All Episodes
Previous Next
Feb. 3, 2006 - Rush Limbaugh Program
36:41
February 3, 2006, Friday, Hour #3
| Copy link to current segment

Time Text
And we are back.
We got Broadcast Excellence heading on down the tracks here, folks, to Super Bowl Sunday.
It's Friday on the Rush Limbaugh program, and we keep moving.
Live from the Southern Command in sunny South Florida.
It's open live Friday.
And we will get back to your telephone calls in mere moments, ladies and gentlemen.
First, it's always, I always look forward to this for a long time before it happens.
It's the Friday before the Super Bowl.
We want to welcome to the program Ken Hutcherson, the Hutch, who is the pastor of the Antioch Church out in, what is that?
Do you call it the Antioch Church, if I got that right?
No, you know, it's Antioch Bible Church.
Antioch Bible Church.
Sorry, I knew we were going.
And former player in the NFL, Dallas Cowboys, Seattle Seahawks.
And you did play for the Seahawks, correct?
I did, my man.
All right.
So I got to tell you, Hutch, I'm worried about your boys.
I've been studying up on your boys.
I say Joey Porter mouthing off, which I enjoy, but I see your guy, Walter Jones, that's going to be blocking.
And Walter Jones has given up an average of two and a half sacks a season the last two years.
That's nothing.
That's all right.
We'll take care of Porter, though.
I'm a little hesitant about calling in.
What's that?
I said, I want you to know I was a little hesitant about calling in.
Why?
I've been listening at the news, and if they're correct, I heard you don't like black quarterbacks.
Don't look at that.
You know, you're calling me out now.
Hey, I heard that.
I think what we're going to have to do after listening at that interview, I think we're going to have to get affirmative action to protect black quarterbacks.
Well, it sure sounds like they're calling for it on ESPN.
Good gracious.
Hey, I didn't know how popular you were until a few minutes ago.
How's that?
Dr. James Dawson called me.
Yeah?
He said that I heard you're going to be on Rush.
I said, yeah.
He said, you let him know I've been on vacation for six weeks.
I listen to him every day.
He loves you and said, keep up the great work, and he wants you to know how proud he is of you.
Well, that's very kind of you to pass that on.
I appreciate that.
We all respect Dr. Dobson here.
He does more than the Lord's work.
Amen on that one.
So you want to get into some football?
Yep.
I'm not worried about it.
I'm serious now because the C, and you do, you call them the Seabirds.
I like to call them the birds, baby.
And they're going to be flying so high, not even a number seven still shot is going to bring them down.
Not even a number seven.
All right.
Now, tell me, don't give me this fan BS.
I want to avoid the fan BS we have.
Okay, you want to go serious then?
I want to go serious because we've always gone serious in the past.
This is the first time your team's in it and my team's in it since we've been doing this.
It's almost impossible, man, for those guys to beat our team.
They can't handle the killer B defense.
That defense is awful.
But you know, we're pretty well balanced.
I mean, very well balanced.
Both our teams scored to win the championship.
They scored 34 points on offense.
Yeah, but are you troubled a little bit?
Sir, are you troubled a little bit about any aspect of your team?
Do you have any doubts going into this game?
I have one doubt.
That is the first two series.
If we do not establish the past, bruh, and get those cornerbacks of the Pittsburgh Steelers to respect the pass, our run game's going to die.
All right.
Well, here's how I see that.
Okay.
You guys have got a homegrown patented West Coast offense.
That's right.
You've got a quarterback.
Therefore, it's going to be dropping back three steps or five steps.
You got a rhythm offense.
The Steelers are going to have to find a way to make him uncomfortable and upset that rhythm.
The only way they can do that, though, Rush, is they got a stunt.
And you got on that left side, man, you got Jones and you got Hutchinson.
And if his name was Hutcher's son, he'd be twice as good as he is.
But Hutchinson is good enough.
Well, I know.
Hutchinson may be able to handle Porter, but then you've got to deal with Palomalu.
Yeah, but, you know, you've got to watch out for those guys, man.
We also got good pickup blocks with Matt.
