So let me get this straight

[Hawks46]

The way I see it, having a hard schedule like this just makes it easier to go on the road in the playoffs and take care of business. The harder the traveling and schedule, the easier the road playoff games will seem.

Also, not to be nit picky, but claiming we've played the Cowboys with out Romo, and the Bears without Cutler is facile. Even if there was a bias, the league can't schedule injuries. It really has nothing to do with when and where we play anyone.

 

[rjdriver]

I'm not ready to say there's a bias against the Hawks.

BUT: The scheduling bias' favoritism of the east coast isn't even obfuscated. Teams in the west get hosed with the majority of scheduling nightmares. My favorite is the rule ol' Rog passed when he first took office that prevents east coast teams from having to travel west more than twice a year. This is why Pittsburgh hasn't played in Seattle for, what, like 11 years?

Ugh this is in fact false? Where the hell did you hear this. You are aware that the Ravens have played at Denver, Oakland, Arizona, and San Franciso this year right? Not just that, but they played at Den and SD in back to back weeks and at SF and at AZ in back to back weeks. The Ravens schedule this year has been brutal.

You know for us being a premier team in the league we as fans still have little mans syndrome. I thought we were finally past this woe is me attitude and moved on. Guess not. Let's go ahead and petition Troy Aikman to never call a game for us again. Oh that's right, that's already happened.

He heard it from one of multiple news sources that reported it.

Like this one:

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=4009230

 

[TheRealDTM]

our schedule compared to the packers is shit anyway you look at it.

 

[ZagHawk]

I'm more concerned about the Hawks having lost their 1st game after their bye I think the last two years, and this being probably the most important game in the season if the Hawks want any chance of holding onto the NFCW crown this year.

 

[Pandion Haliaetus]

Uhm, well your concern is unwarranted because the Seahawks have actually won both of thier last two after bye games in the last two seasons.

'14 was a win @Washington
'13 was a win vs New Orleans

Before that though you might have a point.

'12 was the last minute or so loss @ Miami
'11 was the 6-3 clunker losing to @Cleveland without Lynch and led by CBJ.

And Carroll's first year was a 23-20 win over the Chicago Bears, who were pretty solid team and would end up taking us out of the playoffs.

Thats a 3-2 record under Carroll, and 2 wins in the last 2 years. Carroll also hasnt lost a home game after the bye.

Also to note in the Russell Wilson era Seahawks have yet to lose the next home game coming off a TNF 10 day bye or a regular bye. Theyve also played well in those games.

Edit: Meh, Cowboys was the first home game after the week 4 bye but was technically coming off a short week playing MNF @ Wash. But a loss is a loss.

So out of the 6 post bye home games in the last 3 years, 5 of them the Seahawks won and have played generally well in the majority of those games aside from the Bucs game '13. Which was similar to the Cowboys loss. Bye week followed by a short week.

If anything ive learned Seahawks have been much more horrible albiet still very competitive as a team during and following games within a shortweek than they have been post bye week games. Which makes sense.

Ironically, this season the epic tilt vs the Arizona Cardinals will be the first home game after the TNF bye and the Regular Bye.

 

[Willyeye]

I think if anyone re-reads this thread with a modicum of rationality, anyone would see that not a single poster here has claimed there is a "scheduling bias." .

The very first poster insinuated it's a bias, so this entire thread is ABOUT the supposed unfair scheduling.

Our next three opponents all have their byes before they play us. That is crap.... The Panthers had their bye earlier in the year before they played us. There are eight weeks where teams have a bye and during 4 of them, our opponents have their bye before they play us..

And being like #10 on most sites for strength of schedule isn't exactly a horrible schedule..........especially considering we played the Cowboys without Romo, Bears without Cutler......and 5 of last 8 at home, and one of those is probably the Steelers without Bell or Rapelessberger.

And maybe the conspiracy bias idiots aren't all over this thread, but you can't tell me it's not something that's permeating every inch of this forum on a weekly basis. Enough already, it's just annoying.

Repeat after me "the league doesn't give a rat's ass about the Seahawks, other than they're one of 32 teams in the league."

I'm not some big conspiracy theorist, however, parity is a HUGE deal in the NFL. The Hawks have won the NFC for 2 straight years, and thinking that the NFL does not care about such things is naive. The explosion in the number of football fans all over the country is a direct result of parity...giving fans of crappy teams a little bit of hope goes a long way. Teams like the Patriots create a lot of dissatisfied football fans in other cities, as have the Seahawks in recent seasons. The Seahawks have made the playoffs in 9 of the last 12 years, and the SB in 3 of the last 10. And if you think there isn't a hint of bias in favor of east coast teams vs. west coast teams, then you're not paying attention.

Thinking that the NFL does nothing in an attempt to level the playing field is also naive. I don't give a crap about the byes, but when you look at the Hawks' schedule, it is obvious that the Hawks early strength of schedule was meant to put the Hawks in somewhat of a hole this year, while the Cards early strength of schedule was cream puff, meant to place them at the top of the NFCW going into the second half of the season. TeamRankings.com has the Cards' strength of schedule thus far ranked at #29. The Hawks are #8. The Cards have had 2 games so far against middle of the pack teams, the Rams and the Roethlisberger-less Steelers, and lost both of them. Their 6 wins have come against bottom of the pack teams. If you truly think parity doesn't come into play when these scheduling decisions are made, you're simply ignoring reality. And just so you know, I believe this would happen to any team that has appeared in 2 straight SB's...it's not an anti-Seahawks phenomenon.

