Fuzzy Kingdome Memories: November 28, 1988

In my 28 years as a Seahawks fan, I've been to exactly ONE Monday Night game. I was 13, and it was awesome. Here's the story...

The Seahawks and Raiders were both 6-6 going into that prime-time showdown in the Kingdome- The winner would join the 7-6 Broncos atop the AFC West going into the homestretch. Not only was it a key divisional battle, it was one against the detestable, despicable L.A. Raiders (and we were all still salty over Bo Jackson's demolition of the Seahawks, Brian Bosworth, and our collective mental health on MNF a year earlier). When my Dad got us tickets for this game, I totally spazzed out (even more than usual).

Thankfully I was a spoiled kid, so I got to skip school on that Monday so we could get to Seattle with plenty of time to spare before the 6 pm kickoff. Our seats were in the lower level, down in the end zone only a few rows from the field of play. I usually preferred sitting up higher (and I still do now), but it turned out to be a blast sitting down low for this particular dust-up.

The Kingdome was ALWAYS loud, but it was mind-scrambling that night. I vividly recall Steve Largent catching a TD right in front of me to open the scoring- It felt like he was close enough to reach out and high-five, and the crowd EXPLODED when he scored (Largent was in his next-to-last NFL season, and his numbers had declined thus far in '88- Seeing him score sent a jolt through the capacity crowd).

How loud was it? On the following drive the Raiders committed FIVE consecutive false start penalties. I screamed so long and so loud that I lost my voice, which didn't return until around Thursday. The teams traded blows throughout the first half, but the Seahawks looked like they'd go into the locker room up 21-20 after Krieg hit Paul Skansi for the 3rd of his FIVE TD passes. Then, craziness!

Tim Brown returned the kickoff 95 yards to the Seattle 3, and it looked like L.A. would certainly score- But a Bo Jackson TD was wiped out by a holding call, and then the Raiders shanked a gimme FG attempt as the half expired. In my 13-year-old head, Chris Bahr missed that kick because of the roar the Twelve Army unleashed upon him- I was delirious with joy.

Side note: I CLEARLY remember Tim Brown getting tackled and the FG miss happening right in front of me like the Largent TD, but that can't be accurate given that the teams must have switched ends between quarters- Chalk one up for the unreliability of memory, huh?

The Seahawks would commit a total of five turnovers, and enter the 4th quarter trailing 27-21. Dave Krieg's last two TD passes put Seattle up for good and they'd hold on for a memorable 35-27 victory (back in '88 there weren't 2-point conversions in the NFL, so an 8-point gap was two scores). Both John L. Williams and Curt Warner ran for over 100 yards, and the Seahawks erupted for 459 total yards. Conversely, the Seattle defense held their tormentor Bo Jackson to just 31 yards on 13 carries (Did it help that L.A. rolled out Steve Beuerlein and Jay Schroeder at QB that day? Fuck yeah- but we can just gloss over that fact).

The Seahawks won, and my Dad and I enjoyed a long but happy post-game drive back to the Tri-Cities. I showed up at school the next day sleep-deprived but triumphant in one of my many Steve Largent jerseys... The Seahawks would go on to beat the Raiders in L.A. on the season's final Sunday to take their first AFC West title (here's that whole game on youtube in two parts: Part 1 and Part 2).

I also remember us waving around this towel at that MNF game... I think I still have it in a box at my Mom's house somewhere, and I remember seeing one at the Pro Football Hall of Fame when I visited a few years back:


What do you think, sirs?

Seahawks Playoff Scenarios/Brief Thoughts on Tim Tebow

Here's where the Seahawks stand in the NFC playoff race going into tonight's game against the St. Louis Rams- Feel free to check my reasoning against the NFL tie-breaking procedures and my math against the ESPN playoff machine...

First, the current standings of the NFC Wild Card division, with the remaining opponents for each team in parentheses.

