2014 season epitaph(?)...thoughts on the game

[morgulon1]

Yup, Seattle is in big trouble at this point. I think Football Outsiders overrates Seattle's chances because season stats, even rated for recency, don't account for Mebane and Unger.

Russell Wilson is still a brilliant pocket passer, though, just as his major college passer rating record and his first 2 1/4 seasons in the NFL attests. But, Seattle has no passing talent on the line or the receiving corps, and I can name the number of QBs who can thrive in that situation on one finger. Maybe. If it were any other team in the league, and the QB had this to work with on the passing side, no one would have any problem acknowledging the reality[1]. I mean, pretty mysterious that Wilson's first extended problems have come as soon as Harvin is gone and there's not a single threatening receiving target on the field, no? Much as his stats were sub-par, Harvin tilted the field. Now there's no Sidney, no Tate, and no Harvin. Even last year, no one was super excited about Seattle's receiving corps when Tate was the best talent on the edge!

I predict Wilson will come out of his slump[2] when Seattle gets better pass blockers, Wilson and one of the rookies develops some great chemistry, Seattle acquires better pass targets. Unfortunately, I don't even see the clear path to those things happening. Last year would have been a better draft to end up picking ~18th or wherever they're at now.

Luckily for Seattle, Wilson can also run -- in my view the best combination of running talent and decision making the NFL has ever seen in a QB. He is super productive and, just as importantly, is unlikely to get hurt running. Wilson is "multiple". Wilson makes the offense resilient. Where Luck or Manning gets killed by St. Louis's line and there's simply nothing they can do, Wilson can run for 100 yards and put his team in position to win[3]. Russell Wilson will never be the preternaturally efficient passer that Manning is, but I'll take Wilson's mix over just about anyone else's. There is a lot to be said for the fault tolerance in Wilson's game. Seattle owes a Super Bowl substantially to it.

1. You can't point to adjusted sack rate (as Tom Cable has been doing in interviews) or PFF marks or Football Outsider ratings to say the pass blocking is better this year, either. Seattle's deep passing game has vanished. That was the heart of Seattle's offensive identity and the source of most of their explosive plays. Seattle is giving up fewer sacks by asking its line to do nothing.

2. In the same way a batter hitting .200 off a steady diet of 110 mph pitches would be in a "slump".

3. ...only to be let down by the defense this time.

Great, realistic post. There's a lot of bumps in the road and imo, some appear to be insurmountable. I hear what you're saying re: Harvin. As much as I loathe the punk, his presence (on the field) was more threatening than his absence. But some times you just have to bite the bullet and do the right thing. You don't eat a bad piece of fish just because you paid $30 for it. But yes, he is truly the mistake that keeps on giving.

I don't need to remind anyone of this, but with our overall youth, we will be fine and I expect more serious runs. Just not this time. All good. This sux for the new fans more than anyone else. Most of us have been through times much worse and able to draw from those experiences. The difference with some of those teams is there wasn't much hope going forward. I have great hope for this team.

I think of it this way, as banged up as we are, we still have a lot of fight and haven't been dominated by anyone. We haven't lost 30-3 or anything like that and that makes me proud of my team. Hell, who knows , there is a lot of football left. I'm not happy with some of the play calling and I'm not sure that it is any one thing that stands out other than we have a lot of 2nd and 3rd stringers getting a lot more playing time than they should. Ive rewatched the KC game twice and feel we SHOULD have beat them but let opportunity pass us by. We could easily be 7-3 or 8-2.

 

[razgriz737]

I think of it this way, as banged up as we are, we still have a lot of fight and haven't been dominated by anyone. W

This is a good point. I saw the other day that the Seahawks are the only team left in league who haven't been beaten by double digits in a game yet. Just about every game this season has been winnable in some way or shape.

 

[morgulon1]

Were so close in a lot of ways, were just "off'' at very un-opportune times in games and here we are at 6-4. I love this
team and know that whatever happens from here on out , Ill be a Seahawk fan for the next 40 years.

 

[Rob12]

I'm just not ready to write this team off yet. We're 6-4 and there is still a lot of football to be played.

Honestly, that was a great post, Montana... But I'm with pehawk in that I think it's much too defeatist to write this team off. We're going to get healthier. Mebane, Unger, and Miller are huge losses, but I don't believe that they absolutely cannot be overcome. This is still a very dangerous team. We may not catch Arizona, but I believe we can beat them twice. The 49ers nearly lost to the Giants, a team that we obliterated, despite Eli chucking five passes to 49ers' defenders.

It's going to take a lot, and the ball will have to start going our way. The passing game needs to get fixed right now. Quite a few young players need to step up. We need to get Wagner back in the worst way. There's a lot of "we need" in there, but I don't put it past this team to make it happen.

Crazy things happen. This is the NFL. We still have one of the most talented rosters in the league. You can guarantee that there is not a single player on the 53 that thinks this thing is over.

I can get sound, reasonable, logical analysis that this thing is over. But I don't buy it.

 

[RiverDog]

Great OP, and like several others, I agree with the vast majority of it. Except that you left out one huge factor, something that cannot be ignored in any summation of our 2014 season:

Percy Harvin.

I don't want to divert the thread into another PH debate so I won't make any further comments. I just wanted to make sure that we acknowledge that part of the 2014 season as it was a huge factor.

 

[Ozzy]

Montana good post, I enjoyed it.

