Rarely do teams separated by five games in the standings have anything in the common. That, however, is exactly the case for the Atlanta Falcons and Seattle Seahawks heading into a Week 15 clash at Qwest Field.
What the Falcons and Seahawks have in common is a perch atop their respective divisions. Of course, Atlanta leads one of the toughest foursomes (well, threesome if you exclude the woeful Carolina Panthers) with the Saints owning the third best record in the entire NFL at 10-3 and the Bucs contending for postseason play at 8-5. Seattle, on the other hand, is tied for first with San Francisco in the dreadful NFC West.
The winner of that division will almost certainly back into the playoffs with the worst record of all 12 participants. It’s so bad that 5-8 San Francisco is firmly in contention and 4-9 Arizona has not even been mathematically eliminated.
Ironically, Falcons’ president Rich McKay was asked about playoff re-seeding at the league’s owners meeting this week. When asked if this year’s NFC West debacle would be grounds for altering the playoffs such that seeding would be based on records rather than having division winners automatically host their first postseason game, McKay had this to say: “I hope so. I’ve brought it up twice and never had real success getting it passed. I think it something we should consider.”
Still, the Seahawks could force McKay to re-think his opinion on Sunday and they are not likely to be any kind of pushover for Atlanta. Their 6-7 record is not terrible and they boast a respectable 4-2 clip at home. Seattle opened its 2010-11 campaign with a 31-6 rout of San Francisco, topped San Diego 27-20 in Week 3, handled Arizona 22-10 in Week 7, and blasted Carolina 31-14 on Dec. 5. The team’s road wins came at Chicago (certainly something to write home about) in Week 6 and at Arizona in Week 10.
How have the Seahawks salvaged a mediocre record? Well, that’s a tough one to figure out. While anyone who has watched all 13 Falcons’ games must be amazed that they are 11-2, anyone who takes a quick glance at the Seahawks’ statistics must be stunned that they won have as many as six in the win column.
Seattle simply cannot run the football and cannot stop anyone on defense. Pete Carroll’s team is second to last in the league in rushing at 84.8 yards per game and not once has a running back eclipsed the 100-yard mark in a game. The defense is also second to last in the entire NFL, surrendering 385.2 yards per outing.
One reason why the statistics are far worse than the record suggests is that when the Seahawks are bad, they are really bad. They don’t just lose football games; they get absolutely blown out. All seven of their losses have come by double-digits and they allowed more than 30 points in a whopping six of those seven setbacks. Their losses: 31-14 at Denver, 20-3 at St. Louis, 33-3 at Oakland, 41-7 vs. the Giants, 34-19 at New Orleans, 42-24 vs. Kansas City, and 40-21 at San Francisco.
For those counting, Seattle’s seven losses have come by a combined 150 points, or an average of 21.4 points.
If the home team wants to prevent another rout at the hands of the Falcons, it will need a productive, mistake-free day out of quarterback Matt Hasselbeck. In six losses (he missed the loss to New York), Hasselbeck has thrown six touchdowns and 11 interceptions; in six wins, he has tossed six touchdowns against four interceptions. Especially since he will be unable to count on any support from the ground game, the veteran signal-caller cannot give the ball away to an Atlanta squad that is sixth in the league with 17 interceptions.
This is the Falcons’ final road game of the regular season (and they hope its their final true road game, period), to be followed by home dates with New Orleans and Carolina. While his team has battled to a stellar 5-2 record away from home, head coach Mike Smith is expecting a difficult test.
“We really started this road trip when we played in St. Louis,” Smith noted in his Wednesday press conference. “We tried to look at as a five week cycle in our schedule, four out of five on the road. Each and every week it’s a new challenge and this one’s going to be a big challenge. Seattle is one of the loudest environments to play in even though it’s an outdoor stadium it’s one of the loudest in the league.”
Recent meetings: Atlanta and Seattle have faced each other five times since the turn of the century, with the Seahawks leading the recent head-to-head series 4-1. None of the meetings have come in the Matt Ryan-Michael Turner era. The Falcons won the latest clash 44-41 on the road; Chris Redman threw four touchdown passes (one to Roddy White) while Hasselbeck was knocked out the game and replaced by Seneca Wallace.
Injuries: Running back Jason Snelling, who missed two games with a hamstring injury, is listed as probable and expected to return for the Falcons. Reserve linebacker Coy Wire is questionable with a concussion. The Seahawks are planning on the return of wideout Mike Williams, who sat out last week’s contest. Kicker Olindo Mare sustained a hamstring injury last weekend against San Francisco and is listed as questionable.
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