Let me tell you a story. It’s the NFL season opener. Two teams: two Super Bowl-winning quarterbacks. The reigning Super Bowl champions are squared off against a top contender from their own conference. It’s Thursday night before the full regular Sunday/Monday schedule. The game is hyped as a playoff preview, among other things.
These two teams have some recent history. Bad blood runs rampant. The game begins. The home team is on fire. They crush their well-regarded opponent. The offense and defense dominate. The final score reveals a three-score margin. They look unstoppable — visions of broken records and a destiny of a glide path to the Super Bowl looms likely.
Do you know what game I’m talking about?
I’m talking about the 2013 NFL season opener between the Denver Broncos and the Baltimore Ravens. In that game, the Broncos wiped the then defending Super Bowl Champion Ravens off the field and laid claim as the team to beat for the duration of the 2013 season.
Whatever happened to them? Anyone remember?
Same same
The point here is while the 2014 Seattle Seahawks and the 2013 Denver Broncos made football magic happen in the season opener, it’s still a long campaign to be crowned champion. The landscape of the NFL season changes every month.
While it’s a safe bet that the Seahawks will take up residence at or near the top of every NFL poll going forward, there is no guarantee they will remain there. The entire field could look different a month from now. Injuries are unpredictable. The ball bounces funny sometimes. Fortunes wax and wane. Even more likely, the real determining factors will emerge in December. If you’re still in it when December rolls around, you must make your destiny by playing your best football.
That goes for any team — not just for the 16 week one winners. So how big is week two? Big — if you can continue to set the tone.
Just one game — or the start of something big?
Make no mistake — The Seahawks made a helluva statement Thursday night by soundly defeating the Green Bay Packers. The potential for continuing momentum exists, so long as they go down to San Diego and take care of business against a 2013 playoff team. If not, the week one victory will reveal itself to be nothing more than just one game.
It won’t probably be as easy as it looked against the Packers. The Seahawks dropped two road games last season on their way to a 13 – 3 record. They dropped both preseason road games this year with surprisingly off-kilter performances. If they prevail in San Diego, as expected, it will definitely serve as another statement on the heels of Thursday night’s 36 – 16 statement.
In an odd scheduling twist, the Chargers will have to face the reigning and rolling Super Bowl champions on a short week (they open the season tonight at Arizona as three-point underdogs), while said champions are resting up with the benefit of a 10-day gap between games. The traveling champions should arrive in San Diego both better rested and better prepared.
If it’s hype you want
The Seahawks may be tempted to look ahead to their week three opponent, which will be a rematch of that game played earlier this year in February. The major difference: It’s in Seattle. The similarity: both teams are easily looking like the two strongest teams in each of their respective conferences.
Could it be that week three may give us a Super Bowl rematch and preview all at the same time? It just might. Just as long as Seattle doesn’t stumble in San Diego on Sunday and likewise Denver doesn’t overlook their division rival Kansas City Chiefs, as they come into Denver licking their wounds from week one.
As it stands right now, the September 21 game (1:25 p.m. kickoff) between the Seahawks and the Broncos ranks as the prime game of the 2014 regular season. Let’s just hope the week two matchups go as planned. Take care of business and let the hype begin.
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