With Harvin=Super Bowl w/o Harvin=Whammy

[Hawks46]

Well the one good thing about his concussion is that it limited his snap count.

As long as his hip feels good, I'm guessing he plays next week.

The game looks to be a tight one, so one big reception or kick off return could put us over the top.

 

[themunn]

CAR has a monster defense, and San Fran played them on the road. SF didn't tear them up, but they did look like an offense capable of generating 1 or 2 sustained drives. That's all I'm asking, just look as if you might be capable of more than a 3 and out.

The good news for us is that our defense is significantly superior to Carolina's, our offense is significantly better than Carolina's and our special teams are significantly better than Carolina's.

In addition New Orleans defense is slightly better than San Francisco's and their offense is significantly better than San Francisco's

 

[seahawk12thman]

I think we need Crabtree more than you need Harvin for this game due to the strength of your secondary. We absolutely need three legit pass catchers on the field to do anything against your pass defence. Kaepernick doesn't throw well when he isn't comfortable. And he isn't comfortable when his top guys aren't there. He is still a young QB after all.

Also, your run game is so strong that we can't go to the 2-4-5 formation we use against teams that don't run as well. So we are in a lot more 3-4 instead of the nickel (which is REALLY our base D) and that makes it easier for you to pass. Our secondary is good (especially the safeties) but it isn't elite. They've struggled against Tate, Baldwin and Kearse and even your tight ends in large part due to the emphasis on stopping Lynch. Which brings me back to my original point that containing Beast Mode is a key to us having a shot at a win.

You can bring 9 up in the box against us, double tate and go one on one with the rest and stop us. The Cardinals used the same strategy and had success. The Seahawks were using Kearse but because of injury he has disappeared. In the Saints game, the Hawks punted ONCE in the first half and that drive was killed by a Breno Giacomini Penalty negating a huge run in which we would have scored once again. Second half possessions WITHOUT HARVIN: PUNT, PUNT, PUNT, PUNT, PUNT, PUNT, Touchdown.

Your secondary is average at best, but your linebackers (Brooks, Willis, Bowman, Whitner) are fantastic but when the Hawks are running the ball they have to play that first and with Harvin and Tate on each side of the field, that opens all kinds of opportunities in the passing game. The Niners are effective when they crowd the line but when you force them to play in space, there are yards to be had.

 

[tdlabrie]

Viking fan here:

It doesn't seem like your team has been using Baldwin as much lately. It seems like your offense was rolling good when Wilson was using him more. He seems very reliable, especially on those deep balls.

Agree totally. As others have said, you can't really tell if Baldwin is not getting open or Russ isn't finding him, or what. What I know for sure, though, is that putting Harvin on the field, even if he's never a target, will help Baldwin, Tate and Miller immeasurably because the Whiners will have to respect Harvin by committing resources.

 

[ceej22]

For all those who just blindly assume Seahawks offense is superior to 49ers and there's no way our offense could cause us to lose...

Here are the total offensive yards for both teams over the last 4 games for Seahawks and 49ers in order of most recent:

Seahawks:

277-269-192-327 = Average 266.25 yards/game

49ers:

381-315-375-379 = Average 362.5 yards/game

So the 49ers are averaging about 100 yards more per game than us recently on offense...

That also includes 3 home games for Hawks and 3 away games for 49ers!

I don't want to go into defensive stats but their offense is clearly doing much better than us and our concerns of our lack of offensive production are realistic and legit.

Well we might as well hand them the NFC title and stay home then. Glad we didn't look at Brees' 5,000+ yards and just throw in the towel.

 

[FrozenHell]

This team is 14-3 this season, all essentially without Harvin. And now we can't win a game at home without him? Give me a break with that.

I think Harvin, since he hasn't really been in much, could actually hurt your offense if they try to lean on him too much. He's better when there is 2 or 3 designed splash plays installed for him. Next year would be better to try and make him a feature player, now it's more of a distraction. Like in fantasy football, go with what got ya here.

I don't agree with this either. If healthy I find it hard to believe how adding one of the top 5-10 playmakers in the NFL could be a bad thing. The offense was clearly more dynamic with him in there. I just don't believe that this team cannot win without him, because they've already shown they can do so all season long.

I am from Minnesota, and saw Harvin for his first 4 years. He is not a top 10 NFL playmaker, I don't understand where people get that from. He was a fantastic returner, and a decent WR. Most of his success came off short passes and pure volume. Sure he got some TDs off runs in the backfield as well. But playmaker to me means big play, take a short pass and house it. Now I'm not saying he's garbage, just his attitude but thats for another discussion. He is a guy that can help a team win, but not this dynamic playmaker that is a must for you guys to win. Adding a guy, any guy to the mix this late, that can do more hurt than good. A few plays would be fine to try and catch a team sleeping, but the hiearchy of your offense is pretty much set at this point, you don't want to disrupt that.

 

[hawk45]

CAR has a monster defense, and San Fran played them on the road. SF didn't tear them up, but they did look like an offense capable of generating 1 or 2 sustained drives. That's all I'm asking, just look as if you might be capable of more than a 3 and out.

The good news for us is that our defense is significantly superior to Carolina's, our offense is significantly better than Carolina's and our special teams are significantly better than Carolina's.

In addition New Orleans defense is slightly better than San Francisco's and their offense is significantly better than San Francisco's

Our secondary is significantly better than Carolina's (and everyone else's). Our front 7 is not better than Carolina's or San Fran's.

Our offense is marginally better than Carolina's. Marginally.

The NO offense traveled poorly all year long so that point holds no water.

 

[mikeak]

Guys don't forget that 49ers just travelled cross-country. Didn't play until Sunday, came home late Sunday night and now needs to spend another day getting to an airport, travelling up here etc. Might be a quick flight but travelling takes time and puts stress on big bodies

The schedule is helping Seattle out for the upcoming game

Not for the superbowl but for Sunday's game

 

[Sgt. Largent]

As long as his hip feels good, I'm guessing he plays next week.

There's no chance in hell Harvin feels good after the beating he took Saturday. Concussion, arm in a sling, dude's hurtin'.

I hope he makes it back Sunday, cause lord knows we could use him, but at this point it's business as usual.................not counting on Harvin once again.

 

[jdemps]

I don't think anyone on here doubts that we can win w/o Harvin, but I would feel a LOT better about this week if he plays. The first half vs. second half drive charts are telling of the "Harvin effect". He forces defenses to account for his speed. So defenses have to account for the beast, harvin, the read option, not to mention that Baldwin, Tate, and Miller are better than people give them credit for. Can't put 8 in the box if you're going to double Harvin or have someone spy RW. Having him on the field takes our offense to another level. You all saw it on Lynch's second quarter TD run.

All that being said, we've got a damn good chance to win this one without Harvin. We caught a couple of bad breaks last week with fluke plays, RW being off target on a couple throws, and dropped interceptions that are uncharacteristic of this team.

The sky isn't falling.

The ball will start bouncing our way.

This one won't be as close as the talking heads think.