13-3 - 10-6

[toffee]

Just when I was warming up to 13-2 or 12-4, Fant and Ifedi pulled me back to 10-6 or 9-5, sigh.

 

[Seymour]

Can someone remind me what Vegas has us at for an over-under win-total prop? I'm thinking 11 or 12......

Looks like 10.5

Seattle Seahawks

Our SportsLine projection: 10.1

Vegas line: 10.5

Outlook: Again, double-digit wins is just tough. The Seahawks are expected to be a good football team and should once again have a good defense, especially if Richard Sherman moves past the offseason drama and Earl Thomas is healthy again. The running game could surprise with Eddie Lacy and Thomas Rawls and Russell Wilson's diet has made him even more mobile. Seattle projects as a top-tier NFC team, but 10.5 is a lot of wins.
Credit: Getty Images

 

[Jerhawk]

10-6 is a realistic benchmark for this team given the talent on the roster (health depending)

 

[SoulfishHawk]

I love reading the doom and gloom predictions, only to see them wrong at the end of the year.

11-5 and a return trip to the SuperbOwl with that Pats.

 

[ivotuk]

The nice thing about this team, unlike other teams that win a lot of games due to an easy schedule, this team won't be overwhelmed by the playoffs.

 

[Siouxhawk]

Can someone remind me what Vegas has us at for an over-under win-total prop? I'm thinking 11 or 12......

Looks like 10.5

Seattle Seahawks

Our SportsLine projection: 10.1

Vegas line: 10.5

Outlook: Again, double-digit wins is just tough. The Seahawks are expected to be a good football team and should once again have a good defense, especially if Richard Sherman moves past the offseason drama and Earl Thomas is healthy again. The running game could surprise with Eddie Lacy and Thomas Rawls and Russell Wilson's diet has made him even more mobile. Seattle projects as a top-tier NFC team, but 10.5 is a lot of wins.
Credit: Getty Images

Thanks Seymour. Still going with the over.

 

[Hasselbeck]

The nice thing about this team, unlike other teams that win a lot of games due to an easy schedule, this team won't be overwhelmed by the playoffs.

Being battle tested only gets you so far though. This team has the best home field advantage in the league. They have to stop punting these winnable road games if they want to make it back to the Super Bowl.

All 3 times they secured the 1 seed, they made it to the Super Bowl. This team has never won a divisional road playoff game since moving to the NFC.

The "overwhelmed by the playoffs" angle is overblown IMO.

 

[pittpnthrs]

10-6

I dont think the Oline is going to be much better than last year.

 

[RussB]

I dont know what to expect. This is kind of the make or break season, two lackluster seasons and playoff exits in a row. Its do or die time for them.

 

[RussB]

All depends on the o line once again. If they are the same terrible group they have been the last 2 years, then i expect another 10 win season just because the defense picks up the slack. If they are better, then the #1 seed is possible.

 

[RussB]

The nice thing about this team, unlike other teams that win a lot of games due to an easy schedule, this team won't be overwhelmed by the playoffs.

Being battle tested only gets you so far though. This team has the best home field advantage in the league. They have to stop punting these winnable road games if they want to make it back to the Super Bowl.

All 3 times they secured the 1 seed, they made it to the Super Bowl. This team has never won a divisional road playoff game since moving to the NFC.

The "overwhelmed by the playoffs" angle is overblown IMO.

This . It became evident to me after last season ended. That this team is only making another superbowl if they have a bye week and home feild. Thats what it takes. The home feild in the playoffs is a huge advantage and ESPECIALLY the bye week.

BYE WEEK IS A MUST

 

[Davidess]

I hate to be THAT guy but im going to because well that's me but technically if "everything" goes our way, wouldn't we be 16-0? I mean right?

 

[Attyla the Hawk]

The nice thing about this team, unlike other teams that win a lot of games due to an easy schedule, this team won't be overwhelmed by the playoffs.

Being battle tested only gets you so far though. This team has the best home field advantage in the league. They have to stop punting these winnable road games if they want to make it back to the Super Bowl.

All 3 times they secured the 1 seed, they made it to the Super Bowl. This team has never won a divisional road playoff game since moving to the NFC.

The "overwhelmed by the playoffs" angle is overblown IMO.

Couple things.

