The Seattle Seahawks have a hard-nosed running game and one of the top three quarterbacks in the NFL. But are they complete enough to win the Super Bowl?
Russell Wilson is in the midst of another spellbinding season as the Seattle Seahawks signal-caller. The former Wisconsin star has a QB rating a touch under 115 thanks to an average of 8.4 yards per pass attempt and a 26:2 TD:INT ratio. Seattle has won seven of its eight games by a margin within one touchdown, as Wilson has engineered five game-winning drives through his team’s first 10 games.
At 8-2, the Seahawks are only one game behind the San Francisco 49ers for the best record in the NFC. Before the Week 11 bye, they defeated the Niners in overtime on Monday Night Football, showing they may be the class of the NFC.
Yet for all of Seattle’s successes, the narrow nature of their victories hints at vulnerabilities. The Seahawks, for example, rank 23rd in points allowed and are also outside the top 20 in both yards per pass attempt and yards per carry surrendered. Only offseason trade acquisition Jadeveon Clowney has more than 10 quarterback hits.
In an NFL landscape where 10 quarterbacks have a QB Rating of at least 100, having a great defense is paramount. Seattle’s credentials on defense, for maybe the first time in the Pete Carroll era, are well below-average.
However, they are getting the job done in one key area: turnovers. Defenses capable of forcing turnovers at a high rate are able to mask their weaknesses, which is a blueprint Sean Payton’s 2010 New Orleans Saints followed to Super Bowl-winning effect. The Seahawks are fourth in the league in turnovers forced, but since they are second in fumbles recovered, how much of these turnovers are down to luck?
Despite the question marks on defense, the optimism surrounding Seattle is well founded. And it’s all because of Wilson. The 31-year-old quarterback is accurate, among the wisest quarterbacks in the league, and on the Aaron Rodgers level of making big plays while not giving back big plays to the defense. Armed with Tyler Lockett, Josh Gordon, DK Metcalf, and David Moore, Wilson has more than enough ammunition to add to his 273 passing yards per game and 2.6 touchdown passes per game.
As talented as the Seahawks are, especially on offense, the margin for error in the NFC race for a bye week is essentially zero. There are five NFC teams with at least eight wins this season, and since the Seahawks have two overtime wins and seven wins with a margin of victory of one score or less, they could easily be in the 6-4 range with the Dallas Cowboys and Los Angeles Rams.
So while Seattle is 8-2 and look like legitimate Super Bowl contenders behind arguably the NFL’s best quarterback, the burden of proof still lies on their shoulders. And when the Seahawks face the Philadelphia Eagles in Week 12, they must win.
The Eagles are 5-5 and in the playoff race, partially since the NFC East is the conference’s only weak division, but they have not been impressive. Despite loading up on offense this offseason, the Eagles have taken a step back on that side of the ball, with Carson Wentz’s underwhelming display in a 17-10 loss to the New England Patriots last week exemplifying their issues. The Eagles struggle to put the ball in the hands of their playmakers, and most of the blame lies in Wentz’s hands.
But the Eagles aren’t pushovers. They are a playoff-caliber team with weapons and are capable of turning things around at any given moment. Last year at around this time, fans wrote them off their playoff bracket, only for Philadelphia to come roaring back to the postseason.
The same story could repeat itself in 2019, and, as Drew Brees said, it only takes one win to start a streak. Seattle needs to make sure this win by the Eagles does not come at their expense on Sunday.
In the simplest terms possible, the Seahawks have to win this game. When a team has a quarterback of Wilson’s caliber, the expectation is always a Super Bowl. Seattle has set the highest standards ever since they stole Wilson in the third round of the 2012 NFL Draft, winning a Super Bowl in the quarterback’s second season. Since he’s playing the ball of his life in 2019, the sky-high expectations cannot be lowered.
And if Seattle are truly in the NFL’s elite class, they will beat the Eagles on Sunday to go 9-2. Based on Wilson’s play at quarterback and the string of narrow victories, the Seahawks have the mark of a special team. Championship teams find ways to win in difficult circumstances, and the Seahawks have showed plenty of fight this season. In a highly competitive NFC where a bye week could mean everything in January, Seattle needs to keep piling up the wins in a conference “arm’s race” involving five potentially great teams. It’s up to the Seahawks to prove they are truly great and not simply given the asterisk of potential.