Are Pete and Bevell fooling us.

[Anonymous]

The facts are there; we simply have not seen the same offensive play calls as we saw earlier in the season, and when you look at what we have been doing, it is all very vanilla and safe.

I think most of us just want to see a series of blowouts (and no losses) so as to achieve the most we can, as fast as we can, THEN make concessions. That would be one way of doing it (and I agree, a very satisfying one to see) but perhaps there is some merit to "posturing" of some kind once in-house statisticians and coaches look at things from a "can we make it comfortably" point of view.

At some point you have to be open to seeing what is unfolding in front of you while thinking outside the box. We've seen unconventional moves in the draft, team psychologists, (et. al.), why wouldn't game-planning and scheme also be done in a creative and sinister way?

If all of the ex-player pundits and in-depth writers all say we are still the best after seeing the same vanilla offense and losses that we have been seeing, there juuuuust might be a little sumthin goin on.

 

[chris98251]

Think of it this way, we had a good lead, Pete went 3rd Quarter Holmgren offense the last three games.

 

[Sports Hernia]

I don't think Bevell's smart enough to be that devious.

+1

 

[Blitzer88]

Man I hope not, because them holding back could cost us homefield advantage.

 

[MizzouHawkGal]

I disagree with the thread's entire premise. You don't play possum in the NFL that way lies a top 20 draft order and pick. In the NFL you play to win and also realize that even a team like Houston or Atlanta have elite talent but injury destroys seasons. The difference between elite/good/average/below average/bad is hairsliver thin from the top to the bottom of the spectrum.

 

[hawksfansinceday1]

There is a single grain of truth in the OP. No, they aren't hiding anything.

But they have gone into several games with a shaky o-line situation this year, and in those games they have gone with the same formula. Conservative, wait for the other team to make a defensive mistake. Those big shot passes we keep missing? That isn't high risk, they are almost always on the red line side of a receiver in single coverage. that is the mistake we are trying to get.

get nasty in the post above me summed it up well.

I just realized reading Scott's post how right he is.

These bastards have been playing not to lose rather than playing to win!!!

I hated it when Chuck Knox did it and I hate it even more now.

GO FOR IT AND BE DONE WITH IT!

:141847_bnono:

Agree with Les.

 

[Sgt. Largent]

The only thing they're hiding is the laundry list of doctor's reports going back to college showing Percy's degenerative hip problem.

 

[Anonymous]

Consider this:
NASCAR teams with a big lead, and that have "hit" the setup just right, will tell the driver to let-up a bit to conserve tire-grip and fuel once a certain level of dominance is established in a race. As the race progresses, close monitoring of the competition's times, and changes in opposing strategy, will dictate any changes a team will make themselves in order to preserve the win. This type of thing has gone on since the sport started accumulating championship points and awarding a season champion.

Ex-NFL coaches, like Joe Gibb's and others, have dabbled into NASCAR after football simply because the sport can be manipulated for success just like the NFL. The level of intricacy amongst all of the facets of preparing a car, and managing race-day pit-stop strategies, means a team owner has numerous team-members, each with the unique skill-sets required for success. Engine builders will produce engines with lesser power than can be had simply to make sure the car makes it to the checkered flag. Jimmie Johnson, who just won the 2013 Sprint Cup, did so after numerous DNF's, crew suspensions and crashes during the season. He won the championship because in the last few weeks of the season they pulled out all the stops and showed their whole hand. Sure, they had to gamble a bit, but the domination was clear when it was time to show it. These types of strategies are no different than the decisions made in the NFL, many of which we, as fans, are not privy to.

In the last drives of a given fourth quarter of an NFL game, a QB is told to eat the clock up by inching up the field as opposed to tossing a long bomb for a score, even when dude is wide open they throw the dump-off and stay in bounds. That way they keep the ball away from the opponent who will have enough time to score.

If choices can be made on what play to call, the choice to not show everything you have is more than just a possibility, it's what goes on.

 

[loafoftatupu]

It wouldn't be the first time. In the Saints playoff game, there were formations and plays we didn't see all season. I believe there is some truth to it as arrogant as it might seem. Some of it is personel related I am sure.

I have a strong suspicion that we see Harvin in the playoffs too. That there will be things we haven't seen before. From my view, the AZ game was no tragedy. It took a lot of crazy stuff for the Cards to win that game. Some funky non turnovers, interesting calls and Turbin like mistakes to really get off their game. PC was not in panic mode. Even with a chance to tie the game in 2 minutes, I could see it happening. It was more like the Hawks just didn't get a single break and reduced chances at scoring. They took little risk and probably went deep on low percentage throws a little too much. Things like Smith not scoring on his return or the inability to get the ball in the end zone ended up biting the Hawks and it usually doesn't.

The Hawks won't let this one get away from them.

 

[PryorFamily]

It wouldn't be the first time. In the Saints playoff game, there were formations and plays we didn't see all season. I believe there is some truth to it as arrogant as it might seem. Some of it is personel related I am sure.

