Seahawks Looking Good! Can you say Super Bowl?

The San Francisco 49ers' Super Bowl XXIX troph...

Since the writing of this blog the New England Patriots defeated the Houston Texans on Monday Night Football 42-14. 

This Seattle Seahawk season ticket holder was pretty darned impressed with what he saw in Sunday’s 58-0 record blow-out of the Arizona Cardinals. It’s got me thinking of…dare I say it…the Super Bowl.

Call me crazy if you will but my dreams could be realized if a few small things fall our way. And we could be making plans for a trip to…NEW JERSEY? Ya…New Jersey. The fact that the game is being played in a northern climate again is one other reason why I feel optimistic. Seattle’s only other trip to nirvana occurred in 2006 when the Seahawks lost to Pittsburg in Detroit, MI.

(Oops! It has been correctly pointed out to me that the Super Bowl in New Jersey won’t take place until after next season in 2014. This season’s 2013 Super Bowl will be in New Orleans.)

Picture taken by me of Qwest Field at night fr...

CenturyLink Field where Seattle is undefeated.

Here is the situation: Seattle is 8-5 with three games left. Sunday they travel to Toronto to play the Buffalo Bills. On Christmas Eve eve, December 23rd, the Hawks host division leading San Francisco at CenturyLink Field. And then they close out the season at the “Clink” against the improving St. Louis Rams.

Before anyone gets too excited let me remind you that Seattle has played and lost to both the 49ers and the Rams this season, and at this point in the season they haven’t clinched anything. Having said that I like our chances.

Tonight’s Monday night game, Houston at New England, in Foxboro could be important. If Houston wins New England would not want to lose two straight when they host the 49ers next Sunday night. So come-on Texans! If the Pat’s win tonight they might start shifting into coast-mode before the playoffs when they play San Francisco. (New England won 42-14)  If San Fran loses their game in New England, while Seattle beats Buffalo the game in Seattle would decide the division lead with only one game to play.

Seattle will beat Buffalo for several reasons. First, they exorcised that “can’t win on the road” ghost in beating the Bears in Chicago last week. Second, the game is not in Buffalo so the Bills will not have that much of a decided home field advantage. Lastly, besides the crowd the other huge advantage Buffalo has over all its opponents in December is the weather. But the Seahawk game will be inside what they used to call Skydome.

I think the Hawks can break the 49ers win streak of them and take the division lead. What a nice Christmas present THAT will be. A division crown would come down to beating the Rams on December 30th at CenturyLink; a proposition I favor. But it won’t be easy. The Rams play an up-and-down Minnesota club next week and a declining Tampa Bay after that. They could come to Seattle 8-6-1 needing a win for the playoffs. Still, you can’t bet against Seattle at the Clink, no matter who they’re playing; as evidenced by their victories this year over possibly the 2 best teams in the league, Green Bay and New England.

Seattle would then host at least one playoff game and probably earn a bye the first weekend. This scenario counts on G.B. to lose at least once more. which I think they’ll do. Seattle and the Packers would be tied with an 11-5 record and thanks to Russell Wilson, Golden Tate, and a Replacement Referee Seattle would host their first playoff game after taking a week off.

Seattle would be favored over whoever they played and I would expect them to win, putting them into the NFC Championship game.

NFC Championship Game logo, 2005–2010

Under my scheme that game would only be in Atlanta or Seattle. If it’s Atlanta, well, the Falcons would be deservedly favored. If it’s in Seattle against the New York Giants, Green Bay Packers, San Francisco 49ers or the last playoff entrant (Who cares. They won’t win), then I like my teams chances of going to East Rutherford.

I’ve never been happier being so wrong. I’m referring to Pete Carroll’s pick of Russell Wilson as the teams starting quarterback this year. I was the first in the Matt Flynn camp, dating back to last January. And as good as Wilson has played, who’s to say Flynn couldn’t have done the same thing? Having said that, clearly Wilson is a special player and can lead this team to the Super Bowl provided a few not-so-unlikely things fall our way. Go Seahawks! Go Texans! Go Patriots (next week)!

Thanks for visiting. Comments are welcome.

Related articles

December 10, 2012
Categories: Sports, Washington State . Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Author: Michael Schuett . Comments: 4 Comments

Seahawks Should Make the Playoffs

English: Picture of the 12th Man Flag at Centu...

