Hasselbeck breaks down the Vikings defense

Seattle Seahawks quarterback Matt Hasselbeck paid the Vikings' fifth-ranked defense quite a compliment Wednesday.

"Sometimes you play teams that aren't sound and you feel like you can take advantage of certain things," Hasselbeck said. "These guys, the best that they're going to give you is one-on-one man coverage somewhere, and even that is not really that much of an advantage sometimes.

"Some weeks you go into a game and you look at your game plan and say, 'Ok, we're going to go at this guy.' (This is) not one of those weeks," Hasselbeck said. "I think this is more one of those weeks where you are saying, 'Ok, they have really smart players on defense in terms of their secondary. They know what we like to do. We've got to make sure that we don't give them any advantage by taking them for granted.' We need to really study them and know what we are up against."
Hasselbeck also provided an interesting breakdown of the defensive personnel.

"I guess I'd start up front," he said. "I think Kevin and Pat Williams are great players. Kevin Williams I think is one of the great d-tackles in the game right now. The guy on our right, (Darrion) Scott is a good run player, a good, stout run player. The guy on the left, 95 (Kenechi Udeze), is more of a speed rusher, but also a very good player. Very quick, very fast. Their corners are really good corners, aggressive. It seems like they are very smart, take a lot of educated guesses. Their safeties, Darren Sharper I know very well. He's a very, very good safety, very smart player, very athletic. Dwight Smith, the same thing. He reads the quarterback's eyes very (well). They are smart and they are playing a style of defense that is very sound.

"Their linebackers are guys that we have played before, but on different teams or different situations. E.J. Henderson is playing outside now. They're good," Hasselbeck said. "They're solid all the way across, even in nickel when (Ronyell) Whitaker comes in. "