It's crystal clear that the NFL isn't going to help Seattle and the league has grown tired of Seattle winning at home, especially on a Sunday night.
The troubling thing about my complaints about how the NFL wants to even things out, is that it comes back to whether Seattle is playing well on offense or on defense.....neither of these items is debatable, but I also don't think Arizona's poor pass protection and leaving Seattle's DL unblocked is good offensive gameplanning on their part. So if Seattle doesn't have a dynamic passing game and Arizona decides that they cannot pass protect, these are weaknesses of the teams.
One team clearly benefitted and the NFL wants to ensure new teams make playoff runs and pushes into home field territory. At the end of the day, Arizona is an above average football team that cannot pass protect and has a limited running game and also has one good corner and safety. In the end, Arizona is not capable of winning of Super Bowl as they are currently built, despite the leagues' attempt to bring new blood into the mix.....especially with San Francisco not in contention, another NFL media preference.
I think the worse of the drive extending calls was the Wagner interference call on Brown who was running his route towards Wagner, which was almost against every principle of route running. I think you are supposed to avoid defenders and look back for the football to draw a PI penalty.....Brown did neither and Wagner obviously pushed him, but Brown was A) Not part of the play, B) never looked back at the QB for the ball and C) the pass went completely to the other side of the field. On 3rd and 10 and up 4....extends the drive and AZ (as a good team should, scored).
I think the ceiling of expectations is so high for Seattle that it's difficult to digest that our Seahawks should have any weaknesses OR should be good enough on both sides of the ball to beat 90% of the NFL. Right now, it's clear that if you penalize the defense, you can add opportunities to beat Seattle, who doesn't have 3 all Pro CB's, 2 safeties and 2 LB's out for 70 snaps a game. Right now it's playing well about 80% of the time, getting beaten 10% of the time and getting called for bogus penalties the other 10% of the time.
I think because Cary Williams isn't as good as the rest of the Seahawks defense standard, doesn't mean we should be uber critical and expect perfection each game. Arizona is capable of scoring on anyone, if they get pass protection.....but they have an average line, that held Seattle most of the night and got NO holding penalties called against them all night.
It was going to be a long night when Gilliam got called for a face mask on the 1st drive when he didn't touch anyone near the helmet.....Arizona is a one & done playoff team regardless of last nights results....if they want to thump their chests as Paper champions, let them have their day.....In the long run, they know they were giftwrapped a game...our fans on the other hand have to realize on a neutral referred game, Seattle is better, despite Cary Williams and anything else Seattle isn't doing well. right now.