Playoff Recap: Seahawks/Bears

It's 1:00 on Sunday, and that means kickoff time!  I can't wait!  While I don't anticipate this being a great game, the snow is guaranteed to be fun!  I'm hoping it starts to stick.  The thing I'm most excited to watch today is the battle between the two best special teams in the league.  T'is such an underrated part of the game in general, and it should be a joy to watch these two teams duke it out in that respect.

1.  Who's on the board first?  DA BEARS!  What a way to get started at home.  I don't know how a tight end gets that open, but I know that it happened.  The Seahawks need to suit up some mini-Ditkas on defense.

2.  The Carlson hit didn't look bad live, but it looked scary in replays.  Hopefully everything was precautionary and he's okay.  I'm glad to hear he was showing movement and responding to doctors.  (Update: Head injury, NOT neck or spinal cord.  When I saw the replay, I was hoping it was that because it's the lesser of two evils.)

3.  Greg Olsen is a guy I wouldn't mind playing for my team.  He seems serviceable as a blocker in the run game, and he's a beast in the passing game.  WOAH!  Cutler threw the ball right at the Seahawks nickel corner.  That will bring up a third down...Now wonder he's a DB instead of a WR.  

4.  Da Bears are looking incredible.  The Packers have been looking incredible as well.  I love playoff games between division rivals, and I'm pretty happy that I'll be treated to three this year.  That's assuming, of course, that Seattle is toast.  If Seattle comes back, however, the Packers will have to have taken down three bird teams to get to the Super Bowl.

5.  Well, there haven't been many (any) turnovers in this one so far, so I'm delighted by that.  However, the only reason for that is that the DBs have bricks tied to their hands.  All the same, I'm happy to see no turnovers.

6.  AAH!  The space heater in the man-cave tripped the circuit, and the feed died!  That's probably God's way of saying that football should NOT be played in domes.

7.  The announcer just said that the Bears defense always has eleven eyes on the ball.  I'm not doctor, but I'd venture a guess that maybe there are twenty-two eyes on the ball.  (Update: not a single set of eyes jumped on the backwards pass as it laid on the ground as a live ball...I'm changing my guess to zero eyes.  How could neither team have learned from the Ravens/Steelers game?)

8.  Very bad call on the 4th down interception pass interference.  That looked like hand fighting on both sides and a clean play.  If Seattle scores and gets back into this, they have the zebras to thank.  (Update: The first and second down plays from the 2 yard line should have drawn defensive interference flags, but didn't.  Either these are make-up non-calls, or the refs have fewer eyes on the field than the Bears D on the backwards pass.)

9.  John Ryan is really earning his money today.  He's been on the field more than Matt Hasselbeck, and he's done a nice job of negating Devin Hester's freakish return ability.

10.  Earl Thomas is a hair late, and Kellen Davis puts this game in the books.  Seattle's got a good young nucleus (excepting Hasselbeck who is indeed old)...They should improve with experience, and I smell a rivalry between them and the Rams that should heat up in the next few years.

Up next:  Jets/Pats

-FSG