THERE WILL BE BLOOD!! - NINERS@SEAHAWKS TONIGHT!!

THE WAIT IS OVER!!!

How can it be?  Here we are in just "Week  #2" of the National Football League 2013 season, and already one of the most highly anticipated NFL matchups is set to occur this Sunday evening in the bright lights of Seattle's CenturyLink Field.  This is a contest of wills that features; "Kaepernicking", "Gore", "Beast Mode", "Russellmania", "Q", "Golden", and of course the "Legion of Boom";  These are only a handful of superstar athletes that will play in this game, and believe it or not, those aren't even  the best reasons to watch.  These are all great, cosmically known parts of the game, but this most highly anticipated Clash of the Titans is the epitome of "The whole being greater than the sum of its parts.”  Actually, Sunday evening's "event" isn't really a game at all; it's a heavyweight bout, and the fight card features the biggest and best up against each other on a 100 yard, green, synthetic canvas.  This battle royale is going to be epic and the nation is waiting for the outcome, either way; A fight of attrition; and the last men standing will have the ultimate bragging rights… until December 8, that is, when they face-off next, at Candlestick Park. 

The burgeoning rivalry between the Seahawks and 49ers developed quickly.  In fact, it could be said that it required only one man, one decision, in one moment, as Jim Harbaugh signed a contract to become the head coach of the San Francisco 49ers, leaving his previous job at Stanford.  Harbaugh's decision came precisely one year after, Pete Carroll, chose to leave the USC Trojans, for Seattle and a return to the NFL to coach the Seahawks.  There is no shortage of personal jabs thrown between Harbaugh and Carroll during their college tenures, but one doesn't need to go back far to see that jabs are still being exchanged and that it's Jim Harbaugh doing most of the punching.  Coach Carroll has plenty of pent-up hostility for his colleague, but he chooses to use his words very carefully when he's out of his own player’s locker room or practice field.  That doesn't mean he's not feeding choice words to his team, rallying them around him to provide them even more motivation to destroy his old and current nemesis.  Harbaugh doesn't cloak any of his comments to the press or anyone else who will listen.  He has made it clear to everyone with ears that he finds extra motivation for himself and his players to try and beat the Seahawks more than any other team in the NFL.  Carroll will feed the press the politically correct responses to any questions inferring that he or his players put any more importance in this game against the 49ers then they do any of the other 16 games per season.  He went as far as to say that he as a coach, and his players "Approach and prepare for each and every football game as the most important game in the world".  He refutes that the Seahawks put any more importance on this game and cites the media as the source that puts this conference and divisional matchup at a "rival status.”  Russell Wilson echoes his coach’s sentiment saying, "Each week of the season we are playing our rival and each week our plan is to prepare to go one and oh and nothing more.  I don't think many people buy the story, but all in all it is probably the correct way to prepare your players.  However, it's likely that both the 49ers and the Seahawks have circled their 2 regular-season meetings on the calendar as a special day to get down and dirty, to show their conference and division opponent who's boss in the NFC West.  The 49ers beat Seattle at Candlestick Park early in the 2012 season and it was Russell Wilson's worst statistical game.  This is no doubt more motivation for Wilson to perform better against this football team and to reinforce the lesson the Seahawks gave San Francisco when they visited CenturyLink Field last December when the Seahawks lambasted the 49ers in a lopsided 42-13 shellacking where the 13 points came late in the game in the only touchdown was symbolic at the end of the 4th quarter.  Now, that touchdown may have kept a streak alive for Kaepernick or the 49ers, but it didn't give them more confidence to come back and play Seattle in the loudest Stadium in the world.  Seahawks fans intend to prove that theory as they seek to set the Guinness book of world records this Sunday evening as the loudest recorded Stadium roar ever.  The record is currently held by a group in Istanbul, Turkey when they recorded 131.7 dB during a soccer match held in a stadium in that city.  It will be a lofty goal, but the Seahawks 12th man has been put on notice that they will be monitored for crowd noise and I wouldn't bet against them, particularly since it's being recorded throughout a matchup with the San Francisco 49ers.