Mac Strong's going to be good to help pick up that start.
And we are ready, man.
We got the best offensive line in the NFL.
Yeah, I know.
It's the reputation precedes them, and I'm impressed, especially with the left side.
I mean, man, it's going to be hard, but we got established on that first two, and we can deal with all those guys, you know.
And your offense is going to have trouble because of our Simone brother, Katupu.
I mean, we got a rookie going to the Pro Bowl.
You got any?
Yeah, we got four guys going.
Any rookies?
No, I think we got two starters and two alternates going.
That's what I'm talking about.
That doesn't mean that.
Don't sidetrack this.
Mamney going to get upset if people don't use his whole name.
Don't sidetrack me with this Pro Bowl stuff.
The Pro Bowl isn't.
So let's keep it straight then.
The guy that is going to beat the hardware.
The first two series.
Remember, I told you even when the Pittsburgh Steelers was playing Denver, I told you, the one who controls the first two series because everything has been so close this year, and the Omnidogs has really done a great job through the whole playoff.
Well, the game, you want to move to the Steelers side of the ball.
Go ahead.
You want to move to the ⁇ is that what you said?
Yeah, I said that we're going to be able to do that.
I just had a technical glitch in here, and I'm having trouble understanding you on the phone today.
It's not you.
It's my hearing today.
It's all whacked out.
Oh, isn't it?
It's not your phone line.
Is this better?
A little bit.
What?
Were you not speaking into the microphone of the phone?
Yeah, I want to get closer so you can hear me good.
There it's much better.
Thank you.
I was all set blaming myself, and it was you messing with me.
That's why we're such good friends.
I know how to mess with you.
All right.
Now, I'm looking on the Steelers' offensive side of the ball first here because that's where the Steelers have behaved unlike the Steelers in these playoff games.
They've been throwing the ball first.
They've been running it in the second half to chew up the clock.
And I found an incredible statistic.
I've had two incredible statistics.
When I looked at these games, the Steelers, in every second and long, meaning second and seven or more, Rothlessberger during these three games, average completion has been 16 yards.
And that means they have been unstoppable on second and long.
And if that changes, then I know we've got trouble.
The thing they got to do, Rush, is they've got to get better yardage on the first down.
If they don't get better yards on the first down, the killer B defense for the Burgers, you're not going to get those second and long plays.
Well, that's what Indianapolis said.
And that's what Denver said.
That's what Cincinnati said.
Nobody thought Rothlessberger could do this.
That's the point.
Here's something else.
They're throwing the ball, Hutch.
Here's another thing.
When it's third and six, third and five, the Steelers, and this is except when they're killing the clock, when they're trying to advance the ball, third and five, third and six, they have not run the ball these last three games in a third and five or third and six.
They are always throwing it.
Now, this tells me, if I can figure this out, your so-called killer B defense can figure this out.
Absolutely.
So I'm looking for a whole different change-up in the Steelers' offense.
If they do, they're going to lose.
That's what happened to Indianapolis every year, Rush, and you know that.
They do not do what gets them there.
If they would just stick with what they're good at, they would be playing today in the Super Bowl instead of the Steelers.
Wait a minute, then the Steelers are going to win because if they just stick with what they've been doing to get there, then they're going to get there.
Nope.
Then they're going to succeed.
They got to deal with Dyson.
They got to deal with Trufant.
My corners is going to have a great game, and they're not going to beat the killer defense.
Those are B's, baby.
Those are killer B's.
You know, this is tough.
You're just talking to me as a fan.
I think you have abandoned objective football analysis.
I told you.
Oh, see, there you go again.
I've told you over and over and over again that the only time you think like a liberal is when it comes to football.
You forget the facts.
Hutch, I want you to, we got three sound bites.
Okay.
All right.
We're going to go back.
This is January 9th of 2004.
You know, it's a lot of things about knowing how to win.
And you know how many teams have learned how to win.
We had 12 that started off the playoffs.
But there's only going to be one that's going to be left here when we get down to the end of the season in the Super Bowl playoffs.
So I'm going to go with the Colts.
The final score of the Super Bowl, New England 32, Carolina 29.
