Aros' Fearless Playoff Prediction Thread (Hawks @ Redskins)

peachesenregalia":2aouugbb said:

SkinsGuru":2aouugbb said:

well there sure is a lot of confidence here . . . and rightfully so, your team has been playing real good football . . . IF this game were in Seattle i would have to go with the Hawks . . . but it is not and while you guys are not anywhere near as bad on the road as a lot of people would like to state, you are also not as good on the road as you are at home . . . And you haven't played against the skins offense . . . while i agree you shut down the 49ers, that is not the skins offense either . . . i feel this will end up being a pretty high scoring game as i don't have a lot of faith in the Skins D to be able to shut down the hawks offense, but they are very opportunistic and have done a great job creating turnovers all year and i feel that will be the most important part of this game, winning the turnover battle . . . i feel the Skins will protect the ball and force a couple of turnovers that will utimately cost the hawks the game . . .

Redskins win!! 31 - 27

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Well, you're entitled to your opinion. Even when that opinion is wrong. Which it is, on this occasion. Redskins don't have a shot in this one. Sorry (I'm not).

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There sure is alot of arrogance amonst Seattle fans this year...that you are going to come east coast and piss on us in OUR house. Its going to be really fun when the Skins win and shut everyone up who's underestimated us (again).

RiggoReincarnated":2gvaj8v3 said:

peachesenregalia":2gvaj8v3 said:

SkinsGuru":2gvaj8v3 said:

well there sure is a lot of confidence here . . . and rightfully so, your team has been playing real good football . . . IF this game were in Seattle i would have to go with the Hawks . . . but it is not and while you guys are not anywhere near as bad on the road as a lot of people would like to state, you are also not as good on the road as you are at home . . . And you haven't played against the skins offense . . . while i agree you shut down the 49ers, that is not the skins offense either . . . i feel this will end up being a pretty high scoring game as i don't have a lot of faith in the Skins D to be able to shut down the hawks offense, but they are very opportunistic and have done a great job creating turnovers all year and i feel that will be the most important part of this game, winning the turnover battle . . . i feel the Skins will protect the ball and force a couple of turnovers that will utimately cost the hawks the game . . .

Redskins win!! 31 - 27

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Well, you're entitled to your opinion. Even when that opinion is wrong. Which it is, on this occasion. Redskins don't have a shot in this one. Sorry (I'm not).

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There sure is alot of arrogance amonst Seattle fans this year...that you are going to come east coast and piss on us in OUR house. Its going to be really fun when the Skins win and shut everyone up who's underestimated us (again).

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What do you mean "again"? Go look at the Redskins wikipedia team and tell me the Redskins haven't been irrelevant for the better part of 15 years. Take it from a fanbase that knows - you gotta earn that respect.

RiggoReincarnated":22hb4ai9 said:

peachesenregalia":22hb4ai9 said:

SkinsGuru":22hb4ai9 said:

well there sure is a lot of confidence here . . . and rightfully so, your team has been playing real good football . . . IF this game were in Seattle i would have to go with the Hawks . . . but it is not and while you guys are not anywhere near as bad on the road as a lot of people would like to state, you are also not as good on the road as you are at home . . . And you haven't played against the skins offense . . . while i agree you shut down the 49ers, that is not the skins offense either . . . i feel this will end up being a pretty high scoring game as i don't have a lot of faith in the Skins D to be able to shut down the hawks offense, but they are very opportunistic and have done a great job creating turnovers all year and i feel that will be the most important part of this game, winning the turnover battle . . . i feel the Skins will protect the ball and force a couple of turnovers that will utimately cost the hawks the game . . .

Redskins win!! 31 - 27

Click to expand...

Well, you're entitled to your opinion. Even when that opinion is wrong. Which it is, on this occasion. Redskins don't have a shot in this one. Sorry (I'm not).

Click to expand...

There sure is alot of arrogance amonst Seattle fans this year...that you are going to come east coast and piss on us in OUR house. Its going to be really fun when the Skins win and shut everyone up who's underestimated us (again).

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Interesting, coming from someone who's signature argument thus far has been a 2011 game between Rex Grossman, Roy Helu, and Tarvaris Jackson.

I will take the better all around team to win. That team is unquestionably the Hawks. As long as they play reasonably close to their best, they should be able to win, even on the road.

