Seahawks coach Mike Holmgren just wrapped up his weekly news conference, talking for about 22 minutes. The first question after his opening statements was about the Matt Hasselbeck-Shaun Alexander fumble that led to Arizona's game-winning field goal.

Holmgren said what happened was Hasselbeck was calling a fake audible, something he frequently does throughout the game in order to throw the defense off. However, because of the noise, several players did not pick up on that, so that's where the confusion began.

Alexander wasn't the only player who did not fully know what was going on. Holmgren said Mack Strong and "two receivers" were also confused. He said the Arizona player who caused the fumble got in the backfield because someone zigged when they should have zagged.

The Seahawks are adding a few wrinkles to their offense. We should expect to see more presnap movement this season. Coach Mike Holmgren talked about some of the changes following practice today. In addition to helping the offense from a strategic standpoint, Holmgren wants to keep the material fresh for some of his veteran players. The Seahawks are already known for mixing personnel groupings regularly. Holmgren said the coaches will talk about some of the changes they've made in offseason minicamps before determining exactly how far to go. Holmgren said he has made these types of strategic changes perhaps five times in his 15-year career as a head coach.

With veteran receiver Darrell Jackson gone, D.J. Hackett becomes the favorite to start opposite Deion Branch in the Seattle offense. Nate Burleson can't be written off, but he'll have to win the job this year. The Seahawks put him in the starting lineup last season and kept him there for a while. Hackett emerged as a more dynamic threat. Hackett caught 45 passes for 610 yards and four touchdowns. Burleson was bothered by a hand injury early and never got going as a receiver. He caught 18 passes for 192 yards and two touchdowns.

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The Steelers are talking about using more four-receiver sets on first and second down. One idea is to spread out the defense and call some well-timed runs against lightweight defensive personnel. The Seahawks have tried to do this quite a bit over the years. We'll look at the 2006 results here.

"I love four wideouts," Steelers offensive coordinator Bruce Arians told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. "I like a better running game out of four wideouts where we can utilize them on first and second down, rather than just being in a shotgun and throwing it all the time. That will be an area we want to develop."

According to my charting, the Seahawks averaged 4.16 yards per carry on 31 first- and second-down running plays from four-receiver ("Eagle") personnel. That is better than I would have expected. I knew the Hawks averaged 5.15 yards per carry on all four-receiver running plays, but I figured there was some cheap yardage from third-and-long. Most teams could live with nearly 4.2 yards per carry on first and second downs.

Passing from four-receiver sets produced less encouraging results for Seattle. The Hawks ran 36 pass plays from Eagle personnel on first and second downs. All but three of these were with Matt Hasselbeck (Seneca Wallace was 2-3 passing for 19 yards on these plays). Hasselbeck completed 20-32 passes for 239 yards with one TD and three INTs from this personnel. That's a 56.6 passer rating for Hasselbeck with four receivers.

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The Colts ran their base personnel -- one back, two receivers, two tight ends -- on 77 of 80 plays in Super Bowl XLI tonight. That works out to 96.3 percent, up from 75.9 percent against the Patriots in the AFC title game.

The difference this time? The Bears had Rex Grossman, not Tom Brady, which meant Indy was never forced to rev up its passing game to keep pace. The Bears' defensive personnel is different, too (Chicago has arguably the best nickel corner in the league, giving the Bears an edge over most teams in three-receiver situations). Indy used its one-back, three-receiver offense 22.8 percent of the time agains the Patriots, but only twice (2.5 pecent) tonight.

We noted after the AFC title game that Indy averaged 1.7 additional yards per carry and about 10 additional yards per pass attempt when Dominic Rhodes replaced Joseph Addai in the base offense. The difference was an additional 1.6 yards per carry with Rhodes tonight. Here are the Colts' base-personnel numbers against Chicago: 5.4 yards per carry on 21 runs with Rhodes, compared to 3.8 yards per carry on 20 runs with Addai. The Colts averaged 7.1 yards per pass attempt on 24 base plays with Addai, compared to 6.2 yards per attempt on 12 base plays with Rhodes.

The Colts sneaked in one play from a two-back, three-receiver grouping (usually a tough one for pass protection, I have observed), and they gave a similar look with TE Ben Utecht as one of the backs (technically still base personnel).

We have full personnel reports for the Bears and Colts. These show the production by personnel group, including: number of plays from each group, percentage of plays from each group, number of runs and passes from each group (and percentages), average yards per carry from each group, average yards per pass attempt from each group, average yards per pass play (counting sacks), plus TDs, INTs and sacks from each group.

The Colts use fewer personnel groupings than most teams. The complexity of their offense comes from the options available to them within each play. Unlike the Seahawks, the Colts do not rely heavily upon changing up offensive personnel to dictate matchups and keep opponents off-balance.

The chart compares the Colts' personnel usage in the AFC title game to the Bears' and Seahawks' personnel usage. The Chicago numbers come from both games against Seattle and the NFC title game against New Orleans. The Seattle numbers come from all regular-season games.

Back to the Colts. They ran 79 offensive plays against New England in the AFC title game, not counting plays when Peyton Manning took a knee to run time off the clock. Indy ran 60 plays from Tiger personnel (1RB,2WR,2TE), 18 from Zebra (1RB,3WR,1TE) and one from Y (2RB,0WR,3TE). Not a lot of variety there, and yet the Colts' offense is famously complex. We'll ask former Colts and Seahawks QB Brock Huard to explain some of those complexities later in the week. I'll break down the personnel below (showing Dominic Rhodes' apparent value to the Colts).

