Brock Huard: The Seahawks have broken a curse

The losing skid is over for the Seattle Seahawks.

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The Seahawks traveled across the country and knocked off the Atlanta Falcons 34-14 in front of their home crowd Sunday at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

The matchup was the second of three early kickoffs in the Eastern Time Zone for Seattle this season, and the victory clinched a winning record in such games. The Seahawks also beat New England in a 10 a.m. Pacific kickoff in Week 2, and they’ll play the New York Jets in an early game Dec. 1 (Week 13).

Playing in the early window of games on Sundays has been a challenge for teams on the West Coast in the past, but the Seahawks have completely bucked that trend in recent years. After the win over Atlanta, they’re now 18-5 in their past 23 Sunday morning games on the East Coast.

FOX football analyst and former NFL quarterback Brock Huard was asked how the Seahawks have flipped the script in those matchups. He shared his thoughts during his Blue 88 segment Monday morning on Seattle Sports’ Brock and Salk.

“In the 80s, the 90s, the 2000s, even the really good 49ers teams struggled (with early kickoffs),” Huard said. “They didn’t go 18-5.”

The first thing Huard pointed to was a change in the way players take care of their bodies compared to when his NFL playing days in the late 90s and 2000s.

“I think this is a testament to a couple of things. No. 1, some of the science and technology, some of just the nutrition and the sleep and the hydration that maybe we talked about a little bit (when I played),” said Huard, who played for the Seahawks and Indianapolis Colts from 1999 to 2004. “Maybe we had an extra water bottle on our seat in ’99 or 2000, but we were still eating pub burgers, we still had ice cream sundaes, we still had chicken wings. We were still eating like that and thinking, ‘Well, it’s not a big deal. It’s more mental than it is physical.’

“No, there is some physiology to this … and there is more rest needed and the hydration and nutrition comes to the forefront. So that’s part of it.”

College still behind

Body science has certainly advanced over the past 20-plus years, but there are still examples going on today of how changing time zones can seemingly affect the performance of teams.

In college football, the Big Ten Conference added West Coast schools Washington, Oregon, UCLA and USC this season, meaning teams are frequently playing conference games where they have to travel across the country. In conference games where teams have to travel across two time zones in either direction, the road teams are 5-11 and at one point were 1-8. Locally, the UW Huskies have lost both of their road games in the Central and Eastern time zones.

Huard pointed out that sometimes it takes having success in a situation to gain the confidence needed to consistently succeed. The Seahawks have proved to themselves that the early starts aren’t a hindrance for several years now with success in the 10 a.m. Pacific kickoffs dating well back into the Pete Carroll era.

“It’s also just cracking the code and saying, ‘We can do this,'” Huard said. “We’re not gonna make this some big deal that’s insurmountable like the Big Ten is feeling right now with all these teams doing it for the first time. You have success doing it, you end that curse, then all of a sudden you totally turn the tables, which they have done.”

Tune in to Brock and Salk weekdays from 6-10 a.m.

More on the Seattle Seahawks

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• Seattle Seahawks Instant Reaction: 34-14 win Atlanta Falcons
• What we know about knee injury to Seahawks’ DK Metcalf
• Observations: Seahawks beat Falcons 34-14 on the road
• Rost: Seattle Seahawks’ win comes with two developments, one question

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