Hawks 28
Skins 17

There sure is alot of arrogance amonst Seattle fans this year...that you are going to come east coast and piss on us in OUR house. Its going to be really fun when the Skins win and shut everyone up who's underestimated us (again).[/quote]

Interesting, coming from someone who's signature argument thus far has been a 2011 game between Rex Grossman, Roy Helu, and Tarvaris Jackson.[/quote]



The only part of that argument was the success of our offense versus your secondary. I concede Russell Wilson and your offense will be a much greater challenge this year. However, I don't find any reason to believe your defense will hold us under 20 points on our home turf, not the way we are playing now. Not with our offense vastly improved, and not after a less talented QB, RB, and WR corps put up 450 yards on you guys at your house just last season. I've heard your LB play is better this year, fine...but is that enough to offset our offense - where we've focused fastly over the past offseason with RGIII and putting balanced weaponry around him?

However, these predictions of 21 point blowouts on the road in a road playoff game make me laugh. We aren't the Buffalo Bills.

SkinsGuru":2fh0at08 said:

well there sure is a lot of confidence here . . . and rightfully so, your team has been playing real good football . . . IF this game were in Seattle i would have to go with the Hawks . . . but it is not and while you guys are not anywhere near as bad on the road as a lot of people would like to state, you are also not as good on the road as you are at home . . . And you haven't played against the skins offense . . . while i agree you shut down the 49ers, that is not the skins offense either . . . i feel this will end up being a pretty high scoring game as i don't have a lot of faith in the Skins D to be able to shut down the hawks offense, but they are very opportunistic and have done a great job creating turnovers all year and i feel that will be the most important part of this game, winning the turnover battle . . . i feel the Skins will protect the ball and force a couple of turnovers that will utimately cost the hawks the game . . .

Redskins win!! 31 - 27

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Our defense hasnt given up more than 28 all season long. I don't see any chance of the Skins getting to 31.
This will be a close game though....20-16 Hawks.

iigakusei":bvaouobj said:

SkinsGuru":bvaouobj said:

well there sure is a lot of confidence here . . . and rightfully so, your team has been playing real good football . . . IF this game were in Seattle i would have to go with the Hawks . . . but it is not and while you guys are not anywhere near as bad on the road as a lot of people would like to state, you are also not as good on the road as you are at home . . . And you haven't played against the skins offense . . . while i agree you shut down the 49ers, that is not the skins offense either . . . i feel this will end up being a pretty high scoring game as i don't have a lot of faith in the Skins D to be able to shut down the hawks offense, but they are very opportunistic and have done a great job creating turnovers all year and i feel that will be the most important part of this game, winning the turnover battle . . . i feel the Skins will protect the ball and force a couple of turnovers that will utimately cost the hawks the game . . .

Redskins win!! 31 - 27

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Our defense hasnt given up more than 28 all season long. I don't see any chance of the Skins getting to 31.
This will be a close game though....20-16 Hawks.

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Now that kind of prediction I can at least respect and understand. I wouldn't be totally shocked if its a lower scoring game and both teams go conservative on offense (at least initially)

RiggoReincarnated":2adzr1gw said:

There sure is alot of arrogance amonst Seattle fans this year...that you are going to come east coast and piss on us in OUR house. Its going to be really fun when the Skins win and shut everyone up who's underestimated us (again).

Click to expand...

Interesting, coming from someone who's signature argument thus far has been a 2011 game between Rex Grossman, Roy Helu, and Tarvaris Jackson.[/quote]



The only part of that argument was the success of our offense versus your secondary. I concede Russell Wilson and your offense will be a much greater challenge this year. However, I don't find any reason to believe your defense will hold us under 20 points on our home turf, not the way we are playing now. Not with our offense vastly improved, and not after a less talented QB, RB, and WR corps put up 450 yards on you guys at your house just last season. I've heard your LB play is better this year, fine...but is that enough to offset our offense - where we've focused fastly over the past offseason with RGIII and putting balanced weaponry around him?

However, these predictions of 21 point blowouts on the road in a road playoff game make me laugh. We aren't the Buffalo Bills.[/quote]

This year's defense is superior to last year's defense not only because of that better LB play, but also because of more experience at most defensive positions (remember, Sherman was only a rookie starting to flash last season, as was KJ Wright). But here's the thing. The defense is ALSO better because of a SIGNIFICANTLY better offense paired with it. The Seahawks offense can sustain long drives, giving the defense rest. It can put points up early, whereas last year's team tended to struggle to do so. That makes opponents more one-dimensional as they attempt to catch up.

