You should have killed Seattle while you could, NFL

[chris98251]

I really could give a flying Cardinal fan about opposing teams winning records, nobody talks strength of opponents when you remember the 49ers and look at what the Patriots have done or what happens a few years from now. We don't pick who we play, we don't wait to play a team when they have a player injured anymore then any other team does, we seem to rally to a given situation.

Cards fans can talk all they want, but it's talk and nothing else, lets see who is talking in February if your team backs it up.

 

[nategreat]

Johnny come lately fans who think they are provocateurs, but not until their team gives them a perch to crow from. No shits given about this guy.

Please use words that the Arizona fans will understand. They were recently graded in the top 10 for "dumbest states."

 

[Scottemojo]

Johnny come lately fans who think they are provocateurs, but not until their team gives them a perch to crow from. No shits given about this guy.

Please use words that the Arizona fans will understand. They were recently graded in the top 10 for "dumbest states."

Well, I did simplify my thoughts in the last sentence.

 

[Hawkpower]

Johnny come lately fans who think they are provocateurs, but not until their team gives them a perch to crow from. No shits given about this guy.

Please use words that the Arizona fans will understand. They were recently graded in the top 10 for "dumbest states."

I think he said he lives in Seattle......

 

[nategreat]

Johnny come lately fans who think they are provocateurs, but not until their team gives them a perch to crow from. No shits given about this guy.

Please use words that the Arizona fans will understand. They were recently graded in the top 10 for "dumbest states."

I think he said he lives in Seattle......

Just moved.... we'll need to give it time.

 

[Hasselbeck]

Granted, had we not won a SB in historic fashion and come within one OC brain-fart away from going back-to-back, then the roll we are on right now might not be viewed nationally as "rounding into SB form". But the fact is we have done those things so we get that respect. Your record against those same teams is less impressive, though comparable, so if the rolls were reversed the Cards would likely be getting the SB love right now. But...the rolls aren't reversed, so you don't get the love.

We are what our pedigree says we are.

No doubt... to be the best you gotta beat the best. I get all that.

I'm just puzzled at how all we heard for 2 months was how the OL sucked.. Wilson was regressing... fire Bevell... etc... etc... and now after 3 wins over average to mediocre competition with 2 more wins coming up over the same in Cleveland and St. Louis all we are hearing about is the Seahawks are gonna book their ticket to Santa Clara...

The bandwagon emptied... and now it's full again.

Yeah it's weird.. if only there were some sort of precedence for a team having a slow start then getting red hot at the right time and carrying that all the way to a yard away from a second Super Bowl.

As a Cardinal fan, you yourself should know first hand that its not how you start the year that matters, its how you finish it.

 

[kearly]

If Lynch can give us 80% of what Rawls gave our offense, I don't see anybody beating Seattle the rest of the season.

It used to be that 25 was the magic number to beat Seattle. But right now, it's probably 40.

 

[2_0_6]

"I'm confused AZ_fan, does record indicate how good you are or not? And if it does, then why did a 7-8-1 Panthers team beat an 11-5 Cardinals team in the playoffs last year?

Winner

 

[evergreen]

The beauty of the NFL is that we will get to play the the Cards and Cardinals again. Then the debate will end. We'll see how important those early losses for us and wins for them really are. Anyone with 3 or 4 senses can see how the hawks are light years beyond what we were when we were beating those teams before we lost. You see we are not static. We are dynamic. Our level of play is evoling at a very rapid rate at about the right time. A few weeks earlier would've been better for a home playoff game or two... Anyway, both those teams are playing great! But we are the moment in history about to happen. Enjoy this ride. It could be the best yet!

 

[KiwiHawk]

Any given Sunday? Like the Lions game? ... and I never said Minnesota was mediocre... I said average. Mediocre would be Chicago, Detroit, Dallas, SF and Baltimore.

You say any given Sunday but you use it conveniently. Any given Sunday could refer to any number of 4th quarter comebacks in the games we lost. Any 3rd down conversion in any of those games and we run out the clock. It was an extremely poor run of luck combined with some poor execution.

We hemorrhage points and yards in the 4th quarter because of Carey Williams and have since corrected the problem. What your takeaway should be is that even with our offense having huge issues we still had 4th quarter leads in all those games.

Now that Wilson's release time has gone from 2.6 to 2.2 seconds, reducing sacks, reducing holding calls, and scoring a lot more points, and we have corrected the defensive problem, is it accurate to say we are the same team that gave away those leads?

If your Cards feel that way they are in for one he'll of a thrashing.

 

[chris98251]

What I like about the Seahawks is that we ask our QB to be durable, do the read option and yes take a few hits, he is battle tested and has a body of a RB. As a Cardinal, Bronco, Patriots fan I imagine there is a cringe after every sack and hit, defenses get more aggressive and are playing angry in the playoffs. The durability and ability to avoid the best defensive pass rushers on each team is going to be key.

