To the doomers and the optimists:

[Uncle Si]

We will be prepared.

This is where you lose a bit of credibility Sioux. We just have not been consistently prepared to win games over the last 3 years. The roller coaster of the last 3 weeks is a perfect example. Really, this whole season has been. No need to protect the staff.

The team seems to have multiple personalities and game plans that fluctuate to whatever mood the coaching staff is in. They have been down, sometimes big, in multiple games this year. Yes, they have come back to win some. Yes, they have come back to make some close losses. But that does not signal "preparedness"

The players seem willing and capable. Not sure the staff is on their level at the moment. Emotions are high. It could go either way from here out.

I hope for the best, waiting for the worst.

 

[Sox-n-Hawks]

We will be prepared.

This is where you lose a bit of credibility Sioux. We just have not been consistently prepared to win games over the last 3 years. The roller coaster of the last 3 weeks is a perfect example. Really, this whole season has been. No need to protect the staff.

The team seems to have multiple personalities and game plans that fluctuate to whatever mood the coaching staff is in. They have been down, sometimes big, in multiple games this year. Yes, they have come back to win some. Yes, they have come back to make some close losses. But that does not signal "preparedness"

The players seem willing and capable. Not sure the staff is on their level at the moment. Emotions are high. It could go either way from here out.

I hope for the best, waiting for the worst.

I don't know about all that.... What I'm hoping for is Lacy moving to FB if nothing else, to hit Donald as hard has humanly possible over, and over and over.

 

[Hawker8989]

Fact: This team is a Walsh FG away from one...I repeat one....playoff win ( over the Lions lol) in three plus seasons. That's simple inexcusable. Paul Allen is likely getting a little annoyed....

 

[Missing_Clink]

This here’s Seahawk country and eef yew don’t like it yew can GET OUT

 

[Popeyejones]

Fact: This team has been slowly trending downward overall since we lost the Super Bowl to the Patriots. This has been visible the whole time if you care to accurately evaluate the product you see on the field.

Question about this "Fact": If they've been trending down since the SB loss, why isn't it showing up in their record?

Since then they've gone 10-6, 11-5-1, and are on pace to probably go 10-6 or 11-5 again.

They're below the highs of those SB years (which is true for practically EVERY Super Bowl team), but they seem to be holding much more steady than most, rather than trending down (as most teams do after SB runs).

 

[MontanaHawk05]

Everything in OP is an opinion.

 

[Sign37now]

And he's full of beans for putting a bow on this season already. I still think we'll be the 3 or 4 seed in the playoffs and taking down the Vikings or Eagles on the road doesn't really worry me much. We will be prepared.

You Sir are out of your mind. IF we make the playoffs we are one and done at best. No way this team, in it's current state, goes on the road in the playoffs and wins.. Not gonna happen. Too many really good teams in the NFC this year..

 

[SoulfishHawk]

To each his/her own. They are playing for the Division lead on Sunday. Far from over, but they likely need to run the table. The injuries are catching up for sure. But, this crap isn't over by any stretch.
I choose to believe, but even I know the injuries are really starting to make a huge difference.

 

[AgentDib]

I tend to mostly agree with the "doom and gloom" crowd. The Seahawks window of always winning games in which they are favored is definitely closed. So is the window of being 50% more talented than the team across from them, and the window of easily getting a playoff bye.

Where I disagree is that I am more pessimistic about the ability to sustain NFL success in the first place. Those windows never existed in the first place, or in the case of the talent gap they only existed for a very short period of time and only against teams that didn't have their own rookie talent. The posters that view an 8-5 record with as many injuries as we have as a huge train wreck are actually the insanely optimistic ones. They believe in fantasies about the better team always winning and destiny leading teams to Super Bowls.

The cold hard reality is that there is no such thing as destiny, most teams have a similar level of talent due to the salary cap, any team that makes the playoffs can win the championship, and key injuries or the lack thereof is the most important story line in every NFL season. The 2013 Seahawks were really good but if you replay that season 100 times we probably win it 20 times at most. The reason why it seems like there's new NFC teams we are contending with every year is because parity and injuries provide a field of misery and despair that sinks good teams left and right.

 

[SoulfishHawk]

They are not going to rebuild, they will reload. Even if Sherm is the only one coming back, and Kam and Avril both retire, they still have Sherm/Shaq/Earl and hopefully they resign McDougald. That's a pretty damn good secondary.

 

[themunn]

I had more fun watching the Seahawks in Pete Carroll's second season here where we still went 7-9 and missed the playoffs, but the overall improvement in the product on the field was palpable and exciting, and we just KNEW things were only getting better.

When you die and go to heaven, your reward will be to watch repeats of Seahawks 2011 games. Specifically getting shut out by the Steelers and losing 3-6 to the Browns.

That season had some real fun games in it, but some real stinkers that are as bad as any Seahawks game I can EVER remember.

This year's game against the Texans might be one of the most entertaining games of football I ever seen, and even in the losses to the Titans, Falcons and Jaguars, I have seen such amazing 4th quarter heroics from the team this year - from both the defense and Wilson - that I've been able to believe that we could win every single game we've been in. That's not borne out of optimism, it's borne out of the same factors that saw a team that was 27-10 down with less than a quarter to go throw it's two longest TD passes of the year, then pull out a three and out at a crucial time to give us the ball back with 2m30 left,two timeouts and an opportunity to drive down the field and score to take the lead.