I would also say that refs are somehow "instructed" to be a little "easier" on teams that are the underdogs. The statistics on opposing team penalties when playing against the Hawks are quite obviously skewed, with some level of bias being obvious. If you need opposing penalty details I can provide them for you, but I assume you're already aware of them. And thinking that Hawks' opponents decide not to commit penalties against them is ridiculous...this is an aspect of the game that is not simply turned off and on dependent on the opposition. I've seen dozens of blatant non-calls in the last season and a half. Unfortunately, this also leads to players knowing that they can get away with a lot more when playing against the Hawks.

The good news here is that I believe the Seahawks are capable of digging out of this hole, especially given the fact that the roles are now reversed...the Cards have a much tougher road in the second half of the season than do the Seahawks. The bad news for you is that sometimes reality is annoying.

 

[sam1313]

Anyways you guys are back to back Super Bowl contenders. Really not much to complain about.

At the end of the day you guys have a great team, and have had great success. Don't nitpick the little things like this. Good teams rise to the challenge When you are having success embrace it. This is .Net, not the webzone.

Parity is suppose to happen. So far Seattle has overcome it.

Really good, respectful, and intelligent post ringless. Are you sure your a Niner fan??? Cheers anyway! :thirishdrinkers:

 

[hawknation2015]

Anyways you guys are back to back Super Bowl contenders. Really not much to complain about.

At the end of the day you guys have a great team, and have had great success. Don't nitpick the little things like this. Good teams rise to the challenge When you are having success embrace it. This is .Net, not the webzone.

Parity is suppose to happen. So far Seattle has overcome it.

Really good, respectful, and intelligent post ringless. Are you sure your a Niner fan??? Cheers anyway! :thirishdrinkers:

He's a Cardinals fan.

 

[RiverDog]

Yea, the schedule complaints are a red herring. The bye week observation is irrelevant, and not statistically significant that it's either better or worse for anyone. We used to have a horrible record coming out of a bye week. Same thing about the east coast bias. Traveling an hour or 90 minutes more in a nice comfortable airplane than other teams? Geezus Chryst. If my old man were alive, he would laugh his arse off if he heard today's athletes complaining about that "inconvenience" when he had to bounce around on a school bus for 8 hours then play a game that night. It just shows you how spoiled everyone's gotten.

 

[hawksfansinceday1]

I'm not some big conspiracy theorist, however, parity is a HUGE deal in the NFL. The Hawks have won the NFC for 2 straight years, and thinking that the NFL does not care about such things is naive. The explosion in the number of football fans all over the country is a direct result of parity...giving fans of crappy teams a little bit of hope goes a long way. Teams like the Patriots create a lot of dissatisfied football fans in other cities, as have the Seahawks in recent seasons. The Seahawks have made the playoffs in 9 of the last 12 years, and the SB in 3 of the last 10. And if you think there isn't a hint of bias in favor of east coast teams vs. west coast teams, then you're not paying attention.

Thinking that the NFL does nothing in an attempt to level the playing field is also naive. I don't give a crap about the byes, but when you look at the Hawks' schedule, it is obvious that the Hawks early strength of schedule was meant to put the Hawks in somewhat of a hole this year, while the Cards early strength of schedule was cream puff, meant to place them at the top of the NFCW going into the second half of the season. TeamRankings.com has the Cards' strength of schedule thus far ranked at #29. The Hawks are #8. The Cards have had 2 games so far against middle of the pack teams, the Rams and the Roethlisberger-less Steelers, and lost both of them. Their 6 wins have come against bottom of the pack teams. If you truly think parity doesn't come into play when these scheduling decisions are made, you're simply ignoring reality. And just so you know, I believe this would happen to any team that has appeared in 2 straight SB's...it's not an anti-Seahawks phenomenon.

I would also say that refs are somehow "instructed" to be a little "easier" on teams that are the underdogs. The statistics on opposing team penalties when playing against the Hawks are quite obviously skewed, with some level of bias being obvious. If you need opposing penalty details I can provide them for you, but I assume you're already aware of them. And thinking that Hawks' opponents decide not to commit penalties against them is ridiculous...this is an aspect of the game that is not simply turned off and on dependent on the opposition. I've seen dozens of blatant non-calls in the last season and a half. Unfortunately, this also leads to players knowing that they can get away with a lot more when playing against the Hawks.

The good news here is that I believe the Seahawks are capable of digging out of this hole, especially given the fact that the roles are now reversed...the Cards have a much tougher road in the second half of the season than do the Seahawks. The bad news for you is that sometimes reality is annoying.

Good post, and I for one agree, I don't think it coincidence that the Hawks have traveled for their Thurs. night game 4 years in a row either with 3 of those games at the home of their (until this season) main NFCW rival.