Eagles @ Seahawks

After last week’s blowout of the 49ers, the Seahawks are backkkkkkkk…ack…cough…hack…cough. Uttering such a phrase nearly caused me to choke on my own vomit! Last week’s victory was a false win, if ever NFL history has seen one – a completely misleading final score. The Seahawks won by passing for more yards than the 49ers, right? Enh! (incorrect buzzer sound) They threw for 42 yards less, but did have a higher yards per pass average thanks to the 102 yards gained on 2 touchdown passes to fullback Leonard Weaver. Leonard Weaver, you can’t shut him down, you can only hope to contain him. I guess his neon green shoes aren’t just flashy, they’re toxic as well, as Leonard finds himself questionable with a foot injury heading into this week’s game. Not only was Leonard the Seahawks’ leading receiver by a more than 2 to 1 margin, he was almost their leading rusher in the game with 2 carries for 13 yards. No, that is not a misprint. The Seahawks’ leading rusher last week was M. Morris who gained 16 yards on 11 carries. As a team the Seahawks gained 39 yards on 28 attempts for a paltry 1.4 yards per carry. Seattle was outgained by 127 yards in their 21 point victory last week. They had the luck of playing against the Irish O’Sullivan, a turnover machine unlike the NFL has seen in quite some time. O’Sullivan, of course, was benched before even reaching the half by new coach Mike Singletary, who apparently suffered so much stress-induced weight loss during said first half that his trousers slipped right off his torso during his halftime pep chewing out.

The simple truth is that since Matt Hasselbeck was lost to injury, opposing defenses have been defending the run first versus the Seahawks, which is why they’ve averaged 85 rush yards per game in their last 3, versus the 143 per game they had before losing their starting QB. Their first 4 games average was bolstered considerably by the 245 rush yards they gained versus the Pre-Haslett Rams in week #3.

The 49ers have a pretty good run defense, ranked 8th by my rescored numbers, but the Eagles flying into town have been even stronger, ranked 4th. It doesn’t look good for the Seattle ground game. Can still starting Seneca make passing pie out of the crabapple castoffs running routes for him? I don’t see how. Take away the 2 TD tosses to the fullback last week and you’re left with pretty meager pass statistics, and that was versus an average 49er pass defense. The Eagles have the 9th ranked pass defense. The last time the Seahawks faced a top 10 pass defense was in Tampa Bay a couple of weeks ago where Seneca ended up passing for 73 total yards. That was Seneca’s first start of the season actually. In the Seahawks’ last home game 3 weeks ago, Charlie Frye got the start. The result? Also less than 100 yards passing versus the Packers. Call me a cold-hearted skeptic and believer in the bald-faced stats, but I don’t see how on earth the Seahawks are going to manage to put together many scoring drives versus a Philly defense ranked in the top 10 versus both the pass and rush.

So if the Seahawks will be hard pressed to score, can they turn the game into a defensive battle and cover thusly? Their run defense has been okay this year, giving up 122 yards per game and a little less than 4 yards per carry by my rescored stats. The Eagles’ rush attack has been improving in recent weeks, culminating in the 193 yards they picked up versus the Falcons last week. Granted, the Falcons don’t have a good run defense, but the Eagles have played many teams that do. By my numbers the Eagles have faced the 5th toughest schedule of run defenses in the league so far this year. The Eagles have already played against 5 teams with near equal or better run defenses than the Seahawks have.

The Seahawks will also be without their star DE, Patrick Kerney, for the first time this season. He’s their sack leader with 5 this season, one ahead of LB Julian Peterson. With a weakened pass rush, can the Seahawks’ secondary cover well enough to limit the Eagles’ passing game? I’m going to have to go with a big fat NO on this one, as the Seahawks actually have one of the worst pass defenses in the league, ranked 27th, while the Eagles have the 9th ranked pass offense, a ranking achieved for the most part without 2 of their top receivers, Reggie Brown and Kevin Curtis, who will both suit up and be ready for this game. TE LJ Smith will sit this one out due to a concussion – he also missed a couple of games earlier in the season. When one team is projected to do better than league average in both yards per carry and yards per pass, that’s a recipe for defensive failure for the opponent, in this case the Seahawks, as there is very little they can do to shut down any aspect of the Eagles’ offense. About the best they can hope for is that the 60% chance of showers turns into 100% chance of showers and that the 12-17 mph wind turns into a 30-40 mph constant Tsunami wind. Only they don’t have natural grass a la Heinz Field so they still won’t have much hope of turning it into a 3-0 final score in 4 inches of muddy grass chunks.

Final Score Prediction: Eagles 31 – Seahawks 13