NFL

Saints up against Seattle crowd, rain and wind

SEATTLE — Saturday afternoon at CenturyLink Field is why NFL teams go all out for the No. 1 playoff seed.

There will be rain — lots of it.

There will be roaring wind, with gusts predicted to be as strong as 50 mph.

There will be crowd noise so deafening it resulted in a Guinness world record earlier in the season.

And there will be the Seahawks’ brutal and relentless defense, a unit so suffocating it led the league in fewest points allowed and fewest yards allowed.

Good luck with all that in the NFC divisional round, Drew Brees.

“We’ve got the best home-field advantage in football, that ‘12th Man,’ and we’re going to use it,” Seahawks middle linebacker Bobby Wagner said.

Home-field advantage has been more than a little overrated jn the playoffs over the past 10 years, with the No. 1 seed winning the Super Bowl just twice in that span, but the Seahawks’ edge at CenturyLink Field appears to be its own monster.

The crowd noise can regularly get up to 112 decibels (roughly the din of a jumbo jet landing), which this season resulted in the Seahawks inducing almost three false-start penalties per game from their opponents.

How loud is it? The Saints tried to simulate the noise in practice this week — and reportedly blew out two large speakers in the process.

If it’s any consolation to New Orleans, the Seahawks aren’t invincible at home. Seattle dropped a 17-10 decision to the Cardinals at CenturyLink just three weeks ago despite intercepting Arizona’s Carson Palmer four times.

But the bigger picture is much more daunting for the Saints. Before that loss (which was atoned for the following week against the Rams), the Seahawks had won 14 games in a row at home while outscoring opponents by a whopping 476-205 and amassing a plus-25 turnover margin.

Oh, and one of the 14 consecutive victories was over these same Saints just five weeks ago, a 34-7 Seattle rout that marked the first time New Orleans had been held to fewer than 10 points in a game since a 30-7 road loss to the Panthers on Oct. 19, 2008.

Every playoff team thinks its home field is a big edge and the best path to the Super Bowl, of course. But it doesn’t appear to be just bravado on the part of the Seahawks. Seattle’s 12th Man is real.

A look inside the game

MARQUEE MATCHUP: Saints QB Drew Brees vs. Seahawks secondary

Brees got a monkey off his back last week in Philadelphia, leading the Saints to the first true road playoff victory of his 13-year NFL career. Brees also was prolific in the regular season, throwing for 5,162 yards and 39 touchdowns against just 12 interceptions while completing 68 percent of his passes. But Seattle’s extremely physical secondary is outrageously good, allowing just 16 TD passes in the regular season while holding opposing quarterbacks to a mere 63.4 passer rating — by far the lowest in the league. Cornerback Richard Sherman (NFL-leading eight interceptions) might get most of the attention, but the secondary talent in Seattle runs deep.

HELP FROM HARVIN: As if the Seahawks needed the help at home in this game, Percy Harvin is expected to play after missing nearly all but one game this season following hip surgery.

Not only is the speedy ex-Vikings wide receiver one of the most dangerous kick returners in the league (he led the NFL in average return yards in both 2011 and 2012), but Harvin also could be a nice boost for a Seahawks offense that was surprisingly lethargic in December.

Seattle couldn’t muster more than 300 total yards on offense in three of its final four games, going just 2-2 in that span after starting the season 11-1. The addition of Harvin, especially if he looks as good as teammates say he did in practice the past two weeks, could bring the Seahawks back to life.

DON’T FORGET WILSON: Brees is such a marquee name — and his task this week so intimidating — that his Seahawks counterpart has been getting overlooked a bit.

That’s a shame, because Russell Wilson is a star in his own right in just his second season.

Wilson avoided the sophomore slump in 2013, following up his NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year award by throwing for 3,357 yards and 26 TDs against just nine interceptions. The result was a stellar 101.2 passer rating and his second Pro Bowl berth in as many seasons.

Wilson’s 24 victories are the most by a QB in his first two seasons in the post-merger era.

MAKING A DIFFERENCE: While Brees hogs the headlines in New Orleans, the Saints probably wouldn’t be here without defensive coordinator Rob Ryan.

The twin brother of Jets coach Rex Ryan orchestrated a single-season turnaround of epic proportions by the New Orleans defense in 2013.

After ranking among the worst defenses in NFL history the year before under former Giants coordinator Steve Spagnuolo, the Saints finished fourth in the league in scoring defense and fourth in total defense in Ryan’s 3-4 scheme with its frequent and creative blitzes.

That dominance extended to the playoffs, too, as the Saints held Philadelphia’s second-ranked offense to just 256 total yards — the Eagles’ second-lowest output of the season — in a 26-24 win last weekend.

Numbers to know

3: Consecutive seasons of 1,000 or more rushing yards and 10 or more by Marshawn Lynch, the only player in the NFL to do that since 2011.

3: Consecutive 5,000-yard passing seasons by Drew Brees, the only player in NFL history to eclipse that total more than once.

5: Consecutive home playoff victories by the Seahawks, who have outscored their opponents 151-94 in that span.

39: Takeaways by the Seahawks this season (including 28 interceptions), leading to a plus-20 turnover margin that ranked first in the NFL.