PREVIEW: Hawks at Cardinals

 

That deafening buzz you hear emanating from the Puget Sound region these days is a growing sentiment among Seahawk fans (both loyal and bandwagon-ish) that there's something good on the horizon for the home team.  After enduring over 500 player transactions during the first 3 offseasons of the Pete Carroll/John Schneider regime, the Hawks have amassed one of the more dynamic young talent cores in the NFL, and appears poised to make a run at a playoff spot.

But much of that buzz earned it's momentum via the mercurial performance of diminutive rookie QB Russell Wilson, so it needs to be tempered with a healthy dose of reality.  No matter how gifted they are, rookie quarterbacks will struggle.  Remember John Elway's 7/14 TD/INT ratio as a rookie? How about Peyton Manning throwing 28 picks his first year?

Mark it down.... Wilson will have bad games, and there will certainly be times when a restless fan base desperate for a winner will call out for Matt Flynn to get his shot.  But Carroll has an intense belief in Wilson and his special attributes, primarily his ability to lead in the face of adversity.  He'll let him fail, and give him a chance to respond. 

As I look ahead to this week's opener at Arizona, however, I'm not even thinking about the risks of pitting a rookie QB starting his first regular season game against a defense that should rank among the more troublesome in the league.  Maybe it's because I believe our running game will control the clock and allow Wilson to sustain long drives.  Or maybe I just believe Wilson is that good, and between his mobility and play-action, he'll hit on enough chunk plays to keep the Cardinals on their heels.

But mostly, it's because I see this Sunday as a coronation of sorts; a culmination of a 3 year construction project on defense.  The Cardinals offense is a mess, with both starting tackles on IR and a quarterback that didn't win the QB job as much as he was deemed the lesser of two evils.  Arizona isn't going to be able to run against the Seahawks, and John Skelton is going to struggle trying to make plays downfield with Chris Clemons, Bruce Irvin, Jason Jones, K.J. Wright and Bobby Wagner breathing down his neck.  Seattle's big, physical secondary will take rookie Michael Floyd out of the game, and while Larry Fitzgerald will make a play or two, he'll mostly be a non-factor. 

This will be a coming-out party for the Seahawks defense.  They gave us a glimpse of what they could be during the second half of the 2011 season, but Sunday they will send a message to the Cardinals, as well as the 49ers and the rest of the league, that their playoff hopes are much more than a pipe dream. 

Expectations still need to be tempered; the early schedule is daunting.  But we get the Cowboys, Packers and Patriots at home during that stretch, and this defense is going to be good enough to keep us in every game.  Even a 2-4 or 3-3 start shouldn't dampen anyone's enthusiasm, as I believe this team will improve as the year advances.  There are questions on offense, with Wilson's learning curve and the unsettled receiving corps chief among them, but what better way to allow that offense to develop than having a defensive unit that can control a game?

It's been a long time since I felt this confident going into a Seahawks opener.

This is going to be a fun year.

Seahawks 31, Cardinals 13