PITTSBURGH – On the way to winning the Super Bowl last year, the New England coaching staff went out of its way at one point to make sure star defensive lineman Richard Seymour wasn’t getting too egotistical.
Seymour was taken out of the starting lineup one game. Ostensibly, it was for taking too much time away from the team to attend a funeral, but the underlying reason was for drawing too much attention for himself.
Seymour, considered a rising star, had hired a publicist and was preparing to capitalize on his and the team’s growing fame.
Today, the Patriots could do a lot more to tame Seymour’s attitude and further cement the notion of team over individual talent. The Patriots, who face host Pittsburgh tonight at 6:30 in the AFC Championship Game, could again survive without Seymour, who is questionable with a knee injury.
Led by the talents of Ty Warren and standout rookie Vince Wilfork, the Patriots are hoping to contain the Steelers’ offense and again win without Seymour. New England was able to do that last week in a lopsided victory against Indianapolis and its high-powered offense.
“Those guys are pretty good with or without Seymour,” Pittsburgh center Jeff Hartings said. “They don’t lose much, I’ll say that.”
The Patriots’ decision to take Wilfork in the first round has turned into a stroke of genius. While much of the NFL, including the Dolphins, thought New England was in the market for offensive line (the Dolphins were scared that the Patriots were going to trade up to grab Vernon Carey), the Patriots went defensive line in the draft for the third time in four years.
“Look at our history and that tells you what you need to know about how we draft,” a New England source said. “We were never taking Vernon Carey.”
Wilfork, the former Miami star, has played so well as a rookie that he is making Seymour’s absence a minor inconvenience. Same goes for Warren, New England’s first-round pick in 2003.
“We all know that we need to step up and make it happen,” Warren said when asked about surviving without Seymour. “When you’re drafted here, there’s a responsibility you have. You’re supposed to be ready to contribute.”
What the Patriots do best up front with their collection of athletic big men is change up in key situations.
“The difference is that New England is as simple as they come on first and second down,” Hartings said. “But for as simple as they are in those situations, they are the exact opposite on third down. They are as complicated as they come on third down.
“Normally, 85 to 90 percent of the time, you know exactly what is going to come in any game. It’s that 10 to 15 percent that you worry about and the chance of that being higher in this game is pretty good. They are going to force a lot of action.”
Or perhaps they will just force Seymour into a slightly different perspective.
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