The Colts weren't there.
Here's the next soundbite.
You got the Colts, I got Patriots.
Right.
All right.
We'll talk on Sunday night via email.
All right, brother, and I'll wipe your tears for you.
Final score, Pat's 20, Colts 3.
Here's February 4th, 2005.
I got an email from the Hutch last night, and the Hutch is picking the Eagles.
And the Hutch hasn't known what he's talked about this whole postseason.
So I feel pretty safe in the pick.
Final score, Pat's 24, Eagles 21.
I'd expect a little bit more humility from you, my man.
I told you why I did that.
Now, you keep forgetting.
I told you my job after that New England Patriots was never to make you look bad again.
My job is to get you on Monday night football.
Now, didn't I tell you that?
All right, man.
If I can make you right, ESTN owes you a big apology.
And if they really want Monday night to get up, they better put you on the scorecard.
It'll never happen.
They'll never apologize.
And I don't want to go on Monday Night Football.
Sunday night football will be the place to be now on NBC.
Hutch, hang on.
Huh?
Well, I think we ought to push you to be on there because that's where football is going to take on a whole different light, baby, when you've on there.
And you remember my statement is this.
When a team learns how to win, a lot of teams know how to win, but it's the team that has learned how not to lose.
It's the one that wins the Super Bowl.
Remember me telling you that?
I do.
I have heard all these things as you have blown your predictions.
Yeah, but this is the difference right now.
The difference between learning how to win is the players.
When you learn how not to lose, that's the coach.
And I believe Hongren is going to kill.
What is it, Bill Coward?
Is that his name?
See, you are really going out on a limb here.
Hey, I tell you what.
Do you believe your Steelers are going to win?
Do I think the Steelers are going to win?
Yeah.
I'm trying to be honest with you, but I'm trying to do a straight-up analysis of this, taking advantage of your knowledge as a player of the game.
And you're giving me all this killer B garbage.
And you're giving me all this super fan stuff.
I don't really know.
I think you said it right at the very beginning.
They're pretty evenly matched.
Absolutely.
And the difference is going to be the coaching.
Both of these coaches are pretty good.
This is the third Super Bowl for Hogram.
This is only the second for Coward.
Right.
Now, he lost his.
Hongren is one for one.
Right.
And what happened with Ben Rossenberger, I call it, you know, Ben Rotten.
You don't want to talk about how he is.
But, you know, the first playoff game, he choked last year.
Now he's got his first.
Now, look at what you're doing.
I got to bring you back and save you.
The fact that Holmgren's 1-1 in his Super Bowls and Cower is 0-1 doesn't mean diddly squat on Sunday.
Just like the fact the Steelers were 7-5 back in November doesn't mean diddly squat when they finished with three straight wins as a number six seed.
And it doesn't matter what your stats are saying, what you're trying to throw at me either, because it's going to boil down to who's going to outcoach who because both teams is very evenly or even all the way down to the kickers, Rush.
Well, it doesn't make any sense talk about the game because none of us know what's going to happen until it's over.
But we're okay, but then, well, we're still going to talk about it because I like talking about it.
Absolutely.
But it's so good to look at a team, two teams, that is so close together.
It's got to boil down to the coaching.
All right.
Hold that thought.
We'll take a brief time out.
We'll be back and continue.
So whittled the hutch down here.
It was going to be a blowout in the first 10 minutes of the call.
Now the teams are so evenly matched.
It's going to come down to Mike Holmgren is going to win the game, and Bill Cower is going to lose it.
We're making progress here, folks.
Back in just a second.
Stay with us.
And we're back, and we're talking to Ken Hutcherson, the Hutch, of the Antioch Bible Church in Seattle.
When's the last time you did chapel for the Seabirds?
I didn't do one this year.
I usually do one every year.
Last year was the last time I did one.
All right.
I want to tell you, here's as a fan of the Steelers, these are the things that bother me.
First place, I'm getting sick and tired of everybody describing every West Coast team like the Seahawks and the 49ers as a finesse team.
There's no such thing.
It's smash mouth football on both sides.
