Frank Workman on Sports: Nothing promises to be easy Sunday

Frank Workman

By Frank Workman

I think it’s fair to say that if this weekend’s NFC Championship Game was to be played a day later than Sunday, the waiting could prove to be too much for some Seahawk fans, many of whom might spontaneously combust, so eager is the anticipation for Sunday’s game with the San Francisco 49ers.

Home field advantage was to have made Sunday’s game a coronation.

Instead, it could serve as a beheading.

As kickoff nears, those not blinded by 12th Man Fever have to view Sunday’s foe as formidable, battle-tested, and more than capable of dashing the dreams of every fan in Washington and bordering Northwest states, as well as several Canadian provinces.

Home field advantage throughout the playoffs was supposed to provide a golden ticket to the Super Bowl.

Such was the case with the 2005 Seahawks, who sliced and diced their way past the despicably nicknamed team from our nation’s capitol, and the badly overmatched Carolina Panthers, before being derailed by the Pittsburgh Steelers (and Bill Leavy and his Merry-Men-in-Stripes).

Nothing promises to be easy this time around, though.

The Niners come north with more big game experience than the Hawks, a stout defense, and a QB with a hotter hand of late (aided by healthier receivers).

The slightest thing can skew the final result ….. a tipped pass, a funny bounce, an inopportune penalty (are there any other kinds?), a disputed spotting of the ball.  Football is, if nothing else, the quintessential game of inches.

One thing’s for certain – you can throw the statistics out the window.