Game Preview - Seahawks vs. Patriots

by: Chris Sullivan

Well, well, well... here it is, the game we'd all planned on having been "waiting for" when we saw the schedule in April. The Seahawks play host to Tom Brady and the New England Patriots! Well, other than the Tom Brady thing... and the part about it being the "Seahawks," at least, the Seahawks we knew and loved for the last five+ seasons.

We are in a historically bad year, as you all know, and at this point winning is a long shot and only helpful to restoring what little bit of pride this team might still have in their reserves. The Seahawks are beaten down and bloodied, not to mention just plain bad this year. The Patriots are bloodied too, with a bunch of IR players as well, including the head of their offense [Brady] and one of their defensive stalwarts [Harrison].

Luckily for the Pats, they are going up against an offensive line with NO experience together in positions that are foreign to most of them -- Locklear at LEFT tackle, Womack at LG, Steve Vallos at C (second career start, had never played center before preseason), Mansfield Wrotto will take his first CAREER snaps when he starts at RG and Ray Willis rounds things up as the starting Right Tackle. Ridiculous. Add to that the WR situation and that Matt Hasselbeck will not be starting (thankfully), we barely have an offense to field this week.

Here are the keys to the game:

1. SURVIVE. Don't let anyone else get injured, and try not to embarass the home crowd too badly.
2. ...injure their whole offensive line so that we might stand a chance? Maybe that's not very sporting. I really don't see us pulling one out, and honestly, I'm at a place that I'm okay with that.
3. Seneca or Matt must pass the ball well and create some sort of deep threat. If we can at least LOOK like we're still trying and open up our game a bit, we should have a bit more success. It will also open up the running game a bit.
   
4. Have a running game. This is going to be difficult behind a completely untested line. If we can open up the pass a bit, we have a chance.
5. Defense must step up. For real. Big time. The defense must win this game if the Seahawks are going to win this game.
   

Well, there you go. Pretty crappy preview, but hey, whatd'ya expect at this point?