One reason every team can win Super Bowl 52
By John Buhler
Seattle Seahawks: aggressive defenses win championships
Energy. That’s what’s made the Seattle Seahawks so great during the Pete Carroll era. Carroll has the energy of a 30-year-old and his team plays with an aggression that few can even hope to imitate.
Defense wins championships is only partially true. Aggressive defense paired with a strong running game wins championships. The solid ground game allows a team to dictate the tempo late in games and an aggressive defense wears the opponent’s offense out. It also allows the team to get away with more.
Seattle is going to get more calls than any other team in the league because Carroll has trained his defense to be ultra-aggressive. This makes the officials reluctant to blow the whistle on every play. Seattle isn’t dirty, but it dominates on defense partially because it’s so hard to officiate.
Add in crowd noise and this is one of the hardest teams to play in the NFL Playoffs in either conference. Russell Wilson is a conservative enough quarterback to counterbalance the swarming, championship-caliber defense in Seattle. As long as Carroll is up for the challenge, the Seahawks will continue to be a perennial Super Bowl contender.