Studio711.com – Ben Martens

The Seahawks vs Cardinals game was a doozy. I’d say it was a defensive battle but it felt more like impotent offenses, at least on Seattle’s side. Regular time ended with a 3-3 tie so they went to overtime. Surely one time would be able to find a way to score a touchdown and put this game out of it’s misery? Nope. They both managed a field goal which meant that the next score would win the game. Seattle’s defense let the Cardinals march down the field in range for an easy field goal and… it hit the upright! The Seattle found some offense and marched down the field for an easy field goal and… wide left! AUGH! My old man heart can’t take this. The game ended with that 6-6 tie and that’s it. The Seahawks are now 4-1-1. Since the new overtime rules were introduced in 2012, this is only the fourth tie and it’s the first in Seahawks history. Meh. The bottom line is that the Seahawks better find a way to fix their broken offense because it looked horrible.

We had a crazy week in our league too with the top two teams (Logan and Andy) losing. There is now a three way tie for first place between Logan, Andy and Tim. Next week’s game of the week is probably Austin vs Andy. They’re both in the top 3 in the power rankings:

1. Logan
2. Austin (+1)
3. Andy (-1)
4. Dad

The Seahawks are 4-1 after and ugly win against Atlanta. The normally rock solid kicking game had a missed field goal and blocked extra point that nearly cost them the game. The big play of the game unfortunately came from the referees with a blown pass interference call at the end of the game that would have put the Falcons in field goal position. I love the Seahawks but that as a terrible no-call. Nevertheless, it’s a W in the books and that means that “Russell Wilson is 1 win away from his 50th career victory. With a win over the Falcons in his 69th career start, he would tie for the 3rd-fastest starting QB since 1970 to reach 50 career wins, behind only Ken Stabler (62 starts) and Tom Brady (65 starts).” (source)

Two of the highest scores in our league came from the 7th and 8th place teams (Dad and Jim) in their head to head battle. Luke’s team blew everyone away though with three players over 30 points! Logan looks dominant as he extended his winning streak to 4 games. And I don’t want to pick on Tim too much, but have we ever had a team that was in first place get the lowest score in the league two weeks in a row? If he keeps this up for a few more weeks, he’ll be down in the standings by me. Here’s what the Power Rankings have to say:

1. Logan
2. Andy
3. Austin
4. Dad (+2)

The Seahawks had a bye this week, but I read a couple fun statistics that make me excited about the possibilities for this season:

• The Seahawks now have played 77 straight games without losing by more than 10 points. That is now the longest streak in pro football history, as they passed the Decatur Staleys-turned-Chicago Staleys-turned Chicago Bears streak of 74 straight set from 1920 to 1925, per Pro-Football-Reference.com.
• Since 2012, the Seahawks have allowed 106 touchdowns. The next closest team is the Bengals, who have allowed 143 during that stretch.

Tim’s undefeated streak was ended in our league in grand fashion. It was kind of reminiscent of the Hindenberg as Logan beat him by so mucch that we wondered about the toppling of the all-time record. Elsewhere in the league, Luke, Jim and Dad are still looking for win number two before their season is flushed like number two. Jim and Dad each other next week so one of them will find the endzone. Kudos to Jim though for starting the perfect roster this week!

With his big game, Logan jumps up to the top of the power rankings this week:

1. Logan (+2)
2. Andy (-1)
3. Austin (-1)
4. Ben

Seahawks! That game felt great. Both the offense and the defense played good games and I didn’t see any major injuries. Jimmy Graham had another big day with some incredible catches. They get a very early bye week this year, but at least it means that Wilson will get a chance to rest… if he ever rests.

The game of the week in our league turned out to be Tim and Dad. They had the two lowest scores in the league by quite a bit and their game was decided by less than half a point thanks to Eli Manning’s poor performance and INT on Monday night. Tim’s undefeated streak continues. Barely.

We are four weeks into the season so that means that our custom power rankings are available. Here’s what we have right now:
1. Andy
2. Austin
3. Logan
4. Ben
I love these early season power rankings because they can vary so much from the current standings. For example, Tim is dominating our league but he is sixth in the power rankings. Is that the because the power ranking formula is wrong or because we just haven’t had enough games in our league for the wins and losses to match up to team strength?

We also broke almost every season record!

That Seahawks game was a lot easier to watch. Scoring a TD in the first minute on a 3 play 80-yard drive was comforting. Pretty much everything about the offense looked good. Christine Michael is getting good blocks up front and gaining huge yards and they finally realized that maybe they should pass to their expensive tight end. Graham ended up over 100 yards with a TD. It’s only the second game with the Seahawks where he has gone over 100 yards and this third TD as a Seahawk. More please. There was a definite damper on the excitement in the second half though with the horse collar tackle that took out Wilson’s knee. Thankfully the coaches were able to keep him out of the game. There was no point in him continuing to play at that point and it was a good opportunity to get Trevone Boykin some real snaps. He didn’t look bad except for the INT at the end of the game.

Our league had some Monday night drama. Logan needed 2.13 points on Monday night to win the game and he got… 2.90. Jim needed 39.05 points on Monday night to win and got 41.1. I’m sure Andy and Luke are a bit frustrated about those games. Tim remains undefeated and victories by Jim and myself mean that there are no winless (“unfeated”?) teams anymore. Bye weeks are starting so watch those rosters carefully.

On to the weekly stats:

That was not a great game for the Seahawks. Why are the Rams always so difficult for the Seahawks to beat? The defense was reasonably good (except for the notable lack of turnovers), but the offense was stagnant. Next up is the 49ers. They’re not going to lose to the 49ers… are they?

Andy and Tim are the only remaining undefeated coaches in our league. Jim and I are still waiting for our first win. This early in the season, it can help to look at the total points scored since those teams usually bubble up to the playoffs. That ranking would put Andy, Logan, and Austin on top. Andy and Logan face off next week so that should be a pretty good matchup.

Whew. The Seahawks started off the season with a rough win. They were behind almost the entire game but finally put together a drive that culminated in a touchdown. That’s not what we’re used to seeing, especially at home and especially against the Miami Dolphins. Thankfully, a win is a win.

Our league had plenty of drama with a bunch of good games. When the dust settled, Tim, Andy, Dad and Logan had set sail on their undefeated season.

I’ll start the stats table off with some carryover stats from last season, but next week I’ll adjust that third column to be the current season.