Like Rob, Pehawk and others though I can't throw in the towel yet. We have 6 games left and every game left is winnable.

AZ: Very good team that also lost their QB. Both winnable games for us. If you're a SB team you're expected to beat a team that is rolling with a back up QB. Stanton is no where near Palmer and as more game tape becomes usable against him this will be even more pronounced. We actually saw the writing on the wall in the Detroit game.

SF: They have more problems than we do. The offense is absolutely terrible and these are both winnable games. We know we will be in both of these games and I'll take my chances with Wilson over Kaep in the closing minutes of any closely contested game as we have seen in the past.

Philly: They too obviously lost their QB. I don't think Philly with or without Foles is a better team than us. Very winnable game

St. Louis: Tough team but with everything on the line and at home I'll take the Seahawks in this one as well.

Do we win all 6? Probably not. Could I see us going 5-1? Wouldn't shock me in the least. Not throwing in the towel yet and somewhat surprised so many people are.

 

[NJSeahawk]

Montana good post, I enjoyed it.

Like Rob, Pehawk and others though I can't throw in the towel yet. We have 6 games left and every game left is winnable.

AZ: Very good team that also lost their QB. Both winnable games for us. If you're a SB team you're expected to beat a team that is rolling with a back up QB. Stanton is no where near Palmer and as more game tape becomes usable against him this will be even more pronounced. We actually saw the writing on the wall in the Detroit game.

SF: They have more problems than we do. The offense is absolutely terrible and these are both winnable games. We know we will be in both of these games and I'll take my chances with Wilson over Kaep in the closing minutes of any closely contested game as we have seen in the past.

Philly: They too obviously lost their QB. I don't think Philly with or without Foles is a better team than us. Very winnable game

St. Louis: Tough team but with everything on the line and at home I'll take the Seahawks in this one as well.

Do we win all 6? Probably not. Could I see us going 5-1? Wouldn't shock me in the least. Not throwing in the towel yet and somewhat surprised so many people are.

I say Seahawks fly high and win all of them, except maybe @ SF.

 

[StoneCold]

This quote gives me more hope for the rest of this season than anything I've read recently.

"If the Seahawks turn around their season in the final six games, Carroll hit on two important areas they will need to improve on: 1) Wilson will likely need to be even more “resourceful” with his legs and; 2) the passing offense will have to make the most of its chances."

It's from this article in the Seattle Times. http://seattletimes.com/html/seahawks/2 ... cmpid=2628 Our season now resembles last years game against Houston. In that Game, in the 4th quarter, Marshawn told Russell "You need to take over the game Russ."

We're going 6-0.

I probably should have posted this in Rob12's rose colored glasses thread, but I think you guys need to hear it more then them.

SC

 

[Tical21]

Fantastic post, thank you.

I still think we're the best team in the league, and would win 6 out of 10 against anybody out there, so I'm still thinking that anytime now we're going to go through the rest of the season unbeaten. I know, I know, the schedule is ridiculous.

It has never been more apparent that our WR's are the worst in the league. They just are not capable of getting open. Ever. The passing game is futile. If you can't beat man, you've got no shot. We did see a back shoulder fade to Kearse! Wow! Scottemojo explained to me that we like to run verticals a lot (all receivers run fades/seams), and if we're going to do that, the back shoulder fade needs to be a consistent tool. The problem is that you also need to have the threat that you're going to run past the DB, or they sit on the back shoulder fade and it is six points.

I actually thought our pass pro was abysmal this week. Britt and more importantly Sweezy let their guys through virtually untouched on numerous occasions. Just no chance.

I'm done blaming Bevell, sorry Roland. He's got nothing to work with. You would try a fade to a 5'10" receiver on 4th down too if you knew nobody was going to get open any other way and your guys couldn't block for two seconds.

 

[Largent80]

Regardless of the fact we are a "run" team you need to be able to have some sort of passing attack.

It is incredible to me that the coaches of the WR's have allowed these guys to be lazy in their routes. These routes are easy to run. Given the state of the lines pass blocking you would think / hope that these guys get to an open spot somehow, that is their job.

It is also the coaches job to make sure they are aware of what they are or aren't doing to help out Russ.

I actually believe we are about to get the offense going the way it should run. Starting a new offense mid season is desperation, but we ARE desperate at this point because of some poor game plans in a couple games....SD is one of them. This isn't all on Bevell but at some point the coaches are to blame. It almost seems like they are blind or just hope something will work. Of course that isn't the case but it sure appears that way to me.

We really miss Miller, that injury worried me the most and it has proven true. Moeaki caught a TD pass Sunday. Maybe he should be used more in the passing game. At least he has some size.

Our screen game is a joke and it needs to be scrapped, we don't have the personnel to pull it off. Which pisses me off more than anything, as they keep running it.

At some point the coaches need to come together and the hope is that they are doing that RIGHT NOW.

 

[NorCalSeahawkFan]

This is the first post like this that I like. With every loss it looks like we are on a sinking ship, BUT I will stand by tihs team. Sure I wont be happy like I was last year. Last year was a dream season that I and a lot of other fans have waited for. We got it and now we are all waiting for the next one. I will never write them off. We could still slap some teams in the face and I hope we do. I type this while wearing my 2005 NFC Champion Shirt. Yea it is an old shirt and I have a few that are older. I am sure that there is a lot of other people on this site that do to.
Dissapointed,,,,,,,Yes!

Give up,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,NEVER!!!!!