I don't necessarily subscribe to the theory of being overwhelmed by the playoffs. However I do think that Pete is absolutely one of the best coaches in my recent memory at measuring the heartbeat of his team and getting them ready to perform at their peak in the toughest games. This goes for playoffs as well as regular season. Year in and year out he gets high level performances in games that look like a probable loss on paper.

I don't think it has much to do with being battle tested, so much as it's a reflection on Pete's method. Pete has a way of getting his teams to play fast and loose and to really compete for all 60 minutes. Other than the Atlanta loss, where we just simply ran into a great team at a point where we were too depleted on talent -- Seattle has been in a position to win every playoff game we've fell short. Even at Carolina spotting the eventual conference champion 31 points.

It became evident to me after last season ended. That this team is only making another superbowl if they have a bye week and home feild. Thats what it takes. The home feild in the playoffs is a huge advantage and ESPECIALLY the bye week.

BYE WEEK IS A MUST

I don't really agree on this. What I do think is most important is that the team is playing it's best football as it heads into the postseason and that they are continue to have good health in the December/January run. The seed itself doesn't matter so much.

Seattle would not have beaten Atlanta in Seattle last year without Earl Thomas. That defense dropped from top 3 in the league to basically league average with that single loss. The only things I took away from last season is that you can't suffer significant injuries to your best three players (Wilson, Thomas, Bennett) and expect success at the highest level. And that last year's run in retrospect was possibly Pete's best job of coaching since he arrived here. To have suffered those losses and been in contention for a first round bye up until the final week of the season was simply masterful. Last season was not a failure in my estimation one bit.

I absolutely agree with Pete's approach to the season: Grow your young talent early even if it means losing ground in the seed chase. The team is going to need them at the end. Position your team to peak at the end of the season. Don't really focus on the seeding race.

 

[Seymour]

HFA. a bye, and team health become secondary issues when you have the league's worst oline. That was the real reason we did not have a chance at trophy last year. The other issues just made matters worse, but even if they don't happen, you are not going to win it all with the worst oline in the NFL....EVER.

That oline and lack of running game is also partly responsible for the collapse of the D, the skittish feet of our QB, and his injury as well.

Like it or not, the oline pulling it's own weight will decide how far this team can go. Sure, other things need to fall in place as well, but dragging an anchor around is not a winning formula.

 

[sdog1981]

HFA. a bye, and team health become secondary issues when you have the league's worst oline. That was the real reason we did not have a chance at trophy last year. The other issues just made matters worse, but even if they don't happen, you are not going to win it all with the worst oline in the NFL....EVER.

We have beat the Oline story line into the ground and believe me as a founding member of the fire Cable fan club I belive this team is still loaded with talent. Even with the Oline last season this team is one missed FG away from going 11-5 and being the two seed in the NFC Playoffs, hosting the Packers in the NFC title game.

 

[Seymour]

HFA. a bye, and team health become secondary issues when you have the league's worst oline. That was the real reason we did not have a chance at trophy last year. The other issues just made matters worse, but even if they don't happen, you are not going to win it all with the worst oline in the NFL....EVER.

We have beat the Oline story line into the ground and believe me as a founding member of the fire Cable fan club I belive this team is still loaded with talent. Even with the Oline last season this team is one missed FG away from going 11-5 and being the two seed in the NFC Playoffs, hosting the Packers in the NFC title game.

I hear you. And anything "can" happen as we proved by beating both SB teams last year in the reg. season. I'm just putting out the reminder of what IMO (and many others) needs to happen to win it all that looks to be getting skipped over.

 

[MontanaHawk05]

10-6 is a successful season. I'm not participating in the popular feeling that anything short of a Super Bowl win is a failure. Were that true, Belichick's Patriots were failures from 2004-2013, and nobody really thinks that. Everyone knew they were a force to be respected every year.

 

[Crizilla]

I think we lose opening game in GB so I don't think it's a 13-3 season. I'll go with 11-5, division winner, hopefully a first round bye

 

[raisethe3]

11-5 seems more realistic. But I'll be really happy if we do end up 13-3 or 12-4.

 

[adeltaY]

10-6 is a successful season. I'm not participating in the popular feeling that anything short of a Super Bowl win is a failure. Were that true, Belichick's Patriots were failures from 2004-2013, and nobody really thinks that. Everyone knew they were a force to be respected every year.

They made five AFC championship games and won two of those to appear in two SBs in that ten year span. Huge difference between that and getting assblasted in the divisional round two years in a row.