Having Wilson with a escape route available with his scrambling ability has been a blessing for us, I am interested to see how the Oline holds up for the Cards with a minimal rushing game when the competition takes a step up.

 

[OpHawk]

This Card fan REEKS of fear. He's standing on the tracks but cant help himself to get off. Talk about an inferiority complex...

 

[Rob12]

It's actually even worse. Of the 16 teams in the NFC, it's not only true that only five teams are above 0.500 but only 9 of them can possibly wind up above 0.500 [I am including teams that are currently under 0.500 but can hypothetically end the season above it.] The same is true in the AFC. Of the 16 teams in the NFC only 6 are above 0.500 and like the NFC only 9 can possibly wind up above 0.500 [again including teams that are currently below 0.500 that might end above it].

This is horrid.

Not really horrid. The NFL wants parity, and the salary cap is delivering. Still a weird year, but not very surprising to me. I can't remember who Brock and Salk were interviewing during the late summer (in the very early stages of training camp) on 710, but it was a former NFL executive. He said that the salary cap is designed to stop teams like the Seahawks from being dominant. When you really look at it, we've lost a lot of good players due to not being able to fit them in the salary cap.

This is what makes it amazing. This team is still built to last. We're going to continue to lose some good players. But if PC/JS can continue to surround RW with talent, we're always going to be there.

It's obvious that the NFL doesn't like - dare I say - a dynasty. But with a strong finish to the season and another Owl win (not even close to being a given at this point, so calm down), the Seahawks will have the makings of one. The league flat out does not want that.

 

[Rob12]

I'm not real big on handing out a ton of praise to regular season successes, but the Panthers have been impressive. They beat us in our house when we had a big lead. Cam Newton was nails in the fourth quarter, completing something like 12-14 passes for 160 yards. If that's not a league MVP, I don't know what is. We always praise RW for doing what he's done with a less than stellar supporting cast in the passing game, and Cam, if I'm being 100 percent honest, has done just as much as Russell ever has with a completed depleted Panthers' receiving core. I mean damn, his No. 1 receiver is arguably Ted Ginn (aside from Olson) and he has put up some monster numbers. I respect Cam because he has fun when he plays the game, and he goes out of his way to make the game fun for the spectators (mostly kids) as well. He's my MVP at this point, and it's not all really that close. That's not a knock on our guy in the least... But what he's done, easy schedule or not, has been extremely impressive. And he beat us, in a place where he isn't supposed to beat us, after being down by a big deficit. I am secure enough in my Hawks fandom to say that that is as impressive as it gets.

He never buckled, and you can only play who you're scheduled to play. I don't fear the Panthers moving forward, but what that team and Cam has done has been pretty special.

 

[Pandion Haliaetus]

Just for the record, the NFL probably did as much as they could with lop-sided officiating up until after/during the Steelers game to "kill' Seattle off... since then they've backed off remarkably or just been more consistent with the ticky-tack fouls especially within the Offensive Line and Defensive Secondary.

Only after the Seahawks lost Lynch and Jimmy Graham (for the season).

Only after their Offense blew up into a powerhouse raining points perhaps flooding their ratings with historic play and gold standard story-lines of hope and redemption.

Only after pretty much guaranteeing the Cardinal's the NFC West with some of the most ticky-tack officiating I've seen called in one team's favor. Albeit the only games I've watched of the Cards is that Sea, Bengals, and 49ers stretch. Could be that they are just the most disciplined team in the NFL but inconsistency of the penalties i've seen personally called for Arizona and against their opponents makes me think they've just been getting the Luck's Colt's treatment. Those first 4-5 drives of that Seahawks game still make me sick. Arizona is a great team but it seems like the NFL is trying to guarantee their success, again, much like they've been doing with the Colt's the last 3 years.

However, Seahawks got some officiating love too, vs the Vikings. Probably because the NFL probably wants GB to win the North. Its probably why the Vikings have had crappy luck their last few games while GB has been giving multiple lives while they were struggling with some ticky-tack shit.

For the Seahawks, even at Baltimore, it looked like the Officiating was trying to keep it close for like a QTR and half until Baltimore couldn't contain the Awesomeness that is Russell Wilson right now.

Label it conspiracy theory or whatever you want... no one in their right mind can look at the officiating in whole this season and say its been entirely consistent. I think its one things where you have to follow the money. I'm not saying its too blatant. They are human and will make mistakes but seemingly more often than not their refereeing as been too Outcome based, Momentum changing ticky-tack inconsistency where they can call a bunch of judgment penalties on one team and let the other team get away with the same thing or worst.

