R-E-L-A-X. A great NFL quarterback once said that to fans after his team got off to a rocky start to the season.
It was just last year, and the quarterback was the Green Bay Packers’ Aaron Rodgers, who may find it easy to relax because he’s clearly a robot.
As living, breathing fans, we find it harder to relax about our pride and joy, the Seattle Seahawks. After they stumbled through two tough road games at 0-2, they may not have had fans panicking, but they definitely had us worried.
In our latest poll at HeraldNet.com, we asked how the team will fare after its sluggish start this season. You seem to have tempered your expectations. While 30 percent said the Seahawks are still going back to the Super Bowl, more people – 41 percent – said they’ll exit earlier in the playoffs. Another 29 percent said they won’t make the playoffs at all.
You still have a brighter outlook than the statisticians. The number crunchers at FiveThirtyEight peg the now 1-2 Seahawks’ chances of winning the Super Bowl at 7 percent, about half of what they were before the season started. Football Outsiders has them at 6 percent chance to reach the Super Bowl and 3 percent to win it.
But what do statistics know? Math doesn’t account for the return of Kam Chancellor, or the fact that the Hawks started 3-3 last year before winning nine out of 10 to close the regular season, or the way opponents turn into puddles of goo at CenturyLink Field.
You know who knows better than math? Vegas. Bookmakers there still have the Seahawks as the third-most-likely Super Bowl winner at 8-1 odds despite their slow start.
Follow the money, and keep the faith. Unless they lose to the Lions on Monday night – then all bets are off.
— Doug Parry, @parryracer
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For our next poll, we’d like to know what you think about the Volkswagen emissions scandal.
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