Another Seahawks upset

Why the Seattle Seahawks could pull off another victory.

This Sunday, the 15^th, the Seattle Seahawks will play the Chicago Bears in Chicago. Many people are writing off the Seahawks and saying that last week’s victory over the New Orleans Saints was luck. Well here is my bold prediction; the Seattle Seahawks will pull off another upset win. 

 When comparing these two teams, the simplest way is to compare the statistics. Here is a rough breakdown of the numbers for both sides of the ball. On defense, the Chicago Bears allow their opposing team to score 17.9 points per game and give up 314.3 total offensive yards. The Seahawks give up 25.4 points per game to their opponent and 368.6 yards per game. We can clearly see that the Bears have the advantage on defense. When looking at offense, the Bears score 20.9 points per game and have 289.4 total offensive yards. The Seahawks score 19.4 points per game and average 297.8 yards per game. Now looking at these numbers, we can see that they are almost identical, or that both team’s offenses cancel each other’s out. I actually believe the Seahawks have the better offense, even though the numbers do not show that. I will explain why in the next paragraph. There are two big “X factors” that will help decide who will win this game; one of those is the special teams. Sure Chicago has Devin Hester, who is just a fast son of a bitch and can always run one back for a touchdown, but the rest of their special teams are average. I think the Seahawks are slightly better overall, put you just never know until the game. 

I would now like to compare the team’s offensive players. Chicago lacks any offensive threats. They don’t have a true running back. Sure Matt Forte creates good fantasy football numbers and creates match up problems for the other team’s defense, but he is not a true running back that will try to run people over. Then for Chicago’s receivers; they have a bunch of no names. Not to insult any of them, but all their receivers can do is run really really fast. Jay Cutler is an alright quarterback, he is just pressured way too much resulting in quick, bad throws to avoid getting hit. He got sacked 52 times this year for a total loss of 352 yards, as well at 10 fumbles. If the Seahawks rush the ball and put pressure on Jay Cutler, we will be in a good position to win. The Seahawks have two good running backs, Marshawn Lynch who goes into beast mode, and Justin Forsett, who is a tiny quick guy that seems to always get good yards per carry. I would not say these two running backs are the best in football by any stretch, but I do think that combination of Lynch and Forsett is better that Matt Forte. For receivers, Seattle has a bunch of average players there. Their best receiving weapon is Mike Williams. Last time the Seahawks played the Bears, Chicago had no answer for stopping Williams. He caught 10 passes for 123 yards. But that is Mike Williams, he is inconsistent. He could go for 150 yards just as easily as he could go for 35 yards. As for Matt Hasselbeck, who knows, he could throw four interceptions just as easily as throwing four touchdowns. (As you can tell, the Seahawks biggest problem is consistency, they are too hard to predict.) Luckily for Seattle fans, as bad as our offensive line has been all year, it is still a lot better than Chicago’s blockers. If Seattle’s offensive is running on full cylinders, we could easily outscore Chicago. 

Another good piece of promising news, Seattle has already played the Bears in Chicago and won. That will give our players confidence knowing that they already beat the NFC North Division winners once before. And that’s another thing; I personally do not think Chicago is that good of a team. Sure their record is 11-5, but their only impressive victory is against Green Bay, Philadelphia, and the NY Jets. (And when I say an impressive victory, I mean teams that made the playoffs.) They have won seven of their 11 victories by seven points or less. As a playoff team, that is not an impressive number. Sure they won a lot of games, but just barely won. One turnover could make or break a victory. 

So there it is, a few reasons why I think the Seattle Seahawks will win tomorrow. I will not take any credit away from Chicago, they are a good team and very easily could destroy us, but I am feeling another upset. If I were a betting man, I would EASILY bet that the Seahawks could beat the Bears before they could beat the Saints…let’s just hope I am right. So like I said earlier, there are two major “X factors” for a win tomorrow. The first is special teams. I think Seattle has a better offensive while Chicago has a better defense, but it could easily come down to special teams. The second “X Factor” is which Seattle team shows up to play. The Seahawks are a different team on the road. For whatever reason, we get hid once in the face, then get scared and back down, instead of fighting back. We currently have momentum on our side with a two game win streak (Chicago lost their last game), so hopefully Pete Carroll can get his guys pumped up enough to pull out the victory. One thing is for sure, it’s going to be cold and it’s going to be a dog fight. I am excited.

Final score: Seattle Seahawks 24, Chicago Bears 21.

Another fun fact, if the Seahawks pulls the upset and beats Chicago AND if Green Bay beats Atlanta, the Seattle Seahawks would be hosting the NFC Championship game. That would be awesome. For every hater who laughed at Seattle for not being worthy of a playoff spot, they could then go suck it.

GO HAWKS