Coffee & Cigarettes: Seahawks links for Tuesday

Happy December 24th.

Seattle Seahawks' Offense Far from Super Bowl-Caliber in Week 16 Loss to Arizona | Bleacher Report
Seattle Seahawks news, rumors, scores, schedules, predictions, picks against the spread, free agent updates, power rankings, mock drafts and more

Seahawks DE Red Bryant Trucks Man on Sideline, Seattle Fan Is Sad | Bleacher Report
The Seattle Seahawks don’t ride the Struggle Bus often, but when they do, it’s a brilliant little journey...

49ers can still earn home-field advantage, or miss the playoffs | ProFootballTalk
The simple story about the 49ers is that if they beat the Falcons tonight, they're in the playoffs. The complex story is this: San Francisco's postseason fortunes are nowhere close to being determined, and the 49ers could be anywhere from home-field advantage throughout the playoffs to out of the...

Bowman interception return for TD seals 49ers win in Candlestick farewell | ProFootballTalk
The San Francisco 49ers gave Candlestick Park a victorious regular season farewell and kept hope alive for a possible return encounter in the postseason.

Seahawks’ offensive line gets dominated by Cardinals | Seahawks | The Seattle Times
“There’s not an offensive line in the country who doesn’t want to win on the goal line,” Okung said. “And we didn’t win on the goal line when it mattered.”

Monday notes: The day after the night before | Seahawks Draft Blog
In week 15 the Denver Broncos lost by seven points at home to a division rival (San Diego).

Seahawks notebook: Harvin won't practice; Okung OK - 710sports.com
There might be a speedy antidote to Seattle's recent offensive struggles, but it won't be Percy Harvin. At least not this week.

What we learned from the Seahawks' loss to Arizona - 710sports.com
Three things we learned:

The Pete Carroll Show: 'Frustrating' day for Seahawks - 710sports.com
Highlights from Monday morning's edition of "The Pete Carroll Show" in which the Seahawks' coach joined 710 ESPN Seattle's "Brock and Danny" to discuss Seattle's 17-10 loss to Arizona:

Russell Wilson back at work early - Seattle Seahawks Blog - ESPN
“He was in here about 4:30 [Monday] morning," Seattle coach Pete Carroll said on his 710 ESPN Seattle radio show. “He beat me here after we had texted until late in the night. He was frustrated and felt bad about it. He’ll come back as best as anybody can come back.”

Seahawks favored by 10 over Rams | Seahawks Blog | Seattle Times
The opening lines for next week’s NFL games are out, and they show the Seahawks as 10-point favorites over the Rams Sunday at CenturyLink Field.

Seahawk snap counts vs. Arizona | Seahawks Blog | Seattle Times
Here are the snap counts for Seattle against Arizona Sunday. A couple quick thoughts:

Seahawks' Percy Harvin won't practice this week - NFL.com
Seattle Seahawks coach Pete Carroll announced that Percy Harvin will not practice in Week 17. Will the wide receiver be back for the playoffs or is his season a wash?

Monday Morning MD | National Football Post
Which NFL stadiums possess the worst facilities for treating injury?

NaVorro Bowman's 89-yard interception return seals 49ers win - CBSSports.com
Moments after NaVorro Bowman misplayed an onside kick that gave the Falcons the ball late in the game with a chance to win, the 49ers linebacker made what coach Jim Harbaugh called "one of the greatest plays I've ever seen."

Jeff Fisher confirms Jake Long has torn ACL, MCL - CBSSports.com
Rams coach Jeff Fisher confirmed Monday that left tackle Jake Long suffered a torn ACL and MCL injury during the first quarter of Sunday's game against the the Buccaneers.

USC SS Bailey to enter NFL Draft - CBSSports.com
Southern California junior SS Dion Bailey announced he will forego his final year of eligibility and enter the 2014 NFL Draft.

Cam Newton's big moment, LeSean McCoy, more highs, lows from NFL Week 16 | Audibles - SI.com
If a quarterback has "elite" skills and often plays like he's "elite," how long do we have to wait before we bump him up into the pantheon of the league's best at his position? Often, we reserve judgement until said quarterback delivers a huge win under pressure.

