We’re two weeks into the NFL season and the Seattle Seahawks are already 3 – 0. Just ask Seahawks fans. That is, if you can get a word in edge-wise among the still deafening roar.
Coming off their dominating performance against the previously No. 1-ranked San Francisco 49ers on Sunday Night Football, the Seahawks are even more the team du jour for many football prognosticators. Fox, CBS, AP, SI, Business Insider and SB Nation currently have the Seahawks ranked second behind the Denver Broncos. ESPN, USA Today and Bleacher Report have the Seahawks at No. 1.
Seahawks fans are eating it up. But let’s be realistic. There’s still a lot of football left — “That’s why they play the games,” “one week at a time,” “on any given Sunday” and all that.
Seahawks fans cannot hear it. Their ears are still ringing from Sunday night’s dismantling of the 49ers. Meanwhile, there’s another game to be played in just a few days.
What unfortunate tomato can will next wander in to CenturyLink Field to get kicked across the turf? The Jacksonville Jaguars — the NFL’s consensus 32nd-ranked team. Coming up against the top-ranked Seahawks and traveling across country into the loudest stadium in the world is no happy task for a struggling NFL team. And if you do a search for “struggling NFL team,” I’ll bet most search engines will take you directly to the Jaguars’ team website.
Despite being considered an almost-unheard of (in the NFL) 19.5-point underdog, the Jaguars will arrive in time for kickoff Sunday ready to engage in a contest. For the sake of Jaguars fans, they better hope it won’t be a contest of the football variety.
Perhaps instead, the Seahawks and Jaguars can square off in a who-has-the-busiest-NFL-uniform contest. In the Jaguars, the Seahawks may have actually met their match in this regard. Seriously. Were both teams’ uniform designers paid by the image? After the Seahawks hired Trying Too Hard Design Studios, did the Jaguars say, “Yes! Give us that — only worse”? This is not a good game to watch for NFL fans with working eyeballs.
There’s always radio.
Back to football. As the 3 – 0 — sorry, 2 – 0 — Seahawks head into week three, fans would be wise to temper their Super Bowl expectations a tad. To date, their three — sorry, two — wins have come against the 31st-ranked Carolina Panthers, a home game on a jet runway against the hated 49ers, and are now staring at a lopsided contest against the 32nd-ranked NFL team — also on the same deafening jet runway.
There’s only one quality win here so far, and the Seahawks struggled in their other win. The Seahawks schedule stiffens a bit from here on out with five more games against 2012 playoff teams and five remaining games against pesky NFC West opponents.
It’s looking good, but it’s way too early to print playoff tickets yet. Will the 12th man be able to sustain the same level of fervor for the visiting Jaguars this Sunday? If not, right there is a little glimpse into the difficulties the Seahawks players themselves will face as they prepare for the Jaguars. The Seahawks players are human, too, although some of the 49ers might vote no on that count.
Can the Jaguars come in and steal a victory? Don’t be ridiculous. That would be as ludicrous as a 7 – 9 upstart team defeating a reigning Super Bowl champion in a playoff game. That could never happen, right?
Julian Rogers is a freelance writer and communications consultant. Follow him on Twitter (@mrturophile), or connect with him on LinkedIn and Google+.
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