You better know how to knock somebody out if you're going to play pro football, bro.
I know.
This finesse team stuff is media BS.
Willie Parker.
I'm a little worried about Willie Parker.
The last four or five games, it's taken, you know, the guy's tripping over the yard lines.
He doesn't even have to get hit to go down.
He was, the commentators didn't talk about this.
In the Denver game, I could see Cower yelling at him after one of these went down, I think, just to avoid being hit.
And he's running off sideline.
Cower said, just keep running.
Willie's different from the first part of the season.
And they keep trying to spring him outside with his speed.
The place to do that is inside, I think, maybe with a screen pass.
But the Steelers have been lucky in the playoffs, too, and that concerns me.
Carson Palmer going down.
If that hadn't happened, who knows what would have happened in that game?
Well, you know, your boy got hurt in practice, too.
Polymolo.
Well, yeah, but they did an MRI, and they don't have any damage in there.
Well, that's good.
And this could be gamesmanship, too.
I mean, the league has these rules.
You're not supposed to monkey around with injuries, but I'll believe that he's not playing 100% when I see it.
But on the other side of the ball, I think Cower's got better players than he had back in 95.
He certainly got a better quarterback in Rothlessberger than he had in O'Donnell.
You got this.
You tell me, how much does it really matter emotionally for Jerome Bettis and all this hype going home and what matter?
To the Steelers?
Oh, man.
I mean, going home is that's a high-high point of playing.
But most of the guys, you can get so caught up in being home, you can also be distracted, Rush.
And a lot of guys don't play good going back home because they get a lot of distraction.
So I don't think that's going to be an advantage to them.
All right.
But, you know, we got our coach.
That's one thing.
We got Matt Hasser back who's playing better than he's ever played before, ever.
Do you think he's an elite quarterback now?
You know, I think that he's got him to the Super Bowl.
That's good enough for me.
And you got Sean Alexander.
And politically speaking, it's about time for those guys to go ahead and win this because Matt Hasselbach, of course, has lost his hair and he's got a sister-in-law that's on the view.
God has punished him enough.
Yeah.
Well, that's until I started researching your boys.
That's mostly what I knew Matt Hasselback was, the brother-in-law of Tim, whose wife is Elizabeth, who is on the View.
And boy, she's probably working harder to maintain her position on that show than anybody in the NFL is.
You tell me about that, man.
And the Lions.
You know, I hadn't heard you say anything about my man Sean.
You know, he's the best of the best this year in the league.
Yeah.
And running behind the best line in the league, you guys got a little problems there.
That's what I've been trying to tell you.
I don't think this is Slam Duncan, and I'm not flexing my muscles over this.
And I think it's going to be a tremendous game.
And I think Sean Alexander, none of these people are mincemeat to me.
No.
The only thing, Hutch, is I'm not sure because they're in the NFC that they've played as tough a competition as the Steelers have in the AFC.
Well, everyone knows, Rush, that knows football that the NFC is not as tough as the AFC.
And if it was just a win-loss record, that would be some guy, that'd be AFC teams playing each other in the Super Bowl.
Exactly.
So maybe the Seahawks have all these great stats and they've got this.
I mean, let's face it, your defense, you guys play 4-3, right?
We play 4-3.
You play a 4-3 and you guys.
And the Star Star has a lot of problems with the 3-4, which you guys play.
I know, but I want to stick with the 4-3.
The Steelers are what I was telling you, and what I'm looking for.
Steelers on third and five, third, and six have never run the ball these last three games.
They throw it.
I'll bet you they do some draw plays because your guys are filling gaps.
Yeah, but go ahead.
And I think they're set up for draw.
I think it's going to be exciting because I think the coaches are going to be scheming because both ways, you've played two games.
We've played three.
Our three games have been identical.
I mean, you watch any of those three games and you get an idea of what we've been doing, running second, passing first.
And there's going to have to be some adjustments made on the Steelers.
I think it'll be a mistake if they do.
You remember the old Oakland Raiders, Rush?
Yeah, when they used to come out and they would say, okay, student body left and right, and we're going to run it till you stop us.
