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The weather forecast for the matchup between the Seattle Seahawks and the San Francisco 49ers this afternoon may be exactly the wrong type of news the team needs. Already down their shutdown cornerback Richard Sherman who is on injured reserve after rupturing his Achilles, Seattle will also be without Shaquill Griffin who remains in the concussion protocol. With Jeremy Lane being added to the injury report as questionable late Saturday, the Hawks could find themselves in a precarious spot if their depth in the secondary is tested any further. Even Beyond the injuries, however, is the fact that the team may once again find itself playing in the rain.
Russell Wilson has struggled in wet weather relative to his performance in ideal conditions, and the hourly forecast from Weather.com shows that rain may start at the absolute worst time for Seattle - just as the game is set to begin.
Adding insult to injury, this could combine to create a perfect storm of difficulty for the offense. In addition to struggling in wet weather, the offense has had issues scoring when playing on grass fields the last couple of seasons. So far this season the offense is tenth in the NFL averaging 24.2 points per game, but in the four games the team has played on a grass surface (Green Bay, Tennessee, Los Angeles and Arizona), the team has averaged only 18.5 points per game.
That is on top of the team’s struggles on grass fields in 2016, when the Seahawks scored an average of a measly 9.8 points per game when playing on a grass field. In short, the offense often struggles to play on grass.
Which is not fantastic because if the weather report holds true the Seahawks will end up playing on a grass field in the rain. Perhaps the two different forms of kryptonite will combine to transform the offense into an unstoppable force, or perhaps Seattle fans might want to brace for another stressful afternoon of enjoying the 2017 cardiac Hawks.