SEATTLE – Considering they’d just drilled the Carolina Panthers for the NFC Championship and a berth in the Super Bowl, the Seahawks were almost eerily quiet in their locker room.
Sure, they took turns carrying the trophy around for the fans and whooped it up on the field for the TV cameras, but once they got back into their own locker room, the mood was almost businesslike.
As if they hadn’t (hint, hint) finished what they’d set out to do.
“Part of me really wants to enjoy it and part of me realizes that we have another game,” said quarterback Matt Hasselbeck, who had a marvelously efficient day with 20 completions in 28 attempts for 219 yards and two touchdowns. “I hope people are taking a lot of pictures so we can look back on them. I’m in a little bit of shock right now.”
It wasn’t dour; rather, it was what this team expected from itself all week. Yes, the Seahawks were favored, but the Panthers had so many backers among the so-called experts that Seattle was in a position of having to prove itself – yet again.
Receiver Steve Smith, it was reasoned, would be too much, too fast, too athletic for a soft Seahawks secondary that was missing Ken Hamlin, its most fearsome hitter.
Those supposedly in the know anointed Jake Delhomme The Hot Quarterback, having led the Panthers to yet another road victory last week, a victory over favored Chicago.
Yet, just a week after he torched the Bears for better than 200 receiving yards, Smith managed just five catches for 33 yards against the Seahawks. Delhomme, relentlessly pressured by the Seahawks’ front four, threw two first-quarter interceptions that Seattle converted into 10 points.
Those worried that the Seahawks would repeat an uneven performance of a week ago against the Washington Redskins weren’t worried for long. In all three phases of the game, it was apparent early on that the Panthers would have to play a near-flawless game to pull out a victory against the confident Seahawks.
How confident was this team? Tailback Shaun Alexander, who scored two touchdowns and ran for 132 yards, was asked at what part of the game he felt anything the Seahawks would try would work.
“Friday,” he said. “That’s how we are. We have great coaches. Mike (Holmgren) never gets enough credit for how good he is. We kind of keep it quiet about how good our coaching staff is. Wednesdays and Thursdays we put together a game plan and by Friday we pretty much know whether we’re going to move the ball offensively and know whether we can do stops and things.”
So the 34-14 final came as little surprise to this crew. It was another day at work. It was a continuation of what started at minicamp, continued through training camp, built through the remarkable regular season and peaked Sunday.
“This group believes in itself,” defensive end Grant Wistrom said.
So they saved the champagne for another day. They kept the whoops to a minimum. They slapped palms. They grinned at each other.
But hysterics will wait for another day.
Wistrom, a Super Bowl veteran, says that kind of even-keel mind set should serve the Seahawks well in two weeks against the Pittsburgh Steelers in the Super Bowl.
“We just have to focus on the task at hand,” he said. “If you want to go to the Super Bowl and party, you can go any year. Very rarely you get a chance to play in one. I don’t really see a problem with this team. It’s focused. It’s always been, ‘What’s next?’ Whenever we lose a game, that’s fine; we’ve got another one next week. Or when we won 11 straight, we didn’t get a big head about it.
“I’ve been on a couple of good teams, but never have I been on one that has such a businesslike attitude.”
It’ll be a business trip to end all business trips in a little more than a week.
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