2012 NFL Schedule: Pros and Cons to Seattle Seahawks Schedule

"It's not who you play, it's when you play them.''

The beloved Seahawks coach Chuck Knox once uttered these wise words, repeating an NFL truism, and they are quite relevant to Tuesday's events.

Teams had known what opponents they would face shortly after the season ended. But when these games would occur, and what prime-time slots would be given out remained to be seen until the  2012 NFL Schedule was released Tuesday afternoon.

The Seahawks will face the entirety of the AFC East (Patriots, Jets, Bills and Dolphins) and NFC North (Packers, Lions, Bears and Vikings) divisions, as well as the Dallas Cowboys and Carolina Panthers. The other six games will, of course, be filled with divisional opponents.

So, without further ado, let's weigh the pros and cons of this new schedule, and jump to some favorable conclusions about what the young team could accomplish.

Pro: Playing the Buffalo Bills in Toronto, Canada

For the first time in franchise history, the Seattle Seahawks are playing a regular-season game outside  the United States.

Fans should love this for a number of reasons. First, This is counted as an "away" game on the schedule. Since the game is going to be played north of the border, neither team truly has a "home" advantage.

It is true that Buffalo is much, much closer to Toronto than Seattle. Ironically; however, much of Canada is a part of the Seahawks' 12th man fan base due to Seattle's proximity to Western Canada. One can expect a balanced fan base at this game, making it not a true "away" game for the Seahawks.

The next reason for excitement is that the Seahawks, as a general rule, perform better when under some sort of spotlight. In the past few years, an average-at-best Seahawks team has stepped up in a major way to put a whooping on whatever team they were playing in prime time.

The Seahawks have recorded more shutout victories on Monday Night Football than any team in NFL history.

The Toronto game, while not on national American television, will certainly receive much Canadian attention. Even though the nation may be different, it is a national spotlight nonetheless. Hopefully, the Seahawks will continue their trend of dominating high-profile games in the regular season.

Pro: Tough Matchups at Home

As Jason La Canfora of NFL.com so eloquently puts it: "[Playing] at Seattle is never a gimme."

Truer words might never have been said. The 2011 'Hawks soundly beat the AFC North champion Baltimore Ravens and utterly demolished the "Dream Team" Eagles when at home.

Heck, Seattle even convincingly took down the Super Bowl champion New York Giants while in an Eastern time zone. With a legitimate (hopefully!) starting quarterback now in charge, and more pieces being added to Seattle's underrated defense, expect the Seahawks to combine with the 12th man to throw a monkey wrench into the aspirations of powerhouse teams.

Seattle faces two sure-fire Super Bowl contenders (Packers and Patriots) as well as a perennially disappointing but extremely talented Dallas Cowboys team. The great thing about both Green Bay and New England is that they have stellar offenses and terrible defenses.

If the Matt Flynn signing pans out, the Seattle offense will put points on the board. Combine that with a ball-hawking secondary, aggressive run-stopping game and a hopefully-revamped linebacker core, and we have two very winnable games on our hands.

Personally, I believe both of these games will be won by turnover margin, something that Seattle excellently exploited in 2011.

As far as Dallas goes, I would love nothing more than to see an event similar to this, which is easily one of the best moments in Seahawks history.

Pro: Few Eastern Time Zone Games

Games that begin in the Eastern Time Zone at 10 a.m. Pacific Coast time are notoriously brutal to West Coast teams. In fact, prior to last year's victory over the Giants, the Seahawks had not come away victorious in that spot in years. Therefore, we can conclude that the less early starts the Seahawks have, the better.

The schedule gods have blessed us, only giving the Seahawks four such early starts. And, upon further inspection, events surrounding these games certainly lessen the sting of the early rising. Check this out:

Week 4: At St. Louis Rams: Not much to like here, except for one thing: the Rams play in a nice, warm dome. If you've gotta get up early, it might as well not be at a place that's inhumanly cold (I'm looking at you, New York, Green Bay and Chicago)

Week 8: At Detroit Lions: Again, this game will be in a dome. Huzzah! But here's another great thing: this game comes the week following a Thursday night game. What exactly does that mean? It means a whole extra weekend of rest for the team; they have a nine-day break between games.

Week 12: At Miami Dolphins: Outdoors this time, but hey, it's Miami. The benefit here is that this game comes following a break. This time; however, the Seahawks are coming off bye week, so they figure to be nice and rested to take on a hapless Dolphins squad.

Week 13: At Chicago Bears: Not much to like here. It's gonna be cold, and it's the second away game in a row for our boys. In the 2010 and 2011 seasons, however, Seattle managed to pull out victories at Soldier Field in the regular season. We can only hope that this trend continues.

Con: Tough Overall Matchups

Ultimately, despite the advantages listed in the previous slides, the Seahawks face some extremely tough teams in 2012.

The Pats and Niners were 13-3 last season, and the Pack was just one game away from a perfect regular season at 15-1. Chicago and Detroit are definitely playoff-caliber teams, the Bills figure to be vastly improved with Pro-Bowl stud Mario Williams, and there is no guarantee that Matt Flynn will blossom as a starter.

The 2012 season will certainly be a testament to the strength of the 12th man, and it is a make-or-break season for the Pete Carroll-John Schneider regime.

Conclusion: A Lot to Look Forward to

Here's a final breakdown and prediction of the upcoming season, under the assumption that Matt Flynn turns out to be solid and the defense maintains its high-end performance from last season.

Week 1 and 14 against the Cardinals: I say the Hawks go 1-1 here, losing away and winning at home. The Cardinals are definitely on the upswing.

Week 2 against the Cowboys: I think Seattle takes this one at home. The Cowboys, for all their talent, are a lot of bark and no bite.

Week 3 against Green Bay: Even though the Seattle home crowd is raucous, Green Bay will be injury-free and ready for this game. The Hawks lose a tough one at CenturyLink.

Week 4 and 17 against the Rams: Two wins here. St. Louis literally needs an entirely new team.

Week 5 against the Panthers: If the defense steps up and stops Cam Newton, it's an easy victory. If not, it's a slaughter. This one could go either way, but I'm giving the benefit of the doubt to my favorite team here.

Week 6 against the Pats: The only way Rob Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez are stopped here is if the Seahawk linebackers get faster. Regardless, I say Matt Flynn has a breakout game and the Seahawks steal a win at home.

Week 7 and 16 against the Niners: 1-1 here. Similar to last year, both games will come down to the wire. Matt Flynn will be able to succeed where Tarvaris Jackson failed and lead a game-winning drive at home.

Week 8 against the Lions: Tough one, but I say we take the loss. Calvin Johnson is even beastlier in Detroit.

Week 9 against the Vikings: Resounding win for the Seahawks. The closest thing to a "gimme" that we'll have all year.

Week 10 against the Jets: Close one, but the Seahawks pull it out. That's assuming Mark Sanchez starts. I love Tim Tebow, and hope with all my life that he doesn't start against us.

Week 11: Bye week

Week 12: against the Dolphins: Flynn snubbed this team already, and he'll do it again. The Fish have been falling apart this offseason, and that trend should continue into the season.

Week 13: against the Bears: Presuming Jay Cutler stays healthy, we lose badly. The Bears are going to be the team to beat this coming year.

Week 15: against the Bills: Seattle wins a close one. The defense capitalizes on inevitable mistakes by Stevie Johnson and Ryan Fitzpatrick and maybe gets a pick six.

Overall Record: 11-5. Keep in mind that this is EXTREMELY generous, giving all benefit of the doubt to the Seahawks and expecting Matt Flynn to be as good as his tape shows.