Elephant in the Room

[SoulfishHawk]

I suspect we see a very pi**ed off team on Sunday.

 

[Biscanebay12]

Ok, I'm reading all these threads and everyone is thrashing the defense, I agree. Let's talk about the real problem here. Geno Smith. 3 total yards in the second half isn't gonna cut it. I don't care if our 2 tackles went out. Smith is being paid to QB this team. Improvise, overcome, and adapt. Geno Smith is 3-7 since that TB last year. Not good. I've always liked Smith, but I'm not sold yet.

I was never sold on Geno. Career backup for a reason. Last year was probably his last chance at improving his situation. I think he like many are able to push themselves to get what they want but find it hard to maintain a certain level if its not in them already. And like so many others he got paid! Sometimes theres no motivation after they get paid. I remember when Shawn Alexander use to run through guys, after he got paid he'd fall forward soon as he got touched or he run out of bounds.

 

[pittpnthrs]

If most quarterbacks came through as clearly as Geno did on broadcast, I think you'd be surprised how emotive many of them get when a freight truck with a hate boner is speeding toward them unblocked.

Yep. Wilson dealt with it for years.

 

[pittpnthrs]

The elephant?

We call games on offense and defense to not lose, rather than to win. That's the underlying issue I saw. Our offense was so completely conservative that it was pathetic to watch. Geno was throwing routes that were barely open (not his fault) because they are the same combinations we've shown for a year now. Defenses know what we are going to run before the snap. DBs are sitting back waiting for the ball. It began happening over the 2nd half of last season and was attributed to Geno being 'figured out'. It's our offense being 3rd grade level that's the issue. The well was dry be season's end last year. Yet we keep sending the bucket down.

On defense... we played the run aggressively and it worked when the right defense was called. The pass defense... I dont think we blitzed at all. If we are going to play that ridiculous zone all year without bringing pressure, every qb capable of reading coverage well and throwing to open spots is going to carve us up.

Clint Hurtt - I don't think he's qualified to captain the ship. We need someone here who has experience and can establish a baseline of competency. I get the feeling Clint is winging it and is in way over his head.

Injuries - if we don't have Cross and Lucas moving forward, it's going to be hard to fix any of this.

Lets talk about the offense. What do you attribute to the issue here? Is it Waldron, is it Geno, or is it Pete? I honestly dont know. It just seemed eerily familiar to past seasons with that conservative offense.

 

[pittpnthrs]

I suspect we see a very pi**ed off team on Sunday.

I doubt its going to matter.

 

[Sgt. Largent]

hate boner, I'm stealing that one.

 

[RiverDog]

The list of problems for this team is long. We waited all this time for this pos effort? They better bring their A game this Sunday, or they're gonna' get smoked.
Bench DK? No. Sit him for a quarter? Maybe.

No maybe about it, sit him for a quarter, a half, or make him stay after practice and write 500 times on the grease board I won't act like a baby anymore. They need to do something besides just talk to him as this isn't the first time he's had this kind of problem.

Add to that Metcalf is one of the highest paid players on the team, and if Pete doesn't take some sort of firm action, the others will see it as a double standard, similar to the criticism he received for his special treatment of Russell. It's as much about a message to the team as it is to Metcalf.

 

[SoulfishHawk]

Sitting one of the best players on the team? No thanks.

 

[keasley45]

Who's to blame for the 3rd grade offense? It seems this has been an issue for the past several years now.

I think the philosophy of the team is to play it close. Not in terms of final score, but in sticking close to our bread and butter plays , executing them precsiely and disguising things enough that it keeps defenses guessing.

I think the passing game is designed to be fairly standard, relying on the run game to get things rolling and doing its damage off of play action.

Pete's preference on offense and defense is to work from a center of tried and true, mastered plays on defense and offense and move out from there into plays that are less practiced, carry higher risk, but also greater reward. It's why you don't have a wr Corp with high yac. High yac routes, like hitting a wr full tint, on crossing routes through a layered zone... I think the preference on game planning is to try to win on plays that carry less risk.

I also think we came into this game assuming we could impose our will on the Rams defense. We were successful in the first half. And to be honest, never even left the start gate in the 2nd half, due in large part to injuries. When we realized we were in a fight, we lost our tackles and were in a position where we needed more time and better protection to hit the plays we needed and had neither.

That said, we were in that position in the first place because we went away from the one thing that was working best. Our run game.

I think it's better we learned this lesson week 1 and build forward, than have an overinflated sense of ourselves like last year and fall apart in the 2nd half of the season..