 

We’re half way through the 2012 NFL season and my pre-season prediction for my Seattle Seahawks to finish 9-7 is looking pretty safe in spite of their middling 4-4 record and two game losing streak. In fact I’m willing to bump my prediction to 10-6 and possibly 11-5.

 

When I wrote The Seahawks WILL Win before the season’s first game I was still pretty pissed that Coach Pete Carroll had decided to start rookie Russell Wilson ahead of free agent acquisition Matt Flynn.  I’m still not sure Flynn wouldn’t have done better (who is?); but at this point Wilson has shown improvement and is a huge leap ahead compared to Tavaris Jackson one year ago. If he continues to improve he could be something pretty special by the end of the year; and Seattle’s offense could be considerably more formidable than it is now. If Seattle hopes to make any noise in the playoffs the offense better improve. And the defense, which has been mostly good, has an annoying habit of not getting of the field soon enough. They have one of the worst 3rd down conversion percentages in the league. But hey, Seattle’s defense has faced Dallas, Green Bay, Detroit, New England and arrives at the halfway point fifth in the league in yards allowed and sixth in points allowed. And they’ve done it with five road games out of eight.

 

All in all their record is pretty much what I expected. They had losses I thought would be wins- Arizona, St. Louis; and wins I thought would be losses- Green Bay, New England.

 

Going forward the Hawks have five home games and a history under Carroll of playing best in the second half of the season.

 

I count four of the five home games as locks 4-3 Minnesota, 3-5 New York Jets, 4-4 Arizona, and 3-5 St Louis. Toss-up games would be the December 23rd home game with 6-2 San Francisco and road games at 4-3 Miami and 3-4 Buffalo. The only automatic loss I put on the Seahawks record is their December 2 game on the road against a 6-1 Chicago team that extremely potent in the last two years whenever Jake Cutler plays. And right now he’s playing.

 

So by my reckoning the worst Hawk fans can expect is a one game improvement over the past two years to 8-8, which won’t get them to the playoffs.

 

The best the team can expect is 11-5 which would almost definitely get them to the playoffs. I think its more likely to expect them to drop one of those toss-up games and finish 10-6.  Currently six NFC teams have winning records and I suspect Minnesota is a paper lion and will be proven so this Sunday at CenturyLink Field. Aside from the current division leaders in the NFC East, South and West we need not worry about the rest. Seattle will be battling for a wild card spot at the end of the season with Detroit, who just narrowly beat them; and with Green Bay who Seattle narrowly beat thanks to a controversial touchdown call on the last play of the game. How ironic. I see two losses left on the Packers schedule so in all likelihood they’ll have the first wildcard. The Lions have a touch remaining schedule that will probably not see them finish any better than 9-7.

 

Seattle’s running game is so good, even if Marshawn Lynch were to be injured Robert Turbin and Leon Washingtonhave shown themselves to be adequate.

 

English: Red Bryant, a player on the Seattle S...

Red Bryant, Seahawk Defensive End

 

The defense at times has been amazing. And since they seem intent on correcting a really bad trend in allowing a nearly 40% 3rd down conversion rate for their opponents, and the fact that their remaining opponent don’t come close in terms of offensive fire power as their early season opponents; we can expect something pretty special by the end of the season.

 

The Seahawks have been in every game they’ve played. They literally could be undefeated. They could also be 2-6. I intend to enjoy what comes, and enjoy the playoffs. After all…no matter what…its not 2008.

 

Thanks for visiting. Comments are welcome.

 

Related articles

 

 

November 1, 2012
Categories: Sports, Washington State . Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , . Author: Michael Schuett . Comments: Comments Off on Seahawks Should Make the Playoffs

You Are Not Special Graduates

As a society we’ve come to adore accolades more than achievement. If you are like me and have campaigned against each member of the soccer team getting a trophy at the end of the season this commencement speech will appeal to you.

If on the other hand you think constant positive reinforcement with no discipline is the way to raise kids…this message will seem foreign to you.

Thanks for visiting. Comments are welcome.

Related articles

June 11, 2012
Categories: Uncategorized . Tags: , , , , , , , . Author: Michael Schuett . Comments: 4 Comments

Stern’s trade veto about owners wanting their power back | ProBasketballTalk

David Stern is a prick. The veto of the Chris Paul trade to L.A. hurts all involved. Why do I care? Because the Hornets are not going to stay in New Orleans. Despite Stern’s continued efforts…basketball doesn’t work there. It has failed twice (I’m counting this current version of NBA hoops along with the Jazz). If the Hornets move….easily the most attractive city to move to that doesn’t currently have an NBA franchise…Seattle. In other words watch what Stern and the NBA does with the make-up of the Hornets this year. They could be the Sonics next year.