And man, I mean, we have gone in the player room and gone back to training camp, and the first thing we do after playing Oakland was get in the whirlpool because those guys would kill you and they wouldn't stop what they was doing until you stop them.
And if Pittsburgh goes in the game not doing what has got them there, it won't be close.
They better stick to what they're doing because the teams are so close, Rush.
You know, points are like.
All right, all right.
Hold a thought.
I got to take a break.
Don't lose that train of thought because as a player, I've got a question for you about that.
We'll be back in just a second as we continue to talk with the Hutch.
Hey, we're back, and we're talking Super Bowl Sunday, the Steelers and the Seahawks with Ken Hutchison, a former Seahawks player, now a man of the cloth of the Antioch Bible Church in Seattle.
Also, you played with two Tall Jones.
I'm right about that.
You're in the African-American.
Absolutely.
We was rookies together.
We played in the Senior Bowl together.
We played in the high school All-Star game together.
Then we got drafted by Dallas together.
Yeah.
And then you played, you put in a couple of years with Tommy Prothrow.
Oh, man.
One day, we're going to have to spend just one session talking about what it was like to play under that man.
George Toma, George Tomo, back when Arrowhead Stadium had this artificial turf.
Prothrow was a chain smoker, and he'd just throw his cigarette butts on the turf, and that stuff would burn.
Yeah, and he would light one cigarette with the other one.
Yeah, just kept during the game.
Before political correctness took over the NFL.
All right, let's talk about the concept.
The Steelers have gotten there in these last three playoff games, and actually a couple of regular season games before that, by doing the exact opposite of what they've been known for, the team that you just described, the Raiders as being, just keep pounding the run at you until you, even if they don't succeed throughout the first quarter, they're going to keep doing it till they wear you down until they demoralize you and can't stop it.
They've thrown that out.
They're opening up with the pass.
Now, by the time the game's over, the balance is 50-50 pretty close.
They're running it and throwing it.
But that's because they're running it mostly in the second half.
What happens?
The Seahawks are gaming for this.
If you've got obviously what they've been doing, they've been running the ball sometimes on first down with Parker and getting a yard, getting two, setting up second long, and getting the first down with second and seven, 16-yard average completion.
What if the Seahawks shut that down?
Yeah, if the Seahawks shut that down, because every coach rush on offense, especially the offensive coordinator, tells the offense: look, we've got to pick up five to six yards.
Six is better, seven is great, because then second down could be what they call a waist down.
If you get a lot of yards, but if you don't get good yardage on the first down, it really puts the offense in a bind.
And that's why you can say they've been so lucky.
But they, well, they haven't been getting a lot of yards on first down.
No, no, the luck.
No, no, no.
I don't think that's the luck.
I think the luck is Carson Palmer going.
I think the luck is that Champ Bailey almost interception that pops up in the air instead of him catching it.
If Denver scores first in that game, who knows?
Yeah.
And then the luck, you know, Rothlessbergers tackle on Nick Harper in the Indianapolis game after the fumble.
But you could also say that luck equals destiny.
That was good play, too.
That's not all luck.
That was hustle.
Well, true, but I mean, it was given the ebb and flow of that last five minutes of that game with that stupid reversal on the interception that they said wasn't, that was.
But there's just been, you know, a lot of things.
The ball has bounced the Steelers' way a lot of times in the last three games.
But I have to tell you, they have stunned me as a fan.
The way they have been winning and the way they have been playing, they have surprised the heck out of me.
And as a fan, I go into these games like I go into a political election, scared my guy's going to lose.
Absolutely.
But I don't hear that out of you.
No, I'm not going to do that.
You think your guys are going to mop the floor.
No, what I'm saying is this, Rush.
Every game that Pittsburgh went in basically the last five games has been like behind, and everyone's looking at them like they're not going to win.
So they had nothing to lose.
Our guys have been playing all year with no respect.
Now we're coming in.
Pittsburgh got some respect.
A lot of people think that they're going to beat the Hawks.
And now the Hawks is in a position that they don't have nothing to lose.
And a team that knows that we're just going to go out with nothing to lose is hard to beat.
