Up: the Seahawks crushed the 49ers on Saturday night, guaranteeing them the #1 seed in the NFC and a bye week. The final score 13-3 doesn't do justice to just how dominant a performance it was. The Seahawks have an elite defense, and many teams in years past have won the Superbowl on the back of their defense. Their offense is more suspect - especially with a sometimes shaky quarterback prone to turnovers - but perhaps the most encouraging thing in the last few games has been the emergence of a decent running game. I wasn't convinced they were good enough to make it all the way, but now I have more optimism. I admit to not watching much of the game, but I knew who had won because there were nearly as many fireworks going off after the final whistle as there were on New Year's Eve.
Down: and then we come to Palace. Another defeat. That's 7 games in a row now without a win. Much as feared, it has been a bad festive period. Squad size, the number of games, injuries have all played a part. And the fixture list has not exactly been kind - though the hammering by Leeds was quite disappointing. And things don't get easier with a midweek game against Villa coming up. When you look at the table, it's still incredibly tight between about 5th and 14th, so I'm not totally done on Palace's chances of a decent finish this year. But we need better results and soon.
