It looks like it might be a long season for the Seahawks. Normally the epitome of health, with their holistic approach to player health setting the standard for how teams now take care of their players physically, the Seahawks find themselves in a perpetual state of recovery.
With all the injuries piling up, and the offense's struggles to get anything going it's hard to overlook that this year's Hawks have a better record than last year at this point in the season. However, it's hard to not have the same pessimism that existed in Week 8 last year.
On offense the struggles are well documented, and no team likes to use injuries as an excuse. After all, every team has injuries. But looking up and down the Hawks' roster, no position group on either side of the ball is immune to the injury bug.
The once seemingly indescructable Russell Wilson has been hobbled nearly all year, and is banged up from top to bottom.Of course he had the high ankle sprain which is said to not be an issue, but he is still recovering from knee troubles and now has a torn pectoral. Thomas Rawls of course is out, although he is said to be close to returning to the field. Luke Willson too had knee surgery two weeks ago and is no sure thing to play Monday night.
On defense, Michael Bennett just underwent surgery, similar to Willson's knee procedure and Pete Carroll said he hopes that Bennett is back in three weeks. That however, is not the likely scenario. Kam Chancellor absence has left a Kam sized hole in the defensive backfield as he's missed the last two games due to a groin injury.
With all these injuries to key players, the margin for error is extremely slim, like the width of a field goal post slim (looking at you Hauschka). Thus, despite going through the supposedly easier part of their schedule, the Hawks have not looked totally dominant save for the games against the 49ers and Jets.
ESPN still has them pegged with an 84% chance of making the playoffs, and five of their last nine games are at home and six of those nine against teams with a record on .500 or below. What we are trying to get at is that the glass is half full rather than half empty for this team. Therefore if the Hawks can tread water and hit their stride comes playoff time, we should not fret at this point and just make sure Pete gets everyone healthy.
Photo: Flickr/Keith Allison
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