THE FRONT ROW WITH JASON ELLIOTT: Saturday, Dec. 10, 2016
Chances are, the Seattle Seahawks are still a playoff team.
Especially with two of their final four games in the friendly confines of CenturyLink Field in Seattle.
But to get where the team wants to go, they’ll have to lean on an offense that’s been more offensive in recent weeks.
SURE, THE team scored 40 points against the Carolina Panthers last Sunday to improve to 8-3-1 on the season and increase the lead in the NFC West to three games.
Don’t forget, it could have been four had they been able to kick a field goal against Arizona in late October in a 6-6 tie. After putting a few wins together, the team fell flat at Tampa Bay in a 14-5 loss to the Buccaneers that was pretty tough to watch as a fan.
Seattle has shown up in big games, winning at New England and beating Atlanta in a game that could have gone either way.
With the loss of safety Earl Thomas to a broken leg for the season, Seattle’s defense won’t be the same. Thomas has made a career of making plays, even when it didn’t seem like they could be. While the Seahawks still have most of the parts of that Legion of Boom secondary, Thomas was really the engine that made the machine go.
Sure, Kam Chancellor and Richard Sherman will pick up some of the slack left by Thomas’ injury, but they can’t do it themselves.
At some point, Russell Wilson and the team’s offense will have to carry to load if the team wants to advance to a third Super Bowl in four years.
WHILE THEY haven’t been that consistent this year, the team’s offense is very capable of turning things around and getting going.
Maybe it is the Seahawks’ recent history where, depleted by running backs last year, Seattle figured out how to throw the ball all over the field last year once Jimmy Graham was injured to get to the divisional round of the playoffs. That was after most didn’t believe they could throw the ball and were a run-heavy offense only.
Graham isn’t hurt this year, the receivers are getting healthier and chances are they’ll get some of their other pieces like C.J. Prosise back from injury in the coming weeks.
Sure, the defense is just losing one guy, but it’s a big guy when it comes to stopping the pass. Chances are, they won’t be allowing less than 15 points per game again, and they won’t suddenly start scoring 30 points a game either.
WIN OR lose this weekend, the Seahawks still has a lot of things in front of them.
They’ve got home games in the coming weeks against Los Angeles and Arizona before finishing the season on the road against San Francisco on New Year’s Day.
Sunday’s game at Green Bay will be the biggest indication of just where this team is headed.
If they’re able to stop the passing game of the Packers to a certain point and find a way to score some points, they’ll get the momentum they need for a strong stretch run to the postseason.
Struggle, and it could be a short stay, should the postseason present itself.
Jason Elliott is a sports writer for the Coeur d’Alene Press. He can be reached by telephone at (208) 664-8176, Ext. 2020 or via email at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @JEPressSports.