Leading up to Super Bowl XL between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Seattle Seahawks at Ford Field in Detroit, there was a ton of attention on Seahawks’ star running back Shaun Alexander ahead of his matchup with the vaunted Steelers’ defense.
After all, Alexander was coming into the biggest stage in the NFL coming off of a historic season, in which he won the NFL MVP award, was a first-team All-Pro, set the NFL record for touchdowns with 27 rushing touchdowns on the season, and averaged an absurd 117.5 yards per game on the ground, finishing the season 1,880 yards on 370 carries.
He was going to be the X-factor in the game, and at the time many pundits believed he’d be good enough to lift the Seahawks over the cinderella-story Steelers, who were the first No. 6 seed to reach the Super Bowl.
But, for the Steelers’ defense, particularly Pro Bowl nose tackle Casey Hampton, who appeared on the latest episode of the “Not Just Football with Cam Heyward” podcast during the 2025 NFL Draft, the Steelers weren’t worried about the Seahawks’ run game, because they knew Seattle couldn’t run east and west against them due to Pittsburgh’s ability to get upfield against the run.
“I wanted all that, man. Them guys, man, those NFC teams back then were kind of, they were kind of more finesse. They wasn’t, accustomed to the physical style of play and how we played the AFC. We were a physical team. Going into the Super Bowl, they were talking about him – Alexander – and how he ran the ball and things like that,” Hampton said of the Seahawks’ run game with Alexander, according to video via the show’s YouTube page. “But we knew running sideways, you’re not gonna be able to run, you’re not gonna run a ball on us because we’re going to indent that line of scrimmage and we gonna get up the field and that’s not gonna happen, you know what I mean?
“So, we wasn’t worried about the run game.”
Hampton started off talking about how he loved playing the bigger, physical backs, but then he delved into the conversation regarding Super Bowl XL against the Seahawks.
That day, the Steelers thoroughly dominated from start to finish. Pittsburgh held Alexander to 95 yards on 20 carries, 21 yards of which came on one carry, which came early in the third quarter with the Steelers in front, 14-3. That drive resulted in a Josh Brown missed 50-yard field goal, keeping it a 14-3 game.
Ultimately, the Steelers kept Alexander in check, well below his season average each and every game. In fact, in the NFC Championship Game against the Carolina Panthers two weeks prior, Alexander ran for 132 yards and two touchdowns to punch the Seahawks’ ticket to the Super Bowl.
Against the Steelers, he’d have no such luck.
Even though he averaged 4.5 yards per carry, there wasn’t much room to work with for Alexander, who came into the game averaging just under 25 carries per game. The Steelers controlled the line of scrimmage and forced the Seahawks to take to the air as quarterback Matt Hasselbeck attempted 49 passes in the Super Bowl — a season-high.
That type of confidence that Hampton had with the Steelers’ defense was warranted. There weren’t a ton of big names, but there were some great players that were perfect fits within their roles for the Steelers’ defense, and it helped the Steelers lift the Lombardi Trophy under head coach Bill Cowher, capping off his Hall of Fame career.
Check out the full interview with Hampton on the latest episode of “Not Just Football with Cam Heyward” below.