You think the Seahawks are the team with nothing to lose here?
Absolutely.
Not.
See, I don't think either team goes in there.
This is the Super Bowl.
Nobody wants to be the unremembered loser in the Super Bowl.
Both teams are going to go in here with everything on the line.
Yeah, but that's not what you hear.
Most of the commentators are picking who?
Seahawks.
Pittsburgh.
I know, but screw them.
That's another thing that worries me.
The conventional wisdom was the Steelers, and these clowns are wrong from McNabb to whatever else they're talking about.
And these teams, like you say, Rush, I believe that the Hawks are going to come in a lot looser.
I think that you do have something to worry about with Ben because he gets up tight.
He doesn't play well.
And there's a lot of pressure being put on him right now.
But Hasselbach and Sean, and you got Walter Jones and Steve Hutchinson.
Got Dyson, you got Trufant, you got the Tupu.
All these guys are coming in, man, and they are going to be loose because most folks think they're going to lose, so the pressure isn't on them.
And I think you're going to have to watch out for that.
I frankly don't think a whole lot of people look at the Seahawks that way.
They may look at them and say they're from the upper left-hand corner of the country.
We don't know who these guys are individually, but they don't look at the team as undeserving of being there.
I think you're going to be surprised by Rothlessberger.
Well, I think it's a good idea.
I think this guy owns this team.
I think this guy's running this team.
I think this guy's confidence is flowing more so than anybody has a right to expect for a second-year guy.
And I think you're going to be stunned at the control he exhibits this guy.
I don't think he's not going to panic.
He's not going to choke or anything like it.
Yeah, I hope he has a great game, Rush, because then you have no excuse when they lose.
They'll always come up with one.
All right, so is it going to be a high-scoring game or a low-scoring game?
If they're so evenly matched, what do you think the final score is going to be?
I think it's going to be somewhere around 24-21, somewhere around there.
24-21.
Yeah.
And we're going to have a dull second half.
Is this all going to happen in the first half?
No, I think they're going to fill themselves out quite a bit the first quarter.
But the first two series is going to be.
I'd like to say that in a lingerie bowl.
I tell you what.
Do you think that Stilla's going to win?
You want to put your money where your mouth is?
But you don't pay your debts anyway.
I don't know why I'm saying this.
What do you mean I don't pay my.
Oh, because I haven't bought your dinner yet?
You haven't got my steak dinner yet, so why am I even talking about that?
All right.
I can handle that inside of next week.
I tell you what, I lay it in the old newsway.
If I lose and see how I lose, you don't get very much.
At the best, you're going to get a brother who's going to come down and be a waiter on your plane and serve you adult beverages with your gas.
I mean, that's about the best thing you're going to get from me.
But if you lose, you're talking to a black man, so we're going to do some negotiations right here.
Now, if you lose, you're going to have to come out here and help me with my adoption and with my marriage fight.
Your adoption and marriage fight.
Are you fighting in your marriage?
No, I got a great marriage.
Just think about same-sex marriage.
Oh, same-sex marriage.
Oh, that fight.
Yeah, that fight.
So if you lose, you got to help me in those two things.
Well, I okay.
I mean, I do that every day anyway.
All right, my brother.
See, neither one of them have a lot to lose.
So, but Hutch.
Yeah.
I mean, I don't care what the circumstances.
If you're ever on my airplane, you're not on it as a waiter.
All right.
Well, see, I'm glad you said that because, you know, a lot of people, they're worried about the Limbaugh, man, but they don't know you like I know you.
But I'm going to give you this little secret.
I heard you talk in the first part of the show.
If it boiled down between Brett Farr and my boy at Philadelphia, I'm going with Brett because it isn't about black and white.
It's about green.
Money.
Money.
Yep.
Since you bring this up, did you see McNabb's interview?
All right.
Did it strike you that he's coming off now as a victim?
Oh, woe is me.
Everybody is complaining about me and this sort of thing.
How did you read that?
Well, I think that there's something that's going through his mind that he's searching for answers himself, Rush.
Only time someone will come up with a victim mentality is because you're trying to find answers and find out what's going to work.
