Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
He has but the Packers WRs have been together longer, are proven in playoffs plus they block really well! Packers have been at the spread offense longer than the Falcons.
Well to be honest I think the Packers WR's are inflated somewhat by A)their system and B)who has been passing to them the past 20 years. Going back to the Holmgren days Green Bay has been churning out outstanding WR's in a similar fashion to the Shanahan Denver Broncos and their string of amazing RB's. I mean you have to take into account Green Bay WR's have played under two tremendous offensive minds (Holmgren and McCarthy) and had two of the best QB's of the last 20 years throwing to them.
But one can't really hold that against them as football is almost always about the scheme and the philosophy. People knock Tom Brady and Joe Montana as "products of the system" but all football players are products of their system. Anyway sorry for my tangent. Carry on.
The Seattle Seahawks? Yes, they are dangerous. Yes, they are hot. But nobody should be crowning them just yet. All individual player matchups aside, there are several significant hurdles the Seahawks must clear in order to make it past the Falcons.
Travel
I’ll start with the most obvious obstacle.
Only once in the 34 years since the bye week was implemented in 1978 has a west coast team won back-to-back road playoff games on the east coast. That was the 1989 Rams. And unlike the 2012 Seahawks, that team had had a winning record on the road during the regular season.
Jet lag is no joke. When the Seahawks take the field Sunday at 1:00 pm, it will feel like 10:00 am to them. That's got to have an effect.
The Georgia Dome
There are home field advantages, and then there are dome field advantages. While the Seahawks five-year home record of 24-17 is pretty impressive, it doesn’t hold a candle to the Falcons’ 35-8 home record during the same period.
Matt Ryan absolutely loves the Georgia Dome. He’s had winning streaks of 17 and 11 under the white roof. He’s never had a losing streak there.
Don’t look now, but Ryan enters Sundays’ contest coming fresh off a home loss.
Rookie QB
Historically, the divisional round has not been kind to rookie QBs. In 34 years, only four of them have advanced to the conference championship round. And those victories were largely in spite of them, not because of them.
No rookie QB has ever completed more than 56% of their passes or thrown for more than 181 yards in the divisional round. Only one has had a passer rating higher than 60. None have had a passer rating higher than 89.
While anything’s possible, those numbers certainly don’t bode well for Russell Wilson’s chances of becoming the first rookie starter in NFL history to reach an NFC Championship game.
Winning Streak
Momentum is great and all, but it can only go in one direction for so long before it starts swinging back the other way. And that’s ultimately the problem with long winning streaks. The longer one goes on, the greater the chance it will abruptly end.
The Seahawks are currently riding a six game win streak, going back to week 13 of the regular season. They will have to win seven to get past us and reach a conference championship. Just one more win sounds easy, right?
Well, turns out there have been only two wild card round teams in NFL history to ride a winning streak that long on their way to a conference championship appearance: The 2000 Ravens and the 2007 Chargers. No NFC team has ever done it.
Everyone likes to cite the 2011 Giants and 2010 Packers as recent examples of wild card round teams who “got hot at the right moment” and rode a winning streak to a title. What they fail to mention is that both teams reached the conference championship by winning just four straight, not seven. Neither needed more than six straight wins to earn a ring.
Winning seven consecutive games is hard, I don’t care who you are or what month it is. History says the Seahawks will have an awfully hard time sustaining their current roll.
Coaching We all know that Mike Smith has failed to make it to a conference championship game in three attempts. While that appears to bode well for Seattle, it should be pointed out that Pete Carroll is 0 for 3 in this category as well, eliminated each time with a loss on the road. Smitty is not the only coach in this game with demons to exorcise.
It should also be pointed out that Carroll's Seahawks have been one of the most penalized teams in the league since he arrived in Seattle in 2010, ranking 24th in number of penalties committed in 2012. Conversely, Smith's Falcons have drawn the least number of infractions in the NFL since he took over in 2008, ranking 1st this season for the second time in three years. In a noisy dome coming off a cross-country trip, that difference could be fatal for a young, undisciplined team like the Seahawks.
