The Seahawks and The Power Poll
Rather than comment on last weeks’ Seahawks/49ers game, which has been thoroughly covered, I thought I’d talk about power polls. Working on my power poll this week, I really had some second thoughts about how I’m ranking teams. It’s odd to see some of the teams we’ve beaten ending up ranked above us. But in a way, I understand it. I don’t like it but it boils down to the three main concepts I consider when ranking teams
- What you’ve done – Who have you beaten and by how much? Tough opponents? On the road? Against the odds? Was there a lucky kick? Have you had huge losses or huge wins?
- What might you do – Are you on the upswing? Is your 1st string QB coming back? Is your defense hitting its stride? Are your receivers gaining confidence? Did you lose a key player in your o-line? Have you blown a lead the last three games? Are you doing crazy things with your quarterbacks? Is your best linebacker injured?
- Predictability – What are the odds I can predict your success or defeat? Is every game a surprise? Are your strengths always evident? This really boils down to a team being consistent, at home and on the road week after week. Some teams are consistently bad, others… consistently puzzling and very few this year…consistently good.
This consistency has been the challenge with the Seahawks in recent years. As the team has been reworked and re-imagined, the talent quotient has risen exponentially. Getting that talent to translate into strengths and strengths into wins has been the challenge.
In this third year with Pete and John, it now feels like the strengths are there; defense, special teams, running game… possibly the passing game.
The wins are coming. But we’re not consistent yet. And that’s the final key to finding our way in the power poll.
- The ability to win road games.
- The ability to win tough games.
- The ability to win the games we should win.
Once we get better at consistency, it will be great to where we end up in the major power polls!