And I cannot even believe about this black-on-black crime stuff.
That is ridiculous.
Tara Owens didn't even bring the subject up.
Another black man did, Michael Irving.
Right.
So I just think that they're way off.
And like I said, again, maybe you and I ought to start a movement where we can come up with the affirmative action in the NFL for quarterbacks, black quarterbacks who need help.
And if I was a black quarterback in the NFL, I'd be so angry right now that I would tell him to get off my case and leave me alone.
I'm a man and I'm a football player.
Leave it at that.
Well, I'll tell you what, we'll take up that cause as soon as you get me on Sunday night football.
All right, brother.
Sounds good.
All right.
Now, you want to play this straight up?
You want to go points?
It's Pittsburgh giving four.
Straight up.
No, no, no.
You and I are going straight up.
Okay, straight up.
Yep.
All right.
Your boys against my boys.
You say 24-20.
I'm not going to hold you to the score.
I just think it's going to be close and not that high.
Unless, I got to throw this in.
Unless Pittsburgh or Seattle scores on the first drive and in the second drive, it's going to be a blowout.
Either one of the teams that does that is going to be a blowout.
Right.
And I think if there's a that is more likely to happen with Pittsburgh.
I don't know.
That's been the pattern.
Kill the killer bees, baby.
That's going to be.
You know, you keep bringing up this killer bees, and I've been trying to be polite.
Your defense is so unique and so novel, you've got to steal the name of that great Miami Dolphins defense.
Hunch.
Hey, did I say that I've never stole in my life?
I just do it with clad.
All right.
I don't think it's going to be a low-scoring game.
I think it's not going to be close.
There'll be a lot of points scored, and I don't think it's going to be one of these 24-21 nail batteries.
It'd be good if it is, but I have a different feeling about the game.
Have you looked at the points allowed by each team over the whole season?
They're so close, Rush.
Seattle allowed 271 points, and Pittsburgh, 258.
They're 13-points difference.
I know.
Look at the points scored by both teams in the playoffs.
It's almost like 34.
It's almost identical.
Yeah, but now we got both defenses held the other team.
Pittsburgh held Denver to 17 points, and Seattle held Carolina to 14 points.
Now we got two good offenses and two defenses on the field.
That's equal.
But, Hatch, you keep lighting the fire here.
Go ahead.
You can tell me what you did to Carolina, but you're talking about a beat-up team that had a fourth running back in there and a quarterback that was run-ragged.
You had a malcontent wide receiver on the team on Steve Smith who was disrupting team unity over there on the sideline because he selfishly wasn't getting the ball.
I wouldn't take too much confidence coming out of the Carolina game.
That game was over in the first quarter.
And so was the Denver game.
No.
No.
It was over the first two drives.
No, it wasn't.
The Broncos were in that game in the third quarter, and the Steelers lost some momentum in the third quarter.
And if it wasn't the defense and Plumber throwing some interest, Plumbers four turnovers were scoring enough to hold on.
It was over.
I mean, when I got, I was getting on the plane going down to do the service for Dave Brown, my close friend.
You know, he passed away.
And I was watching that, and I go, when I saw the first two series, I said, I don't have to watch it anymore.
That game's over.
Pittsburgh's going to win.
I told you that before the game, too.
Strange, I don't remember this.
Remember, I told you, if they take the first two and drive down, that they're going to win.
Denver's not going to be able to catch up.
And that's exactly what they did.
Yeah.
Well, that is, I know.
But, in fact, I'll tell you, I was in the booth, and I had a little friendly $10 wager with a Broncos fan in there.
And after those two scores, he gave me the $10 trying to jinx the bet.
And I said, I'm not taking this till the game's over.
No, you take it.
And he stuffed it in my pocket.
And there's a time I tried to give it back to him in the third quarter, is all I know.
Anyway, Hutch, I appreciate your time, my man.
It's always a pleasure to talk to you.
Love you, Rush.
Thanks for watching.
Okay, have a great weekend, and we'll talk next week sometime and settle this all up.
Be back after this, my friends.
Stay with us.
