Anyone else feel like we'll blow out the Cards this week

[Sgt. Largent]

Here's the thing: doubting the Seahawks was perfectly okay.

Respecting the Cardinals was not.

Everyone who has shown respect for the Cardinals in the past week needs to atone by admitting that that's a garbage squad. Honestly our win, while certainly good enough, shouldn't change anyone's minds about our own team since it wasn't against real competition.

The 9-2 Cards are not favored at the 4-7 Falcons next week. That people do not see them as some of the most shameful frauds in NFL history is infuriating.

The Cardinals have one of the better defenses in the NFL, as evident by stuffing Lynch, seven sacks and manhandling our pathetic O-line yesterday................so I can't go as far as to call them a "garbage squad."

Now their offense with Stanton? Garbage. But football is a three phase game, and the Cards are great in one, good in another and bad at the last. So garbage? No, average to above average? Yes.

 

[SonicHawk]

Here's the thing: doubting the Seahawks was perfectly okay.

Respecting the Cardinals was not.

Everyone who has shown respect for the Cardinals in the past week needs to atone by admitting that that's a garbage squad. Honestly our win, while certainly good enough, shouldn't change anyone's minds about our own team since it wasn't against real competition.

The 9-2 Cards are not favored at the 4-7 Falcons next week. That people do not see them as some of the most shameful frauds in NFL history is infuriating.

Vegas lines are intended to have equal betting and guaranteeing a Vegas win, they usually represent who the public thinks will win and everyone couldn't wait to jump off the Cardinals bandwagon.

Cardinals are currently favorite though in ATL as they should be (although the line opened with ATL favored)

Not respecting a 9-2 team -- a team that beat Philadelphia, San Diego, Dallas AND Detroit -- is simply ignorant. Arizona is a damn good team and while their offense struggled to get going and consistently left Seattle in great field position, we only were able to muster a hard-fought 19 points.

 

[NINEster]

This game was played in Seattle, backs against the wall, off a loss while Arizona was coming off a big win streak.

The result was to be expected. Also, that dropped TD right before halftime was a bit ominous that it wasn't going to be the Cards day like it's been these last several weeks.

Centurylink plays a decisive home field advantage when the Seahawks need it bad enough. I doubt the Hawks go to AZ and whip them.

 

[Ozzy]

[/quote]

And without the mercy of some teams last year and the year before that, we wouldn't have held that streak of only losing by 7 points for like 2 seasons. Garbage time is garbage time, it was decently close throughout, but after

I never said it wasn't a blow out in the end.

This was my exact quote:

To be fair, game was a lot closer than the final score/score throughout the game indicated.

Said the game was closer than the score indicated. Got that lead late in the third quarter and the Cards had three opportunities to make it back to a one score game. Up until that point of the final TD, game wasn't that decided.[/quote]


It was never close. They were on our side of the field 3 times and one was a gift on the maxwell PI call. It was actually much worse than the final score indicated imo.

 

[Uncle Si]

This game was played in Seattle, backs against the wall, off a loss while Arizona was coming off a big win streak.

The result was to be expected. Also, that dropped TD right before halftime was a bit ominous that it wasn't going to be the Cards day like it's been these last several weeks.

Centurylink plays a decisive home field advantage when the Seahawks need it bad enough. I doubt the Hawks go to AZ and whip them.

the result was to be expected?

how did the 9ers do with their "backs against the wall" game against a far inferior opponent.

 

[XxXdragonXxX]

The Seahawks dominated in every phase except for Red Zone offense. Converting for TD's in the red zone is a continuing problem and made the game look a lot closer than it was.

 

[MidwestHawker]

Vegas lines are intended to have equal betting and guaranteeing a Vegas win, they usually represent who the public thinks will win and everyone couldn't wait to jump off the Cardinals bandwagon.

Cardinals are currently favorite though in ATL as they should be (although the line opened with ATL favored)

Not respecting a 9-2 team -- a team that beat Philadelphia, San Diego, Dallas AND Detroit -- is simply ignorant. Arizona is a damn good team and while their offense struggled to get going and consistently left Seattle in great field position, we only were able to muster a hard-fought 19 points.

At some point people are going to stop talking about Arizona's win over Dallas like it was something besides a win over an awful backup QB in Brandon Weeden, right?

