RENTON — There’s a famous story about Joe Montana and Super Bowl XXIII that helps explain why the Hall of Fame quarterback earned the nickname “Joe Cool.”
Just before leading the San Francisco 49ers on a 92-yard, game-winning drive in the final minutes of the game, Montana noticed actor John Candy in the stands, and in the chaos of the fourth quarter of a Super Bowl, he casually said to tackle Harris Barton, “Isn’t that John Candy?”
Which brings us to Russell Wilson, another unusually poised quarterback who can call himself a Super Bowl champion. Now, it would be silly compare Wilson to Montana at this stage of his career. Wilson has accomplished plenty in his first two seasons, but he still has a long, long ways to go if he ever wants to be in the all-time-great category with Montana. Nonetheless, Wilson’s first two-plus seasons have shown that he too has a knack for remaining calm and playing at his best on the big stage, a trait that helped Montana win four Super Bowl titles.
But when Wilson’s center, Max Unger, was asked if Wilson has had a particular moment where that poise stood out on the big stage, he scoffed at that notion.
“Well, we don’t want any specific examples to stand out, so no, I can’t think of one,” Unger said.
And Unger has a point. If his teammates can come up with a specific example of Wilson staying poised in a big game, wouldn’t that mean he was less poised at other important moments? What has helped Wilson excel in big games, and yes, what has caused some to jokingly refer to him as a robot, is the way he has been so even-keeled in every game, practice and press conference.
Part of Wilson’s pregame preparation is identifying a particular spot in the stadium — he never says where that spot is — and making it the point he can look to in order to “bring me back to zero” in the heat of the game. So unless that spot happened to be the seat of a famous actor, Wilson won’t have a “John Candy” story as part of his legend, but he like Montana, seems to have a knack for elevating his game when the spotlight shines brightest.
While Sunday’s game against Denver is not win-or-go-home like the playoffs or even a primetime game, it very much has a big-game feel to it, and it will be one of the most watched games in the country this weekend. So even though the game kicks off at 1:25 p.m., it’s probably a good sign for the Seahawks that in 13 primetime and postseason games, Wilson has helped the Seahawks go 11-2, while throwing 23 touchdowns against just four interceptions.
“It’s something that’s pretty valuable at that position to just be even-keeled, not too high, not too low, and he does a good job of that,” Unger said.
As good as Wilson was in the Super Bowl, completing 72 percent of his passes while throwing two touchdowns and no interceptions, good for a 123.1 passer rating, he says he should only be better now for that big-game experience.
“The experience that you have, the big match-ups that you play in, playing in a game like the Super Bowl, where all the lights are there and all the cameras and everybody is around, can you control your emotions? Can you control your focus and your poise and play great football and stay focused on the fundamentals?” Wilson said. “Over time, I’ve been able to learn that more and more and get better at that, so hopefully I’m a better football player.
“Hopefully my game has improved, and I still have a lot more to do. That’s where my focus is. How can I help my football team play our best football? How can I help the other ten guys in the huddle really believe that every play is going to work and we’re going to keep those drives alive and score a lot of touchdowns?”
Wilson talks frequently about trying to be “the calm in the storm” for his team, and the key for him to do so is to make his week leading up to the game as uncomfortable as possible. The way Wilson sees it, if he can mentally make each practice rep stressful, game day will be that much easier.
“Visualizing being uncomfortable means really feeling the emotions of the game, treating every rep as if it’s a game rep, the game is on the line, it’s third-and-6, it’s fourth-and-7, whatever the situation is and causing havoc almost, in terms of the emotions that you may have. Then when you go into the game, you realize how to control those emotions and control your thoughts and control what you’re thinking about and control that checklist.”
Fair or not, the quarterback on the opposite sideline this week, Peyton Manning, has the opposite reputation as Montana. For all Manning has accomplished in his career, many have called him a postseason choker, pointing to him “only” owning one Super Bowl ring despite playing for a number of teams that went into the playoffs as top seeds. (Never mind the fact that many of those teams were very flawed and only had those stellar win-loss records because of Manning). And while that knock on Manning is almost certainly overstated, the facts remain that he, unlike Montana, and yes, Wilson, has better numbers in the regular season than the postseason.
Russell Wilson isn’t Joe Montana. He’s many, many touchdowns, yards, wins and championships from that, But Seattle’s young quarterback does share a bit of that big-game poise that could help the Seahawks in Sunday’s showdown with the Broncos.
Herald Writer John Boyle: jboyle@heraldnet.com.
Big stage presence
Sunday’s game against Denver isn’t in primetime, but the spotlight will shine brightly on Seattle nonetheless. Here’s how Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson has fared on the biggest stages so far in his career.
- Postseason: 4-1 record, 6 TDs, 1 INT, 102.0 passer rating
- Monday Night Football: 3-0 record, 7 TDs, 0 INTs, 121.6 passer rating
- Sunday Night Football: 2-0 record, 5 TDs, 2 INTs, 101.4 passer rating
- Thursday Night Football: 2-1 record, 5 TDs, 1 INT, 94.2 passer rating
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