What play do you think turned the season around?

[AgentDib]

I'll be the lone nay-sayer who doubts the idea that our team changed directions.

We were healthier at the end of the year and performed better, but people are quick to forget that two of our first three games were wins over Rodgers and Manning. The SD loss was really efficient QB play from Rivers inching them down the field in a furnace where the ToP mattered more than usual. Our two game "slide" against the Cowboys/Rams was the 3rd and 22 completion to Williams one week, followed by a week where we dominated on both sides of the football in yardage on the road, but lost anyway due to trickery (and could have won anyway if Sherman had that ball).

On the other hand, we played 6 bad QBs to close out the season. Winning all six games was huge but the last time we faced an "average" NFL QB was our loss in week 11 to the Chiefs and Alex Smith. The outcomes we have seen are perfectly consistent with our team performing at a fairly high level all season modified by randomness.

 

[pehawk]

I'm still irritated that Pete sent out the FG team in that spot. That was his worst available option in that spot; both going for it or punting would have been better. Awesome job by Hauschka to bail him out though, and definitely a big play for the season.

I'd love to hear the reasoning how going for it on 4th and 8 from the 40 is a better option....

4th and 8 gets converted at a 33% rate leaguewide, where a 58-yard FG is only converted at a 30% rate. So going for it succeeds a bit more often, is less detrimental when it fails (except in the case of a long sack), and leads to an overall higher point expectation for the drive.

Justifying going for it on 4th and 8 because league-wide statistics say it's 3% more likely to result in success lacks context (as with most stats), our offense wasn't showing a whole lot by that point, we'd had two drives that both resulted in three and outs.

Yup, and that's why it was such a huge play. It just felt like the team could go either way at that point.

 

[kearly]

This is a really difficult question to answer. The Seahawks played their worst football of the season in middle of their schedule, but they actually won most of those games.

When I look back on the season, Seattle played their best football only twice, in weeks 1 and 16 (Green Bay and at Arizona). Fittingly, those were the two most crucial games Seattle played this season. But those performances aside, the Seahawks were a should-have-been dominant team that seemed to be perpetually in a stumble. There was always something that held them back, every week it would be something different than the previous week.

I'm not even 100% sure the Seahawks turned things around. I think the end of Seattle's schedule was made up of fraudulent contenders, and nobody exposes pretenders like the Seahawks can. The Arizona game in week 16 was the Hawks only performance without issues during the winning streak.

I guess I can't really name a single play. I think the real turning point wasn't on on field, it was the speech Kam gave to his teammates about playing for one another.

I will say that I started believing in the SB again when Richard Sherman talked shit about 49ers fans, whilst eating a Turkey leg on the 49ers midfield logo. That's when I knew the bully in this team was back.

 

[Jville]

The return of Bobby Wagner figures as a consideration.

When Wagner returned and took that first step back onto the field ...... he tilted the field of play.

 

[MidwestHawker]

Justifying going for it on 4th and 8 because league-wide statistics say it's 3% more likely to result in success lacks context (as with most stats), our offense wasn't showing a whole lot by that point, we'd had two drives that both resulted in three and outs.

I agree to some extent, and again my original statement was that punting or going for it were superior to the complete recklessness of sending on the kicking team for a field goal attempt. If you want to say that punting is a superior move to going for it in that spot then I'm inclined to agree.