Seahawks-Bucs in Germany: What a win in Munich would mean for Seattle
How many times have the Seahawks been 7-3 or better? Seaside Joe 1346
The Twitter Blue program went live on Wednesday, meaning that the nature of the “blue check” verification tag for certain users has been rendered almost meaningless. Not that “meaning” was ever Twitter’s strong suit.
If you want to find out for yourself if a person has a blue check because they were “verified” as being notable for some reason, or if they have a blue check because they gave Twitter $8, then you have to go to their profile and click on the actual blue check. For example, the Seattle Seahawks seem to be a legitimate celebrity:
But other people were like, “Hmmm…. fake legitimacy for less than the cost of a #2 meal super-sized???”
I’m just counting down the days until Twitter removes my blue check for not paying up, because I now kind of cringe at the fact that I ever got one. Mine came courtesy of a helping hand at work about five years ago, but suffice it to say that the check has no real power once it starts going to people like me.
That being said, I think that Twitter WILL be better by making money off of subscription services instead of solely through selling user data (you are the product) to marketing and advertising companies. If it is the enticement of “verification” that gets the ball rolling towards that, then that’s fine.
Today, I make fun of Ari Meirov for buying a blue check. Tomorrow, it’ll be commonplace and nobody will be snickering anymore.
But I decided long ago that I was tired of giving out all of my ideas and research for free on Twitter, with no benefit to the content creators, which is what prompted the creation of the Seaside Joe newsletter: A place where all of “my tweets” could instead be compiled into articles/newsletters and something of value and if you decide you want to subscribe for the bonus content… Well, hell yeah to that too.
I’ve written so much about Twitter that I wanted to highlight Wednesday’s big social media news so that we all become more well-informed on what to look out for and what to avoid. It’s been my opinion that social media has warped good ideas into bad ones or incoherent nonsense, so I fully believe in supporting the journalism, reporting, or blogging (it doesn’t have to be a dirty word like “lock!”) that you trust.
Just as you support the Seattle Seahawks.
Wow, these transitions and segues at Seaside Joe are unparalleled.
The Seahawks have won four games in a row and are looking to make it a fifth headed into the Week 11 bye by upending Tom Brady and the spiraling Buccaneers in Munich, Germany. There will be a lot written about what it is like to win and travel in Europe—my gut feeling is that trying to understand the impact of travel on the Seahawks will not be my speciality.
Instead, I will focus merely on what a win could mean for Seattle as they move past the mid-point of the season.
A win is a win
Same as I write every week. It’s funny (and I’m not criticizing you for it, if this was you) how many fans wanted to see the Seahawks lose games this season, because they expected the Seahawks to lose more games than they’d win anyway. Now that Seattle is 6-3, those fans are completely—and I mean completely—back on the winning bandwagon.
Of course. Where else would they be? “Nah, the Seahawks still got an outside shot at 6-11!”
Since the final game of the 2010 season, I’ve felt strongly that teams should try to win under all circumstances. But that doesn’t mean that I’m right. Maybe there are circumstances where “tanking” is the right thing to do for the health of the organization.
Thank god the Seahawk don’t have to wrestle with that demon, like we had expected.
A 7-3 record
Nine times in history, the Seahawks have been 7-3 or better after 10 games:
9-1 in 2013
8-2 in ‘84, ‘99, ‘05, and ‘19
7-2-1 in 2016
7-3 in ‘87, ‘03, and ‘20
Seattle has never missed the playoffs after a 7-3 or better start. Which is different than saying that the Seahawks have never struggled after a 7-3 start. The Seahawks basically collapsed after an 8-2 start in 1999, losing five of their last six. The ‘87 Seahawks lost three of their last five. The ‘03 and ‘16 Seahawks split their final six games. The ‘19 Seahawks lsost three of their last four.
Only the 2016 and 2019 teams managed to get past the wild card round of the playoffs after slipping up in the home stretch. However, the 2005 and 2013 Seahawks did reach the Super Bowl and you already know how those games went, respectively.
First place in the NFC West
Same as I’ve been able to write every week for the last few games, Seattle is in first place in the NFC West and they can retain that title with a fifth-straight win.
The 4-4 San Francisco 49ers host the 5-3 L.A. Chargers on Sunday Night Football. The 3-5 L.A. Rams host the 3-6 Arizona Cardinals, and the loser of that game will be in the basement of the NFC West with some potentially sweeping changes of that organization on the horizon.
