The 2005 Seattle Seahawks

[superpunk]

First four games of 2005:

@ Jacksonville - Loss - 24-16. The Seahawks turn the ball over 5 times, including 2 INTs and a fumble by Hasselbeck in the 4th quarter, in a game that really wasn't that close. If Jacksonville had been able to convert in the red zone, this would have been a true blowout.

Atlanta - Win - 21-18. The team nearly blew their 21-0 halftime lead in the final minutes - needed a huge defensive stand to hang on.

Arizona - Win - 37-12 - an absolute rout. Alexander rushes for four TDs. They beat a bad team, at home.

@ Washington - 20-17 (OT) loss. AFter going down 14-3, Seattle scores two second half TDs to tie it up at 17. Brown misses a big last second kick, and in OT, the Skins take it with a FG.

I'm sure all can see the relevancy. I know it's fun, and cliche, to say that contenders beat good teams on the road, but it's not realistic. Seattle didn't face another winning team on the road all season, and ran the table before resting their starters for GB. If you loko back at super bowl winners and runner ups for the past 5 years, you'll see many slow starts, and tough road losses. It happens. Good teams do lose those games, sometimes. The 03 Pats started 2-2, with 2 road losses. I'm sure you can find many more playoff teams that got off to similar starts.

Our schedule dealt us a tough hand to start the season. I don't know that many had us better than 2-2 pre-season. But, there are plenty of bright spots on this team. I don't think it necessitates blowing up and starting over yet.

Bottom line? It'd be nice to be 4-0. Our current state and condition of our losses, is allowing for plenty of pessimism and wailing about every possible axe that can be found for grinding. About the only person I haven't heard that needs replaced so far is Julius Jones, and he had to cook up about the best start for any RB in the league to be exempt from that.

2-2 isn't "go nuts" time. We've got at least one week before that has to kick in.

 

[HTownCowboysFan]

Good stuff there. To be frank, I didn't see us winning Sunday. After witnessing the Houston game in '02 and then seeing the Saints run the Falcons a few weeks ago, I felt this game was very similar.

Can't wait until Christmas!

First four games of 2005:

@ Jacksonville - Loss - 24-16. The Seahawks turn the ball over 5 times, including 2 INTs and a fumble by Hasselbeck in the 4th quarter, in a game that really wasn't that close. If Jacksonville had been able to convert in the red zone, this would have been a true blowout.

Atlanta - Win - 21-18. The team nearly blew their 21-0 halftime lead in the final minutes - needed a huge defensive stand to hang on.

Arizona - Win - 37-12 - an absolute rout. Alexander rushes for four TDs. They beat a bad team, at home.

@ Washington - 20-17 (OT) loss. AFter going down 14-3, Seattle scores two second half TDs to tie it up at 17. Brown misses a big last second kick, and in OT, the Skins take it with a FG.

I'm sure all can see the relevancy. I know it's fun, and cliche, to say that contenders beat good teams on the road, but it's not realistic. Seattle didn't face another winning team on the road all season, and ran the table before resting their starters for GB. If you loko back at super bowl winners and runner ups for the past 5 years, you'll see many slow starts, and tough road losses. It happens. Good teams do lose those games, sometimes. The 03 Pats started 2-2, with 2 road losses. I'm sure you can find many more playoff teams that got off to similar starts.

Our schedule dealt us a tough hand to start the season. I don't know that many had us better than 2-2 pre-season. But, there are plenty of bright spots on this team. I don't think it necessitates blowing up and starting over yet.

Bottom line? It'd be nice to be 4-0. Our current state and condition of our losses, is allowing for plenty of pessimism and wailing about every possible axe that can be found for grinding. About the only person I haven't heard that needs replaced so far is Julius Jones, and he had to cook up about the best start for any RB in the league to be exempt from that.

2-2 isn't "go nuts" time. We've got at least one week before that has to kick in.

 

[YosemiteSam]

I agree. Look at the Steelers last year. They played several good teams and lost and had a lot of problems, yet by the end of the year they were able to overcome them to win a superbowl. They even overcame Ben Roethlisberger as their QB to win.

As I said. I agree. All is not lost. Even with Bledsoe having trouble at QB.

 

[Secondary2None3141]

Unfortunately, our remaining schedule isn't paved with games against the 2005 Arizona Cardinals, St Louis Rams, or San Francisco 49'ers.

Also... we don't have Matt Hasslebeck as our QB. We have Drew Bledsoe.

