Super Bowl 2014: Field Gulls and Seahawks fans are ready
Seahawks blog Field Gulls wrapped up an excellent week of coverage with a statistical look at why Seattle WILL win the Super Bowl.
Otto Greule Jr
The Super Bowl is nigh, and Seattle Seahawks fans are ready get it on. Seahawks blog Field Gulls has been churning out stellar content throughout the week, and they left us with some excellent parting shots with the weekend (and the Denver Broncos) coming.
Let’s start with Kenneth Arthur, FG’s statistical guru. Arthur broke down four more numbers that say the Seahawks are on the verge of winning their first NFL championship. If the Seahawks win, Arthur says, they will have earned every bit of their glory:
But the Seahawks enter Super Bowl XLVIII as the best team in the NFL and have won all of their games fair and square. Fans of certain opposing teams can come up with their not-at-all-clever nicknames like “CheatHawks” and “Seadderall” or “PEDHawks” (SERIOUSLY NONE OF THESE ARE EVEN PUNS) or what have you, but all those fans can really do is watch our team in the Super Bowl fighting for a championship.
And if they win, if they beat the Broncos and stand on that podium to accept the Lombardi, it’s over. That’s the end of it. The Seattle Seahawks will be champions of the 2013 NFL season until the end of time. No asterisks, no excuses, no caveats, just rings.
Field Gulls' Thomas Beekers added to the site's impressive compendium of Xs and Os breakdowns with a look at how Seattle can control Denver's short passing game. According to Beekers, one of the keys to the task could be outside linebacker Bruce Irvin, who he says has had a better season than many give him credit for:
Instead, to my pleasant surprise, we got a linebacker who has been very quickly trained-up to play careful, assignment-correct football. A player who plays with patience and avoids mistakes, which comes at the cost of flashy big plays. This has made him largely invisible, as the strong-side Sam enforcer his main job is to keep his side sealed, which has lead to the conclusion that he had a bad year. He did not, for a first-year convert this kind of reliability is excellent, and he should be able to combine the lessons he learned with his athleticism to break out big next year.
He's not a difference-maker yet, but he's showing that physical skillset that warrants the Von Miller comparison, and I'm excited about where he's heading.
Finally, do yourself a favor and read this profile on Russell Wilson by Field Gulls’ Danny Kelly for SB Nation. It is well worth your time:
Going deeper into the intangible gray area of sports and quarterbacking, there have been numerous anecdotal stories told in local and national media of Wilson's teammates believing completely that their quarterback would lead them to victory when they appeared to be on the brink of defeat. As a fan, that's a fun narrative to hear, but the real-life statistics -- Wilson's success rate in fourth-quarter comebacks and game-winning drives -- actually lends some credence to these players' reasons for confidence in Wilson.
Wilson, who strives to be the calm in the storm, has stated, "If there's any time left on the clock, we have a chance." You may think it's hokey, but I actually think his teammates have bought in to that.
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