Saints vs. Seahawks 2013, Week 13: Seattle blows out New Orleans on Monday Night Football

New Orleans and Carolina both enter that contest 9-3 atop the NFC South. The game has all kinds of playoff implications, chief among them the No. 2 seed in the conference. Whoever wins will move to 10-3 and be at least two games better than any other team in the NFC save the Seahawks. Of course, the top two seeds earn bye weeks.

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Kenneth Arthur of Field Gulls believes the men on the sideline also had plenty to do with the blowout:

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It’s a shame, too. Wilson’s only crime as a prospect was his height. No quarterback could stand at 5’11 and compete with the best quarterbacks in the NFL. We didn’t care about his compact throwing motion, rocket arm or uncanny ability to sense and avoid pressure in the pocket while keeping his eyes downfield. What does any of that matter? He’s short, remember?

If we only knew then what we know now, maybe we wouldn’t have been so shallow. Maybe we would have looked beyond the measuring stick and realized that a future star was sitting right in front of us. It’s not like he was hiding. Wilson played for Wisconsin, albeit for only a season after transferring from N.C. State, where Mike Glennon took over for Wilson while he was pondering a professional baseball career. Wilson was in the spotlight.

The Seahawks dominated the New Orleans Saints at home in Week 13 with a convincing 34-7 win on Monday Night Football. It wasn’t ever close. Seattle stormed out to a big lead early, Century Link Field broke the sound record for the second time this season, and the Saints left more worried about winning their division than claiming the No. 1 seed in the NFC.

Here’s the updated playoff picture heading into Week 14.

It was supposed to be a battle for home-field advantage. Instead, it turned into an exclamation point on Seattle’s resume as the best team in the NFC and possibly the NFL.

While Wilson put the bow on a prolific stat line, Brees spent much of the game peeling himself off the CenturyLink Field turf. Seattle recorded just a single sack, but applied consistent pressure on Brees. He was hurried, hit and forced to move in the pocket most of the night. He came into the game averaging 8.31 yards per attempt, but struggled to post even half that number against Seattle’s defense. For the game, he completed 23-of-38 passes for just 147 yards, good for 3.9 YPA. The performance snapped Brees’ 43-game streak of throwing for at least 200 yards.

The Seahawks can’t stop scoring touchdowns against the New Orleans Saints, and they’re inventing new ways to do it.

Russell Wilson’s pass was intended for Kellen Davis, who, luckily for the Seahawks, was too inept to get his hands in front of his facemask before the ball doinked off of it. Luckily, fullback Derrick Coleman was just chilling a few yards away from him, happy to pick the ball up and lunge towards the end zone for a touchdown.

We already knew that the Seattle Seahawks re-broke the Guinness World Record for loudest stadium they had already broken earlier in the year, but that wasn’t all the FANS DOING CRAZY THINGS IN UNISON they had for the night. They also jumped up and down enough during Michael Bennett’s 22-yard fumble recovery for a touchdown that it seemed like a Magnitude 1-2 earthquake.

A look at the graph, included in that Seattle Times piece:

That wasn’t even the worst of it. The Saints again failed to pick up a first down on their next drive and Seattle got back into the end zone, making it 17-0 at the end of the first quarter, the biggest first-quarter deficit the Saints have ever faced in the Sean Payton era.

New Orleans eventually settled down and got on the scoreboard, only to see Seattle answer back with two more scoring drives. If the Saints are going to come away with the win, they will have a lot of ground to make up in the second half. New Orleans will have to find some success on defense after getting torched by Wilson in the first half. Wilson completed 14-of-19 passes for 226 yards and two touchdowns.

The crowd at CenturyLink Field in Seattle was the loudest crowd in history on Monday night.

And so they did. The Guinness Book of World Records will now have CenturyLink Field as the loudest crowd of all time. Until, of course, someone else tries to break it. We’re looking at you, Chiefs fans.

ESPN is tracking the noise level all game, but is unfortunately not keeping track of how many pieces of gum -- or what type of gum -- Carroll is running through.