5. Falcons 8-5 (JAX, @NO, TB)
6. Lions 8-5 (@OAK, SD, @GB)
7. Bears 7-6 (SEA, @GB, @MIN)
8. Giants 7-6 (DC, "@"NYJ, DAL)
9. Cowboys 7-6 (@TB, PHI, @NYG)
10. Cardinals 6-7 (CLE, @CIN, SEA)
11. Seahawks 5-7 (STL, @CHI, SF, @AZ)

Those standings make things look worse than they actually are- After Seattle wins tonight, they will pass Arizona... and either the Cowboys or Giants will win the NFC East. Then, Seattle wins over the Rams and Bears would push them past Chicago as well. So let's get down to it- What will get the Seahawks into the playoffs? Let's start with a few basic principles:

1. Everything I say from here on assumes that the Seahawks will win out. They can theoretically stay alive with one loss, but the probabilities really drop off the cliff in that case.

2. If the Seahawks finish 9-7, they'd have an 8-4 conference record (our 1-3 record against the AFC North sorta helps here). That is good enough to win (almost) every tie-breaker involving 3 or more teams.

3. The Seahawks would win one-on-one/head-to-head tiebreakers with the Lions, Giants, and Bears (assuming we beat them Dec. 18). Seattle LOSES one-on-one/head-to-head tiebreakers with the Cowboys and Falcons. In a specific 3-way tiebreaker with ONLY the Cowboys and Falcons, the Seahawks lose.

4. In ANY and ALL tiebreaking scenarios that involve the Seahawks AND Lions, the Seahawks win, and get in the playoffs. Why? We'd have a better conference record than the Lions, and if Detroit is involved it eliminates the possibility of Seattle getting knocked out due to head-to-head losses to Dallas and Atlanta.

5. Over in the NFC East, one team will win the division (and thus we won't have to worry about them), and the other will have AT LEAST 7 losses. The only thing we have to worry about here are the "head-to-head with Dallas" and "3-way-tie with Dallas and Atlanta" scenarios.

Distill all that down, and the SIMPLEST playoff scenario for the Seahawks is:

4 Seahawks wins + EXACTLY 2 Lions losses = Seattle makes the playoffs.

There are more complex scenarios involving lots of Atlanta and Dallas losses, but our most direct path to the playoffs is via Detroit.

A few brief words about Tim Tebow to conclude here...

First of all, thanks for beating the Bears, kid! Last week I said I'd "Tebow" if the Broncos won, and as the above pic shows I'm a man of my word.

Beyond that, I'll never be a Tebow fan unless he somehow ends up on the Seahawks. In that case, as long as he won games I could put up with his aggravating disciples, the endless hype, and his religious proselytizing. I'm a hell-bound, blasphemous unbeliever and a Seahawks fan- Why WOULD I root for a openly, deeply religious Broncos QB? I'd have to be lobotomized.

I will admit that I can see why his teammates would run through a wall for the guy- He does have those intangible leadership qualities. He is also great for the league right now... Every Broncos game is absolutely "Must-See TV" at this point (and I think NBC should have fought harder to flex Broncos v Patriots into prime time next week.. I would have been glued to that).

So yeah, I'll probably never be a fan of Tebow- and I still think what he's doing right now is ultimately unsustainable. But I'm riveted to this drama surrounding him just like everyone else.

What do you think, sirs?

Doors Unlocked and Open

Playoff talk around the Seahawks has started up again, but almost everyone is very careful to declare upfront that there is almost no chance of Seattle actually reaching the postseason. In fact, it seems like it's almost a badge of "seriousness" to dismiss the Seahawks' playoff chances with an eye roll and a wanking motion.

But I'm not serious. I'm not realistic. I'm not rational. Not when it comes to the Seahawks. Hell, two years ago I wrote about how the 2009 team could still make the playoffs at 5-7. How fucking STUPID does that article look, in light of the MoraHawks subsequent "December of Surrender" that landed them at 5-11?

