That's pretty much how WE reacted in the playoffs after the '05 season. Slow start against the 'Skins, blowout of the Panthers.Polaris":1or28p15 said:Here is another factor that I think hasn't been talked about. One commonality I've noticed for the past decade (little more actually) since realignment is that teams that come off the first week bye tend to be a bit sluggish. If that team is unlucky enough to get a team that's nearly as good and is hitting it's stride coming out of of the wildcard round, that team with the week off is vulnerable. The success against such teams (and why the Manning led Colts seemed to go one-and-done with alarming regularity) is born out by the records.
However, if you look futher into the championship rounds, those teams that had the week off that DO survive tend to do very well and get back on stride.
I think it's reasonable to think that this last game was the game where Seattle was perhaps at her most vulnerable with a very good team coming in (11 regular season wins) and feeling good about themselves, and with Seattle having to get back into game mode (esp playoff game mode) very quickly. I note that the team in the NFC that FAILED this test obviously and badly were the Carolina Panthers.
I kind of expect the same.
A lot of people seem to be ignoring the fact that this is SF's third (fourth?) consecutive road game, against one of their toughest opponents. I kind of like our odds.