Why the Seahawks Are Seen as Better Than Their Record

The Seahawks are a different team than when they lost to the Panthers earlier in the season. Lynch's absence has forced Bevel and Wilson to throw more. And this has helped Wilson become an Elite pocket passer, maybe the best in the NFL, better than Newton, statistically in the last half of the season. It will be a close game. The Hawks will remember the earlier game this season, and how they got burned in the final minutes with Newton pass to the TE for the win. That game was close. The Hawks could have won that. My prediction: Seahawks 27, Panthers 24...Hawks win in overtime.

Additionally, the Panthers' opponents this season won 113 games and lost 143, whereas the Seahawks' opponents won 133 games and lost 123. Clearly the Seahawks had the tougher schedule.

This is nice, but it will be NE over Arizona in the end.

the Carolina schedule was much easier than the Seahawks, check out who they played and see how many really good teams they played.

One detail in the predictions which was not mentioned in the article: Carolina had one of the weakest schedules in the NFL this season (dead last according to some measures.) They only played 4 playoff teams (Texans, Packers, Seahawks, and Washington), and the wins against the Texans and Seahawks came at a point when those teams were struggling and didn't look like potential playoff teams. That isn't to say that Carolina is necessarily weaker than its 15-1 record suggests, but they are relatively untested and so their real strength is uncertain. In recent years teams which start off the season strong often fade, as injuries take hold or as other teams surge late in the season. Of course this is why we actually watch the games and not just the stats!

"The Seahawks lost in Week 2 at Green Bay by 10, but otherwise never lost by more than 7, while they have four wins of 26 points or more. Though many fans look no further than the won-lost column, computer rankings and linesmakers tend to go one level deeper, dismissing close losses and rewarding big wins."

Carolina never lost by more than 7 points, even in week 2. And of course only lost once not 6 times. Carolina had 3 wins by more than 26 points. They had 6 wins by 14 or more points.
This should be a very competitive game and either team could surely win without it being wildly surprising (as is true with all the games this weekend) but this paragraph in the article was written in a way to suggest that Seattle would be favored by the "computers and linesmakers" because of this and that is simply stupid since Carolina is equally suited for the same argument.

Nobody has mentioned the results of the first game between Seattle and Carolina.

Carolina 27 - Seattle 23. They did it before and they can do it again.

Maybe the best game of the weekend.

If you are looking for an underdog who can win on the road, try KC with an 11 game win streak.

A Super Bowl win for the Seahawks is an enormous longshot. One thing that has not changed since last year -- the Hawks and Pete Carroll are in the bottom half of the NFL when it comes to scoring touchdowns when close to the goal line. Wasn't that a problem last year, too?

I think every one of the home teams is vulnerable and would not be surprised 2 or 3 of the lower seeds won.

One huge and important difference in this game vs the game played earlier in the season is the addition of Bobby Wagner.

Both Bobby and his back up middle linebacker (Brock Coyle) were out in the Panther/Seahawk game in October. That meant KJ Wright had to slide over from his outside linebacker position to play middle linebacker (diminishing both positions) and second year linebacker Pierre-Lewis had to play Wright's spot outside.

The Seahawks defense will be much, much better this time around. Bobby Wagner is probably the second best middle linebacker behind only Luke Kuechly. KJ is much better in pass defense and much more experienced. Add to that that Jeremy Lane is back from the injury he suffered in last years Super Bowl, and the growth of CB Deshawn Shead and the Panthers are almost playing a different defense.

The game plan is obvious. Bottle up the run. Double cover Olsen. Make Cam Newton beat the Seahawks defense throwing to his wide receivers. If Cam can do that, hat's off to him. If he can't the Seahawks will be moving on.

I believe this game is the real "Super Bowl". Whoever wins this game will run the table. Defense and running the ball wins championships. Both the Panthers and the Seahawks are built for that --the Panthers roster is eerily similar to the Seahawks.

It will be a fun game to watch!

The Panthers quarterback Cam Newton has pass, run and block skills like Watson of the Clemson Tigers. The Seahawk's quarterback has some of these skills too, but not the 6'5" and 250 pounds to drive the defensive line back in his efforts to gain needed yardage. No one yet can master the two Panther linebackers who are in almost every play.
My money is on the Panthers!

Nothing about Marshawn Lynch? Seattle is a different team if he is healthy.

Yeah, but my annoying Rams beat Seattle twice and look where they are; home watching Seattle, yet again, in the playoffs...

Truth be told, the Seahawks should be out of the playoffs! Therefore they can play like they have nothing to lose...

O.K., I admit I'm a bit of a Seahawks fan - like the Panthers, too... ;>)

The simple fact of the matter is that the Seahawks' stat line doesn't tell the truth. The box score doesn't show the grit of the team.

This is the only team in football, where the QB misses the snap, and all the fans jump up off the couch in excitement. This is the only team in football where the score is 0-24, and all the fans think: "we'll probably win."

Being in New York, the simple fact is that no east coast fans know enough about the NFC west to even evaluate our position. They're too busy complaining about the Jets, the Giants, the Patriots. Even Green Bay seems exotic.

Against the Panthers in the last 4 years we're 4-1, and three of those games were in Carolina.

We're the #1 Defense, four years in a row. We've been to the playoffs 5 out of the last 6 years.

I believe the Panthers would be solid favorites but for the injuries to their secondary. They now start players who were out of the league at the start of the season. That's why the pass rush by the Panthers will decide the outcome of this game.

Have you forgotten the Ravens and their improbable away victories against New England and Denver and the Super Bowl near-runaway?

