Can the Seahawks compete with the Niners?

[pittpnthrs]

The Packers were 15-1 in 2011 and got a bye.
The 9-7 Giants played on Wildcard Weekend and manhandled the Falcons.
In the divisional round, the Giants went to Lambeau (in January!) and beat the Packers convincingly, with a final score of 37-20.
Now that I think about the Giants, let's go back another four years to the 2007 season. The Boston Cheetahs ran roughshod over everyone (the Cheetahs offense scored 589 points - the next-best team scored 450 - and the Cheetahs defense allowed 274) and had an undefeated 16-game regular season. The Cheetahs then rumbled into the Super Bowl, and the out-of-nowhere, inferior-on-paper wildcard Giants allowed the surviving members of the '72 Dolphins to pop champagne on Super Bowl Sunday.
So hell yeah, "any given Sunday" and all that. The Seahawks are a reasonably good NFL team, and while the Gold Diggers are clearly the best team in the league right now, of course the Seahawks can compete.

The smart money's still on the Gold Diggers to win the division and make the Super Bowl, but as many have already said in this thread, the season is long. We can all remember examples of teams that looked like juggernauts in October and either crapped out before the season even ended, suffered a surprising early playoff exit, or (like the 2007 Cheatriots) got all the way to the Super Bowl and lost there.

That 16-0 Patriots team was losing steam every week towards the end. Not surprised they lost in the SB. I get your point, but just wanted to point that out.

 

[bileever]

The 49ers are everyone's favorites to win it all this year. In other words, we've got them right where we want them.

It's a long season. There's nothing worse than being crowned early in the year. When things go wrong, as they inevitably do, it becomes hard to recover if it's supposed to be easy for you.

The football gods hate hubris more than anything else. Start believing your press clippings and you will have your head handed to you.

Shanahan's a genius when everything goes according to plan. When the going gets tough, Kyle Shanahan is not your man. He panics, he sulks and he doesn't know how to inspire and rally the troops.

Let them be kings of week 5. That doesn't come with any trophies.

 

[Kinger95]

Only way the niners don’t make the nfc championship game is if bosa gets hurt and they have o-line injuries. If neither of those things happen theyre pretty unbeatable. I think the players they have , the system they play and just the quality of their defence makes them almost unbeatable no matter if purdy or darnold is the qb

 

[SoulfishHawk]

So, they don't have to actually play the games? They're already guaranteed to win? Got it.

 

[CostaRicaHawk]

YES. We Can compete with anyone. Do we win the game? We will have to play the game to find out!!

 

[keasley45]

Giants suck.

Panthers Suck.

Quality win vs Lions but it took OT.

Lost to Rams when Seahawks had 5 months to prepare for.

see, I can do it too.

Also, Geno is 0-4 against elite teams counting last year(3x loss to 9ers and Chiefs). They gonna lose to the Bengals this week. Reminder, Bengals started the season 0-2 last year and almost beat the Chiefs to make it to their 2nd straight Super Bowl.

I wasn't arguing that we are the best team in the league. I'm arguing that folks look at our schedule and dismiss our 3 and 1 start because of who we played. Yet the 9ers played fluff and folks look at them like they are unbeatable.

 

[RiverDog]

If the game were held today, I'd lay about 10-1 odds against us winning. But both teams could look vastly different in Week 12.

Besides, as the saying goes, on any given Sunday....

 

[WmHBonney]

The Niners look really good! Almost unbeatable. From your perspective what do the Hawks need to do to compete with these nasty ass 49ers?

LTH

They need to find a DeLorean that is equipped with a flux capacitor, bring back the 2012-2013 team and pair same with today's version of Geno.

 

[LTH]

lol.

I would say, I don’t want to be, overly optimistic, and set my expectations on Seattle too high.

Seattle, is a top 10 team, currently.

But, Seattle, is not an elite team in any side of the ball right now, and that will make beating the Niners really, really tough.

It’s just my assessment of the team right now. It could change in a few weeks. But my assessment right now is Seattle needs to improve on both sides before they can beat the Niners.

This is true they are not elite right now but they are building momentum... do we want the Hawks to peak right now? I say no... let's watch the progression..every week they get better. This is how it works. I would be thrilled if they split with the Niners losing the first one winning the second one would be great momentum going into the play offs...

LTH

 

[TwistedHusky]

Define compete?

Win a game against them? Maybe.

Beat them in a playoff game? Not likely this year.

Go farther in the playoffs this year? Unlikely.

 

[knownone]

If the game were held today, I'd lay about 10-1 odds against us winning. But both teams could look vastly different in Week 12.

Besides, as the saying goes, on any given Sunday....

Let's be clear on what you're saying here: You think if Seattle played the Niners 100 times, they'd only win 9 games. That feels a tad pessimistic.

 

[HL81]

Good thing is, we get to see this play out TWICE, haha! Hawks are young and hungry but the Niners are too good right now. Who knows though between injuries, more game tape on Purdy, etc, things can change fast.

 

[Bear-Hawk]

The Lions are a better team than Cincinnati.

I want to see how well the Seahawks handle Ja’Mar Chase. He’s as good as anybody on the 49ers.

 

[djb28]

I want to see how well the Seahawks handle Ja’Mar Chase. He’s as good as anybody on the 49ers.

The Bengals have "A guy" The Niners have 4 of those guys.

 

[WarHawks]

So the general consensus seems to be that we'll be competitive, but we don't have much of a shot at overtaking them. So the real question we should be asking is, what do we have to do to get over that hump? If red zone scoring is an issue, then what weapons do we need? Better qb? Kittle/McCafferty clones? And if coverage D is an issue, how do we fix that? Seriously, how do we get there? Everything should be on the table. No sacred cows. If we don't have a solid plan to get there, it will never happen.

 

[Mad Dog]

Let's be clear on what you're saying here: You think if Seattle played the Niners 100 times, they'd only win 9 games. That feels a tad pessimistic.

Yeah that's more apropos to the Rams. Pete has never solved that club.

At least with the Niners we are generally competitive over the years.

 

[Mad Dog]

So the general consensus seems to be that we'll be competitive, but we don't have much of a shot at overtaking them. So the real question we should be asking is, what do we have to do to get over that hump? If red zone scoring is an issue, then what weapons do we need? Better qb? Kittle/McCafferty clones? And if coverage D is an issue, how do we fix that? Seriously, how do we get there? Everything should be on the table. No sacred cows. If we don't have a solid plan to get there, it will never happen.

Every team could use a Kittle and CMC clone. And clone Shanahan as an OC.

 

[NoGain]

Yup. On an given Sunday. My NFC power rankings would look something like this...

49ers
Eagles



Seahawks
Lions
Dallas


Bucaneers
Rams

Saints
Falcons

...or something like that.

 

[RiverDog]

Yup. On an given Sunday. My NFC power rankings would look something like this...

49ers
Eagles



Seahawks
Lions
Dallas


Bucaneers
Rams

Saints
Falcons

...or something like that.

I think that's pretty accurate. I would have ranked Dallas up there with the Eagles and Niners, but not after what we saw last Sunday. They're 2nd tier along with the Lions and Hawks.

 

[MyrtleHawk]

They need to find a DeLorean that is equipped with a flux capacitor, bring back the 2012-2013 team and pair same with today's version of Geno.

How do you expect the whole team to fit inside a DeLorean?