ALAMEDA -- This is old hat for Richard Seymour, what with his three Super Bowl championships in four trips to the title game.It's also a new feeling for the third-year Raiders defensive tackle.Seymour, who entered the NFL in 2001 and came to Oakland in a 2009 trade, is in his first playoff race as a member of the Raiders.So how fine is that line between reinforcing just how important this weekend's game is against San Diego to the younglings in Oakland's locker room and not spooking them to the point of paralysis by analysis?
"Obviously, it is a big game, so you can't deny that fact," Seymour, who was named to his seventh Pro Bowl this week, said with a knowing grin. "But I think as a competitor, as a player, you have to embrace these moments because they don't come around often. And I think that's something that I've always done throughout my career."You want to play your best football in the biggest games."Of course, the Raiders need to do more than win Sunday against San Diego to get into the playoffs for the first time since the 2002 Super Bowl season; they also need Denver to lose at home to Kansas City to win the AFC West and play host to a wild card-round game against either Pittsburgh or Baltimore. Or, they need Cincinnati to lose at home to Baltimore and either Tennessee to lose at Houston or the New York Jets to win at Miami to win the Wild Card and travel to the Texans for a wild card-round game.
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