Seahawks Week: How different is Seattle on the road?
by Brian Galliford on Sep 3, 2008 2:30 PM EDT
in SB Nation News
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PrintWelcome to "Seahawks Week", Rumblers! In an effort to learn all that we can about the Buffalo Bills' season opening opponent, the Seattle Seahawks, we'll be joined once per day by John Morgan of Field Gulls throughout this week. John is a superbly knowledgeable blogger when it comes to the X's and O's of the game, and he'll give us some excellent perspective on the Seahawks as a team heading into Sunday's tilt. To see all posts related to Seahawks Week, click here.
Last season, the Seattle Seahawks finished 10-6, won the NFC West, emerged victorious in a home playoff game and lost to Green Bay in the divisional round of the playoffs. It was an impressive season, to be sure, but it was marked with a tendency that many Buffalo Bills fans need to be aware of for season opening purposes: Seattle was a different team on the road than they were at home.
John Morgan joins us for a third consecutive day to discuss his Seahawks' home/road disparity...
Buffalo Rumblings: Last season, the Seahawks were a dominant 7-1 at home, but a not-so-great 3-5 on the road. Away games have been a hindrance for Seattle in the past. Is there anything that you think is the culprit for this disparity, and do you see it changing in 2008?
John Morgan, Field Gulls: Well, right off, Seattle faced an easier schedule at home than on the road. Among teams contested at home, only Tampa Bay rated as above average according to DVOA. On the road, Seattle faced Pittsburgh, Cleveland and Philadelphia. So the disparity is probably a little overstated.
Still, it would be foolish of me to say Seattle doesn't play better at home - doesn't every team? Seattle, specifically, seems to benefit from Qwest's crowd noise. Foremost, Seattle's defense is built on team speed, or, rather, team quickness. Seattle isn't necessarily fast, but it's quick off the line and quick in a short space. The front seven's ability to disrupt run and pass plays by getting quick penetration in the backfield, forcing rushers outside or forcing quarterbacks into checking down or into panic throws, defines Seattle's defense. The crowd noise seems to slow an offensive line's ability to get off the snap and that fraction of a second lost allows a good - even great - defense to become outright suffocating. The impact of false starts shouldn't be lost, either. Seattle has forced 69 false start penalties at home since 2005, most in the NFL.
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Forgive me for saying so, but Seattle's road schedule doesn't start off in the easiest of fashions in Buffalo. Only one team - New England - has come into Buffalo in the past two years and handled the Bills with ease; the Seahawks are no New England. Sure, every team is a little worse on the road (save the 2007 New York Giants), but Seattle has turned Qwest Field into one of the toughest places to play in the league; they're beatable game in and game out on the road.
Crowd noise will play its role in this Sunday's game, but as John alluded to, I expect it (or its lack thereof) to impact Seattle's defense more than its offense. Matt Hasselbeck is a pretty unflappable quarterback, and while Ralph Wilson Stadium will surely be rocking when Buffalo's on defense, the effects on Hasselbeck's offense will probably be negligible. The home crowd is better for Buffalo than it hurts Seattle, and that's where the real advantage is gained. Home-field advantage gets my blood up. I am now more pumped up about this game than I have been at any point this pre/off-season.
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Trent
will need to make smart decisions quickly on his progression reads. Lots of quick 3-step drops won’t hurt either, and should loosen up Seattle’s D a bit. Personally, I’m more concerned about how to attack the Seahawks’ LB corps than worry about their D-line.
The old K-gun offense used the pass to set up the run. Hopefully Turk will try something similar.
Special teams could be the difference in this game. BILL-ieve it!
Get the Bills back to the big game!
I think Seattle is a different team on the road and are much more beatable. If this game was going to be played at Quest, I wouldn’t give the Bills much of a chance, but the Ralph will be rockin and the Bills are definitely favorites (although not by much). Here are a couple of numbers:
The Seahawks averaged over 108 yards rushing at home and only 94 yards rushing when away.
An even bigger difference is in the run defense where they gave up an incredible 86 yards rushing per game at home and a pedestrian 119 yards on the road.
Opponents scored an average of 14 points at Quest field and 22.5 points when at home.
Buffalo should be able to run the ball pretty effectively and score enough points to give them a good shot at starting the season 1-0.
don't forget, that's yards rushing with a franchise RB named Alexander
Why? Because the Seahawks rock my socks.
Truth be told, the Hawks averaged a little more per carry on the road than they did at home. I was just trying to put an optimistic spin on things.
I really do believe the Seahawks defense simply isn’t as good on the road as they are at home. Quest is one of the biggest home field advantages in the league and the crowd noise is enough of a difference to make an elite defense while at home play like a slightly above average D on the road.
There's a legit argument that Seattle's D plays very well on fieldturf
and not well on grass, which hinders their quickness, as John Morgan alluded to. Their D has played much better against road opponents with fieldturf (which the Bills have).
son of a .......
Dang it red and Scruffy! I was feeling pretty good there until you guys came around and ruined it with your rational, logical and statistically true theory. I even went back to look over my numbers and the two teams that really ripped you guys up via the ground were Arizona (week 1) and San Fran (week 4) and they do both use natural grass.
The nice field turf at quest helps also
It allows players to play with smaller cleats which helps with speed/cutting/traction. Or defense does tend to over pursue so having a turf that doesn’t give out helps minimize those mistakes.
But this could all be in the players head and even if it did make a difference its probably not a big one.
Nice blog you have Brian btw
Coach Owens = No Fun Zone
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