Hasselbeck
New member
- Joined
- May 2, 2009
- Messages
- 11,397
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Preface this by stating, I am not kearly.. but hopefully the OG himself feels like jumping into this thread.. and all of you too.
..
It's been a wild two weeks if you're a Seahawks fan. From Sunday the 12th at 10:00 AM to Sunday the 26th at 10:00 AM.. we saw the Seahawks go from 3-1, happy.. floating about as though everything was great.. to ...
- The Cowboys coming up to Century Link and out and out punking us on our own field
- Losing Bobby Wagner and Byron Maxwell for weeks
- Darrel Bevell, Pete Carroll and co. saying we have to get Harvin the ball down the field more
- By "down the field" they meant a cross-country go route to East Rutherford
- Losing on the road to the mediocre Rams in a rare, non-2013 like manner (special teams and defense stinking up the joint)
- Russell Wilson debating how dark his skin tone is
- Marshawn Lynch apparently being sick of the Seahawks and the feeling being mutual
- Question after question of "What is wrong with this team?"
Well.. for much of the game today, it looked as though the Seahawks were about to add another disappointing tick mark to this growing bullet list of mutiny. But for once, they showed shades of 2013 in playing stingy defense.. getting a couple of turnovers.. and egad.. they won a game in the ugliest manner since arguably the MNF roadie against the Rams a year ago.
What made the 2013 team so great in my eyes was that they had this ability to grind out ugly wins in games where most of the league would fall short. What has stood out about the 2014 team to date is that, this team wasn't making the most out of those same opportunities from a year ago.
But maybe today, that finally changed. Make no bones about it, that Panthers team we beat today is a shell of the one we faced in 2013. It's a 2 man show on offense, and the Luke Keuchly show on defense. They're 3-4-1 but can easily be 2-6.. however for this Seahawks team that has faced so much adversity over the first 8 weeks of the year - this was a really, really, BIG win.
And now, kind of like the weather in Seattle of late with the sun peaking through the clouds.. so goes the Seahawks season .. it obviously remains to be seen if this team will take this win and run off a nice streak of games here.. but for now, they have at least stopped the bleeding.
Now with a hat-tip to Kearly King .. things I liked from today
- Russ shaking off a really bad outing for 55 minutes to lead the team down the field for the winning touchdown. That final drive symbolizes everything I love about the kid. He really does have that "bad game amnesia" that many quarterbacks do not. Kid is clutch. Period. (However, he will make the next area too)
- Paul Richardson on kick returns. Granted he had just two, but showed so much more on those returns than Bryan Walters/Percy Harvin had all year. He needs to stay back there permanently.
- The pass rush FINALLY stepped up. Easily the best game of the year from the defensive line. Cliff Avril and Michael Bennett were in Cam's area all game. Bruce Irvin had two game clinching sacks at the end of the game, and I would say that they were the two best plays he's had in his career so far. Mebane had great penetration on some plays as well.
- Kevin Pierre-Louis played great when Malcolm Smith went down. In fact, I think the defense seemed to tighten up a bit with him in there. Not sure if that's coincidence or not.
- Doug Baldwin had another solid outing and made a couple beautiful grabs on some "yippy" Wilson throws.
- Luke Willson (to quote Dumb and Dumber) TOTALLY REDEEMING HIMSELF for a brutal drop inside the 5 earlier by catching the winning touchdown today.
- Robert Turbin was not terrible at fullback, and played a very solid game altogether.
- Marcus Burley making a really nice interception off of good pressure from Avril/Bennett. Tharold Simon should have had one as well. Nice to see the young corners have good games
- Steven Hauschka suddenly morphing into Jason Elam in Denver on his 58 yard kick. That would have been good from 65. He absolutely destroyed that ball.
- The defense did a great job containing Greg Olsen today. Tight ends have given us hell all year and yet they surprisingly held Olsen to one catch. I also have to give an assist to Panthers OC Mike Shula for some truly jaw-droppingly bad calls all game though. He made Darrel Bevell look like Bill Walsh.
- Richard Sherman probably should have had a pick on the deep pass to Benjamin.. but I felt he again had a pretty solid outing in coverage. I like that he shadowed Benjamin all game as well. The thing I was most impressed about with Sherm today though was his open field tackling. He made some beautiful stops today when runners got to the outside.
- Kevin Norwood had one really good catch where he wasn't expecting the pass to come his way. (He will be in the next set of points too though)
- Earl Thomas had his best game of the season today.. made some really good tackles in the open field, including one for a loss.
- Non Seahawk related, but can we petition the league to have Ian Eagle do most of our games? Just such a money announcer.
Things I really did not like.. as I enjoyed waffles and coffee
- The offensive line still stinks. No long winded paragraph required about that one.
