Warning, incoming bad memories for those of us who were around to see the 1983 season:
You have been warned:
Back in the old days we finally did what I had been hoping for as a Seahawks fan that grew up in Raiders/Niners country when we swept the season series from the Raiders. Sure they had moved to LA the season prior, but they had swept us each game that we played the previous three seasons I was a fan. It was hard to put up with their obnoxious fans even as a child putting up with their children's taunts. So, '83 comes around and our offense was unstoppable against them. We scored 38 in the first game and 34 in the second as our defense dominated them to the tune of seven interceptions and ten (yes ten) forced fumbles. I was in heaven.
Then, came the conference championship game. Our defense still played fairly well with two interceptions and two forced fumbles, but Dave Krieg and Jim Zorn laid the biggest egg on the biggest stage possible with the Raiders smacking us in the mouth. A lot of the problems though was that we ran a lot of the same plays that they had already seen the previous two games. They outmuscled us and Krieg was benched with three interceptions. Their pass rush was helped by our play selection with longer routes. They dominated the time of possession and we continually shot ourselves in the foot.
We started to make some plays when they started to drop more into coverage as they were up four scores.
All in all it was one of the most horrible games I have ever witnessed to this day (I have never gone back and watched the "highlights" until just now, and it was horrible), but we can learn some things from that game. Just as the Raiders did, we need to get after their QB and sit the routes that we have seen them throw against us this season. Just as the Raiders did, we need to control the clock and keep their offense out of rhythm. Just as the Raiders did, we need to smack them in the mouth. Even if we skirt the line of dirty play, we have to make sure that they know at the end of the game that they were in a fight. The refs are usually more likely to "let them play" in the playoffs and we have to push the limits. On offense we need to run variations on the routes we have run against them. If the routes have been slant/hook/out we need to change one of them to get them questioning the film that they have studied.