I understand how most normal human sports fans operate. Expecting the worst allows you to build up your mental defenses and inoculate yourself from the pain that every sports fan has to endure. It's the natural tendency of most fans to drift away when their team is bad, and let the currents of winning bring them back to shore. For a mentally healthy person, it makes sense to not get too emotionally invested in a team with a 7.2% chance of making the playoffs.

What I have learned over 28 years of being a Seahawks fan is that I am NOT sane or normal in any of the accepted meanings of those terms. I've learned that I'd much rather be seen as the hardest of the hard-core (who sucks at predicting the football future) than a steely-eyed "realist." I'd rather be foolishly loyal and optimistic than distant and cynical. I'd rather deal with the pain of dashed hopes (over and over and OVER again) than the gnawing sense that I abandoned the Seahawks when the going got too tough.

I know there are other fans whose ONLY measure of success is a Super Bowl victory. As much as I fervently dream about the day Seattle wins a Lombardi Trophy, it can't be the only reason I root for the Hawks- What kind of torture would that be? How desolate would it be to inhabit a world where nothing the Seahawks have done matters, because they've never won a World Championship? Yes, winning is tremendously important and the ultimate goal is to become champions- but I'm also interested in the journey... in the experiences and memories created in that quest to reach the pinnacle of the game, even when that quest fails.

My favorite Seahawks season was 2005, but right behind it is 1986... a year when the Seahawks didn't even make the playoffs! Despite falling short of postseason on the season's final Sunday, the Hawks gave us Twelves five weeks of football that are burned in our memories as much as Top Gun, Family Ties, Bill Buckner or Licensed to Ill.. Here's that season's highlight film:



I am still invested so heavily in part because of the small chance I might get to see something like 1986 again- I also feed off the knowledge that LESS THAN A YEAR AGO the Seahawks shanked all the naysayers with the biggest upset in NFL playoff history. Why can't they pull off another crazy, immortally awesome finish again?

Who is down here in this ocean of sound with me?

Patience, Seahawks... Climb the Ladder.

After an almost unfathomably favorable Sunday of NFL results, the Seahawks are now two games out of the final NFC Wild Card spot with four games to play. Seattle's playoff probabilities have risen up to 6.5%, which doesn't sound high, but it's risen up from 1.3% just two weeks ago. The Seahawks wouldn't be MATHEMATICALLY eliminated by a single loss during this final month, but realistically Seattle needs to go 4-0 to keep their playoff hopes viable.

The best way to look at things now? The Seahawks are now playing in the "NFC WILD CARD DIVISION," and these are the current standings

Bears 7-5
Falcons 7-5
Lions 7-5
Giants 6-6
Seahawks 5-7
Cardinals 5-7

It's important to remember that the Seahawks only need to finish 2nd in this division to make the playoffs, NOT 1st. It's very plausible for the Seahawks to climb into 3rd in this division if they can beat the Rams and Bears over the next two weeks. Thanks to the magic of the ESPN Playoff Machine, we know that if the Seahawks end up in a multi-team tiebreaker at 9-7, they will almost certainly get into the postseason (based on having the best conference record).

There's another bit of drama going on too, though- Seattle will (thankfully) not be crappy enough to be in position to draft Andrew Luck or Matt Barkley (if he declares for the draft). That doesn't mean that we won't (or shouldn't) try to make a trade to acquire Barkley (I don't see the Colts parting with the #1 pick under any circumstances). Our best shot at completing a trade into the #2 slot to take Barkley? If the team picking 2nd is an non-divisional rival who very recently spent a 1st-rounder on a QB. Thus, it follows that we should root for the Minnesota Vikings (or the Jacksonville Jaguars) to "beat" the St. Louis Rams for the #2 pick in the draft.

With all this in mind, here's who you should be rooting for in next week's games, and why...

UNAMBIGUOUS GAMES

-Broncos over Bears: I'm not really digging having to root for Tebow, but if the Broncos cooperate here we can pull ahead of Chicago in the Wild Card Division with wins in our next two games. Get your Tebowing poses ready!