More than any other stadium in the NFL, perhaps in the world, CenturyLink Field is the most inhospitable of surroundings for a visiting football team.  The noise is so distracting it literally prevents one from gathering their thoughts, and for an NFL quarterback who needs desperately to communicate with his offensive teammates, it can be nearly impossible to coordinate a successful huddle and play call.  Colin Kaepernick is a year older, and a year more experienced, but last season he didn't cope well with the crowd noise at all.  This year, by NFL rule, stadiums throughout the National Football League will be allowed to play music and public address speaker noise during clock play.  In addition, messages can be displayed to incite even more fan crowd noise.  This could be good news for Kaepernick and the 49ers.  I would imagine that Harbaugh, being an intelligent and proactive coach, that he has taking measures to be the crowd noise with hand signals, perhaps field signs from the coaching staff and no huddle, hurry up style offensive play calling.  This has proved ineffective in the past from every other football team in 2012, but of course he's free to try.

It's no secret anywhere in the United States that the Seahawks and 49ers loathe each other and this hasn't been lost on the fans of San Francisco or Seattle.  Reports of Seahawks fans harassing people, either brave enough or dumb enough, to venture into the entrance of CenturyLink Field have been harassed and even assaulted presumably by Seahawks fanatics.  In response, Seattle police, in cooperation with CenturyLink Field security, well control the concourses, aisle-ways and concession courts wearing 49ers merchandise (hats, jerseys etc.).  They will be obviously arresting fans who interfere with them or harass them due to team loyalty.  This has been widely spread throughout computer social media and news programs, so this won't resemble any kind of sting operation.  This same method has been used in Oakland and San Francisco effectively.

It's amazing how this rivalry has become so bitter and intense in such a short time.  It was just 2 years ago that the NFC West was referred to in ridicule as the NFC Worst.  All 4 franchises had losing records against all of the other divisions in the NFC and appeared to be on a crash course of mediocrity for years.  This was before an enormous transformation of the Seahawks by Pete Carroll and an equally drastic change of the 49ers by Jim Harbaugh.  Both teams transitioned much differently, however.  The 49ers already had the nucleus for a playoff team when Harbaugh arrived in 2011.  Harbaugh added a lot of talent to the team over the next 2 years, but what made the 49ers become so dominant was a change of leadership.  Harbaugh has provided a nasty, unyielding and smart tone to his coaches and players and they have reflected his energy and nastiness on the field.  Carroll had a much different approach to reforming the Seahawks into a winner.  You can say it was a much kinder and gentler way of relating to his players.  Carroll wanted to provide a positive working environment for everyone in the organization all the way from the quarterback to the person who mops the floors after practice.  Make no mistake; this isn't a soft football team, nothing of the kind in fact.  Just ask the Legion of Boom, Richard Sherman, Brandon Browner, Earl Thomas and Kam Chancellor if they're going to take on their opponents with a soft and gentle approach.  Carroll teaches toughness and physical, hard-hitting with big, fast and athletic players that want nothing more than just have the ball in their hands, and players around them ready to distribute it and provide a path.  Harbaugh's approach is a much more blue-collar, working man's mentality of intimidate and dominate.  He also creates a team of athletic and quick, hard-hitting players.  But it would take a lot less time to describe how both teams are different.  As different as their approaches are, Harbaugh and Carroll produced football teams that are physical, they like to establish a tough running game, complimented by a big play, dangerous set of offensive weapons to build a quick lead and hold it with excellent defense. 

I would venture to say that, while they aren't likely on each other's Christmas card list, they have more in common than either of them would like to admit.  Intensity is a virtue that echoes throughout their organizations, coaches and players.  Harbaugh and Carroll are aggressive defensive coaches who will stunt and take chances at critical times in close games.  However, both head coaches trust their offensive coordinators to make most of the offensive calls.  Seahawks' Daryl Bevell and Niners' Greg Roman, both have supreme trust in their quarterbacks to make smart decisions when plays break down, but neither of these crazy geniuses are willing to hand over playcalling to their extremely intelligent quarterbacks.

