A well-known phrase says that “it’s harder to stay on the top than to get there.” In the NFL, this phrase seems to be very true. In this year’s playoff, Seattle became the first champion to win a postseason game in the year after winning the Super Bowl since New England did it in January 2006. The Seahawks also became the first team since the 2004-05 and 2005-06 Patriots to reach the Super Bowl two years in a row. In fact, they are the first ones to win the NFC title in back-to-back years since Brett Favre and the Green Bay Packers did it back in 1996 and 1997.
All those numbers are brought here to show how big it is that Seattle is back for a second straight Super Bowl. This achievement will be even bigger if the Seahawks pull off another victory and raise the Lombardi Trophy for the second year in a row.
Why is it so hard to win the title for two years in a row in the NFL? Why is it harder than in every other major league in America? The most recent example and answer for this question takes us to Baltimore, the team that won the Super Bowl two years ago. The Ravens celebrated in 2012-13, but when next season came, they found how difficult it is to stay on top. It started with giving their QB Joe Flacco a new and HUGE contract, 120.6 million dollars for six years. This contract made Flacco, at that moment, the highest paid QB ever and without going into the question whether he justified the money he got or not, the Ravens were left with no other choice. They had to make some budget cuts. The teams best WR, Anquan Boldin, was sent to San Francisco. The Linebacker Paul Kroger found himself in Cleveland. The legendary Saftey, Ed Reed, left for Houston. The CB Cary Williams traveled to Philadelphia. The Ravens finished last season, the one after winning the title, with a 8-8 record and without the ticket for the playoffs.
The Seahawks also made some changes after their Super Bowl win last year. Fortunately for them, their QB, Russell Willson, is still young. Willson is on his third year in the league and has a contract until the end of next season (that is going to be a big test for the Seahawks front office, especially if the team wins another Super Bowl). This fact helped Seattle save some money and keep most of her championship team in the roster for this season as well. Richard Sherman got the biggest contract ever for a CB and Earl Thomas got the biggest one ever for a Safety. The problem was that after keeping everybody the Seahawks discovered the second tough thing that a champion team has to do and that is keeping the tension high in order to win again.
We acquired exclusive audio of Richard Sherman yelling without a mouth: http://t.co/pkU86IcG28 https://t.co/kRH9S4Fi8m
— SB Nation (@SBNation) January 19, 2015
It’s All About Timing
Seattle played some very mediocre football in the first half of this season. They had some unconvincing wins and four painful losses. All of a sudden, from week 12 and on, everything changed. Seattle’s defense started working the way it knows best, Willson and Marshawn Lynch found the right rhythm and from that moment on, somewhere around late November, Pete Carroll’s team began flying. Seattle won six straight games to close the regular season and allowed in all of them a combined 39 points. They were able to close a three game gap from Arizona and win home field advantage. Their loud stadium and great home crowd did the rest of the work and with a win against Carolina Panthers in the Divisional round and a miracle against the Packers in the NFC championship game, the Seahawks got another Super Bowl ticket.
Where does this moment rank in @Seahawks history? (via Cory Bergman) #SB49 https://t.co/rJ5LJjoP3P
— SUPER BOWL on NBC (@SNFonNBC) January 19, 2015
Now Seattle must leave home and go to win it all in Arizona, where only a month ago they were able to win against the Cardinals. Since the moment the Seahawks secured their second Super Bowl trip in a row, questions about this team’s place among the best teams in the league history are raised. Everyone, inside the Seahawks organization and outside of it, understands the meaning of getting a second ring.
If we mentioned earlier Denver and New England as the only two franchises to go back-to-back in the free agency era, we must remember that those teams were led by two of the best QBs of all time, Elway and Brady. The Seahawks are led by Willson, who is a wonderful player and a big winner, but who is also, in no sense, on the same level of Elway or Brady, the QB he will face for the title. Willson’s four interceptions in the NFC championship game against Green Bay reminded us that he still has a long way to go.
Seattle’s defense on the other hand is already getting justified comparisons to other legendary defensive units in the NFL history, mostly to the Chicago Bears defense that helped the team from the windy city to win the Super Bowl in 1986-87 (against… that’s right, the Patriots). But if Seattle is going to lose this year Super Bowl, this team might find itself joining a category that includes for example the Kurt Warner led St. Louis Rams from the beginning of the new millennium. That team, known as “The Greatest Show on Turf”, won a Super Bowl in the 1999-2000 season with a very dramatic victory against Tennessee, but lost two years later to the Patriots (they are everywhere…), giving Brady his first title. That Rams team is considered a great team, but they will not enter the “best teams ever” list, especially because they were left with only one championship ring.
And after all of that, comes maybe the most important key to winning a Super Bowl. The playoff system in the NFL, where every loss means going home, means that every team must stay focused in the money time, but also means that every team needs luck, a lot of it. In order to win a Super Bowl, being the best isn’t necessarily enough, because around you there are some very good other teams and only one can win every year out of five, six or seven legitimate candidates.
It is hard saying that this season Packers, Cowboys, Broncos or Ravens weren’t as good as the two teams that made it to the Super Bowl. The difference is that each one of those teams that were left behind suffered one bad game, or an injury for one of their stars, or a call that went against them in a crucial moment. For New England and Seattle everything came together in the right way at the right time, and that is the main reason why they are here, in Super Bowl XLIX. The team that will be able to keep up this luck for one more game, will win it all. If it’s going to be the Patriots, Brady’s place in the “best QB ever” list will get a major lift. If it’s going to be the Seahawks, this team’s place in the “best teams ever” list will do exactly the same.