 

[olyfan63]

AZ_fan is right, other than the Pittsburgh win none of the others are terribly significant from the standpoint of opponent. They have been impressive in terms of margin of victory, which is what they should be, and that is all the team can do at this point. But really all we know is we can blow out some crappy teams (a decimated Minnesota included), and that when our passing D has faced quality QBs (sometime even less than quality QBs) it has been used.
We know we are playoff caliber, but not much more until our first playoff game and perhaps not even then if it's vs the NFC East.
I personally trust the O more than the pass D at this point to not be a mirage.
The team is definitely "back" to not sucking vs lower tier competition as they were early on. But it's hard to know whether they are back to being SB caliber just yet.

Absolutely.

Good grief, AZ_fan comes on and points out some mostly reasonable, factual, fair-enough type stuff, and we're letting him ruffle our feathers? Whatever happened to the calm confidence thing? Personally, I find him amusing and overall pretty fair minded. Our team HAS had holes all year. Yeah, we've had a nice 4-game run, with the win against Pittsburgh being a *QUALITY* win. Minn and Baltimore were somewhat quality wins too, especially since they were on the road, and by a big margin, but both teams were banged up and it's not like going into Green Bay and beating the Packers.

The facts are that... Arizona beat us in our house a few weeks back. Carolina beat us in our house a few weeks before that. The Seahawks have some proving to do, and not much can really be proven by victories over the recent opponents, except possibly Pittsburgh, and all that proved is that our *offense* is back. Pittsburgh still torched our D, but we won. The Stealers ARE good and could run the rest of their table. They could even plausibly rep the AFC in the Super Bowl; stranger things have happened.

Other posters attack Palmer or Cam. The truth is, those two QBs were the REAL DEAL against our defense, at least on their day. They, along with Rothlisberger, lit up our defense. We don't need to put them down; can't we appreciate quality play of other players and teams, the same way we would like other fan bases to appreciate our quality players and level of play? The truth is, what needs to happen is OUR team needs to RAISE their level of play, to compete. GB, Carolina, AZ, Cincy, have all smacked us in the mouth, and not only that, smacked us in the mouth in 4th quarter crunch time. I think most of us believe, I certainly do, that those were lesser versions of us, and that now our team is evolving into their true self and will smack AZ, Carolina, GB in the mouth right back, during the rest of the season and the upcoming playoffs.

We NEED quality opponents to make our success all the sweeter. This year, Arizona and Carolina are quality opponents, and of course GB always is. When we beat one, two, or all 3 of them on the way to the Super Bowl, it will be because we raised our game.

I think it's fair to say we are what our record says we are. It says we are 6-1 in our last 7 games. That's not too bad. It also says the 1 loss was to Arizona. The eye test for that game, despite the officiating issues, says that Arizona made the key plays they needed to in crunch time and we didn't. The eye test for the last few games says that now it will be Seattle making those key plays the rest of the season. Let's enjoy it.

 

[Rob12]

New England annually beats up on a poor division. They're always still dangerous come playoff time.

Carolina has only beaten 3 teams with winning records. I guess they suck too.

It's just not a valid argument when there are only 11 teams with winning records in the league this year.

Carolina doesn't suck but they are the worst 13-0 team in the modern era. They have played a ridiculous schedule and have benefited from it. Pretty simple.

Disagree. You see, this is the same crap that people have been saying about the Hawks throughout the years, and it's kind of bunk.

The Panthers can't help who they play or what division they're in. They're the No. 1 scoring offense in the league, despite the fact that Cam Newton really has no real weapons to speak of. Jonathan Stewart? He's a solid back. Ted Ginn? He's a journeyman receiver. Jerricho Cotchery? He's 33, and is another journeyman receiver. Greg Olson is a top three TE this season, but that's the most potent weapon he has. Devin Funchess? He's no where near the talent that Tyler Lockett is.

Their defense is giving up 307.8 yards per game, which is the exact same as the Seahawks.

So, it's really not pretty simple, Mizzou. When we played them earlier in the season, I said that they were the worst 4-0 team I've ever seen. And then, at a game that I was at, they came into our house, which is supposed to be an impenetrable fortress, and they beat us. And not only did they beat us, but they stabbed our hearts in the process because that game was ours. That's what good teams do. They had no business winning that game, but they did, and sent us reeling at 2-4. At that point, I decided that I wouldn't take another team for granted - especially the Cam-led Carolina Panthers.

I still think we're better, and we would win if we get them in the playoffs. But to say they're the "worst 13-0 team in the modern era" is nothing more than Seahawks bias. And here's a question - how many teams can you name in the modern era that have started 13-0?

I'll answer it for you:

The 1998 Broncos ended the season 14-2 but still went on to win the Super Bowl.

The 2005 Colts ended the season 14-2 and lost in the divisional round of the playoffs.