QB's Russell Wilson and Colin Kaepernick are as different as it gets considering their physical stature and personas off the field; Kaepernick goes 6'5" 230 lbs. and Wilson 5'10" 5/8 205 lbs. Kaepernick is rap music, hanging with celebs and clubbing, Wilson is Rachmaninoff, Pike Street Market and the Seahawks film room.  However, that's where the big differences trail off; both players are superb athletes with the ability to hurt defenses badly with their legs running the football or their strong arms throwing accurate downfield passes. 

San Francisco pounds the football at you with the human bowling ball, running back Frank Gore, while Seattle gives you Beast Mode all day, every day with his churning legs and unwillingness to be dragged down without a gang tackle. 

Frisco has perhaps the best offensive line in the NFL, but not a far drop when Seattle fields their front 5 o-lineman.  Harbaugh gives you Vernon Davis, and Carroll answers with Zach Miller.  Miller doesn't have the speed and pass catching prowess of Davis, but Miller might be the best run and pass blocking tight end in the game and don't ever go to sleep on his ability to run precise routes and he has remarkably soft hands downfield.

The 49ers have a slight edge at the linebacker position, and could possibly have the best linebacking crew in football as well.  Kevin Willis, Navarro Bowman and Aldon Smith are 3 of the best.  Seattle has 2 outstanding young linebackers in KJ Wright and runner-up for defensive rookie of the year, Bobby Wagner.  Seattle is still looking for a dominant outside linebacker to complete the trio.  

One of the places that might give the Seahawks the edge at defensive line is the fact that free agent acquired Cliff Avril will return to the starting lineup this Sunday evening for the first time of the season.  With Red Bryant, Tony McDaniel, Michael Bennett and Brendan Mebane in the middle and O'Brien Schofield and Cliff Avril attacking at the edges, Seattle could cause real problems for Kaepernick in a stadium where you can literally feel the noise inside your chest cavity.  The art of the noisy stadium gives the defensive line a decided advantage and nowhere in the world is there a more disruptive and loud fan base than at CenturyLink Field in downtown Seattle.  Last season, San Francisco didn't have the benefit of a healthy Justin Smith on their defensive line, and this year he is healthy.  Seattle will have to try to neutralize him with double teams if possible.  However, Frisco also features Glenn Dorsey and Ray McDonald on the D line, but those players don't carry the clout of Seattle's front 4.  Also, the Seahawks defensive line depth is going to be a problem for the Niners and Pete Carroll likes to keep his defensive line fresh and will be substituting a rotation of down linemen all night long. 

Next up is the defensive backfield positions…  Boo!…  Niners, because Halloween is coming early for your skilled positions, all of them.  This is where the Seahawks have a decided and emphatic advantage of complete and utter dominance.  This is simply indisputable.  The Seahawks corners and safeties are the best and the biggest that the NFL has to offer Pro football.  Coach Carroll brings along All-Pro caliber, physical and athletic corners and pro-bowl safeties that blow you up and ask questions, Lat-…  Uh, Well… they don't really ask any questions; they just "blow you up, and real good.”  Seattle's "Legion of Boom" is quite possibly the best four to ever patrol the top of any defense, or any era.  Sherman, Browner, Thomas and Chancellor are going to make it a long, long night for the 49ers skill positions… all of them.  Where Vernon Davis and Anquan Boldin can usually impose their size and physicality on much smaller corners and safeties, they will now be facing safeties the size of linebackers and corners that resemble the faster tight ends in the league.  Where most large defensive backs suffer the kind of speed necessary to keep up with the more speedy wideouts, the Legion of Boom can keep up with the fastest receivers in the game.  But for players like Brandon Browner, who lacks speed necessary to blanket players like Mike Wallace, DeShawn Jackson and Vernon Davis, he will play press man-to-man coverage and with his size and quickness, he will disrupt the wide receiver's pass pattern so much that quarterback and wide receiver cannot synchronize in their intermediate and deep pass patterns.  This most often forces the offense to try and overwhelm the DB's with 4 wide sets, but they'll only find their own foolishness with this strategy.  Browner and Chancellor will punish pass receivers in the intermediate zones on the field, and Earl Thomas and Richard Sherman will cover so much ground that any passes that aren't thrown with laser speed and precise accuracy will only end up in the defenders reach and the Seahawks will cause turnovers by interception or by fumble.  It is inevitable for any receivers gutsy enough to attempt pass routes in the areas where the Legion of Boom patrol.  Just like vicious shark attacks, there will be no signs of warning inside of CenturyLink Field.  Outside the stadium warnings will be clearly posted all over the city of Seattle; "Beware of Boom: Enter at your own Risk".

