeff Teague, who’s less of a household name than Brian Scalabrine. He’s putting up 17 points per game. Eh. The list of players averaging more points per game than Jeff Teague include Gordon Hayward, Nikola Vucevic and, wait for it, Tony Wroten. All good players, not capable of dragging a team anywhere near the top of their division, let alone their conference. Paul Milsap is allegedly the rebounding extraordinaire who’s anchored the team, and he leads the team with only eight rebounds. So where do the Hawks win? I’ll tell you where. As of Wednesday, the only statistic I can find that the Atlanta Hawks are in the NBA’s top two in is team assists. How fitting? Thabo Sefolosha, Kyle Korver: these guys just embody what this team is: work hard, win games.
This is why it was just so fitting when the Hawks took down the star studded Cavaliers last week. For the second time this season. By 20. That’s a decisive victory over a team that doesn’t seem to do well with that whole “I have a shot but you have a better shot” concept that the Hawks have perfected. What’s going to work? Teamwork.
So, this brings me to my next point. Seattle will win this year’s Super Bowl, and they’re going to do it by playing for each other and not the stat sheet. Seattle icon Russell Wilson is ranked at number 15 this season in passing yards, number 16 in passing touchdowns and has only thrown for 214 yards per game this season. That literally couldn’t be more middle-of-the-pack in a 32-team league. Their leading receiver is Doug Baldwin, who’s averaged 51 yards per game this year on three touchdowns. Their next leading receiver is putting up an anything-but-whopping 36 yards per game this season. The second leading receiver on the New York Fricking Jets averages more yards per game than that.
These all sound like reasons as to why the Seahawks won’t win the Superbowl, but according to the Atlanta Hawks’ successful formula, developed by master of chemistry Gregg Popovich, they will win the Superbowl. Seattle traded away its most lethal weapon this year in Percy Harvin for a couple of conditional picks, but in the end what they gained was far greater. By trading away Harvin, Seattle made a room not to bolster their receiving corps, rather, to solidify their locker room. Credit to head coach Pete Carroll for bringing back that college-mindset to the NFL. It’s like Herb Brooks said in Miracle “The name on the front is a hell of a lot more important than the one on the back!” When teams like the Seahawks understand that, they win games. Plain and simple. The Seahawks bend-don’t-break philosophy on defense requires more communication and movement as an eleven man unit than any in football, and it’s allowed the Seahawks to surrender only 267 yards per game this season, the fewest in the NFL, as well as allow the fewest points per game in the league. Did I mention they lead the league in interceptions? That they have allowed the fewest first downs, too?
Don’t point to the Seahawks’ defense as the sole reason they win games having read this article, because that’s not what I mean. Seattle will win this year’s Super Bowl by doing it for each other, and “passing up a good shot for a better one.” People talk about how teams like the Knicks needed to dump Shumpert and JR so they could make a splash in free agency this offseason. Those people don’t get that big name free agents are merely the optional starting point in building a champion, and by no means do they bring wins. Just ask Lebron, he’ll tell you first hand. What did the Hawks do this offseason? Absolutely nothing. And the Seahawks? Less.
Say what you will about the fans, Pete Carroll and the team-first mindset he’s brought is the Seahawks’ real twelfth man. See you in Phoenix.