In last year's game, the defense faltered in the 4th quarter, and sure - that's still a concern sometimes. But the bigger story, in my opinion, is that once the Skins started rallying in the 4th, there was NOTHING that Tarvaris Jackson could do about it. After the Seahawks scored early in the 4th to lead 17-7, Jackson faced four 3rd downs, and this is what he did with them:

Sack for -9 yards
Incomplete pass
Pass for 2 yards on 3rd and 7 (followed by taking a sack for -9 yards on 4th down)
Interception

This year's Seahawks offense does not play like that in the 4th quarter.

RiggoReincarnated":ezh3tqxp said:

There sure is alot of arrogance amonst Seattle fans this year...that you are going to come east coast and piss on us in OUR house. Its going to be really fun when the Skins win and shut everyone up who's underestimated us (again).

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What do you expect? This IS the home base for fans of the Seahawks. I think if you looked through all the prediction type threads, including your own, you would find that most of that team's fans are going to predict a victory in every game they play.

You will probably find a few fans on this very board picking the Skins to win the game on Sunday. On the other hand, after browsing lightly through the Redskin forums I haven't ran across a single fan predicting a Seahawk win. I'm not saying it isn't there, because maybe it is, I just haven't seen it yet.

In fact, if you look back through the entire seasons worth of threads on any team forum you will find predictions of victory regardless of the matchup. Outside of the AZ game, most fans, even in Buffalo could visualize their team winning. If their team is good, they appear to be right most of the time.

The fans here are seeing something they haven't seen before in a very complete team in all 3 phases of the game, plus a team that regardless of road record in the first half of the season put up a serious fight in their losses. How can you blame them?

What is it? Are the fans supposed to account for some "mystique" factor or something? If the games were decided by odds or stats, they wouldn't have to play them. Including conference games, both of these teams have played 4 teams that made the playoffs. The Hawks have a win against each of their 4, the Skins? 2 wins and 2 losses.

Both of those losses were at home.

Call it arrogance, but it isn't without warrant and you won't see other fans acting differently, including your own.

loafoftatupu":3binc8iy said:

RiggoReincarnated":3binc8iy said:

There sure is alot of arrogance amonst Seattle fans this year...that you are going to come east coast and piss on us in OUR house. Its going to be really fun when the Skins win and shut everyone up who's underestimated us (again).

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What do you expect? This IS the home base for fans of the Seahawks. I think if you looked through all the prediction type threads, including your own, you would find that most of that team's fans are going to predict a victory in every game they play.

You will probably find a few fans on this very board picking the Skins to win the game on Sunday. On the other hand, after browsing lightly through the Redskin forums I haven't ran across a single fan predicting a Seahawk win. I'm not saying it isn't there, because maybe it is, I just haven't seen it yet.

In fact, if you look back through the entire seasons worth of threads on any team forum you will find predictions of victory regardless of the matchup. Outside of the AZ game, most fans, even in Buffalo could visualize their team winning. If their team is good, they appear to be right most of the time.

The fans here are seeing something they haven't seen before in a very complete team in all 3 phases of the game, plus a team that regardless of road record in the first half of the season put up a serious fight in their losses. How can you blame them?

What is it? Are the fans supposed to account for some "mystique" factor or something? If the games were decided by odds or stats, they wouldn't have to play them. Including conference games, both of these teams have played 4 teams that made the playoffs. The Hawks have a win against each of their 4, the Skins? 2 wins and 2 losses.

Both of those losses were at home.

Call it arrogance, but it isn't without warrant and you won't see other fans acting differently, including your own.

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Good point. Believe it or not though, about 50% of Dallas fans were actually predicting them to lose to us, and I think that was reflected in the collapse of the team when the going got tough in the game. The difference between the attitudes (not necessarily bad) is remarkable.

I expect much more of a fight this weekend, and more of a need to convert any turnovers we get into points. We picked off Romo twice in the first half last week, yet the score was 7-7 going into the half. If we get any against you guys, if we cannot convert them into points each time, I think its going to be extremely difficult to win. If we lose the turnover battle, I think we lose outright.

Both fanbases have reason to be confident, with 7 and 5 game win streaks going in...the 2 hottest teams in the NFL aside from Denver. A shame that one has to lose this early in the playoffs. I can't wait.

If the 'Hawks can contain Morris and RGIII on the run, it'll slow down the Skins playaction game, which has been essential to their big-play ability. If--and that's a big if--the 'Hawks can do that they'll win by two scores.

I'm not so confident in the run defense, though. See Absolut's post. This one is going to be a nail biter. The 'Skins defense isn't great, but they've made plays when it counted lately. And the 'Hawks have gone through stretches of bad bounces this season (particularly off the hands of receivers).