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That was indeed Heath Evans getting 30 snaps with the New England offense in the AFC title game. I broke down the personnel usage in both conference championship games (we'll make sense of that stuff as the Super Bowl approaches).

Evans was the Seahawks' third-round pick in 2001. Seattle took him 82nd overall, 18 spots before Cincinnati took Rudi Johnson, who was (of course) way too small to become an effective NFL running back. As the Hawks wonder who will succeed FB Mack Strong (Leonard Weaver is the leading candidate), we note that Evans played on 20 pass plays and 10 run plays against Indy.

Blocking was never his thing in Seattle, but he did it well when called upon in this game. Evans was the lead blocker on 35- and 9-yard runs from Y personnel (2RB,0WR,3TE).

Evans played in half of the Pats' 24 snaps from Zebra personnel (1RB,3WR,1TE). This included one run play (4-yarder) and 11 pass plays (7.0 yards per pass attempt, one TD, one INT, one sack). He played five of 21 snaps from Tiger personnel (1RB,2WR,2TE), and all of these were pass plays (11.8 yards per attempt).

Evans got a few more snaps in the Pats' limited use of regular (2RB,2WR,1TE), E (2RB,3WR) and U (2RB,1WR,2TE) personnel, with modest results. ...

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Saints coach Sean Payton stepped to the postgame interview podium after the NFC title game and tried to explain why he never tried to establish a running game. He said the Saints wanted to come out throwing early because they expected the Bears to load up against the run. He said they hoped to settle into a more balanced attack. And yet the Saints threw 13 passes during a 15-play stretch while the score was either 16-14 or 18-14 during the third quarter. This included two consecutive pass plays from their own 5-yard-line, the second one producing a safety. So much for mixing it up.

The thing is, the Saints ran the ball effectively whenever they tried. They averaged 5.3 yards per carry on eight rushes from regular personnel (2RB,2WR,1TE). They averaged 6.5 ypc on two rushes from E personnel (2RB,3WR) even though some of their younger players didn't know where to line up from this grouping. Seattle and other teams have proven that the Bears' run defense can be vulnerable. That's why I was surprised to see New Orleans pass so much.

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If today was any indication, the Bears can't afford to fall behind against the Colts in the Super Bowl. They were pretty much horrid in their Zebra personnel package (1RB,3WR,1TE) against the Saints. This is the group the Bears use on third down, or in two-minute situations. They used it pretty effectively against Seattle, averaging 8.1 yards per pass attempt, but that figure fell to .9 yards per pass attempt today. It didn't matter because the Saints turned the ball over four times, letting the Bears work form a short field. But something tells me the Bears will need more from this grouping to keep pace with the Colts in SBXLI.

Against the Saints, I counted 16 snaps from Zebra, 10 on third down. This included 14 with Thomas Jones alone in the backfield, and two with Cedric Benson there. These plays produced 10 incomplete passes, a 4-yard completion, a running play for minus-3 and a 16-yard gain on an end-around (a good play, but gimmicky, too). Terrible.

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Marcus Tubbs' season-ending injury was cited here as a factor in the Seahawks' defensive problems this season. Brock Huard was among those who theorized that Tubbs' impact went beyond his own statistics. The theory went like this: While most of the Seahawks' d-linemen fall into the "undersized" category, Tubbs had that rare combination of size and athletic ability that commanded double-team blocking, thereby freeing up some of these smaller teammates to make plays. Teammates would get more sacks because they would face more one-on-one situations.

The facts are clear: Tubbs has played in 29 of 48 regular-season games during his three-year NFL career. Seattle has allowed 42 fewer yards rushing per game and .99 fewer yards per carry when Tubbs plays. His apparent impact on teammates is even more striking.

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The Seahawks were the best third-and-1 rushing team in the NFL last season. They started strong again in 2006, converting their first seven chances. The team then failed on six of its final 13 chances.

A few possible factors:

• FB Mack Strong suffered a sprained ankle against Denver on Dec. 3. They used him more than expected this season, and he wore down;
• Execution errors cropped up at Arizona, including a miscommunication involving Rob Sims and Walter Jones, who had not played together much. Chalk it up to a lack of continuity;
• Seattle probably became a little predictable running up the middle. That is where the team missed Ryan Hannam. He was a good blocking tight end. Hannam could get out on the edge and clear that last defender.

Take those things together and Seattle has something to work on this offseason. Seattle failed on four of six third-and-1 rushes in the playoffs.

Note: The chart includes basic information about personnel. Regular personnel is 2RB,2WR,1TE. Zebra is 1RB,3WR,1TE. U is 2RB,1WR,2TE. Tiger is 1RB,2WR,2TE. Y personnel is 2RB,0WR,3TE (goal-line usually). And remember, when we talk about personnel, we are not talking about where guys line up. We're talking about which players are on the field. Example: A team could conceivably (but not advisably) go with an empty backfield using U personnel.

Charting another team can be an adventure. The Bears kept lining up Cedric Benson in the backfield with the fullback in the slot and two receivers wide. I would type in "Reg-32" to tell me it was regular personnel (2RB,2WR,1TE) with Benson alone in the backfield. Then the fullback would dutifully run into the backfield, kind of in the I-formation but not in the traditional stance. So then I'd have to decide whether to call it "Reg-I".

In the end, I can tell you this: Seattle's run defense was pretty solid today (my initial reading showed the Bears averaging 2.7 yards per carry on 18 rushes from regular personnel). I'll need to rewatch the game to double-check the Bears' personnel.

There's no need to wait on the Seahawks' side. Their use of personnel is much easier to recognize given that I've covered their last 152 games, not counting preseason. Check out the full breakdown in this Excel file. Highlights below.

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