Maybe you've heard of him. He likes to throw interceptions.

 

[Alexander]

First four games of 2005:

@ Jacksonville - Loss - 24-16. The Seahawks turn the ball over 5 times, including 2 INTs and a fumble by Hasselbeck in the 4th quarter, in a game that really wasn't that close. If Jacksonville had been able to convert in the red zone, this would have been a true blowout.

Atlanta - Win - 21-18. The team nearly blew their 21-0 halftime lead in the final minutes - needed a huge defensive stand to hang on.

Arizona - Win - 37-12 - an absolute rout. Alexander rushes for four TDs. They beat a bad team, at home.

@ Washington - 20-17 (OT) loss. AFter going down 14-3, Seattle scores two second half TDs to tie it up at 17. Brown misses a big last second kick, and in OT, the Skins take it with a FG.

I'm sure all can see the relevancy. I know it's fun, and cliche, to say that contenders beat good teams on the road, but it's not realistic. Seattle didn't face another winning team on the road all season, and ran the table before resting their starters for GB. If you loko back at super bowl winners and runner ups for the past 5 years, you'll see many slow starts, and tough road losses. It happens. Good teams do lose those games, sometimes. The 03 Pats started 2-2, with 2 road losses. I'm sure you can find many more playoff teams that got off to similar starts.

Our schedule dealt us a tough hand to start the season. I don't know that many had us better than 2-2 pre-season. But, there are plenty of bright spots on this team. I don't think it necessitates blowing up and starting over yet.

Bottom line? It'd be nice to be 4-0. Our current state and condition of our losses, is allowing for plenty of pessimism and wailing about every possible axe that can be found for grinding. About the only person I haven't heard that needs replaced so far is Julius Jones, and he had to cook up about the best start for any RB in the league to be exempt from that.

2-2 isn't "go nuts" time. We've got at least one week before that has to kick in.

The record isn't relevant.

We could be one and three and someone could go back in history and find a positive spin.

What is readily apparent is that we have some flaws that we knew about that are worse than expected (Bledsoe) and others which aren't ready as we anticipated (the defense).

At any rate, we don't have the benefit of playing in a week NFC West, nor do we enjoy a significant homefield advantage. Both of those contributed to their success.

 

[cc cowboy]

Another key for us is that we are (to this point) injury free. Combine this with our depth and one can still have hope. If we can fix the mental errors on the o line, we might just be able to do something.

cc

 

[Alexander]

They even overcame Ben Roethlisberger as their QB to win.

That same Roethlisberger that was nearly perfect in the playoffs?

 

[Yakuza Rich]

I agree that it's not freak out time. In fact, I believe this is a playoff type ball club.

Problem is that if/once we get in the playoffs, a good team is going to force Bledsoe to beat them and it appears if he gets banged around early or plays in adverse weather conditions, we'll need a magnificent performance from the defense and the running game to win. And even still, we have to worry about Bledsoe inexplicably turning the ball over.


YAKUZA

 

[superpunk]

Unfortunately, our remaining schedule isn't paved with games against the 2005 Arizona Cardinals, St Louis Rams, or San Francisco 49'ers.

Also... we don't have Matt Hasslebeck as our QB. We have Drew Bledsoe.

Maybe you've heard of him. He likes to throw interceptions.

You're right, that's a big dropoff. Our road is paved with more home games, though. We need to take the road games we are expected to, maybe steal a few we're not expected to, and hold our own at home. That's really what good teams do, and we're still fully capable of that. I don't believe that Bledsoe will continue his thus far putrid play - I've got no reason to. Maybe he's finally completely jupmed the shark, but I'm not sold on that yet.

 

[peplaw06]

That same Roethlisberger that was nearly perfect in the playoffs?

Are you including the Super Bowl in that comment?

 

[superpunk]

The record isn't relevant.

We could be one and three and someone could go back in history and find a positive spin.

What is readily apparent is that we have some flaws that we knew about that are worse than expected (Bledsoe) and others which aren't ready as we anticipated (the defense).

At any rate, we don't have the benefit of playing in a week NFC West, nor do we enjoy a significant homefield advantage. Both of those contributed to their success.

No doubt - the record isn't all that important. The fact that we are making mistakes, turning the ball over, and not taking advantages of opportunities when they're there, is relevant. Just a few adjustments and some better play from Bledsoe and the results over the first 4 are very different. Hopefully, we can make that happen.