Did we get lucky sometimes? Absolutely. Did the Seahawks also get very lucky? Absolutely? Sure you can list the Chargers game, or the Cowboys game or your PFF stats.. Why is it lucky for the Cardinals to play the Cowboys without Romo but not lucky for teams to play the Cardinals missing 32 million worth of salary that ended up on IR? The Seahawks were lucky to even be in the Super Bowl, and to even have the #1 seed. If the Packers didn't make a series of unforced mistakes you guys don't even get to play the Patriots. I can remember a lot of fumbles that happened to end up in the Seahawks favor last year and fumbles are truly one stat that will revert to the mean.
Numbers can always be manipulated right?
You say the team was exactly the same and ranked 23rd offensively with and without Palmer, but you leave out that we scored an Average of 26.42 PPG with Palmer and had one of the highest scoring offenses in the league and Palmer with a top 10 QBR. To the contrary and what you consider to be the same When Stanton came in we only averaged 17.22 PPG...... A huge difference. (Not to mention he came nowhere near top 10 in QBR) Why doesn't PFF explain the 9+ PPG differential?
The Cardinals with Palmer were a much better offense and you could tell when he was in as opposed to Stanton. I think its ridiculous to say it was the same offense with and without him.
Will our offense be better this year? More likely yes than no. Will our defense be better this year? Most likely not. Losing Bowles was tough, and losing Dan Williams was tough. However Powers was the #1 rated slot corner in the league last year I believe, and Peterson struggled with health issues last year when he got diagnosed with diabetes, that is now finally under control.
Will the Seahawks still be the #1 team in the division? I think its fair to say without a doubt. The Cardinals are 2nd best in the division however I think they may be able to give the Seahawks a little more trouble this year than last. Lets go back to when the Cardinals beat Seattle in Seattle... Daryl Washington... He is the reason we won. He is the LB that has the lateral speed to contain Wilson. He will be back after serving his year suspension for Marijuana use.
In saying all that maybe we don't have as much luck as we did last year... Maybe some of that can be made up for by fielding a better team this year, a healthier team. Who knows, every year is full of surprises. Teams that come out of nowhere and great teams that fail. But no team gets to play in a Super Bowl without quite a bit of luck. But as Arians said last year when we were winning despite our personql losses. When does it stop being luck? Perhaps luck is the residue of hard work. I think thats something Seahawks fans can relate to....