robbieruff
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As all of us saw, our Boys recently supplanted the Pats as the #1 team in the so-called "NFL Power Rankings"...Seattle jumped to #2 with their victory over New England, pushing the Pats down to #3.
As a quick aside, while I would prefer us to remain in an underdog role/mentality, I think this young team maintains its edge and stays humble despite the increased recognition and accolades. I think our culture this year can withstand it and avoid any temptations of complacency...hope that's proved out in a major way against the Ravens this Sunday.
Which brings me to my main points...about the two other top teams and their apparent glaring weaknesses.
Starting with the Patriots - believe it or not, their pass rush seems even worse than ours. I began to notice this in a big way in their game against the Seahawks (hadn't paid close attention to it previously TBH). While it's definitely hard to sustain pressure against the shifty Russell Wilson, the Pats looked downright pitiful in that game...and their 16 total sacks so far even trail behind us with the same number of games played! Seattle certainly isn't known for any sort of stoutness in their Oline so this doesn't bode well for them against us at all. Everyone, including myself, has lamented facing Brady in the SB with no consistent pass rush but I gotta think New England needs to worry even more going against us!?! If we can gash them with the run AND give Dak all day to survey his targets, it could be pretty ugly.
And that brings me to Seattle - bad news for us is they get Rawls back this week, which should make them more balanced and thus more dangerous offensively. Couple him with the emergence of Prosise as a dual threat (esp. receiver) and they may become a big challenge to slow down. BUT...there is the reality of that Oline...even though our pass rush is inconsistent, I think we can create problems for their lack of stoutness up front and consistently harass Wilson as well as limit their running game. In other words, I think their main offensive weakness supersedes our main weakness on the defensive side.
They seem like a two biggest hurdles to the promised land...what are some other perspectives on how we match up?
As a quick aside, while I would prefer us to remain in an underdog role/mentality, I think this young team maintains its edge and stays humble despite the increased recognition and accolades. I think our culture this year can withstand it and avoid any temptations of complacency...hope that's proved out in a major way against the Ravens this Sunday.
Which brings me to my main points...about the two other top teams and their apparent glaring weaknesses.
Starting with the Patriots - believe it or not, their pass rush seems even worse than ours. I began to notice this in a big way in their game against the Seahawks (hadn't paid close attention to it previously TBH). While it's definitely hard to sustain pressure against the shifty Russell Wilson, the Pats looked downright pitiful in that game...and their 16 total sacks so far even trail behind us with the same number of games played! Seattle certainly isn't known for any sort of stoutness in their Oline so this doesn't bode well for them against us at all. Everyone, including myself, has lamented facing Brady in the SB with no consistent pass rush but I gotta think New England needs to worry even more going against us!?! If we can gash them with the run AND give Dak all day to survey his targets, it could be pretty ugly.
And that brings me to Seattle - bad news for us is they get Rawls back this week, which should make them more balanced and thus more dangerous offensively. Couple him with the emergence of Prosise as a dual threat (esp. receiver) and they may become a big challenge to slow down. BUT...there is the reality of that Oline...even though our pass rush is inconsistent, I think we can create problems for their lack of stoutness up front and consistently harass Wilson as well as limit their running game. In other words, I think their main offensive weakness supersedes our main weakness on the defensive side.
They seem like a two biggest hurdles to the promised land...what are some other perspectives on how we match up?
