The Colts played each of the four teams who will be fighting Sunday to get to the Super Bowl. So The Post asked two Colts for their expert insight on the key players and the combatants in the NFC Championship game.
If Patriots-Broncos is a game of brains, 49ers-Seahawks is a game of brawn. Colts tight end Coby Fleener played at Stanford for Jim Harbaugh, who didn’t appreciate being viewed as David to Pete Carroll’s USC Goliath.
“I think it kind of started back in Stanford and USC, when Harbaugh felt he needed to kind of poke the bear,” Fleener said. “ USC was kind of the top program perennially, and Stanford was trying to make a name for itself. That probably didn’t sit well with Coach Carroll. Coach Harbaugh kind of wanted Pete Carroll to know when Stanford beat USC, he kind of reminded him of it, I’m sure.”
Carroll’s quarterback is Russell Wilson. Harbaugh’s quarterback is Colin Kaepernick. Asked who scared him more, Colts cornerback Darius Butler, who intercepted Wilson in a 34-28 Colts win Oct. 6, said: “Probably Russell Wilson. I think Russell does a good job of not hurting his team — a little more like a game manager. He’ll still make those dynamic plays, and they can still put the game in his hands, but at the same time, he’s going to try his best to keep his team out of bad situations, you know, bad turnovers, things like that.”
Kaepernick is more likely to make dynamic plays with his legs than Wilson is.
“I would say Kaepernick is a better runner,” Butler said. “Once he tucks the ball and runs, he can hurt you. Russell, he’s more of a scrambler, but he’s going to look to keep his eyes down the field, find somebody open. I think Kaepernick has better weapons.”
But those better weapons face off against the big, bad, boisterous Legion of Doom Seattle secondary.
“I know that the back end gets a lot of attention, but I think that their down linemen, they complement the back end really well,” Fleener said of the Seahawks defense. “To have pressure on the quarterback when a cornerback’s beat is huge, and to have a cornerback being able to stay with a wide receiver when he can’t get any pass rush is helpful the other way.”
Seattle’s Richard Sherman is arguably the best cornerback in the game, and free safety Earl Thomas has been labeled a young Troy Polamalu or Ed Reed. Fleener didn’t hear much trash-talk from the Seahawks that day.
“They are televised doing the most trash-talking of any defense I would say, but I don’t know that there was a huge amount of trash-talking in our game, although it’s hard to trash-talk when you’re losing,” he said, chuckling.
Even though Fleener and the Colts beat the depleted 49ers, 27-7, in September, he has the utmost respect for that defense.
“It’s been really good since we were at Stanford with [49ers defensive coordinator] Vic Fangio,” Fleener said. “They make it tough to really kind of, I guess, figure out where anything’s coming from. You have really talented guys on their defense — the linebacking corps, it’s probably more Pro Bowlers than not Pro Bowlers. The defensive line’s one of the best, and the guys on the back end are solid. That’s really a tough matchup for an offense.”
So who wins the offensive and defensive matchups?
“I’ll take Russell in that one, and I would take the Seattle defense,” Butler said.
One vote for Wilson and the Seahawks.
One vote, then, for a Patriots-Seahawks Super Bowl.