The Seahawks’ hopes of getting home field – the easiest way to the Super Bowl – will rely on winning early, surviving the middle and staying healthy at the end.
The schedule looks like it adds up to 10 or 11 wins, assuming the Seahawks improve their pass rush and their remade offensive line doesn’t get off to a terrible start.
Continue reading Hawks set up for 10-11 wins, with division games the wild cards
The Seahawks were supposed to be watching the Browns on Monday night — their homework for this week — but it was pretty hard to miss the team that dominated Baker Mayfield and company.
“That night was San Francisco’s night,” Pete Carroll said of the 49ers’ 31-3 win. “It didn’t matter what happened, really. The ball kept coming their way and they kept making the plays. They looked great.”
The Hawks play at Cleveland this week, but in a month they will be facing the 49ers in what figures to be a major Monday night showdown — impacting both the division and conference races.
Seattle’s 2019 season will be defined in prime time in November and December.
The Seahawks got a very balanced schedule, highlighted by alternating home and road games through the first 14 weeks and four straight night games in the second half of the season.
The Hawks will play five prime-time games overall, including two against the division rival Rams.
Seattle also has four 10 a.m. games, but Pete Carroll doesn’t care (ask him). His teams are 13-11 in 10 a.m. starts (playoffs included) since Russell Wilson arrived, and they have won seven of the last nine (all three in 2018).
Continue reading Season success will be determined in prime time
Aside from a rough opener in Green Bay, the Seahawks got as good a schedule as they could have asked for as the NFL slate was announced Thursday.
They have no cold-weather games, only one 10 a.m. game and no back-to-back road games. They also play three of their four prime-time games at home and have a decently placed Week 6 bye.
The Seahawks will start the season with a very familiar foe as they head to Green Bay to play the Packers for the sixth time in six years. This one will bring a new twist as Eddie Lacy faces his old Packers teammates to open the season.
The Seahawks have not fared well in Green Bay, losing seven straight there by an average of 18.9 points, including a 38-10 blowout last December in which Russell Wilson played perhaps the worst game of his career.
The Richard Sherman-Julio Jones matchup is the one everyone will be keeping an eye on. (We hope Kris Richard learned a lesson from last time.)
Gene Steratore, who tries not to get in the way, will ref the game. He was the ref for the excellent Seahawks-Patriots game earlier this season.
Jones will be curious to find out how Steratore’s crew plans to call the game.
C.J. Prosise is unlikely to return or this game.
Will the Seahawks use Jimmy Graham in the red zone more in this game?
Kam Chancellor and Frank Clark are game-time decisions for ATL-SEA.
The weather is expected to be a big player in the game.
The Seahawks had great things to say about Dan Quinn, their former DC who brings the Falcons to town this weekend.
Julio Jones vs. Richard Sherman is the matchup everyone wants to see.
But K.J. Wright said this “is a linebacker’s game,” and Bobby Wagner said he thinks he and Wright are up to the big challenge of stopping Atlanta RBs Devonta Freeman and Tevin Coleman.
Over the offseason, the Seahawks talked about tweaking their defense to account for the short passing attacks some savvy offenses have used to beat them.
Although Miami and the Jets worked the short game with some success in the first month, they didn’t do it well enough to beat the Seahawks. But now the Hawks are about to face their first big test against a quarterback and skill players who are capable of beating them the way Tom Brady, Philip Rivers, Aaron Rodgers, Andy Dalton and Cam Newton have in recent seasons.
Sure, Atlanta’s 300-yard man, Julio Jones, will have a fun matchup against Richard Sherman. But the Falcons the Hawks need to be most concerned about are running backs Tevin Coleman and Devonta Freeman.
The game against the Falcons could be a barometer of where the Seahawks stand in the NFC.
Russell Wilson looks fine, and more injury updates.
Five Seahawks who are key to the final 12 games.
Frank Clark is playing a lot more this year, and DeShawn Shead has played every snap.
The Seahawks are producing more sacks this year despite blitzing at the same frequency as last year.
Dan Quinn said he has “a lot of gratitude” for Pete Carroll and the Seahawks setting him up to coach the Falcons.
If Seahawks past and present have anything to say about it, Tom Cable will coach an NFL team again.
According to the Huffington Post, Cable “absolutely” wants to be a coach again, and everyone from Pete Carroll to Dan Quinn to Marshawn Lynch is lobbying on his behalf.
The first part of the Post piece is a rehash of stuff Cable has said in several offseason interviews: a progress report on Seattle’s mostly brand-new offensive line and a reiteration that the coaches are very focused on trying to pick up where they left off last season.
The interesting stuff comes at the end, where Cable says he wants to be a coach again — but only in the right circumstance, which he has observed firsthand on a Super Bowl team created by John Schneider, Carroll, Cable and others.
Continue reading Cable ‘absolutely’ wants to be a coach again
In the NFL, April is draft month. But it also has become schedule month.
Word is the NFL will release the schedule April 19-21, a week before the April 28-30 draft.
We already know their opponents, of course. Based on 2015 results, the Seahawks have the fifth-toughest schedule next season. There’s nothing new about that, though: Their 2015 schedule ranked fourth and their 2014 slate was sixth.
But those preseason rankings don’t reflect changes teams have made since the last season ended.
As we transition from free agency month into draft month, let’s see how Seattle’s opponents have changed since last season.
CHAWK TALK: Everything being said about the Seahawks 