Start adjusting your eyesight now, because there probably is going to be a lot of neon green around these parts in February.
If the Seahawks end up earning home-field advantage, which right now looks about as safe a bet as Secretariat winning the Belmont 40 years ago, the NFC playoffs are going to be more tedious than a Bill Belichick press conference.
Stranger things have happened in the salary-cap era NFL, of course, but 11-1 Seattle losing in the mind-melting din of CenturyLink Field anytime soon would register higher on the shock meter than the Seahawks’ crowd did Monday night in setting another Guinness world record for decibel level.
Pete Carroll’s team hasn’t lost at home since December 2011, making it 14 in a row with this week’s 34-7 prime-time rout of Drew Brees’ Saints, and it’s difficult to see the Seahawks faltering there this season — especially in the playoffs.
That’s terrible news for the rest of the conference, considering Seattle has a two-game lead over the Panthers and what amounts to a three-game lead over New Orleans for the No. 1 seed with just four games remaining.
The Seahawks must travel to the NFC West rival 49ers on short rest this week, but don’t count on San Francisco being much of an obstacle, either. Seattle has won the past two meetings dating to last season by a combined 71-16 score, including a 29-3 suffocation at CenturyLink in Week 2 this year.
What about injuries? Suspensions?
Sorry, but non-Seattle NFC hopefuls and Seahawks doubters aren’t going to get any help there, short of a season-ender to Russell Wilson — and considering just how good their defense is, you couldn’t count on that being the knockout blow to the Seahawks’ Super Bowl hopes, either.
After all, we’re talking about a team that is 11-1 despite a host of injuries to the offensive line and whose prized offseason acquisition, receiver and return ace Percy Harvin, has appeared in just one game and is battling a hip problem once again.
Meanwhile, the only thing the league-leading seven drug and PED suspensions since 2010 (most of them on defense, including two this season) seem to do is make the Seahawks rally around each other and play better.
Consider Monday night, when Seattle played without top cornerback Brandon Browner because of a groin injury amid the cloud of Browner’s reportedly imminent one-year NFL ban for drug use.
What did the Seahawks do? Only hold Brees, one of the league’s most prolific passers, to just 147 yards through the air. The Saints star hadn’t been bottled up like that since throwing for a mere 132 yards against the Giants on Dec. 24, 2006.
No, Carroll and general manager John Schneider have done a brilliant job of building depth, especially on defense. The running joke in the offseason was there wasn’t a pass rusher Schneider wouldn’t hesitate to sign, but the result has been a seemingly bottomless rotation along the defensive front.
Don’t mistake the Seahawks for a one-trick pony resulting from their dominance at home, either. These aren’t the Saints, who are invincible in the Superdome but little more than roadkill away from it.
Actually, the Seahawks might be an even better team on the road. Not only are Wilson’s numbers away from CenturyLink impressively comparable (10 TD passes and two interceptions vs. 12 TDs and four interceptions at home), but Seattle’s defense is holding quarterbacks to an astoundingly low 57.9 passer rating on the road.
Peyton Manning might be putting up insane passing numbers each week, but there isn’t a more balanced team in the league than Seattle, with its No. 2-ranked scoring offense and No. 2-ranked scoring defense.
So get ready for Carroll to hold court at Super Bowl Media Day this winter, not far from the Meadowlands, where he was run out by the Jets as an overmatched mediocrity.
Carroll will have reason to gloat. His team is a neon-green steamroller.