The Seahawks could lose and still be in first place—even if the 49ers win, in which case Seattle would have a 0.5 game lead—but a win would keep the Seahawks up in the division by over a game and the bye week on deck.
IF the Seahawks win (7-3) and the 49ers lose (4-5) and the Rams win (4-5)/Cardinals (3-7), then Seattle would have a 2.5 game lead in the NFC West with seven games remaining. If the Rams lost too, then that would be a 3.5 game lead over the defending Super Bowl champions.
Keep pace with NFC competition
8-0 Eagles: vs 4-5 Commanders
7-1 Vikings: at 6-2 Bills
6-2 Cowboys: at 3-5 Packers
6-2 Giants: vs 1-6-1 Texans
Playing with Vegas odds here, that would mean that the Eagles, Cowboys, and Giants all net victories, while the Vikings take a loss to the elbow-impaired Josh Allen. Of course, this is the NFL and the weekend is probably not going to play out that way. If it did, go run your “four-team parlays” I guess.
But it is fair to say that the Seahawks will want to win if they don’t want to fall out of contention for the top two seeds in the NFC or potentially, if the 49ers or Rams catch up to them, the best possible wild card slot.
Conference Record Help
Seattle would be 5-3 in the NFC with a win, but 4-4 with a loss. That would be a poor conference record by comparison: Minnesota is 6-1, Philly is 5-0, Dallas is 5-2, San Francisco is 4-2, and even Tampa Bay is 4-2. So losing to the Bucs would give Tampa Bay a 5-2 conference record and a HUGE advantage for the Bucs if the Seahawks ended up in a tiebreak situation for a wild card or division-winning playoff seed.
Awards Season keeps marching ahead
A win most likely continues the forward momentum for Geno Smith, Kenneth Walker III, and Pete Carroll/John Schneider earning accolades, as well as Tariq Woolen for Defensive Rookie of the Year. NFL.com writers almost unanimously voted for Walker as OROY, whereas Geno narrowly edges out Saquon Barkley for CPOY.
Awards don’t hold much special meaning (I dare you to name literally a single award winner from 2021 other than MVP without looking it up, and if you’re any good at that, I’ll challenge you to do the same for 2019 and 2020) but hell, it doesn’t hurt to brag for one day of your life.
Send Tom Brady back home?
Beating Brady could save his family. Go home, Tom.
The Bucs are 4-5 and they have one of the worst offenses in the NFL. Tampa Bay ranks 25th in scoring, 32nd in rushing, and 25th in points per drive. Tampa’s defense has been good, but they’re not facing many fearsome opponents; against the Chiefs, the Bucs allowed 41 points and 189 rushing yards; against the Ravens, 27 points and 231 rushing yards.
Here comes Geno Smith and Kenneth Walker, what can they do vs Tampa?
The Jets were somehow criticized for firing Todd Bowles even though his final three seasons went 5-11, 5-11, and 4-12. The Bucs won’t have an easy time with the media if they fire Bowles after one season, but shouldn’t Tampa be considered a bigger disaster than the Raiders and Josh McDaniels?
A win overseas
The Seahawks are 1-0 all-time outside of North America, beating the Raiders 27-3 in London on October 14, 2018. For the record, that’s when Starter sent out some special Seahawks “UK” jackets and you saw Rashaad Penny wearing his earlier this year. I actually received one of those jackets from Starter back in 2018, too. It’s incredibly comfortable and I plan to give it to a Seaside Joe subscriber one day. One day… But those details are long in the works.
Want to be entered to win? When that day happens, you’ll have to be a Regular Joe so get it going sooner than later!
What else do you see as an advantage if the Seahawks come away with a win in Germany this week? Tell me in the comments!
Excuse me while I make a small, meaningless rant.
To the fine folks who tabbed Barkley as many d-season CPOY over Geno:
What the lock are you thinking?!!!
Saquon played at a top level for 2 years, was out with a blown ACL for a season, had a “meh” season last year, and it doing really well this year. It’s a pretty good comeback, but not completely unexpected.
Geno played almost ok for the better part of 2 years, then spent 7 years in the “wilderness” as a backup, and when given the starting nod as Hawks QB, was doubted by EVERYBODY! Geno’s been playing like a borderline MVP candidate AT THE HARDEST POSITION IN PRO SPORTS!
The ONLY reason I see Barkley getting any of those votes over Geno is because Barkley is playing in NYC, presumed capital of the known universe.
We now return you to your regularly scheduled program.
We won't have to hear insufferable commentary about Brady havimg won in four countries. To me, that's the biggest.