Time to rest players and get ready for the Playoffs

This Seahawk team is making a statement to all: nothing can stop us, we are the best team in the NFL. The one thing that all Hawk fans have to worry about now, is not other teams, but injuries. The Hawks have the BEST chance of any team in the NFL to win the superbowl. With a win against the 49ers, the Hawks have homefield advantage tied up. They would be up 2 games against the winner of the Saints/Panthers game, 3 games against the loser, and 4 games against the 49ers with only 3 games left. They would also have the tiebreaker, so really they would be up, 2.5, 3.5 and 4.5 games.

Does anyone doubt that the backups can win 2 or 3 of our last 3 games? We only would need 1 win to sow up homefield after the 49ers game.

So, my plan would be to play the 49ers normally and hope for the best (no injuries). But after the 49ers game, if the Hawks win, start resting players. There aren't a huge number of players that you need to protect --i count 4-5 players that would damage your SB chances if they are hurt:

1) Russell
2) Earl
3) Sherm
4) Okung
5) And maybe Beast

We already know how injury prone Okung is. I don't see a problem with playing the backups in his position. We have always said we have the best backup QB in the league, I don't see a problem with Tarvaris playing. Then we have Earl/Sherm, Earl has to be rested because he has no good backup and he is so important to the team. With Sherm, you can still play him, but do it sparingly.

And I'm not saying play them ZERO time. Why not approach the final 3 games like preseason games. Allow Russell to play a few possessions in order to keep his sharpness. Perhaps in the final game you allow him to play a quarter to two quarters. The same with Earl/Okung.

The biggest risk to the Seahawks is injuries. We can literally see our superbowl hopes go up in smoke if Wilson or Earl are injured. Why take the risk? This coaching staff has always showed the ability to do something against the general consensus. We see this with the draft (didn't we get a D the year Wilson was drafted?), free agency, how they play the game, etc. Why not think outside of the box and start resting players now?

Always compete. As long as we put a team out there to win, I'm cool testing people for some PLAYS.

Yea I agree with Karavarus if you got a bye locked up you might as well play all your guys that are healthy you get a week off anyways gotta stay sharp.

play to win.. period.. rest after the game is in the bag..

Once we have home field in the bag, I have no problem with resting guys in the 4th quarter of games we have leads in. If the game is tight or we are down, then we leave all the starters in the whole way, if we have a decent lead in the 4th, then pull some starters and get other guys some playing experience. I don't think we should be playing any backups sans injury, in the first half of any game.

Honestly though we can't even lock up HFA for 2 more weeks, so right now it's a moot point

It's too early after the Niners game.

We still have a lot to prove. Our coach preaches "always compete". You can't contradict yourself, and coach and players are very cognizant of our home win streak and winning in front of our fans.

The 12th man affects every game played in the Clink. So, you put in backups the last 2 games of an epic season and that's how you thank your fans ?

Why not offer a discount on ticket prices for the last two games ? Hell, I wouldn't want to go knowing none of the good starters are going to be in.

I agree that you should always compete, and play to win every week. I think one problem elite teams have had in the playoffs over the years is the tendency to "coast" once the playoff picture is secured. I see this as incredibly stupid.

But I do think it would be VERY funny to play the 49ers with ALL of our backups starting, and still winning the game with our second and third string. Adding insult to injury (knowing we will "break" a few 49er players, like usual)


Wont happen, but would be funny - at least to me, but I have an odd sense of humor

Yeah... NO.

You play lights out from here on, win every game in a dominant fashion if you can to take players out in the 2nd half, continue to gather your momentum to its peak, and rest them on the bye week

We finally got the ball rolling in the right direction with a rhythm and now you want to play red light, green light.

This is a fantastically bad idea (but then again, you think Tate isn't very good, so...). If you keep the starters out for 3 (!) games, that's a month off. Guess who's coming out flat in the playoffs and getting bounced if that happens. Seattle's fine-tuning for the playoff run.

The ONLY reason to sit players (after we lock up #1) is if they need the rest to heal up.

We play the defending NFC champions in 4 days.
we are NOT resting players.

Reps.

This team is young, but gaining experience. I want to see the O-Line work together, and get more efficient doing so. That only comes by reps.

Injuries can happen in practice, too, so train to be strong, practice smart, and play hard.

Give the starters reps!

Lynch is absolutely positively on the list of players we can't lose if we want to win the SB. Don't get it twisted.

1-0 every week. If you don't need your starters to go 1 - 0 as the game goes on then fine, but don't change anything. Practice and play to go 1 - 0 every game without shutting anything down.

Fortunately there is a simple solution here: win the next two games to sew up homefield advantage, then kick the snot out of Arizona and St. Louis in weeks 16 and 17 so we can pull our starters at halftime of those games. Problem solved!

5 teams posted a 15-1 record. Those teams are Green Bay, San Francisco, Chicago, Minnesota, and Pittsburgh. It would be grand if the Seahawks joined that club. Then follow the way of SF and Chicago by winning the Superbowl.

Maybe Lynch? That's crazy talk. He's key to this team and what we do on offense.

I like the sentiment of the OP, but I think we play to the death!

OK, not death. But I think we should continue playing our guys hard until we come down to our final home stretch. Depending on score- 4th qtrs., perhaps excluded.

plyka":1zqhqczj said:

This Seahawk team is making a statement to all: nothing can stop us, we are the best team in the NFL. The one thing that all Hawk fans have to worry about now, is not other teams, but injuries. The Hawks have the BEST chance of any team in the NFL to win the superbowl. With a win against the 49ers, the Hawks have homefield advantage tied up.

Click to expand...

Mitch on KJR broke it down yesterday and winning in SF does NOT guarantee HFA throughout the playoffs. All a win does is lock up a #2 seed and a 1st round bye, yet somehow some way they can still be caught and lose a tie breaker if they bomb the last three.

2 wins out of the next 4 games regardless of who it is against will lock up HFA throughout. After that they can than think about resting guys

i don't really know how I feel about this. It seems like the Colts did that for years and didn't have a lot to show for it (other than one Super Bowl win). I want our guys sharp.