Also, while Seattle's turnaround under Carroll is commendable, let's not overlook the fact that he's had just one winning season there in three years, in arguably the weakest division in the NFL. His overall career record - 3 winning seasons in seven years - is hardly awe-inspiring. We're not going up against Bill Belichick here.
Oh, and did I mention that Mike Smith is 2-0 head-to-head against Carroll during his career, with both wins coming on Seattle’s home field? Well, Carroll doesn't get his biggest advantage this time around.
So, is Seattle really the team nobody wants to play? I don't know. They look pretty playable to me.
Lots of reasons, hopefully Falcons pull it off! IF the Pack can beat the 49ers, I want them to go to Atlanta, most fans want the Seahawks to come to Lambeau. Good luck this weekend! I just think the rematch between Falcons/Packers would be fun!
I'm not your average fan, don't have a mean bone in my body, I cheer for teams that beat the Packers, I like the Bears, Vikings and Lions, mmmm, not so much.
The Falcons are the most disrespected 13-3 team in NFL history.
For all the geniuses with the "the Falcons played the weakest schedule in the NFL" argument... of the last 5 #1 seeds who had the weakest schedule, 4 made the Super Bowl including the 2005 Seattle Seahawks and 2009 Super Bowl champion New Orleans Saints.
The only one who didn't was the 2001 Steelers who lost the AFCCG.
Where all these teams "overrated?" The strength of schedule argument is so weak.
When a similar pattern repeats in the NFL, fairly or unfairly you get labeled....
-Brady is Eli's biotch..
-Big Ben is a warrior
-Romo can't win the big one
-Cutler is perceived as a *****
-The Jets are a circus
-Falcons are a paper tiger and can't win when it counts....
These are just some well know things and the only way to gain 'respect' is to win...
Falcons can take a major step this weekend....
I have no doubt they will. Ryan loses to 3 championship QBs (Warner Rodgers Manning) and he gets a "choker" label as if it's entirely his fault like football isn't a team game.
The latest news is a rookie named Wilson has more playoff wins than Ryan and is a better QB. A rookie QB would have won that game regardless. It just so happens the QB who wasn't on one leg won the game.. Imagine that.
It's no different than saying Trent Dilfer is a better QB than Dan Marino because he has more Super Bowl rings.
I have no doubt they will. Ryan loses to 3 championship QBs (Warner Rodgers Manning) and he gets a "choker" label as if it's entirely his fault like football isn't a team game.
The latest news is a rookie named Wilson has more playoff wins than Ryan and is a better QB. A rookie QB would have won that game regardless. It just so happens the QB who wasn't on one leg won the game.. Imagine that.
It's no different than saying Trent Dilfer is a better QB than Dan Marino because he has more Super Bowl rings.
Beyond retarded.
No one is saying its entirely Matt Ryan's fault, however if you want the glory (like many QB's get), you have to take getting knocked....you are the leader of the team.
Please do not make rediculous comparisons w/Trent Dilfer. Dan Marino played against the 49ers in the superbowl. The 49ers were heavily favored if I remember correctly. Atlanta had the #1 seed and were favored against GB and got blown out. They didn't even show up against the Giants...
When Atlanta wins Sunday you can find something else to talk about.
Now go back and read my post. I wasn't comparing Marino to Dilfer. That would be beyond retarded... As I stated.
The media is comparing Wilson to Ryan though... Which is also retarded.
Yeah Ryan got blown out by the last 2 Super Bowl champions.. So did some other teams. What exactly is your point?
The point is very simple. People want to see a progression.....Atlanta w/this regime has not been able to do that for whatever reason/excuse. If Atlanta goes to the Superbowl this year, all that talk will stop. If they don't, the talk will continue and Atlanta fans will have to take it and be the Buffalo Bills red headed stepchild (the teams who lost 4 straight SB's...)
Its right there for them. Home field. Best record. Step 1 coming up Sunday..
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Packers have been at the spread offense longer than the Falcons.
