Revamped Seahawks fly into Chicago

In case you haven't heard, the Seahawks do not win on the road. Unfortunately, this is not an exaggeration.

For many years now the Seattle Seahawks as a team have been the NFL's most considerate guest and have simultaneously proven to be the league's rudest host. Translation: they love playing at Qwest Field and they don't know how to win away from Qwest and their 12th Man.

Since the Super Bowl run of 2005, the Seahawks home record is 28-14 and their road record is a frightening 15-27. Rarely do you see such a dramatic home/away split in sports. Talk about home cooking.

The last time Seattle won on the road was November 29th, 2009 at St. Louis. The previous road win came a year prior at San Francisco in October of 2008. Yes, both were division wins which are always important but do you know the last time the Seahawks won outside the NFC West? Try December 2, 2007 against the Philadelphia Eagles.

So how about that Bear's game in Chicago this weekend?

Despite the foreboding path I've laid out for the Seahawks chances on the road, they actually could beat the Bears with the right approach. The key to a Seattle victory is to mimic the Bear's long-standing mantra; play hard-nosed defense and pound the football.

The Seahawks enter this Sunday's matchup with a tough new look. In their bye week Seattle added a bulldozer of a runningback in Marshawn Lynch. He runs with purpose and thrives when he is the hitter not the "hit-tee". The new offensive approach is simple; feed Lynch the ball and control the time of possession.

On defense, the Hawks will have their hands full. The Bears best weapon is runningback Matt Forte. With streaky quarterback Jay Cutler coming off a concussion he suffered last week, the Bears are sure to test the Hawks run defense.

Forte is scary for one reason, he loves receiving short passes and turning them into homeruns. In the Bears first five games, Forte has two rushing and three receiving touchdowns. Expect Seattle to continue stopping the run with their second ranked rush defense. The focus should be on stopping the dump-off passes to Forte because that will significantly shutdown the Bears attack.

The bye week timed out well for Seattle because they were able to acquire a potential stud runningback and the extra week allowed left tackle Russell Okung to rest his bum ankle. Those two figure to be important cogs in the Seahawk's future. It will interesting to see how the previously hopeless Seahawks rushing attack responds with the exciting makeover.

I have a feeling this Sunday could be the start of a new period in Seahawks football and there would be no better way to jump-start the Pete Carrol era than with a solid road win in the Windy City.