Anyway, I hate that there's so much misunderstanding about Vegas lines out there, but I get it since I bought into the dismissive hand-waving at one point as well. Vegas lines ARE strongly predictive of game outcomes and team strength. The hope in setting a line is to get an even amount of money to each side, but the money that controls the lines is the sharp money that comes in from professional gamblers...they're the ones who pour in the big money, whereas the casual gamblers out there only comprise a small percentage of total money gambled on the games. So it's the sharps making unemotional, non-superstitious business decisions controlling the line, and the long-term results bear that out. There is a very direct correlation, according to historical data, that a team's win percentage increases with bigger spreads. The lines at the pro level are very, very good.

This is to say that the Vegas lines are rating the Cardinals pretty much correctly, as they rate every team pretty much correctly...the lines may not be outright perfect, but they're easily the best objective measurement out there.

The betting market currently rates Arizona 14th in the league. Admittedly, I overstepped by calling them "garbage"...they're an average NFL team, and well above the actual garbage teams like Jacksonville. Sort of an overreaction on my part due to frustration with people who insist on calling them a "damn good team" when they're not one.

 

[SonicHawk]

You're talking about 'smart money' in the same breath as 'Vegas sports gambling'.

 

[MidwestHawker]

You're talking about 'smart money' in the same breath as 'Vegas sports gambling'.

Yes, I am. And again, empirical long-term data backs this up.

spread wins games probwin
============================================
0.00 21 47 44.68
1.00 70 138 50.72
1.50 60 123 48.78
2.00 87 159 54.72
2.50 126 249 50.60
3.00 351 587 59.80
3.50 225 360 62.50
4.00 101 155 65.16
4.50 71 120 59.17
5.00 97 133 72.93
5.50 99 142 69.72
6.00 108 168 64.29
6.50 154 226 68.14
7.00 177 238 74.37
7.50 85 123 69.11
8.00 75 95 78.95
8.50 70 85 82.35
9.00 71 91 78.02
9.50 79 98 80.61
10.00 66 95 69.47
10.50 55 67 82.09
11.00 40 48 83.33
11.50 23 27 85.19
12.00 20 25 80.00
12.50 28 34 82.35
13.00 20 24 83.33
13.50 34 44 77.27
14.00 26 33 78.79
14.50 14 16 87.50
15.00 9 9 100.00
15.50 9 9 100.00
16.00 14 14 100.00
16.50 3 3 100.00
17.00 5 5 100.00
17.50 6 7 85.71
18.00 2 2 100.00
18.50 1 1 100.00
19.00 1 1 100.00
19.50 2 2 100.00
20.00 1 1 100.00
21.00 1 1 100.00
22.00 1 1 100.00
24.00 2 2 100.00

These statistics are not arrived at by accident, and certainly aren't some massive multi-year coincidence.

 

[MidwestHawker]

Bah, sorry; that formatting is crap once it got put into a post.

Here, this will look better:

 

[Lords of Scythia]

I don't know if I'd call 19-3 a blowout, but it certainly felt like the game was over in the 3rd quarter.

It felt like it was over when the Seahawks ran out of the locker room.

 

[Lords of Scythia]

This game was played in Seattle, backs against the wall, off a loss while Arizona was coming off a big win streak.

The result was to be expected. Also, that dropped TD right before halftime was a bit ominous that it wasn't going to be the Cards day like it's been these last several weeks.

Centurylink plays a decisive home field advantage when the Seahawks need it bad enough. I doubt the Hawks go to AZ and whip them.

The game plan was huge--shutting down the run with another defender at the line, then blitzing Stanton when he is forced to pass. I think I like our chances doing the same thing in AZ. I bet AZ's opponents copy-cat and give that team some losses, which might just mean the Hawks-in-AZ game is FOR THE DIVISION LEAD.

 

[AgentDib]

Some silly comments here. The Cardinals got the ball to our own 30 ONCE and we held them to a field goal. Drew Stanton is a replacement level QB and we completely dominated their offense. If our offense didn't suck in the redzone it would have been a bigger blowout, but there was nothing close about this game. Go read the Cardinals forums and see how close they thought it was, they are rightfully freaking out about having to depend on Drew Stanton in a few more tough games to close out the season.

 

[tom sawyer]

IMHO a blowout would be if we scored more (e.g. 21pts+ diff)

This was more of a burn out than a blowout.

 

[SoulfishHawk]

16 points is a blowout.