Offensive

A lot of people are picking the 49ers to win today because they're riding an impressive 8-game winning streak.

And because the Seahawks have been fading. After starting 11-1, we have dropped two of our last five games, one of them in San Francisco, and the other a demoralizing home loss to Arizona. Last week, Seattle almost let the Saints come back late in the game.

Our offense is the problem. The Sea-fence stifles our opponents so reliably that we should dominate time of possession, but we seldom do, due to our inability to sustain drives and score points when we have the ball. Consequently, our defenders get worn down. Against New Orleans, after shutting down the league's most potent passing attack for three full quarters, our defense got tired and started yielding yards and points.

It starts with coaching. The team's recent offensive slump probably doomed Darrell Bevell as a head coaching candidate this year, and with good reason. Last month, the 49ers figured out our offense. They showed how a good defense could load the box, limit our run game, play zone to smother our receivers and deploy a spy to neutralize Russell Wilson. Subsequent opponents have tried to replicate that formula. Arizona had the defensive talent to pull it off and humiliate us at home. New Orleans nearly did it, too: the Saints consistently shut down our passing attack, but they could not stop BeastQuake II.

Remarkably, Bevell has so far failed to rise to this challenge as offensive coordinator.

Aside from a few plays designed for Percy Harvin, there have been no discernible changes in our offensive schemes. Harvin provided a brief spark, but he's out again today.

Russell Wilson is in the worst slump of his life. He hasn't played a good game in more than six weeks. Once clutch, calm, accurate and decisive, Wilson now seems tentative, and with good reason. Our schemes don't work, and he knows it. His receivers can't get open. Our offensive line remains porous on passing downs, and the run blocking isn't great, either. (Tom Cable won't be a head coach this year, either.)

Beast Mode took the offense on his shoulders last week, and he'll try to do so again, but that won't be easy against San Francisco's solid defensive line and all-world linebacking corps.

Darrell Bevell could help by designing an offensive game plan to frustrate San Francisco's assumptions. We know their secondary can normally shut down our present complement of wideouts, but can their linebackers divide their attention between their expected duties (shutting down Lynch and spying on Wilson) and some unanticipated ones (e.g., covering tight ends, running backs and perhaps an eligible tackle on pass routes out of run formations)? A few unexpected wrinkles can throw a defense off balance, bolster your team's confidence and help even your bread-and-butter offensive plays work better.

Our special teams also need work. The 49ers blocked a punt in each of its two regular season games against Seattle. The Seahawks can't let that happen today, nor can we allow another successful onside kick, as we did against New Orleans last week.

The defense remains the strength of our team. With help from the 12th Man, they should be able to limit the 49ers.

Seattle needs to win this game. Championship opportunities are rare, and this team has an opportunity to surpass the 2005 Seahawks as the best in franchise history.

It's also important to piss off the world. The Washington Post ran this map of the United States showing the percentage of Facebook users in each county that support the Seahawks vs. the 49ers: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/govbeat/files/2014/01/original.png

The map shows strong support for Seattle in only five states: Washington, Alaska, Idaho, Oregon and Montana. The other 45 states are rooting for San Francisco. Every single one of those other states needs their eyes torn out by our talons.

Everyone is predicting a close game, but I hope they're wrong.

I want another beatdown.

I want BeastQuake III.

I want DangeRuss to get his groove back.

I want Michael Robinson to show Navarro Bowman what a hard hit feels like.

I want Zach Miller to become again the dominant receiving tight end he once was.

I want Doug Baldwin and Jermaine Kearse to break out.

I want Golden Tate to take a punt return to the house.

I want Frank Gore to discover the real Inconvenient Truth: opponents can't run the ball in Seahawks Stadium.

I want the 12th Man to keep confusing quarterback Colin Kaepernick.

I want the Legion of Boom will abuse his receivers and pick off his passes.

I want Big Red Bryant to flatten leadfooted left guard Mike Iupati and toss his QB like a rag doll.

I want Jim Harbaugh to wonder what our deal is.

Kap will not kiss his biceps, but he will eat FieldTurf.

Go, Hawks!