The 2007 Patriots ended the season 16-0 but lost the Super Bowl.

I don't think you can say the 2015 Panthers are better than any of the above mentioned teams, but what a small sample size you choose to pick from. 13-0 has happened four times in the past 81 years. No, read that again - 81 years. And again, they're the No. 1 scoring offense and tied for No. 2 in team defense. So yeah, not sure I'm agreeing with you here. If we get them in the playoffs, it's going to be one hell of a game and it won't be easy.

The reason there is only 11 teams with winning records in the league is because, like I said, the salary cap is doing its job. That absolutely does not mean that there's 21 teams that are not good. Talent is rampant across the league, as the Seahawks' 8-5 record attests to, despite having the most talented roster in the league.

I'm not trying to be rude in the least, but I'd reevaluate your thoughts on the Carolina Panthers. Despite the fact that we typically hold Cam in check, beating them has never been easy, and at 13-0, you somehow think it is? I don't know how else to read your "worst 13-0 team in the modern era" comment.

 

[Rob12]

I am always puzzled why fans of division rivals hang out on the enemy's forum. Not that there's anything wrong with it...And truth be told we have some resident opponent fans who are quite gracious and offer something to the community.

But these types of threads "Let me come to your house and tell you why it's not that impressive what you have done" is quite boorish and immature.

Carry on.

He did nothing wrong, get some thicker skin...

Eh, has nothing to do with thicker skin. I've been lurking/posting on this site since "The Breda Report" days, and I've never been even a little bit inclined to even look at another team's forum, let alone pile up thousands of posts on it.

I guess some folks just have more time than others.

 

[olyfan63]

Agreed.
Carolina looks pretty damn good for the worst 13-0 team ever. They looked pretty tough beating us in our house.
Cam is playing out of his mind great this year. It's not a fluke. We will need to play an epic game to beat Carolina in the playoffs, should we face them. I absolutely believe our team can do it, but meantime let's give Carolina some of the respect they've earned. After all, there's a good chance they could wind up being the worst 16-0 team since the 2007 Patriots. The guys from the 1972-73 Miami Dolphins are pissed at having to delay their annual party, the one they hold each year when the last undefeated team loses.

 

[Rob12]

Just for the record, the NFL probably did as much as they could with lop-sided officiating up until after/during the Steelers game to "kill' Seattle off... since then they've backed off remarkably or just been more consistent with the ticky-tack fouls especially within the Offensive Line and Defensive Secondary.

Only after the Seahawks lost Lynch and Jimmy Graham (for the season).

Only after their Offense blew up into a powerhouse raining points perhaps flooding their ratings with historic play and gold standard story-lines of hope and redemption.

Only after pretty much guaranteeing the Cardinal's the NFC West with some of the most ticky-tack officiating I've seen called in one team's favor. Albeit the only games I've watched of the Cards is that Sea, Bengals, and 49ers stretch. Could be that they are just the most disciplined team in the NFL but inconsistency of the penalties i've seen personally called for Arizona and against their opponents makes me think they've just been getting the Luck's Colt's treatment. Those first 4-5 drives of that Seahawks game still make me sick. Arizona is a great team but it seems like the NFL is trying to guarantee their success, again, much like they've been doing with the Colt's the last 3 years.

However, Seahawks got some officiating love too, vs the Vikings. Probably because the NFL probably wants GB to win the North. Its probably why the Vikings have had crappy luck their last few games while GB has been giving multiple lives while they were struggling with some ticky-tack shit.

For the Seahawks, even at Baltimore, it looked like the Officiating was trying to keep it close for like a QTR and half until Baltimore couldn't contain the Awesomeness that is Russell Wilson right now.

Label it conspiracy theory or whatever you want... no one in their right mind can look at the officiating in whole this season and say its been entirely consistent. I think its one things where you have to follow the money. I'm not saying its too blatant. They are human and will make mistakes but seemingly more often than not their refereeing as been too Outcome based, Momentum changing ticky-tack inconsistency where they can call a bunch of judgment penalties on one team and let the other team get away with the same thing or worst.

Well, I agree.

I never complain about referrees. I really don't. But that Cardinals game was atrocious. They were consistently holding our defensive line, and at times, I think that's why our defensive line doesn't look all that effective. They're held - a lot.

What did it take to get a defensive PI call this season? Eight games? Nine? Maybe it was more than that. Which is kind of amazing, considering RW is scrambling a lot and our passing plays typically burn more clock than most teams. Are you really telling me there's not some defensive holds in there, and some blatant pass interference calls that should be flagged?

I think we're past that point of acceptance where the league is going to officiate games based on story lines. I don't think it's far-fetched at all. And more often than not, we've been on the wrong end of it (but usually, we still prevail).

I don't think you're a conspiracy theorist at all. I think it's real, and have for quite some time.