Place-kickers have confidence to avoid agony of the feet

DETROIT – Seattle kicker Josh Brown and Pittsburgh counterpart Jeff Reed understand Super Bowl history.

Three of the last four Super Bowls have been decided by three points. New England’s Adam Vinatieri kicked a 41-yard field goal with 4 seconds left for a 32-29 win over Carolina in Super Bowl XXXVIII. Two years before that, Vinatieri made a 48-yarder as time expired in a 20-17 victory over St. Louis.

“I’ll be just fine with it (pressure),” Brown said. “I’ve prepared well. I’m still working hard this week and I’m going through the normal kicking routine. We’ve had a lot of sticky moments this year. It’s exciting. If you want to be a good kicker and strong mental guy, you have to enjoy that.”

Brown was 18 of 25 on field goals during the regular season. He’s 8 of 9 in four postseason games.

Reed made 24 of 29 regular-season attempts. He’s 10 of 12 in the postseason.

Just try to stop it

Shaun Alexander set a single-season touchdown record with 28 this season, many coming when everybody in the stadium knew he was getting the ball. Quarterback Matt Hasselbeck pointed out that fact when he was asked how often he audibles at the line.

“If the defense knows it’s coming, so what? Let’s do it better,” Hasselbeck said. “Look at what we do on the goal line. Shaun is the best goal-line back in football. He scores every time we’re down there. We don’t change – people know it’s coming. … I’m under center and guys that used to play for us are yelling, ‘Here it comes, right here! We got it!’ But they don’t got it.”

It’s a stretch

Seattle has gone away from the “stretch” play, in which Alexander sweeps outside behind zone blocking, but it ran it to perfection two weeks ago as tackle Walter Jones drove Carolina’s Mike Rucker 13 yards downfield to lead Alexander on a big gain. Alexander scored from the 1 on the next play.

The stretch play was prominent – and highly productive – earlier this season, quarterbacks coach Jim Zorn said, but defenses have adjusted to limit Seattle’s opportunities.

“It’s probably Denver’s play. They built their whole offense around it and they run it a lot,” offensive coordinator Gil Haskell said. “What we’re trying to do is get to the perimeter and we have two good tackles that can hook the ends. (Linemen are) reaching, you don’t go sideways. You go straight ahead. I learned that from John Robinson at USC. His great comment was, ‘The line is trying to score, get upfield.’ “

All aboard

It appears both teams will have every starter in their lineups.

Every Seahawk practiced Friday. Receiver D.J. Hackett (hamstring) and cornerback Andre Dyson (quadriceps) are both listed as probable.

Pittsburgh safety Troy Polamalu (ankle) and fullback Dan Kreider (knee) also practiced. Kreider practiced for the first time this week and was upgraded from questionable to probable.

Receiver Hines Ward missed the last portion of practice with a sore shoulder, but he’s expected to start. Reserve defensive end Travis Kirschke (groin) was upgraded from questionable to probable. Linebacker James Harrison (ankle) is listed as probable.