'Hawks: 27
'Skins: 24

Hawks' 38 - Redskins 10

Redskins are going to get mauled in this one. 42 - 13, Hawks.

RiggoReincarnated":2wg9y1y7 said:

Good point. Believe it or not though, about 50% of Dallas fans were actually predicting them to lose to us, and I think that was reflected in the collapse of the team when the going got tough in the game. The difference between the attitudes (not necessarily bad) is remarkable.

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If I was a Cowboys fan, I would have predicted a loss to the Skins too...

They sure gave the Hawks a tough game this year... They were the start on the long list pf public comments made by fans and coaches from other teams. The words "that was embarassing" must have been used to record levels this season.

[youtube]ifE6XkqMX9g[/youtube]

Homeristic delusional call Hawks 52 - 17

Realist Playoff prediction 24-15 Hawks

I am not going to make a prediction. I truly feel this game is a toss up. It could really go any way, IMO. It could be a nail-biter, coming down to one final play (as all of the Hawks road games seem to do). The Skins could start hot, catch fire, and ride the momentum of a home crowd desperate for a playoff win, and win easily. Or Seattle could even come in and catch the Skins off guard and dominate. I really do think anything is possible. Any fans on either side who currently think their team is a lock to win, IMO, are not giving their opponent close to even credit, and reveling far too much in their kool-aid punch bowl.

If it were at our house, we'd stomp them. I really believe that. We're the better team and our home field advantage is too much. But this game isn't at home. And it's on the East coast, to boot. You got a hungry crowd in love with it's new franchise face that is dying to explode. All the factors that come with the game being in DC, IMO, cancel out the advantages Seattle has on paper over the Redskins.

Until the Seahawks prove they can win consistently on the road, I can never go into a road game with too much confidence. It's just me battling my own history as a fan. The Hawks haven't won a playoff game on the road since I was 2 years old. Yes, trends are made to be broken. And before 2005, the same could be said about them in the playoffs, period. But still, it's hard to flat out assume something you've never witnessed is going to happen.

Don't get me wrong. The Hawks aren't the bumbling joke away from home that they used to be. And any Redskins fan that is simply looking at their 3-5 road record is in for a surprise. The Hawks were in EVERY SINGLE road loss at the very end, lost all by 7 pts or less, and were a single play away from winning a handful of those games. This isn't a team that plays bad without it's comfy home field advantage. This is a team that has been in every single game it's played this season, up to the very end. The home field advantage used to mask a serious road problem. Not anymore. Any DC fan that chooses to ignore it, and instead focus on a 3-5 road record is akin to sticking their head in the sand and screaming "na na na na! don't wanna hear it!" And by the way, a 5-3 home record isn't exactly an impenetrable fortress.

Like I said, I think this game is scary close. Both teams are on considerable winning streaks. Both have exciting rookie qb's playing up there with the best in the game right now. Both have strong running games. I feel Seattle pulls away when you factor in the defense. But DC has the home field advantage.

And quite frankly, on the road and in the playoffs, I fear the refs a little. I've feared them ever since the GB MNF game and the national outrage that ensued. Fair or not (it's not, btw), there's a sentiment some have that Seattle needs to be punished for that game. And I'm not sure if you've been paying attention or not. But there's been a couple games Seattle's played since then (Chicago, anyone?) that seriously felt as if it was a subliminal factor with the refs. Throw in the refs punishing Kam Chancellor for hitting people hard even when he does so legally, and a home crowd that's going to be screaming bloody murder at anything that doesn't go their way. I gotta admit, I'm a bit concerned in this aspect of the game.

As I've said a couple times already. This is a super close match up, that could really go any way. Given just about every single road game the Hawks have played this season, odds are it comes down to a final drive in the 4th qtr. And as was the case in the Chicago and Detroit games, it could likely come down to whoever has the ball last.

Oh, and one last thing. Any Redskin fan that feels the need to say "Boy, are you guys confident." Just save it.

Take a look in the mirror. Not to mention every single NFL fan base when their team is in the playoffs. Fans are crazy invested in their teams. Their team reaching the playoffs does nothing but embolden such passion.

Do I really need to remind you just how confident you guys were with TODD COLLINS coming to Seattle a few years back? Seriously, now. Just save it. All fans get pumped about their team this time of the year. To act above such behavior is beyond obnoxious.

RiggoReincarnated":2rdz6ndq said:

Skins 23
Seahawks 17

If we can do it in Seattle we can do it here.

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You keep hammering this point like it means something this year?

Seahawks win 38-10.

31-20 Seahawks.