Seattle's win could transform NFL

— -- Duck -- because the pendulum is swinging, from offense back toward defense.

Seattle's decisive rout of Denver in the Super Bowl wasn't just a nice win for the Emerald City. The outcome will have long-term impact across professional football, and perhaps in the college and prep ranks as well. For a decade, all attention has been on offense -- best athletes on offense, new high-tech tactics, crazy pace, pass-wacky. It has been offense, offense, offense. Even Bill Belichick, who got his start as a defensive coordinator, has converted to high-speed offense as the new gold standard.

Now that's over.

Seattle proved a hard-hitting but very traditional defense -- conventional fronts, few blitzes, tight coverage and nasty disposition -- could roll over the highest-scoring offense in professional football history. Not just defeat that offense: everyone knew Seattle might win. The Seahawks' defense mopped the floor with Denver's offense, as emphatic a victory as any team sport has ever produced.

This offseason will be about NFL teams looking at their defenses -- personnel, styles of play, mindset. Head coaches will shift from focusing on offense to defense. Money and draft choices will go to the defense. Crazy defensive schemes will be tossed out and replaced with traditionalism. The idea that defense not only can slow down the other team but can itself win the game -- the Seattle defense outscored the highest-scoring NFL offense ever -- will be revived.

In Super Bowl matchups of No. 1 offense versus No. 1 defense, defense is 5-1. Of the 10 highest-scoring teams in NFL annals, only one, the 1999 Rams, won the Super Bowl that season. Some thought the arrival of quick-snap, shotgun-spread, call-everything-at-the-line offense fundamentally had overcome the edge of pressure defense. Now we know that's not true. The highest-scoring, highest-tech team in NFL history was held to eight points in the Super Bowl. The Super Bowl story for this year might as well be: Seattle Defense 9, Denver Offense 8.

Pro, college and high school coaches will re-evaluate everything they do. Keep your head low as the pendulum swings back toward defense.

In football safety news, for years this column has rolled the drums for the idea that although no football helmet can prevent concussions, newer designs reduce the risk. Three years ago at Super Bowl time, I wanted to know why the NFL would not disclose which helmet models its players wear; and why the NFL does not mandate that only improved models be worn: "This is a short-sighted policy TMQ has been objecting to since the Riddell Revolution, the first-generation helmet engineered to reduce concussion risk, went on sale." In July 2011, I detailed Virginia Tech research showing that the Riddell VSR4, the most common helmet, was dangerous compared to newer models. My new book "The King of Sports" details how James Collins, football coach of the public high school nearest my home, junked the school's VSR4s and replaced them with the modern Riddell Revo, owing to safety concerns. Collins did this in 2003, a full decade ago! Yet VSR4s are still on players' heads, including in the NFL.

Helmet manufacturers and the National Operating Committee on Standards for Athletic Equipment -- to which the NFL defers, though NOCSAE seems to function mainly as a rubber-stamp -- criticized the Virginia Tech research as based on lab tests, not real-world data. Fair enough. Last week, Virginia Tech released the results of six years of real-world data comparing total head hits to concussions, by helmet types, at eight Division I college football teams. The finding: Correcting for incidence and severity of hits, a player wearing the Riddell Revo had a 54 percent lower risk of concussion than a player wearing a VSR4.

This study is a bombshell. For many years the NFL and NOCSAE have contended it is impossible to determine whether any particular helmet reduces concussion risk. Virginia Tech has now put hard data on the table. The study is another feather in the cap for Virginia Tech, which has become the national leader in seeking football safety. It also raises disturbing questions regarding whether the NFL has always been more concerned with avoiding legal liability -- the league believes that mandating a helmet type makes it liable for any concussion sustained in that headgear -- than with the health of players.

How many NFL concussions could have been avoided if the league had banned the VSR4? Far more importantly, since the VSR4 has been worn by millions of high school and college players, how many total concussions could have been avoided if NOCSAE did its job and warned about this helmet rather than approving its sale?

The Broncos, home team of record for the Super Bowl, could choose what to wear -- and chose orange, though the team came in 0-3 wearing orange in the Super Bowl. Now Denver is 0-4 in orange in the Super Bowl, versus 2-1 in any of its other uni looks. As TMQ noted last week, "Surely Broncos execs choosing jerseys for New Jersey thought, 'Superstition is ridiculous.' Woe unto disbelievers!"

As the season concludes, see below for TMQ's annual State Standings.

Stats of the Super Bowl No. 1: Teams that return an interception for a touchdown are 12-0 in the Super Bowl.

Stats of the Super Bowl No. 2: Peyton Manning has thrown interceptions returned for touchdowns in consecutive Super Bowls.

Stats of the Super Bowl No. 3: At the 10:36 mark of the second quarter, the Broncos' league-leading offense recorded its first first down.

Stats of the Super Bowl No. 4: Coming into the Super Bowl, discounting for deliberate kneel-downs, the Broncos scored on 10 of 14 postseason possessions. In the Super Bowl, they scored on one of 11 possessions.

Stats of the Super Bowl No. 5: Discounting for kneel-downs, in the playoffs, Seattle's defense held opponents to six scores on 35 possessions.

Stats of the Super Bowl No. 6: Wes Welker is 0-3 in the Super Bowl.

Stats of the Super Bowl No. 7: Seattle finished plus-27 for turnovers; Denver finished minus-six.