Cam Newton, Panthers; Peyton Manning; Cardinals win big in Week 16 | The MMQB with Peter King
So it’s the final football game at Candlestick Park tonight, Falcons at Niners, and I am strongly recommending my Factoid of the Week, which is about the Beatles, and Candlestick and Cincinnati and St. Louis. I know it’s not altogether football, but it’s a stunner.

FOOTBALL OUTSIDERS: Innovative Statistics, Intelligent Analysis | Audibles at the Line: Week 16
This year, we have a new format for our Monday morning feature Audibles at the Line, combining our Twitter feeds with our e-mail discussion. First, we're replacing our usual back-and-forth with some longer-form dissection of each game that at least one of us watches in depth. Second, every game that we find time for will also have a selection of tweets from us and a few reader tweets we found particularly insightful. To follow these tweets live on Sunday, or to contribute your own thoughts or a question for the FO staff, you can use hashtag #foaud. We discussed the new format in this post.

What’s the Correct Margin-of-Victory Cap For the NFL?
The Simple Rating System is a many-splendored thing, but a known bug of the process is that huge outlier scoring margins can have undue influence on the rankings. Take the 2009 NFL season, for instance, during which the Patriots led the NFL in SRS in no small part because they annihilated the Titans 59-0 in a snowy October game that tied for the second-most lopsided margin of victory in NFL history. Outside of that single game, the Patriots’ PPG margin was +5.2, which wouldn’t have even ranked among the league’s top ten teams, but the SRS (particularly because it minimizes squared prediction errors between actual outcomes and those expected from team ratings) gave the 59-0 win a lot of weight, enough to propel New England to the #1 ranking. (A placement that looked downright laughable, I might add, when the Pats were crushed at home by Baltimore on Wild Card Weekend.)

2014 NFL Draft order: Top three needs for all 32 teams - NFL.com
NFL Media analyst Daniel Jeremiah breaks down the top three draft needs for all 32 teams heading into Week 13 of the regular season.

Kony Ealy calls Aldon Smith, Sheldon Richardson for advice - NFL.com
Missouri DE Kony Ealy has made calls to NFL players such as the New York Jets' Sheldon Richardson and the San Francisco 49ers' Aldon Smith for advice on his pending decision whether to turn pro early.

NFL Draft: Top Need for Each NFC Team
Just a few weeks remain in the 2013 NFL season, and even though teams that are still in playoff contention have business to take care of, it’s not too early to look ahead at the coming offseason. With the college bowl games starting up team scouts are already working toward addressing needs for the 2014 season. Even playoff teams have weaknesses that will need to be filled, and here’s a look at where the teams of the NFC might look to improve in the 2014 NFL Draft.

2014 NFL Draft: Identifying the Top Strong Safety Prospects
While some of the best strong safeties in college football will not be draft eligible until next season, there are still a few options in the first few rounds come this May. There is not a top tier player that will likely be chosen in the first round, there are some players who may be taken in the second and definitely by the third. Here are my top three strong safety prospects eligible for the upcoming draft.

Restless Seahawks try to figure out erratic passing game | Seahawks | The Seattle Times
Coach Pete Carroll and quarterback Russell Wilson get early start on evaluating what led to home loss against Arizona.

Are the Seahawks vulnerable at home? | Larry Stone | The Seattle Times
Just like that, in the wake of a 17-10 loss to Arizona, one had to wonder if this defeat would have a more far-reaching effect than merely a delay of the Seahawks’ clinching celebration.

Monday Musings: Credit Cardinals GM Keim for turning Arizona around - CBSSports.com
Arizona's first-year general manager Steve Keim has 11 new starers on the roster and has made 191 transactions since taking over. And the Cardinals are 10-5.

Ref responds to critical plays during Cardinals-Seahawks Week 16 game - ESPN
The ruling on the field was an interception and after reviewing the play, Green upheld the call and Arizona ran out the clock. "We didn't have indisputable evidence that it hit the ground and therefore we went with the ball as it was on the field, which was an interception," Green said.