But I think Pete needs to get his hands on this defense and if Clint can't get things straight, then lead it with a heavier hand. How? Not sure.

Not panicking because it's going to take the D time to gel. But it's certainly a slap in the face.

 

[hawker84]

And a lot of that TOP falls directly on our offense. We were 2-9 on 3rd down. Geno threw for just 112 yards, a little over 4 yards per attempt. Lots of blame to be spread around, including Geno.

Rams had a 17 play drive a 14 play drive and a 10 play drive. That eats clock and that's a direct result of the defense losing on 3rd down after 3rd down.

 

[SoulfishHawk]

Doesn't change the fact that THIS offense with THIS talent level had 3 yards the entire 2nd half. That's unacceptable.

 

[RiverDog]

Rams had a 17 play drive a 14 play drive and a 10 play drive. That eats clock and that's a direct result of the defense losing on 3rd down after 3rd down.

Of course, it's a direct result of our defense not being able to get off the field. The Rams were 11-17 on third down, which is unheard of. No one said that it was all on the offense.

But, so, too, it's a direct result of the worst 30-minute performance by a Seahawk offense in the past 44 years. In the 2nd half, our longest drive was 4 plays. One first down. One. Uno. Everything else was three-and-out.

This argument is frigging silly. It's like arguing over who has the ugliest stepsister. The whole team sucked.

 

[SoulfishHawk]

Walker didn't suck, Bobby had 19 tackles. Not everyone sucked. But yes, for the most part it all sucked.

 

[hawker84]

Geno didn't do shit in the second half. He threw for a whopping 3 yards the ENTIRE SECOND HALF!!! That's not even a first down.

The entire team shit the bed second half. And are we just going to ignore we lost both our tackles and Lockett for a quarter?

 

[SoulfishHawk]

No, but it seems like if Geno doesn't play well, he somehow gets a pass. Often.
He was 3 of 8 for 9 yards in the 2nd half. How many times are we going to see a good 1st half and a bad second half?

 

[RiverDog]

Walker didn't suck, Bobby had 19 tackles. Not everyone sucked. But yes, for the most part it all sucked.

Tackles are arguably the most deceiving statistic that they keep. Bobby's 19 tackles were a direct result of our sorry defense, of which he is supposed to be the leader of, having to be on the field twice as long as the Rams defense was. The Rams ran 32 more plays than we did. Tackles are all about opportunity. Bobby was out of position on a number of those short yardage plays. He didn't play well. He's a linebacker that's supposed to be making plays in the hole, not 5 yards downfield.

So please, don't tell me how many tackles Bobby had. It's completely meaningless unless it's put into some sort of context.

 

[SoulfishHawk]

Lighten up, Francis. Geezus man. All I said was he had 19 tackles. Get over yourself.

 

[Sgt. Largent]

Tackles are arguably the most deceiving statistic that they keep. Bobby's 19 tackles were a direct result of our sorry defense, of which he is supposed to be the leader of, having to be on the field twice as long as the Rams defense was. The Rams ran 32 more plays than we did. Tackles are all about opportunity.

So please, don't tell me how many tackles Bobby had. It's completely meaningless unless it's put into some sort of context.

If we're ranking poor play from yesterday, Bobby'd be pretty far down the list. Probably doesn't even crack the top 15.

There was very little redeeming positives from that ass kicking we witnessed. Bobby played fine, and certainly better than 90% of his teammates, on both sides of the ball.

 

[RiverDog]

If we're ranking poor play from yesterday, Bobby'd be pretty far down the list. Probably doesn't even crack the top 15.

There was very little redeeming positives from that ass kicking we witnessed. Bobby played fine, and certainly better than 90% of his teammates, on both sides of the ball.

Bobby "played fine"? Are we talking about Bobby Wagner, a first ballot HOF'er and the veteran team leader, the quarterback of our defense, a defense that allowed 11-17 3rd down conversions and a 2:1 TOP advantage "played fine"?

Sorry, man, I agree with you most of the time, but not on this occasion. Although I wouldn't lay the majority or even a high percentage of the blame on Bobby, he by definition did not "play fine", and knowing Bobby, he'd say that he wasn't satisfied with his play, either.

Bobby is also the most credible player on our team, essentially a player coach, and is one that we were counting on to bring some leadership to the team. It's a trait that we were unquestionably lacking yesterday.

 

[The Breh]

Down both our tackles and Walker got a whopping 3 carries in the second half.
Multiple issues from that alone.
TOP was absurd too.
There is so much blame to spread all around here, this is an incredibly awful thread.