Stats of the Super Bowl No. 8: Mannings have started in five of the past eight Super Bowls.

Stats of the Super Bowl No. 9: During the regular season, Denver's offense averaged a league-best 6.3 yards per play. At the Super Bowl, Denver's offense averaged 4.8 yards per play; only three NFL teams posted a worse regular-season average.

Stats of the Super Bowl No. 10: Teams with orange on their primary jerseys are 2-7 in the Super Bowl. Teams with green are 6-3.

Sweet Play of the Super Bowl: Seattle leading 5-0 late in the first quarter, the Bluish Men Group faced third-and-5 on the Denver 43. Of course, Denver might have trouble moving the ball against the Seahawks defense. But could Seattle move the ball against the Denver defense?

The Seahawks set two men left, including undrafted Doug Baldwin, a finalist for TMQ's Non-QB/Non-RB MVP. In "combo" moves, the first guy always sets the pick and the second guy always is the target. Defenders should know this. A receiver cut in front of Baldwin and set a pick. Baldwin did a quick stutter, then ran an "up" for a 37-yard gain, roaring past the Denver defense like it wasn't there. Though the Hawks were held to a field goal on the possession, this down set an aggressive tone for Seattle's offense. It sent the message that not only was the Seattle defense potent, the Seattle offense could cause problems too. The victors would end the night with four offensive downs longer than any gain recorded by Denver's offense -- plays of 37, 30, 24 and 23 yards. These gains mattered almost as much as the defensive stops.

Sour Play of the Super Bowl: Denver's record-setting offense opened the game with a goofy safety, but the Broncos' defense held Seattle to a field goal following the free kick. So it's Bluish Men Group by 5-0. No problem for the highest scoring team in NFL annals. Denver took possession, advanced to fourth-and-2 on its 43 -- and punted. What good is the highest-scoring offense in NFL history if the Broncos are afraid to try on fourth-and-short from midfield?

Highlight reels will show Seattle's touchdowns on interception and kickoff returns -- but to TMQ, this was the pivotal moment of the contest. Facing the league's best defense, Denver needed to set an aggressive tone. Instead the Broncos set a passive, retreating tone.

Sweet 'N' Sour Play: Seattle leading 8-0 at the end of the first quarter, Denver faced second-and-5 and prepared to quick-snap. Seattle strong safety Kam Chancellor, who often plays "low" but almost never lines up "high" as the free safety, came down to the line of scrimmage on Peyton Manning's left. Chancellor seemed to read a key, because Manning handed off for a run toward where Chancellor was now standing. Loss of two.

Now Denver faced third-and-7. This time free safety Earl Thomas comes to the line of scrimmage to blitz: one of Seattle's two first-half blitzes is about to happen. Chancellor drops back into a high Cover 1 position, as if he were the free safety. Six men rush, Manning is hit as he releases, and the pass goes directly to Chancellor for Denver's first of many turnovers. The play caused an electric reaction in the stands, people seeming to think. "Peyton is going to self-destruct again!" My reaction was that Manning had no idea Chancellor would be where he was. The play showed Seattle's game plan was superior to Denver's.

Though it is hard to argue with the Super Bowl MVP going to a linebacker rather than a quarterback or running back -- Seattle's Malcolm Smith, 10 tackles and a pick-six, hoisted the award -- Chancellor got TMQ's MVP vote. His early interception, his pick, nine tackles, two passes defensed, including a jarring legal hit that caused Wes Welker to drop what would have been an important completion, and a bone-jarring early tackle on Demaryius Thomas, set Seattle's physical tone.

The Chancellor play was sweet for Seattle and very sour for Denver. A slow start would have been one thing for the Broncos offense. An early careless interception gave the impression Denver was in over its head.

New York Times Corrections on Fast-Forward: From the past six months of the corrections page in the Paper of Record:

• Retracted a statement that Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner had been a "brat" as a child.

• Referred to the pop singer as Justin Timberland. Perhaps for an endorsement fee, he would change his name.

• On at least seven occasions, including twice in the same story, confused a million dollars with a billion dollars. Maybe Geithner edited the story.

• Confused a billion dollars with a trillion dollars. Hey, is this the New York Times or a White House budget briefing?

• Confused plants with animals.

• Of the show "Homeland," "misidentified the setting where Carrie and Brody first had sex. It was in a car, not a lakeside cottage." Baby, I was going to take you to a romantic lakeside cottage, but let's just do it in the back seat.

• To illustrate how much $20 billion is, a Page 1 lead story said this amount could "finance the Yankees' payroll for 10 years." That would be a baseball payroll of $2 billion per season: for 100 years is correct.

• "An obituary about the conductor Wolfgang Sawallisch erroneously included one singer on a list of those Mr. Sawallisch recruited to perform with the Bavarian State Opera in 1971."

• Said Boise, Idaho, is the "most remote" large city in the United States. Then someone remembered Alaska, and the paper ran a correction stating Anchorage is the most remote large city. Then someone else remembered Hawaii, and the paper ran a second correction naming Honolulu.

• Of Gov. Abutment (aka New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie) and the Bridge Too Fargled scandal, "referred incorrectly to recent Hoboken mayors who were imprisoned." Only two of the three most recent Hoboken mayors went to jail for corruption, not all three.

• The headline of a Page 1 article mixed up the difference between ADHD and hyperactivity. Those Times headline writers need to focus!