THE FRONT ROW WITH JASON ELLIOTT: Saturday, September 26, 2015
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September 26, 2015 9:36 PM
So your favorite NFL team started the season 0-2.
Do you want to fire the coach?
Bench the starting quarterback?
Suggest that maybe they should move to Los Angeles and just completely start over?
SO MAYBE none of those things really pertained to the Seattle Seahawks, but don’t forget, they almost moved from Seattle to Los Angeles long before the 12th man was a lifestyle and Pete Carroll was struggling through some down times with the New York Jets.
The last time that Seattle started the season 0-2 was in 2011, when the Seahawks eventually finished 7-9 and out of the playoffs. That team featured Tarvaris Jackson at quarterback, and a Legion of Boom that — well — wasn’t quite booming yet.
In the first two games of this season — at St. Louis and at Green Bay — the team hasn’t looked like that of the teams in recent years, with the ability to run it right at teams and make them stop them.
With some key losses along the offensive line, defenses are catching up.
Offensively, the Seahawks haven’t quite remembered that they really did acquire tight end Jimmy Graham during the offseason, and throwing to him might actually help the team gain some yards.
Seattle’s defense hasn’t looked like the group of guys who made the team one of the most feared in the NFL. Allowing Aaron Rodgers to throw the ball around the field isn’t too bad, but it doesn’t help.
Chances are, Seattle might have started 0-2 regardless if Kam Chancellor was in uniform for those first two games instead of holding out in Los Angeles somewhere. The Rams have played Seattle tough in St. Louis — always do — and Green Bay just doesn’t lose often at home, especially in prime time.
There’s something to be said for getting back home in the NFL.
Playing in front of your own fans, not having to get on an airplane and travel across the country, getting a chance to be in a familiar place, it has worked out well for the team in the past.
And that’s a good thing too, because they’re going to need that home field advantage to get things back to where they’ve been in recent years.
OFTEN TIMES, teams that go to 0-2 to start the season don’t recover to make the playoffs, let alone a chance to go to a Super Bowl and win it.
The Dallas Cowboys in 1993 were in a similar circumstance as the Seahawks, with running back Emmitt Smith holding out for the first two games, but the Cowboys went on to win the Super Bowl, beating the Buffalo Bills for the second straight time in the final game of the season. The New York Giants, after starting 0-2, won the big game in Glendale, Ariz., beating the New England Patriots 17-14 in 2008.
That New England team — in case you forgot — was unbeaten heading into that game.
FOOTBALL IS a funny game sometimes.
Heading into the season, many experts had the Seahawks playing Indianapolis in the Super Bowl in February in Santa Clara, Calif. Neither team has won a game yet this season.
It could very well happen that one, if not both advance to the Super Bowl. But it’s no longer a sure thing, for either team really.
Still, there’s no need to panic.
All is well.
Jason Elliott is a sports writer for the Coeur d’Alene Press. He can be reached by telephone at 664-8176, Ext. 2020 or via email at jelliott@cdapress.com. Follow him on Twitter @JEPressSports.
Do you want to fire the coach?
Bench the starting quarterback?
Suggest that maybe they should move to Los Angeles and just completely start over?
SO MAYBE none of those things really pertained to the Seattle Seahawks, but don’t forget, they almost moved from Seattle to Los Angeles long before the 12th man was a lifestyle and Pete Carroll was struggling through some down times with the New York Jets.
The last time that Seattle started the season 0-2 was in 2011, when the Seahawks eventually finished 7-9 and out of the playoffs. That team featured Tarvaris Jackson at quarterback, and a Legion of Boom that — well — wasn’t quite booming yet.
In the first two games of this season — at St. Louis and at Green Bay — the team hasn’t looked like that of the teams in recent years, with the ability to run it right at teams and make them stop them.
With some key losses along the offensive line, defenses are catching up.
Offensively, the Seahawks haven’t quite remembered that they really did acquire tight end Jimmy Graham during the offseason, and throwing to him might actually help the team gain some yards.
Seattle’s defense hasn’t looked like the group of guys who made the team one of the most feared in the NFL. Allowing Aaron Rodgers to throw the ball around the field isn’t too bad, but it doesn’t help.
Chances are, Seattle might have started 0-2 regardless if Kam Chancellor was in uniform for those first two games instead of holding out in Los Angeles somewhere. The Rams have played Seattle tough in St. Louis — always do — and Green Bay just doesn’t lose often at home, especially in prime time.
There’s something to be said for getting back home in the NFL.
Playing in front of your own fans, not having to get on an airplane and travel across the country, getting a chance to be in a familiar place, it has worked out well for the team in the past.
And that’s a good thing too, because they’re going to need that home field advantage to get things back to where they’ve been in recent years.
OFTEN TIMES, teams that go to 0-2 to start the season don’t recover to make the playoffs, let alone a chance to go to a Super Bowl and win it.
The Dallas Cowboys in 1993 were in a similar circumstance as the Seahawks, with running back Emmitt Smith holding out for the first two games, but the Cowboys went on to win the Super Bowl, beating the Buffalo Bills for the second straight time in the final game of the season. The New York Giants, after starting 0-2, won the big game in Glendale, Ariz., beating the New England Patriots 17-14 in 2008.
That New England team — in case you forgot — was unbeaten heading into that game.
FOOTBALL IS a funny game sometimes.
Heading into the season, many experts had the Seahawks playing Indianapolis in the Super Bowl in February in Santa Clara, Calif. Neither team has won a game yet this season.
It could very well happen that one, if not both advance to the Super Bowl. But it’s no longer a sure thing, for either team really.
Still, there’s no need to panic.
All is well.
Jason Elliott is a sports writer for the Coeur d’Alene Press. He can be reached by telephone at 664-8176, Ext. 2020 or via email at jelliott@cdapress.com. Follow him on Twitter @JEPressSports.