Seattle’s defense is off to an excellent start against New Orleans on Monday night, including a defensive touchdown by Michael Bennett.

There is still a lot of game to be played, but Seattle is off to a good start in making it 14 straight.

ESPN’s Mike Tirico called him one of the greatest athletes ever born in the Seattle area. While many Seahawks fans might not immediately identify with Fred Couples, the Seattle native had the honor of raising the 12th man flag at CenturyLink Field just before kickoff in Monday night’s huge Seahawks-Saints game.

When news of Couples getting the job surfaced, some Seattle fans were a little confused and not totally thrilled with the choice for such a huge home game. He does point out a particularly valid piece of irony:

Ryan Van Bibber [12:00 AM]:

calling it a night here, folks

Here is a complete look at the inactives for both teams.

WR Percy Harvin, CB Brandon Browner, RB Christin Michael, OT Michael Bowie, OT Caylin Hauptmann, DE Benson Mayowa, DT Jordan Hill.

Wilson is so dangerous because he’s almost unflappable. The second-year quarterback boasts one of the league’s lowest drops in passer rating under pressure. His quarterback rating is 117.8 in a clean pocket, and 84.7 under pressure according to Pro Football Focus. Wilson also retains a 100+ passing rating when blitzed, which is very rare.

Brees can be shaken, on the other hand. He avoids pressure by throwing quickly rather than escaping the rush -- but a defense can rattle him. His passer rating drops to 73.5 under pressure, and his normally stellar completion percentage falls to 48.6-percent.

As far back as last week, the weather forecast for tonight’s Monday Night Football Game between the Seattle Seahawks and the New Orleans Saints was not looking very good. There were many speculations that it would be very cold, windy and even snowy. As we are just hours from the kick off of tonight’s game the weather forecast doesn’t look to be that bad.

Temperatures are turning colder in the Pacific Northwest and there have been scattered rain and snow showers around Seattle this afternoon. The trend will be for the precipitation to slowly clear out giving way to partly cloudy skies this evening. There is just a slight chance of scattered flurries and sprinkles this evening.

Harvin has not been officially ruled out, but is considered extremely doubtful to play. The former Viking experienced a flare up in his surgically repaired hip over the weekend and was treated with a cortisone shot. He experienced a similar issue in October in the days leading up to his return to the active roster and had to have the hip drained.

Harvin arrived in Seattle over the offseason following a blockbuster trade, but surgery kept him off the field until Week 11 against Minnesota. He was limited to two touches against his former team, but thrilled Seahawks fans with a spectacular one-handed grab and an electrifying kick return.

There are so many trends pointing to the Seattle Seahawks winning the Week 13 Monday nighter against visiting New Orleans that betting on the Saints appears to be a very risky proposition.

But there is one curious angle that may give Seattle bettors, who have seen the line hold steady around -5 all week, some pause before putting their money down tonight.

Game Date/Time and Location: Monday, Dec. 2, 8:40 p.m. ET at CenturyLink Field, Seattle, Wash.

TV schedule and distribution map: ESPN; The506.com

If the playoffs began today, the Seattle Seahawks and New Orleans Saints would each earn a first-round bye in the NFC and own the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds, respectively. With just three combined losses, their Monday Night Football matchup is easily the game of the week.

In 13 career starts at CenturyLink Field, Wilson is a perfect 13-0 and has completed more than 70 percent of his passes in the last three home starts.

Because the Seahawks have yet to lose at home — also they’re really good — they open as 5-point favorites. The Seahawks are 7-4 against the spread this year and 3-2 at home. The Saints are 6-4-1 against the spread this year, but all of their failures to cover the spread are on the road, where they’re 1-4.

Going back a little longer, it seems betting on the Seahawks might be the way to go: they’re 13-5 against the spread in their last 18 games, according to Odds Shark.

Monday Night Football lucked out in Week 13.

After an inconsistent slate of matchups in 2013, Monday Night Football will feature the Seattle Seahawks and New Orleans Saints, the top two seeds in the NFC. The winner will have the upper hand when it comes to claiming the top spot in the conference and homefield advantage throughout the playoffs.

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