Hey, we are back.
Some people have been waiting a while here to get their thoughts in on the Super Bowl.
So here's John in Seattle.
Nice that you waited, sir.
I appreciate your patience.
Mega Diddles, Rush.
Thank you.
It's really nice to talk to you from Seattle.
And I wanted to make a case against your point that Seattle has not played real teams.
And, of course, I think the NFC has more real teams than you think.
And excuse me, I'm a little nervous.
That's what I understand.
I've been there.
Okay.
Well, anyway, you know, I won't get much into the Panthers.
I understand there was a frustrated Smith, but he was not just frustrated because he couldn't get the ball.
He was frustrated because that quarterback was being shut down by the Seahawk defense.
I want to make the point, too, that you mentioned that the Colts, yeah, the Steelers played the Colts and beat the Colts.
And you reiterated that point.
Yeah, I know.
But it's a garbage game.
It was a garbage game.
When the Seattle played the Colts, the Colts had gone 13-0.
They'd lost to the Chargers, so the big push to go 16-0 was over, and they didn't play starters the whole game.
Their momentum had been lost.
I saw the Colts in that game.
The Colts really were never the same after they lost to the Chargers.
They were not the same team that they were in those 13 previous games.
Look, my only point about this is that I've never said they don't play real teams.
Every team in the NFL is a real team.
It's just that the level of competition in the NFC this year did not match the AFC.
And so Seattle's got these records and they've got these statistics and so forth, but most of their games against NFC teams.
And so I'm just discounting the statistical edge a little bit because of that.
You know, the Cowboys played the Seahawks the toughest.
They lost.
It was 13 to 10, but the Cowboys, that'll be a game tape the Steelers will be studying.
That's an NFC team that they play, but that was the, they've had some trouble with the Rams, too, and the Rams aren't no big deal.
The Cowboys weren't any big deal this year.
And those were their two toughest games.
So that's why I say the AFC presents them a different challenge and a different picture.
Here's Gary in Paynesville, Ohio.
You're next, sir, on Open Line Friday.
Hi.
Yeah, Rush, I've been listening to you since the Mouse in the Garbage Can.
And you've been a big, big inspiration to me over the years.
My wife and I are big Browns fans.
She's probably a bigger fan than I am.
She made me go to the New Year's Day game in Cleveland, Ohio.
Made you go.
Made you go.
Yeah, we're seasoned ticket holders.
Yeah.
And as you know, the Steelers are our most hated rivals here.
Yeah.
But there seems to be a lot of grudging respect for them right about now.
And it seems like everybody I talk to is sort of pulling for them.
Having said that, with the luck we have here in Cleveland, we probably hexed them and they'll probably lose.
Well, I think part of the Cleveland fandom for the Steelers is actually owing to Rothlessberger being from Findlay, Ohio, which is Browns country.
That's certainly part of it.
I think there's conference loyalty to AFC teams and this sort of thing.
But see, it's this kind of karma people get into.
I think it indicates that it's a tough game to really pick because the two teams on paper do seem so closely matched that people look for these intangibles in predicting the outcome.
I hope it's a great game.
I think a lot of people around the league, Seahawks, Steelers?
Well, and this has the potential to be one of the best Super Bowl games in a while.
If it's not the blowout that I'm, I don't say blowout, but I don't, when I say close, when I say I'm not expecting a close game, I wouldn't be surprised if it's a two-touchdown margin rather than a field goal.
A quick timeout.
We'll be back in just a moment.
Don't finish.
Okay, folks, that's it for us today.
And I want to thank all of you in this audience for indulging me in the last hour and my passionate desire to discuss the Super Bowl with the Hutch.
I know it upsets some of you that you can get this anywhere else, but regardless what you think, you can't.
Whatever happens here, you won't find it anywhere else.
We'll be back on Monday and won't spend a whole lot of time talking about the game because we'll move on, but we will be here Monday and Tuesday of next week.
I look forward to seeing you then.
Not going to the Super Bowl, going to Houston tomorrow for a golf lesson, but not going, be watching it right here at home.
See you Monday.
▲
Export Selection