March 9, 2009

Ranking the Squads: Hitting the top 10

As usual, you can find the previous installments of the Ranking the Squads project here...

11. 1990
Record: 9-7
Offensive Rank: 18th out of 28 teams
Defensive Rank: 11th out of 28
Turnover Ratio Rank: 23rd out of 28
Team MVP: John L. Williams
High Point: Seahawks 17, Chiefs 16
Low Point: Chargers 31, Seahawks 14

I was 15 in the fall of 1990, and part of me wondered if I'd have the same passion for the Seahawks after my idol Steve Largent's retirement. An 0-3 start didn't help me deal with the absence of Largent and Curt Warner, but then the Hawks got it together with an MNF beatdown of the Bengals (punctuated by an INSANE Twin Peaks MNF opening where Agent Cooper and Sheriff Truman have some damn fine coffee and sit down to watch the Hawks.. as a little Twin Peaks nerd, I freaked when Agent Cooper said "Go Seahawks").

Of course, that win in Arrowhead is the most memorable part of the 1990 season, but overall this was a solid team, and the de facto last gasp of the Ground Chuck era.

Here's the totally frakked part of 1990: We ended up in a three-way tie with Houston and Cincinnati for the final playoff berth. Despite beating both teams head-to-head, we missed the playoffs because the Bengals and Oilers both had better conference records. That result was asinine enough to force a change in the NFL's tiebreaking procedures:

2. Head-to-head sweep. (Applicable only if one club has defeated each of the others or if one club has lost to each of the others.)

too late to help the '90s, of course.

10. 1979
Record: 9-7
Offensive Rank: 4th out of 28 teams
Defensive Rank: 24th out of 28
Turnover Ratio Rank: 16th out of 28
Team MVP: Steve Largent
High Point: Seahawks 28, Broncos 23
Low Point: Rams 24, Seahawks 0

The '79ers started 1-4, but rallied for an 8-3 finish, including a memorable MNF win in Atlanta (and a loss to L.A. where the Hawks accumulated NEGATIVE SEVEN YARDS)... That's about all I got.. I was four years old at the time.

Alright, from here on out, each of the top nine teams will get its own special blog entry.. Stay tuned.

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