-Panthers over Falcons: Yes, Carolina is 4-8, but they are at home and they have played a number of quality teams very tough this season. If Cam Newton and the Panthers can pull off this upset, the Seahawks' playoff chances will spike unexpectedly.

-Buccaneers over Jaguars: Jacksonville could be a perfect Matt Barkley trade partner for the Seahawks- IF they end up holding the #2 pick in the draft. Root for a loss to Tampa this week.

-Packers over Raiders: Stick with me here- Green Bay plays Chicago and Detroit over the final two weekends. I believe that if they are still going for a perfect season, they will play to win. If not? After they have the #1 seed clinched, they might rest guys. Root for Rodgers and the Pack to go 16-0. Also, fuck the fucking Raiders.

AMBIGUOUS GAMES

-Vikings at Lions: On one hand, if the Vikings upset the Lions, that gives a big boost to Seattle's 2011 playoff chances. However, that would fuck up my little "Minnesota trades the #2 pick to us, then... BOOM! Matt Barkley!" plan. I prefer to look at this as being good news for us either way.

-Giants at Cowboys: Dallas winning would give them a big NFC East lead, and frankly we want the Cowboys to win this division- While Seattle wins the head-to-head tiebreaker with NYG, we lose it to Dallas. The Giants would fall to 6-7 and into a tie with Seattle after next Monday Night. One could argue that an NYG win could be good news too (both DAL and NYG would be 7-6), but I'll be rooting for the Cowboys to put away Big Blue Sunday Night.

-49ers at Cardinals: A Cardinals loss effectively eliminates them, but so would/will a loss to Seattle in week 17. A Cardinals win would push them further away from possibly holding the #2 pick (which they then wouldn't trade to the Seahawks). I'll be weakly rooting for the Niners, given that we can't win the West, and the sooner Arizona's hopes are dashed, the better.

What do you think, sirs? Am I missing anything big?

Seahawks 31, Eagles 14

Every talking head on NFL Network's pre-game show picked Philadelphia to defeat the Seahawks tonight, obviously still high on "Dream Team" fumes and ignorant of the progress made by the league's youngest starting line-up in recent weeks.

If they had been paying attention, they would have seen that aside from a youth-induced spasm of 3rd-down breakdowns in the 4th quarter last week, these Seahawks have been crafting an identity as a physical, hard-hitting, punch-you-in-the-fuckin'-mouth crew. Marshawn Lynch's electrifying, punishing 1st-quarter touchdown set the tone- We were going to maul Philly, and they were going to crumble. Lynch gobbled up 148 yards and a shit-ton of Skittles in his best performance of the season so far.

Tarvaris Jackson held onto the ball a bit too long a few times, but he avoided turnovers and posted a QB rating of 137.0! Golden Tate hauled in a spectacular touchdown catch and continued the positive development we've seen lately- Tate has a chance to break through to the next level with the additional reps he'll see with Sidney Rice on IR. The offensive line continued its run of solid play, but now the concern is an injury to Russell Okung on a cheap-shot from Trent Cole in garbage time. What a pathetic mother fucker. But then again, the whole Philadelphia squad played like pathetic mother fuckers tonight.

Seattle's defense atoned (to some degree) for last week's 4th-quarter implosion by snatching four Vince Young interceptions, including David Hawthorne's victory-sealing pick-6. Kam Chancellor picked off Young on Philly's 1st snap, and Brandon Browner hauled in two more interceptions. It was an impressive display from the youngest secondary in football.

After the game was over, those same dismissive NFL Network bobbleheads were talking about how Seattle is the "best 5-7 team" in the league, and was heading in the right direction- At least they are correct about that, belatedly. Those losses to Cleveland and DC sting more than ever now, but it's stupid to dwell on that shit. Today the Seahawks' long-shot playoff dreams get to live another week, but more importantly the longer-term future of the franchise looks promising.

I believe in Pete Carroll and the team he is putting together- They'll win multiple games over the last month of this season, and might just jump up and take a huge bite out of the Bears or Niners. Enjoy the ascent, Twelves!

What do you think, sirs?