Will Seattle win the division in 2013?

[kearly]

I was watching NFL.com's "predict the season" exercise and I noticed they they had the 49ers winning the NFC West, with a slim majority of fans in agreement. You can watch the video here (click the video near the bottom left) if you want to hear the argument for it.

Sadly, I think Elliot Harrison makes some excellent points in his defense of selecting the 49ers, and I say this as someone who believes the Seahawks are clearly the best team in the NFL. The schedule makers pretty much screwed the Seahawks over, and might as well have handed a win or two in the standings to the 49ers. Consider:

#1: Seattle has FIVE 10am starts. SF has just TWO 10am starts. We can talk about how teams can "man up" all they want, but it's empty talk. More 10am starts = more difficulty and historically, more losses.

#2: The NFC West draws the NFC and AFC South conferences, which had three teams with winning records last season. San Francisco draws all three of those teams at home, while Seattle draws all three on the road. At 10 am.

#3: That doesn't count Carolina, who was one of the NFL's hottest teams at the end of last season. Seattle faces Carolina in wacky week 1 where upsets are the norm. At 10am pacific time, which is still 1pm east coast time, in the Southern humid summer heat (Sept. 7th). The 49ers get Carolina at home in November after a bye week.

Seriously, I don't think we could have gotten shafted much worse on the schedule, and this is the argument Harrison makes for the 49ers. Even if Seattle is the better team, they might have to sweep San Francisco to get the division thanks to an incredibly unfair schedule.

 

[onanygivensunday]

What doesn't kill ya, makes you stronger. To hell with the schedule.

Russell will have the Hawks ready.

But going back to the schedule, does not anybody do a friggin' sanity check before its released!!

 

[City Of Reign]

Who makes these schedules? "That isn't a rhetorical question..." , cause they are just trying to keep us north westies down, oppression at its finest.

Good thing Wilson, Sherman with his fellow LOB mates won't stand for it!!

 

[kf3339]

There is nothing anyone can do about the schedule or 10am starts. The coaching staff and players know the deal, so I expect them to make the adjustments needed to get the job done. Perhaps that means leaving one day early than last year for the longer trips and/or 10am starts. Practice at 7am Pacific time to get their body clocks in sync to those game day starts. Whatever is needed to make it work.

Finally, win the division, conference and Super Bowl and perhaps the NFL powers will start giving us better consideration when making future schedules.

 

[HawkFan72]

The schedule will make things tougher. No doubt. The 10am thing is what really bugs me and something that is probably the most unfair part of NFL schedules. Especially since so much effort is made to make things easier on the east coast teams that have to travel out west. Very little attempt is made to make it easier on teams heading out east. And this is probably the worst it has been for Seattle in a long, long time.

We should also note that Super Bowl losers tend to have rough years the following seasons, though. Seattle is one of the few teams that has bucked that trend in the last decade, the patriots being another. Other than that, it's pretty rough the next year. That's one point in Seattle's favor.

 

[JSeahawks]

The team that wins the division, imo, is the team that has the QB who best adjusts to the adjustments the league makes to them. My money is on Seattle.

 

[Atradees]

Win the division or bust. History recently tell us that the winner of the NFC west goes to the Superbowl. We have the largest home court advantage in the NFL. We can't afford a slow start while the online or dline jells. 10 am be dammed. This will be on us. No excuses of scheduling or refs.
We had the most significant free agent signings.
We have a franchise QB and a top ranked defense. A great front office and a coach that makes adjustments to win games. If that isn't enough...then we don't deserve to win.

 

[Axx]

I think we will win the division because we have dangeRUSS

 

[hawk45]

The team that wins the division, imo, is the team that has the QB who best adjusts to the adjustments the league makes to them. My money is on Seattle.

QFT. I've been impressed with Kaepernick to my utter disgust, but I hold onto a sense that RW can have success even if the read option is shut down. Russell will still be an elusive QB who can make great plays inside and outside the pocket with his arm, I'm not quite as convinced that Kaepernick can succeed as a pure pocket passer if itomes to that.

Having said that, I'm not convinced that defenses in the NFL will be able to shut down the read option. I can't be certain that the Hawks can unseat a SB team from last year until we see it, especially with our schedule, but Pete and John have done everything in their power this offseason to make it possible, even probable, so I remain optimistic about taking the division.

Whether we take the NFCW or not, I will take the Hawks, even on the road, against the Niners in the playoffs.

 

[Ruminator]

The schedule makers pretty much screwed the Seahawks over, and might as well have handed a win or two in the standings to the 49ers.

If Seahawks end up winners of the NFC West for the 2013 season, that would be a hell of a testimony for the team's clout and top ranking league-wide. And if they finish, say, 12-4 -- had the schedule been more fair, that would automatically be a 14-2 record or better.

Seems obvious the schedule makers desire a consecutive SB appearance by the 49ers. I'll be rooting to see them severely disappointed.

One thing's for sure: with five 10 a.m. starts, they'll have plenty of reason to instill significant regimen, routine, and voodooism to help neutralize the early starts.

