The Seahawks failed to make the playoffs last season for the first time since 2011, but that didn’t translate into an easier schedule in 2018. Seattle opponents this season had a win percentage of 52.3 percent in 2017, which means the Seahawks are tied for the fifth-toughest schedule among the league’s 32 teams. The Packers have the toughest schedule and the Texans have the easiest.
Game 1
Sept. 9 at Denver
1:25 p.m., FOX
Wow, has a lot changed since the last time these two teams played, a 26-20 Seattle overtime win three games into the 2014 season, when Peyton Manning was still Denver’s QB and the Seahawks were just months removed from blasting the Broncos in the Super Bowl. Now it’s two teams facing off who desperately need to get off to a good start. Russell Wilson gives Seattle a big edge at QB this time around, though.
Game 2
Sept. 17 at Chicago
5:15 p.m., ESPN
The Seahawks start with two road games for the first time since 2015, when they began 0-2 under the cloud of Kam Chancellor’s holdout. This is also one of two Monday night games for Seattle and the first trip to Chicago since an overtime win late in the 2012 season often regarded as the moment when Wilson truly came of age as Seattle’s QB.
Game 3
Sept. 23 vs. Dallas
1:25 p.m., FOX
Will America’s Team include Earl Thomas when it comes to Seattle? There’s probably a better chance Thomas is playing for the Cowboys than the Seahawks in this game, though odds are he’s not suited up at all. Either way, Seattle’s only home game in September looms as a must-win.
Game 4
Sept. 30 at Arizona
1:05 p.m., FOX
The Seahawks at least get a visit to their true House of Horrors — the Super Bowl pass that will live in infamy and where Seattle got its last snaps from Richard Sherman and Kam Chancellor — out of the way early. For all the bad that’s associated with that building, Seattle has not lost a regular-season game there since the opener of the 2012 season, Wilson’s first regular season NFL game.
Game 5
Oct. 7 vs. L.A. Rams
1:25 p.m. FOX
The NFC West torch appeared to pass as emphatically as possible when the Rams came to CenturyLink on Dec. 17 and left with a stunning 42-7 victory. Los Angeles will come into the game off a little extra rest, hosting Minnesota on the previous Thursday, while the Seahawks will have the biggest of all possible proverbial chips on their shoulders to prove they will be a factor in the NFC West this season.
Game 6
Oct. 14 vs. Oakland (in London)
10 a.m., FOX
Remember as you lament the travel involved for the Seahawks that the Raiders have to do the same thing, and it’s Oakland giving up a home game. The Seahawks’ first trip to London also carries with it some fun story lines, notably Marshawn Lynch playing a regular-season game against his former teammates for the first time — what’s left of them, anyway.
Game 7
Oct. 28 at Detroit
10 a.m., FOX
After a bye comes what looms as a really tricky game against the last team the Seahawks beat in the playoffs (yep, it seems like a long time since that wild-card win over the Lions following the 2016 season). A Detroit passing attack led by Matthew Stafford and featuring former Seahawks Golden Tate and Luke Willson as targets will be a challenge for Seattle’s rebuilt secondary.
Game 8
Nov. 4 vs. L.A. Chargers
1:05 p.m., CBS
Feels like you can call just about every game on the Seahawks’ schedule a tricky one. But here’s another one against a Chargers team that was one of the hottest in the NFL down the stretch in 2017, winning six of its final seven while passing for the most yards in the league. The series is 2-2 since 2002, when the Seahawks moved out of the AFC West.
Game 9
Nov. 11 at L.A. Rams
1:25 p.m., CBS
The trick for the Seahawks will be to make this game meaningful in terms of the NFC West and not a chance for a Los Angeles coronation. If it’s like most games in this series, then expect it to go down to the wire — the last five games between the two in either St. Louis or Los Angeles were decided by a combined 22 points, all in doubt until the last minute.
Game 10
Nov. 15 vs. Green Bay
5:20 p.m., FOX/NFL Network
Seattle’s lone Thursday night game is no longer an NFC West affair with the NFL switching things up to create a more attractive slate of contests. The Packers and Seahawks have been no strangers of late as this will be the sixth regular-season meeting since 2012, not to mention a certain playoff game in 2015 that had something of a memorable ending.
Game 11
Nov. 25 at Carolina
10 a.m., FOX
After a year hiatus, the Panthers are back on the schedule. The Seahawks will be coming off a “mini-bye’’ and have more time to prepare for the long trip. This will be the seventh game between the two since Pete Carroll became Seattle coach in 2010 while there have also been two playoff games.
Game 12
Dec. 2 vs. San Francisco
5:20 p.m., NBC
Finally, 12 games into the season, the Seahawks will face the 49ers, a game that not only features the return of Richard Sherman to Seattle (as well as Super Bowl MVP Malcolm Smith) but also the first visit to Seattle for Jimmy Garoppolo. The 49ers haven’t won a game in Seattle since Dec. 24, 2011.
Game 13
Dec. 10 vs. Minnesota
5:15 p.m., ESPN
The Seahawks conclude their set of games against the NFC North against a team that looms as a Super Bowl contender, especially if Kirk Cousins proves worth anywhere close to the money he’s getting. Cousins won’t be awed by CenturyLink if last year is any indication — recall his late game-winning drive for Washington a year ago.
Game 14
Dec. 16 at San Francisco
1:05 p.m., FOX
Two weeks after their first meeting, the Seahawks and 49ers will face off again in Santa Clara, Calif., where Seattle has done nothing but win since the place opened in 2014 — the Seahawks are 4-0 at Levi’s Stadium, outscoring the 49ers by a combined 46 points. Last year’s game was notable for being the first appearance for Garoppolo, who threw his first TD pass as a 49er on the final play.
Game 15
Dec. 23 vs. Kansas City
5:20 p.m., NBC
It’s the team the Seahawks have historically hated to see almost more than any other, having gone 18-33 against the Chiefs (Seattle is worse against Washington, at 5-12, and Miami, at 4-8). The Seahawks have lost the last three against the Chiefs, including a 42-24 blowout the last time Kansas City was in Seattle in 2010.
Game 16
Dec. 30 vs. Arizona
1:25 p.m., FOX
And for the third time in four years, it’s a regular-season finale against the Cardinals, a team as hard to read as any in the NFC West this season, meaning it’s impossible to know what this game might mean. What we do know is that new coach Steven Wilks will hope to duplicate the CenturyLink Field success of Bruce Arians, who famously called it the team’s other home field. Arizona went 4-1 in Seattle under Arians, including winning the last three.
source:-.seattletimes.
