Matt Hasselbeck has won 61 games in his seven years in Seattle, but may have played his best football in 2007. He set career highs in yards (3,966), attempts (562), completions (352) and touchdowns (28). But in Saturday’s playoff win over the Redskins, Seattle proved it could win even if Hasselbeck wasn’t at his best.

 

For the most part, Hasselbeck hardly resembled one of the best quarterbacks in the NFC in Seattle’s 35-14 wildcard win over Washington Saturday. His accuracy was off (20 of 32 with 2 picks) and his decision making at times seemed so poor we were laying money on Mike Holmgren to become the world's first exploding walrus.

 

Instead it was the Seahawks defense which led the way to victory, a unit that has been overlooked for much of the season – at least by sources other than the Cold, Hard Football Facts. Earlier in the week, one columnist said the Seahawks have “almost the worst defense in the entire NFL.” Maybe he was thinking of the 2002 Seahawks who finished 28th in the league in total defense.

 

On Saturday, the Seattle defense not only held the Redskins scoreless for the first three quarters, but it scored as many points as it allowed (14). Their first half shutout was the first time in playoff history the Redskins failed to score a point before intermission.

 

A quick glance at the box score and it’s easy to see why some have undervalued the Seahawk defenders. In comparison to Washington, Seattle’s defense allowed more total yards (319-304), passing yards (244-227), completions (29-20), third down conversions (4-2) and lost the time of possession battle (34:15-24:45).

 

However, the defense is more than playoff caliber. For starters, look at the turnover battle where Seattle committed essentially three giveaways (two interceptions and a botched kickoff) but the Seahawks defense allowed just seven points off those three gifts. On the other side the Seahawks created two turnovers, and scored defensively on both.

 

Seattle also defined the “bend but don’t break” phenomenon, as defined by our Bendability Index. The Redskins ripped off 319 yards, but generated just 14 points off those yards – an average of 22.8 Yards Per Point Scored, a highly efficient number.

 

And Seattle fared well Saturday in our Big Play Index, blanking the Redskins defensively while accounting for four big plays on their own.

 

Still the biggest strength of the Seattle defense is the most important statistic in football: points. Led by one of, if not the best linebacking units in the NFL (Lofa Tatupu and Julian Peterson are both multiple time Pro-Bowl selections while Leroy Hill has led the Seahawks in postseason tackles since 2005 with 53), Seattle finished tied for sixth in the league in scoring defense (with Green Bay) at 18.2 PPG.

 

During the season Seattle held five opponents to single digits and finished near the top of the league by allowing 21 red-zone touchdowns.

 

Next week Seattle heads to Green Bay, a game which will be billed as the return of Mike Holmgren and Matt Hasselbeck, but if the Seahawks are in the game late in the fourth quarter at Lambeau Field expect Tatupu, Peterson, Hill and Co. to be a big reason why.