Were you really watching the game at that point thinking "there's no way we're going to score here", after watching us do exactly that twice already in the quarter and countless times during the season? Fact is that we've had the ball in the 4th quarter with an opportunity to win or tie it in every single loss so far this season. Can any other team say that? The Vikings, Eagles and Patriots certainly can't.

How is that not fun to watch?

 

[Uncle Si]

Fact: This team has been slowly trending downward overall since we lost the Super Bowl to the Patriots. This has been visible the whole time if you care to accurately evaluate the product you see on the field.

Question about this "Fact": If they've been trending down since the SB loss, why isn't it showing up in their record?

Since then they've gone 10-6, 11-5-1, and are on pace to probably go 10-6 or 11-5 again.

They're below the highs of those SB years (which is true for practically EVERY Super Bowl team), but they seem to be holding much more steady than most, rather than trending down (as most teams do after SB runs).

Is that not "trending down" from 13-3 and 12-4? Perhaps its folly to expect that level of play to be maintained. But the OP is not off in his assertions. There is also an inference to "level of play" not specific to record. Someone else would have to look that up (D seemed to be maintaining an elite level)

How you process the "decline" is up to the independent fan.

 

[Sgt Largent]

I had more fun watching the Seahawks in Pete Carroll's second season here where we still went 7-9 and missed the playoffs, but the overall improvement in the product on the field was palpable and exciting, and we just KNEW things were only getting better.

... Fact is that we've had the ball in the 4th quarter with an opportunity to win or tie it in every single loss so far this season. Can any other team say that? The Vikings, Eagles and Patriots certainly can't.

How is that not fun to watch?

So, what your saying is, we are 5 time losers. Why are we still watching this catastrophe?! :3-1: :snack:

 

[SoulfishHawk]

Exactly, we clearly should just pack it up and go home :lol:

 

[johnnyfever]

It's not black and white. Just because some of us look at specifics to identify the root causes for losses doesn't mean we think it's time to "pack it up and go home". I personally just hate seeing a ton of talent wasted. I have had more fun watching Russ straight up will wins than any other QB in Seahawks history. Dude is pretty damn clutch. Baldwin comes up with some catches in pivotal comebacks that get me dancing in my living room.

Then you have the mind boggling run playcalls like 3rd and 10, give Lacy the ball to run straight into a wall of defenders stuff. Just because some of us point out our weaknesses doesn't me we are throwing in the towel. When you need 4 yards for a first down in the 4th, don't get cute and send three receivers on deep field speed routes for jump balls.

Frustration does not equal surrender.

 

[Shanegotyou11]

Window for this core of players is shut. Its OK to admit that. It doesn't mean wr can't reload around Russ and earl.

 

[SoulfishHawk]

And there is no proof that they will somehow become a crap team in the near future. They will be able to keep this rolling for awhile.

 

[scutterhawk]

Good points across the board, Roland.

The problem is there is no fixing it because Pete's belief system is about loyalty.

As the Patriots have proved for the last 20 years... the ONLY player you can be loyal to is the Franchise Quarterback. If you're loyal to anyone else you will end up with old injury prone players at an inflated salary, coaches that were hot at one time, but are now burned out and can't function at the top end of the game, and you find yourself in perpetual limbo where you are barely good enough to make the playoffs every year - and then get washed out by the "hot teams" that you have no chance of competing with... like, as someone mentioned above, the Steelers, and also the Packers of the last 5 to 6 years.

Patriots took heavy heat for "disloyalty" -- think about those "elite" players they cut bait on right as they were starting to get a little long in the tooth -- Laywer Milloy, Curtis Martin, Troy Brown, Terry Glenn, Richard Seymore, Randy Moss, Vince Woolfork -- all of them had the carpet just yanked from them, and all of them were upset and complained about lack of loyalty.

That "lack of loyalty" may mean something for fan and player emotions, but emotions don't win championships -- good coaching, cap management, good talent evaluation, tons of draft picks, and ruthless, ballsy decision making win championships.

It resulted in 7 Superbowl appearances and 5 wins.

In a perfect world Pete's system would work. Unfortunately, it isn't a perfect world.

So wait, what?, you're saying that LOYALTY is a problem, and that Pete should have cut bait with a couple of injury riddled Legion Of Boomers BEFORE the second Super Bowl appearance?...Because it was in FACT, injuries to our Defense, and the LOB players in particular, that cost us the second Lombardi.
LOL, it sounds like deep down, you are a "LOYAL" Patriots fan.
I'm a fan of the man that got us our first Super Bowl, and in contention for the second.
As far as the OP, I don't need to be instructed on how to deal with MY fandom, I can make mistakes all by myself just fine. :smilingalien:

 

[jdemps]

Your post starts with an ad hominem attack on all other posters on this forum, states a list of opinions with "FACT" in front of them to try to add credence to your opinions, and finishes by saying that everyone who disagrees can take their opinion and "shove it where the sun don't shine." This kind of post is exactly what's wrong with discourse in this day and age. It's more about shouting down other peoples opinion and discrediting them because you're a better, smarter fan than they are. This is no longer a discussion, and, to be quite honest, this particular thread belongs in the shack so everyone can attack everyone else without the guise of calling it Seahawks related.

I think it's time for me to deactivate my account. Even people who used to be solid posters have reverted to kindergarten mudslinging and I don't have the time and energy to deal with this from fans of my own team. Go Hawks.

 

[SoulfishHawk]

hominem, that stuff is gross :lol:
Oh wait, is that Hominy?