With last night's 22-6 win over the execrable Oakland Raiders, another interminably long preseason has come to an end. Once again, the Seahawks finished an exhibition season undefeated. More importantly, the starters largely looked sharp and battle-ready, the back-ups were impressive enough to create some very difficult roster decisions for Pete Carroll, and the team survived four meaningless games without sustaining any season-altering injuries.
I won't pretend to have any informed opinion about who the Seahawks might cut by the 53-man roster deadline on Saturday. History has shown us that Coach Carroll typically makes one or two cuts that leave Twelves slack-jawed and salty, but it's hard to see how PC can go wrong this year. The bigger question for me is what can possibly derail this team?
To win a Super Bowl, you not only need talent but also a nice dollop of good fortune (like the 2012 Ravens). The Seahawks could very well be the best team in the NFL this season, but an unlucky bounce or two might prevent them from winning XLVIII. Thus, when I ask what can possibly derail this team, it's a matter of what could stop Seattle from being a serious championship contender. What could stop us from making a deep playoff run?
2013 isn't like 1985. The 1985 team's Super Bowl expectations rested upon the assumption that if you added Curt Warner to the 12-4 1984 team, that would result in a World Championship. The problem was that Warner wasn't nearly back to 100% in 1985, and many of the Seahawks who had career years in 1984 (*cough* Dave Krieg *cough*) regressed back to the mean. That's not the profile of the 2013 Seahawks, who have a core group of players who haven't reached their career peaks yet.
2013 isn't like 2006. The 2006 team was coming off the travesty of Super Bowl XL, and despite the loss of Steve Hutchinson in free agency, they appeared to have more than enough talent for another championship run. Unfortunately, Shaun Alexander's needle hit "E" and Matt Hasselbeck never fully recovered from a midseason knee injury. More fundamentally, they were Mike Holmgren's Machine of West Coast Football Precision. At their peak in 2005, they reached the Super Bowl by outsmarting and out-executing the enemy. With Hasselbeck and Alexander declining/hobbled in 2006, the machine broke down. The 2013 Seahawks are plenty precise, but they will win MANY games through sheer physical dominance. The 2006 team didn't boast one of the best defenses in the NFL, either.
What could derail us? All I can come up with is a season-ending injury to Russell Wilson (Even if that happened, I still believe Tarvaris Jackson could lead us to the playoffs). Without Wilson, it's hard to come up with a plausible scenario where Seattle wins Super Bowl XLVIII. With him, it's hard to see how the Seahawks don't at least reach the NFC Championship Game.
You're going to want to remember every moment of this season. Document it. Savor it. Start a scrapbook or a journal or your own Seahawks blog. This is going to probably be the best year of your life as a Seahawks fan.
As Coach Carroll would say: "Don't it just feel great?!?"
What do you think, sirs?
1 comment:
I really think the key injuries that could derail us are Wilson, as you stated, and Earl Thomas. Earl is the single most important piece on the defense and the depth behind him isn't nearly as good as the depth behind Wilson (yes, that feels very strange to say about TJ).
Big fan of the blog, first time posting.
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