I have a strong suspicion that we see Harvin in the playoffs too. That there will be things we haven't seen before. From my view, the AZ game was no tragedy. It took a lot of crazy stuff for the Cards to win that game. Some funky non turnovers, interesting calls and Turbin like mistakes to really get off their game. PC was not in panic mode. Even with a chance to tie the game in 2 minutes, I could see it happening. It was more like the Hawks just didn't get a single break and reduced chances at scoring. They took little risk and probably went deep on low percentage throws a little too much. Things like Smith not scoring on his return or the inability to get the ball in the end zone ended up biting the Hawks and it usually doesn't.

The Hawks won't let this one get away from them.

I don't understand why people don't see this. Of course there are packages and schemes that they choose not to use. With all the film available on teams and having the high probability of facing "rematches" for both playoff games, I'd be disappointed if the DIDN'T hide some of their cards until the playoffs. The goal isn't to go 1 - 0 every week. That's great for the media but the goal is to win the Super Bowl. That takes some gamesmanship. If you think this doesn't happen in Pro Sports you are crazy!

For crying out loud we did it with High School teams I coached. I'm not a top level coach but it won me games being able to show something completely new and a different look to slow down defenses that had been prepping a certain way to play us.

We will know come Sunday! This really is the 1st playoff game if you think about it and I think we'll see a much better game offensively. We've only "really" had 1 game I felt was must win and that was the Monday Night game against the Saints. What happened? The most balanced and well rounded attack we've seen all year. Then we saw trick plays against MIN and then we suddenly went straight Vanilla.

 

[jamsomatic]

lol lets put it this way: we have only used one trick play by my count. wilson to marshawn to wilson deep to ????? vs ATL for 6 lol you know damn well we have about 15 of them in our pocket why do you think we are holding on to them. when you figure out the answer scream HELL YEA_AH!

 

[chawx]

Great post, OP. I agree 100% — not only is it because we don't want the Cards and 9ers to get a good look at our offense, but also... *adjusts tinfoil hat*

Pete's totally playing the game within the game for Goodell and the NFL. He knows they want close games and games that have meaning. I guarantee Bevell and Pete called a super-vanilla offense against the 9ers and Cards just to keep the division close, and meaningful to the end.

If we were 14 and 1 right now, with nothing to play for, it would legitimately piss off Goodell and his cronies and we would get majorly effed in the playoffs by the refs. Pete knows this is the only way to win the Super Bowl.

And THIS is why I predict a monster blowout in Sunday's game...we need this one, so we're going to play like it, then we're going to take a week off and full-throttle all the way to NY with Percy and C.Mike adding 7th gear to our quad-turbocharged W16 engine.

 

[hawksman53]

Were we possibly too confident that we could win with a vanilla approach.

I think this is EXACTLY the case. Seems like we could have signed a couple replacements for holes we had along the way but they took the wait and see approach because we were on a roll and it may come back to bite us in the ass now that we have to roll with what we have. No Percy, Okung not 100%, Unger not 100%, Receivers not being able to get open? I think it would have been great to sign Winfield just for protection. I even heard Jeremy Lane is a bit banged up now

 

[olyfan63]

Our offense sucked against the Giants excellent defense too. Maybe that 23-0 win gave Pete too much confidence in a conservative offensive game plan.

 

[HawKnPeppa]

I nominate this post as stupidest post of the year.

I nominate this ^^^ post as an end-around as well as the most unecessary post of the year.

 

[HawkMeat]

I nominate this post as stupidest post of the year.

I nominate this ^^^ post as an end-around as well as the most unecessary post of the year.

I support the nomination. 100%
:th2thumbs:

The internet can be quickly used to put people down for having a different opinion or voicing your thoughts . "Stupidist post" post is itself what it proclaims other posts as being. Next comment may be correcting a spelling error instead of having a discussion.

 

[hawksfansinceday1]

...........If we were 14 and 1 right now, with nothing to play for, it would legitimately piss off Goodell and his cronies and we would get majorly effed in the playoffs by the refs. Pete knows this is the only way to win the Super Bowl......

My cousin who is a Raiders fan and doesn't care either way about the Seahawks actually believes this ^^^^

 

[Anonymous]

Great post, OP. I agree 100% — not only is it because we don't want the Cards and 9ers to get a good look at our offense, but also... *adjusts tinfoil hat*

Pete's totally playing the game within the game for Goodell and the NFL. He knows they want close games and games that have meaning. I guarantee Bevell and Pete called a super-vanilla offense against the 9ers and Cards just to keep the division close, and meaningful to the end.

If we were 14 and 1 right now, with nothing to play for, it would legitimately piss off Goodell and his cronies and we would get majorly effed in the playoffs by the refs. Pete knows this is the only way to win the Super Bowl.

And THIS is why I predict a monster blowout in Sunday's game...we need this one, so we're going to play like it, then we're going to take a week off and full-throttle all the way to NY with Percy and C.Mike adding 7th gear to our quad-turbocharged W16 engine.

This is probably one of the most forward-thinking aspects I have heard to this point. Why wouldn't a team that has been refereeically slammed in a previous Superb Owl not think of ways to make everybody happy and limit any future refereeical disasters.