As people love to say about football, it is a game of inches. Another way of looking at it is that in a single elimination playoff format, the outcome of any one game has miserable statistical significance. The net result is that whoever ends up in the Super Bowl and which of the contestants wins it, is as much a champion by dint of luck as much as skill. It would be nice if football matches, at least in the post season, were a best of three, or best of five, format, but the game is so brutally punishing on players that that will never happen. I love watching the game (I am a Seahawks fan) but I have given up on reading too much into the outcome of those games.

Late in the season, having seen the Giants rally from 28 down against the Panthers in the 4th, it should be noted that Seattle, too, lost five of its six games, though leading in the 4th. However, that only happened once during their last seven games. Recall that they were 2-4, then 5-5, and finished 10-6. Growth during the second half of the season is always the determining factor in predicting a playoff team's promise and potential for a run at the big game. The problem of finishing a game, as much as it might be so, seems resolved for Seattle, lucky missed field goal or not. What was evident about the Panthers, however, in the December game against the Giants, was that they did not finish well. Carolina has coasted to victories too often. They do not play well from behind. This season, Carolina had four 4th quarter comebacks (against Seattle when they were fishtailing, Colts without Luck, the Saints - nothing more need be said, and the aforementioned Giants). During the second half of the season, Seattle, at times, still took a quarter or two to get in the grove of the game, but once the 2nd half starts (Pete Carroll - whether in Seattle and at USC - is among the best coaches at adjusting at half), the 'Hawks are formidable foes. Regardless of the score at the mid-point, the game will be resolved in the 4th, and it will be close. And be assured, Beast or no Beast, if the opportunity emerges to punch it over the line, Seattle will. Seahawks by 2!

I believe that the Seahawks have the better defense. Yet, the Panthers present the triple-threat of the quarterback handing off, passing or becoming the intended primary runner. No other team can match Cam Newton's options.

Then again...

Oddmakers establish the point spread to equalize money--they don't want tons wagered on one team and next to nothing on the other. The Panthers are more consistent. They're playing at home. Marshawn Lynch is in limbo. The Seahawks have gotten pummeled by the likes of the Rams.

Two-and-a-half points? I'd bet the farm on Carolina.

You mean the team that is still in contention due to an incredible stroke of luck?
Were they better than the Vikings?

The Seahawks are a lucky team. They should have lost to Green Bay last year, they should have lost to Minnesota this year - and Detroit, earlier, btw. Don't see them beating Carolina...

The great defense keeps the Seahawks in all of it's games until the end even when the offense is sputtering. Our quarterback was having an off-day, like all quarterbacks have, throwing inaccurately, but there is still his athletic ability to keep you watching and expecting. When the snap went flying by Russell's head, I, like most Seahawks fans, thought to myself, "this could be good". We've seen it before many times now and it's fun.

Victor touches on many of the good points for why this wild card team is favored only 2.5 behind the best record in the league. One factor that he misses is Russell Wilson's passing before and after the buy. Before bye: one passing touchdown in 7/8 games, QBR > 100 in 2/8 games. After bye: three or more passing TDs in 6/8 games, QBR > 120 in 6/8 games. I suspect he worked with Seahawks staff over the bye week and the Wilson/Baldwin connection is evidence. Will they remember that momentum in Carolina? We'll see...

And the Seahawks have Houdini. I don't know whether odds makers factor in the improvisational abilities of someone like Russell Wilson. But he has made incredible plays (sometimes game saving plays) out of nothing many times. Most recently of course, was his recovery of the fumbled snap in the game against Minnesota. Wilson may be the only NFL quarterback who could have made that play. Just about any other quarterback would have just fallen on the ball rather than risk a turnover. Who besides Wilson could have or would have even attempted to slide pick up the ball and jump back up in one motion, then run laterally with three defenders chasing him, find the open receiver, and then throw 25 yards downfield against the grain to complete the pass? Then there was the game-saving 2-point conversion he made in the Packers playoff game last year, where he threw 3/4 the way across the field from one sideline towards the other after the play broke down. Wilson played an excellent game against Broncos in the Super Bowl two years ago as a 2nd-year quarterback and rallied the Seahawks back against the Patriots last year- losing of course on that last play. Yet this is the year when Wilson has matured and is better then ever. He is no doubt capable of leading the Seahawks to another Super Bowl win.

Um, and they went to the Superbowl again last year and nearly won? Did you completely forget?

I'm always amazed when the best paper in the US gets so little reader comment about the Seahawks. Maybe TV coverage back East is rare, but really, there have been so many exciting games they have played in over the last couple of years that for "entertainment value" they can't be beat. I recently analogized the season to those Saturday TV cliffhanger serials some of us watched as kids. (Think: Don Winslow of the Coast Guard and his nemesis The Scorpion.) The ability of the team to endure and win despite injuries to key players, the enthusiasm of its coach, the leadership quality of the QB, and putting last year's Super Bowl behind them are what make for an exciting sports story. Who knows how far they might advance but it has been an interesting season and maybe Las Vegas has got it right.

The Seahawks are a good team. They have several really outstanding starters. Their problem is consistency. Too often a Seahawks game comes down to the last minute and fans wait with baited breath to see if they can pull the rabbit out (or not).
However, another thing about the Seahawks is they seem to play better when they can smell victory around the corner. As you may have noticed, when it became apparent that despite a lackluster start, they actually had a chance to make the playoffs, they suddenly went on a winning streak.
Now, they can smell the opportunity to fix their botched Superbowl loss of last year by having a real shot at getting back there this year.
Despite all the stats & math, the Seahawks are an emotional team. They get high off the smell of success. They rally when they think they have a chance - even a small outside chance. They play emotionally exciting, cliff-hanger football that drives fans into a frenzy in the final minutes of almost every game.
People love unpredictability, especially in underdog teams. They love exciting games. And the Seahawks play that kind of football.