Your Weekly Patriots Preview - At Seattle

I don't know much about Seattle, I spent about 6 hours there one day and that's the size of it. It's very green, very pretty, and it rained the day I was there. The people all seemed nice, although they didn't have good tans, and I thought I was in Asia during the time I was at SeaTac Airport.

I also don't know much about the Seattle Seahawks football team, except that along with the Chargers and Jagwires, they are viewed as having had a hugely disappointing season. I do know the quarterback, Matt Hasselbeck, the eldest son of former Patriot TE Don Hasselbeck and brother of Tim Hasselbeck, also a quarterback, and Nate Hasselbeck, a littler known WR, and I know that Matt Hasselbeck has a bad back that's been hassling him all season. He's probably not going to play today, yielding to Seneca Wallace. I know the Seahawks have had massive injury problems at WR this year, and that at one point they were secretly trying to work a deal with W to bring in some Guantanamo guys as injury replacements. This was surprisingly deemed cruel and unusual punishment by the White House, and terrorists all over the world breathed huge sighs of relief. I further know that this is Walrus Holmgren's last season as the Hawks' Head Coach, and he ain't going out in a blaze of glory, unless the Asian population decides to have a giant Chinese New Year pig roast and uses his house as the fuel.

In summary, I guess all I know about this team is that they suck and probably shouldn't be on the field against even a pretty average Pats team. NFL.com and Google are amazing tools for the ignorant though, so I have learned a few things:

Seattle is dead last in the league against the pass, and Cassel could have a good shot at his third 400 yard game in four weeks. They are ranked 22 of 32 against the run, giving up 4.1 yards per carry and 11 rushing TD's. The tandem of Faulky-Morris should go for 150 today, and there may even be a Law Firm sighting.

On offense, the Seahawks will trundle out the ever inept Julius Jones (brother of Thomas Jones) who will split carries with journeyman Mo Morris (not the brother of Sammy Morris) and maybe even journeyer-man TJ Duckett (no relation to Billy Clyde Puckett). This crew has Seattle solidly at 21 in rushing rankings - WOOHOO! Don't expect much from the passing game , but for the grace of the Raiders the Seachickens would be DFL in the NFL in passing offense, as well as defense. An Exacta of Shame, if you will. Dallas sacked Hasselbeck 7 times last week, while Wallace has more mobility he still has a crap line and no one good to throw at. While the Pats have had a lousy pass rush all season, the recent recycling of Junior Seau and Rosie Colvin could pay immediate dividends today. No need to ask them to stop the run, just let 'em blitz a half dozen or so times.

How bad will this be? Simply put, even Deltha O'Neal may not look like the worst cover guy in the league today.

Pats 34, Seahawks 6.