Seahawks not playing as bad as they sometimes look

I’ve been hearing Seattle Seahawks fans – including me occasionally – bad-mouth the team this year. That’s because we were spoiled with Super Bowls 48 and 49.

We’ve been expecting more and better from the Hawks while they have been content to play their game. As my brother David likes to say early in a game, “Don’t worry. They win in the fourth quarter.”

That’s true, and that’s the way the Seahawks plan things. That’s why Pete has the team defer after winning coin tosses. He wants his defense to set the tone, and he wants his offense have the ball more after intermission.

That doesn’t work out every time, but it does most times. Forget the season start, when Russell was really hurt. Forget Tampa Bay and Green Bay.

Tampa was hot and itching for a signature win. Green Bay needed a win in the worst way and was still trying to avenge the NFC title loss to the Hawks.

After the Seahawks defeated the Rams, I sent my nephew Ron in Arizona a Facebook note asking if he thought his Cardinals had enough quarterback for this Saturday’s game at Seattle.

Ron took the teasing in stride because Seattle is his No. 2 team. He wrote back that Carson Palmer still has an arm. It’s the rest of the team that hasn’t been showing up to games.

Then Ron assessed the end of the season this way: “The AFC is going to win the next Super Bowl. Sorry Seattle, Sorry Dallas.”

My first thought was that Ron may be right. The AFC has looked stronger than the NFC this year.

That caused me to do a little research. The Hawks are 6-0 against AFC opponents this year. Two of those wins were in the pre-season, but they happened, and they were fourth quarter wins. And they were against playoff-bound Kansas City and Oakland.

In regular season play, the Hawks have taken out playoff-likely Miami, the Jets, Buffalo and New England at New England. Last week, when the Hawks needed to win, they squelched the Rams, 24-3. They set aside a 3-game losing streak to LA and took care of business.

No one knows how things will turn out, but I won’t be surprised if the Seahawks make it to the Super Bowl. And I won’t be surprised if they win.

If things go as expected from here on, Seattle will face Dallas for the NFC title. Wouldn’t you know it, Seattle defeated the Cowboys in the pre-season.

I did my research just to continue the conversation with Ron. I nearly convinced myself to place a big bet on Seattle.