Lastly, I come to the wide receiver position for both clubs.  The Seahawks went out aggressively during the off-season and boldly traded for perhaps the single best playmaker in the NFL, Mr. Percy Harvin.  This was a major acquisition and seemingly put the Seahawks in a category that many "so-called experts" chose the Seahawks as the team to beat, not just the NFC West, but the NFL complete.  Unfortunate for the Seahawks, Harvin came into training camp with a hip condition, diagnosed as a slight tear of the Labrum and Harvin chose surgery to fix the problem rather than worsen the condition by playing through the pain.  Many of the prognosticators pulled their endorsement of support because of the Harvin injury.  However, is likely the critics never paid attention to last year's football roster in Seattle.  Pete Carroll and Russell Wilson never had Percy Harvin in 2012, and they outscored every other team in the NFL over the final 8 games of the regular season.  Once the rookie QB,  Wilson, was finally given the remainder of an aggressive playbook that Daryl Bevell wanted to distribute to him slowly, he proved his worthiness, and the Seahawks began to pummel their opponents by very wide margins.  The Seahawks scored 150 points (total) over 3 consecutive games, completely blanking the Cardinals 58-0, then throttling the bills 50-17 and trouncing the 49ers 42-15.

All of this ridiculous, gaudy, football scoring carnage, was created without Seattle's new play-making phenom, Percy Harvin. 

No…  Number 12 was spinning gold for the Minnesota Vikings at the time until he sustained a high ankle sprain in the 8th week of the season.  It was Sidney Rice, Golden Tate, Doug Baldwin, and Zach Miller who sliced and diced through defenses last year supplemented by the soft hands of Beast Mode and Michael Robinson who both got several passes that season.  The Seahawks will return with; Rice, Tate, Baldwin and Miller, but now they add a deep threat in Stephen Williams and a crafty slot standout in preseason, Jermaine Kearse who has proved himself to be more than a little bit dangerous with the football in his hands.  Unfortunately for the 49ers, there most prolific pass catcher, Michael Crabtree, was injured in training camp with a completely detached Achilles tendon and will likely miss the entire 2013 season.  However, one day after the Seahawks traded for Percy Harvin, the Niners made a trade to counter the Seahawks offensive move.  They made a trade for Anquan Boldin, the favorite target of Super Bowl MVP Joe Flacco, in Super Bowl XLVII.  So far, that trade looks like a stroke of brilliance as Boldin ripped up the Green Bay Packers for 13 receptions, 208 yards and a TD.  Tightend, Vernon Davis, added 6 more catches and 98 yards.  Kaepernick ended the night with 412 yards and 3 touchdown passes.   

Obviously, the Seahawks are going to need to do their best to put a hold on the prolific passing 49ers, even without Michael Crabtree.   Jim Harbaugh best know where Cliff Avril is today and Golden Tate is due for a huge breakout game receiving and returning punts.  The 49ers have a bad taste in their mouth and you can be sure they remember the humiliation of getting completely blown out in Seattle.  Kaepernick looked fused and beaten in the first quarter and Harbaugh's birthday turned out to be a lesson in football fundamentals taught by  his nemesis, Pete Carroll.  The 49ers are sure to want to come in, Chippy and salty, to prove that they are not intimidated by the crowd noise or the highflying Seattle Seahawks who bested their defense in 2012, only surrendering 15 points per game (a league leading scoring defense).  There are so many sub stories in this matchup you could practically go through each position on the offense and defense and you would find intense emotions; resentment, humiliation, prideful jubilance and conquering dominance.  There is the 49ers desperate desire for redemption and vengeance after being embarrassed by Russell Wilson and the Seahawks, and you can bet the Seattle players and coaches haven't forgotten that there was only one half game that stood between them winning the NFC West and the chance to host at least one playoff game.  I think it's fair to say this one is going to be a donnybrook and the team who is hungriest and can focus through all the hype and the crowd noise will be the team walking off the field with a win.

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