To The Posters...

[TriCHawk]

Well, we'll see. Seahawks might end up playing Carolina again. Both teams have progressed.

 

[amill87]

This is always gonna be a dilemma on this site. People are gonna have their opinions and that's all well and good.

Where we run into trouble (I've been guilty of this) is when a poster forms such a strong opinion that there is no way they can be wrong and than they are wrong, the fall back into the victim role when they get called out for being so stubborn with their opinion.

Than the person who was frustrated because they got told their opinion did not matter because there is no way they can be right, wants to feel some vindication and gets called a jerk but it started when someone else was a jerk to them. It's a giant circle of e-peen comparisons.

 

[Popeyejones]

Indeed and hopefully without rubbing salt into any wounds, it's the difference between this year's Seahawks and last year's Seahawks. Last year for much of the early part of the season certainly, Seattle was a bit like last year's Panthers, i.e. unable to win close games, and I remember back in 2011, Seattle was hideous in close games. As a result in 2012, Seattle started 4-4 and were never quite able to catch the 49ners that took the early division lead.

This year those roles have been reversed.

Yeah, I don't disagree with this entirely and I think the Hawks DEFINITELY deserve credit, but I think the operative (and MUCH LESS FUN ) thing at work is probably regression to the mean.

The Seahawks did not likely go from being mediocre in close games to amazing in close games in a season, just as the 9ers likely didn't go from being very good in close games to awful in close games in a seaon.

Instead, over time, close games tend to come down to a coin flip. Like a coin flip, getting a few heads in a row or a few tails in a row happens all the time, although we would be making a mistake to assume there's something special about heads or tails causing either one to come up a few times in a row.

ALL great teams (like the Hawks, which are obviously a great team) seem to benefit from winning a couple coin flips in tight games over the course of the season (and even the best teams have close games over the course of a season). Unlike other major professional sports (e.g. basketball, baseball, hockey), the NFL season is short enough for those coin flips to not evenly distribute within a season. This doesn't take anything away from the Hawks, who are a great team. It's just the way it is, and is why it's so important to win the close games, which the Hawks have been able to do.

 

[RichNhansom]

Sorry Popeye but your last post sounds a lot more like we are just having a stretch of good luck and you are getting the opposite. Luck is when preparation meets opportunity. There were several games last year that RW got us a late lead and our defense blew it. Our defense is better this year. And RW is still getting us those late leads.

It is not luck. For us or you.

 

[Polaris]

I think when you have a team that has a run of wins (or losses) in close games, you need to delve deeper and ask why the team seemed to win or lose those close games. In a lot of cases it IS luck, and you expect a regression to mean. However, in other cases it's a matter of execution.

I would submit the same applies to the 49ners. They won a bunch of close games in the 2011 games where they went 13-3 after a 6-10 season the year previous and a lot of people expected the niners to regress to mean in 2012....but they didn't. Why not? Because if you looked closer, the Niners actually executed better in those close games.

As for the 49ners this year, the only real close game that I recall that the niners won was the season opener against Green Bay. That game was pretty much a classic shootout. Ever since week two, the Niners have either dominated games or lost them close (save for Indy). Why? I think regression to mean has bitten the Niners because offensive execution has fallen off and has become so conservative that it permits bad luck to decide the game against them.

Just my take.

 

[Popeyejones]

I would submit the same applies to the 49ners. They won a bunch of close games in the 2011 games where they went 13-3 after a 6-10 season the year previous and a lot of people expected the niners to regress to mean in 2012....but they didn't.

uhh, yes they did. The 9ers were 6-2 in games decided by 7 points or less in 2011. they won 75% of close games. They were 2-1-1 in games decided by 7 points or less in 2012. They won 50% of close games.

If you applied the 9ers close game winning % in 2012 to 2011, they would have been 11-5 in 2011, whereas they were 11-4-1 in 2012.

This year they're 1-2 in close games, and if that continues and their current close game rate continues and we instead apply the 2011 close game win rate, they'd basically end up at 11-5 again.

That said, if their close game rate continues this year, they'll have had one year well above the mean for close game wins, one year at the mean, and one year below the mean. Over time, like everyone else, under Harbaugh the 49ers aren't magically good in close games or magically bad. They're actually pretty normal.

 

[RichNhansom]

I don't know who you are, but I remember a lot of peeps said the Panthers were an average team at best, and we almost lost to a scrub to Week 1... the Panthers are now 7-3... their Defense is for real and amongst the top of the league in many categories... that barely escaped Seahawks win, Week 1 10 am start, on the road, in 90+ degree weather without Avril, Clemons, Irvin, Browner, Hill, Mcdonald and with Mebane and McDaniel playing injured (Groins) is looking like a quality win, in the bigger picture.

Not calling anyone out... just trying to point out to peeps... don't judge a book by its cover.

Was this guy a long time poster? Or one of our new "I'm a Seahawks fan, I really am" guy's that couldn't give the Niners enough credit while constantly degrading everything we did or attributed it to luck?

We had multiple of those guys on here earlier this year that now seem surprisingly absent.

 

[UGotHawked]

I am not claiming to be smarter than the average poster, but I had serious discussions at church with my Redskin, Cowboy, and Whiner friends in strong defense of a potential trap game with CAR prior to week one. They were claiming it was an easy game and I told them I would take an ugly win down there. I was right.

That being said, I do not agree with the posters who are wiping sweat from their brows because SEA "got them early." I would concur with a previous poster - CAR may be the one who is fortunate. They got Seattle early, and at home, and at an early start, and with SEA nowhere near full strength, and yet SEA still found a way to win. I respect that team, but I have a quiet confidence in matching up with them when all of those factors are actually in the HAWKS' favor.