I do wonder if Seahawks are allowed their grey alternates in Week 1. Would sure help with the September Carolina heat versus the dark blues.

 

[Hasselbeck]

Crazy as it sounds I could see SF stumbling out of the gate to a 1-4 record... I think they could definitely lose to GB... I think they lose in our home opener.. And I think they could potentially drop 2 of 3 after that as a trap Thursday game at St. Louis is mashed in between home dates against an improved Colts team and dangerous Texans team.

Whereas I think we beat Carolina, SF and Jacksonville and spilt the road dates against Indy and Houston.

We shall see though. The schedule is hard to peg in May. Gets a little less muddy in September.

 

[Ruminator]

Crazy as it sounds I could see SF stumbling out of the gate to a 1-4 record...

It usually takes a lot to get me giddy about something. But damn, the above-envisioned 1-4 scenario would get me doubly-giddy.

 

[MizzouHawkGal]

We just have to deal schedule be damned! On the otherhand we have Wilson and what was started last year (Chicago) so we'll be alright .

 

[Rainger]

Yup but this happens every year. Other than the 2005 run Seattle usually gets screwed by the NFL. They favour their media favourites.

Happening to the Mariners this year. 29 games in April for only the 3rd time in history, and more air miles by all star break than all other teams for the entire season.

I made the point last season for showing how they bye weeks favoured all of the opponents of the hawks.

It really sucks but this team will be better. Yes it will take a few wins off the win column but I truly believe when we get to the playoffs this NFL shaft will help us to win it all.

 

[SalishHawkFan]

It's the same thing every year. In fact, in the predict the schedule thread, I predicted every 10AM start. It was simple: The scheduler WANTS to screw us over. It's intentional and predictable. That's why i won the predict the schedule.

 

[kearly]

I just think it's interesting that our schedule is so unfavorable that even a national sports writer cites it when picking the 49ers for the division. I think the NFL needs to be more careful about the fairness of it's scheduling in the future, at least among teams in hyper competitive division races. At very high levels of competition, seemingly minor factors can be deciding factors.

Or to put it another way, if this division race was like a 100 meter dash, it would be like making the Seahawks run theirs up a hill for no reason. Maybe they still finish with a better time and win the race, but they'd need to be comfortably better than the 49ers to do it.

 

[60niners]

Now... I'm sure you all aren't fond of the early starts, but I don't think the schedule making algorithm stays awake at night thinking of ways to screw over Seattle teams. Just a hunch though lol.

In regards to who will win the division; I still hold on to belief that SF is still the better team at this moment. Might not be the case in the future, but this year as last year, I believe SF is still better - no homer. Last year we had our own scheduling shaft-party. Almost all of our better opponents were on the road. Minnesota became a playoff team, we played them away, in back to back weeks with east coast away games. Played GB on the road. Saints ended up not being good but that was a 13-3 team a year ago and we got them on the road also. Not to mention back to back road trips in December in two of the hardest places for opposing teams to play, @Pats and @Seahawks. NFC championship win on the road as well.

I agree with you all, that it does suck but what can you do? Don't really remember feeling that the league was out to get us after seeing last year's schedule.

I think the team that fares better on the road will win the division this year (between SF and SEA).

 

[warden]

You can't be the best if you can't beat the best

Bring it on

The tough schedule is just going to increase our entertainment value

 

[kearly]

The tough schedule is just going to increase our entertainment value

That part I agree with. Home games are going to be pretty boring, but we're going to have some wild road games next season.

Then again, we're going to have some games like Detroit, Miami, and Atlanta, too. When that happens I won't be visiting this place for a while.

In regards to who will win the division; I still hold on to belief that SF is still the better team at this moment. Might not be the case in the future, but this year as last year, I believe SF is still better - no homer. Last year we had our own scheduling shaft-party. Almost all of our better opponents were on the road. Minnesota became a playoff team, we played them away, in back to back weeks with east coast away games. Played GB on the road. Saints ended up not being good but that was a 13-3 team a year ago and we got them on the road also. Not to mention back to back road trips in December in two of the hardest places for opposing teams to play, @Pats and @Seahawks. NFC championship win on the road as well.

I think Seattle was better last season, but because they packed so much of their best football into the 2nd half of the season they had too big of a hole to dig out of and they weren't able to complete their comeback. Notable analysis sites like Football Outsiders and Coldhardfootballfacts agree. I think the 49ers deserve a lot of credit for playing good football the entire season, and I think they deserve a ton of respect.

I think you make a solid point about last year's schedule- I agree that it favored Seattle more and yet the 49ers still won. But as said before, Seattle took half a season to hit full speed, whereas I see next season as being far more competitive from start to finish because Wilson will start the season ready this time. Seattle will be better, but they will have what I consider to be a major scheduling handicap, and it upsets me that this handicap could potentially decide the race if it's as close as we expect it to be.

Edit: Awesome user name, btw.

 

[warden]

The team that wins the division, imo, is the team that has the QB who best adjusts to the adjustments the league makes to them. My money is on Seattle.

Yep