Stern’s trade veto about owners wanting their power back | ProBasketballTalk.

Thanks for visiting. Comments are welcome.

Related articles

December 9, 2011
Categories: Sports . Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Author: Michael Schuett . Comments: Comments Off on Stern’s trade veto about owners wanting their power back | ProBasketballTalk

BCS Championship should include ONLY Champions!

Block LSU logo, a primary trademark of Louisia...

Image via Wikipedia

Since writing and posting this blog my worst fears came to pass and Alabama, a team that couldn’t even win its own conference division nor play in its own conference title game let alone win it, will play for the national title tomorrow against LSU. Fellow 1-loss teams Oregon, and Oklahoma State won THEIR conference and proved in their bowls against quality competition to have been more deserving than the Crimson Tide. 

The college football season is winding down and my frustration is winding up. I can’t stand the idea of a team that fails to win its league championship, or even play in its league championship game, playing for a national title. It completely blows away the concept of what a championship is supposed to represent. Shame on the NCAA. Shame on the BCS. Shame on the media and for the American public for being so willing to accept it.

With just this weekend’s games remaining before the bowl season match-ups and the 2012 BCS Championship game

Took this Picture on the USC campus in Heritag...

Image via Wikipedia

opponents are announced it seems abundantly clear that we will all be watching a rematch featuring the Number one ranked Louisiana State Tigers and Number 2 ranked Alabama Crimson Tide. The Tide doesn’t play this weekend. They share the same division as LSU. LSU’s 9-6 overtime victory in Tuscaloosa November 5th gave the Bayou Bengals the divisions lone spot in the Southeastern Conference Championship game against 10-2 Georgia. If you believe what is being said and written across the country, LSU doesn’t even need to win to be picked for the National Championship game. Were that to happen you would have two teams from the same league playing for the National Title despite neither having even won their own league’s championship. Hello! Either way its likely one (Bama) will participate having not proved worthy.

It’s happened before. The first time was January 2002 when Nebraska played Miami in the Rose Bowl for the “mythical” National Championship despite the fact that Colorado was the winner of the Big 12 League crown over the Texas Longhorns. Big Red didn’t even play in it’s league’s championship. They played for the title. I was absolutely sideways. Fortunately the Hurricanes put a serious whooping on Nebraska sparing us the indignity of crowning a fake champion.

Should Alabama land the BCS birth this year other worthy league champions who will be denied could include Oklahoma State of the Big 12, Oregon of the Pac 12, Boise State of the Mountain West, Houston of Conference USA, Virginia Tech of the Atlantic Coast Conference, and Wisconsin or Michigan State of the Big 10. Additional regular season games or conference championship games remain to be played for most of the above mentioned teams at the time of this writing. But of those mentioned all have no more than 2 losses. Houston is undefeated.

If the NCAA’s argument is that Alabama and LSU represent the two best teams in the country based on the results of this season. I would ask two questions: How do they know? and Are you saying the championship game in all sports always represents the two best teams? Because they frequently don’t. Were the 10-6 New York Giants the best team in the NFL in 2008 when they beat the undefeated New England Patriots? No. They were just better that day. Was Villanova the best when they beat the Patrick Ewing led Georgetown Hoyas for the NCAA Men’s hoops title in 1985? Absolutely not. But for that one game they shot an astounding record 90% from the field and beat one of the best teams in NCAA history.

Until the NCAA finally gives us the football playoffs we all crave all National Champions will be only a matter of opinion rather than being decided on the field of competition like every other NCAA crown. And if its going to be just opinion it should include a minimum requirement that the participants be the champions of their respective leagues. Doing so would make the regular season much more significant, and it would make each league championship significantly more valuable. And it would embrace that All-American value of fairness. After all its all just opinion.

Thanks for visiting. Comments are welcome.

Related articles

November 28, 2011
Categories: Sports . Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Author: Michael Schuett . Comments: 1 Comment

« Previous Page — Previous page Next page — Next Page »

  • Calendar

    • January 2026
      M T W T F S S
       1234
      567891011
      12131415161718
      19202122232425
      262728293031  

  • Search