- Marshawn seemed a bit checked out early in the game. Not sure if this was related to all the reports before the game, or if he was just not really into the game because of lack of touches.. but he just did not really seem too into the game. The pass at the goal-line before half should have been an easy touchdown, but lack of concentration makes it a turnover. He did play better in the 2nd half however.
- Offense again came out sputtering and shooting themselves in the foot. Fumbled exchange on the read-option and an under center snap. Lynch's drop which led to a rare red zone INT. Wilson (more on this later) throwing some weird duck when he had Helfet wide open for an easy TD. Willson dropping a pass inside the 3. Bad blocking on run plays. Etc. Etc. This team seems so close to making the necessary steps to becoming elite again, but continues to shoot themselves in the foot. What was a nail-biting 13-9 win should have been a comfortable victory. They just refuse to make things easy on themselves.
- While Sherman had a great day tackling in the open field, the defense still had way too many missed tackles. I know Cam Newton is a load to handle.. but he really should have been sacked at least 3 more times, one of which would have been a safety. The defense needs to correct this before they start playing the likes of Arizona, San Fran, Philly, etc.
- Final drive excluded, Russ was all over the place today.. very puzzling considering how red hot he was last week in St. Louis. And one could really say that aside from the 2nd half against the Rams, he's been pretty erratic throwing the football since the first quarter against Washington. I would wager a lot of these problems are due to shoddy protection.. but even when he had time today he flat missed throws, or had WR's bail him out with some really nice grabs (see Baldwin, Doug and Helfet, Cooper).
- Probably in relation to said shoddy blocking, but I really wish we'd take shots down the field. If my memory serves correctly, Wilson took one shot down-field all game.. and that was to Richardson who IMO was interfered with.. but that's neither here nor there. I just think with the speed we have in Rich and Lockette that they can afford a couple big shots down the field, especially if the offense is sputtering all over the place.
- Kevin Norwood running a route one yard short of the sticks. Nice hands by the rook, but need better field awareness than that. (Kind of nitpicking at this point)
All in all.. even though the win was freakin' ugly.. it still feels really damn good.
..
It's been a wild two weeks if you're a Seahawks fan. From Sunday the 12th at 10:00 AM to Sunday the 26th at 10:00 AM.. we saw the Seahawks go from 3-1, happy.. floating about as though everything was great.. to ...
- The Cowboys coming up to Century Link and out and out punking us on our own field
- Losing Bobby Wagner and Byron Maxwell for weeks
- Darrel Bevell, Pete Carroll and co. saying we have to get Harvin the ball down the field more
- By "down the field" they meant a cross-country go route to East Rutherford
- Losing on the road to the mediocre Rams in a rare, non-2013 like manner (special teams and defense stinking up the joint)
- Russell Wilson debating how dark his skin tone is
- Marshawn Lynch apparently being sick of the Seahawks and the feeling being mutual
- Question after question of "What is wrong with this team?"
Well.. for much of the game today, it looked as though the Seahawks were about to add another disappointing tick mark to this growing bullet list of mutiny. But for once, they showed shades of 2013 in playing stingy defense.. getting a couple of turnovers.. and egad.. they won a game in the ugliest manner since arguably the MNF roadie against the Rams a year ago.
What made the 2013 team so great in my eyes was that they had this ability to grind out ugly wins in games where most of the league would fall short. What has stood out about the 2014 team to date is that, this team wasn't making the most out of those same opportunities from a year ago.
But maybe today, that finally changed. Make no bones about it, that Panthers team we beat today is a shell of the one we faced in 2013. It's a 2 man show on offense, and the Luke Keuchly show on defense. They're 3-4-1 but can easily be 2-6.. however for this Seahawks team that has faced so much adversity over the first 8 weeks of the year - this was a really, really, BIG win.
And now, kind of like the weather in Seattle of late with the sun peaking through the clouds.. so goes the Seahawks season .. it obviously remains to be seen if this team will take this win and run off a nice streak of games here.. but for now, they have at least stopped the bleeding.
Now with a hat-tip to Kearly King .. things I liked from today
- Russ shaking off a really bad outing for 55 minutes to lead the team down the field for the winning touchdown. That final drive symbolizes everything I love about the kid. He really does have that "bad game amnesia" that many quarterbacks do not. Kid is clutch. Period. (However, he will make the next area too)
- Paul Richardson on kick returns. Granted he had just two, but showed so much more on those returns than Bryan Walters/Percy Harvin had all year. He needs to stay back there permanently.
- The pass rush FINALLY stepped up. Easily the best game of the year from the defensive line. Cliff Avril and Michael Bennett were in Cam's area all game. Bruce Irvin had two game clinching sacks at the end of the game, and I would say that they were the two best plays he's had in his career so far. Mebane had great penetration on some plays as well.
- Kevin Pierre-Louis played great when Malcolm Smith went down. In fact, I think the defense seemed to tighten up a bit with him in there. Not sure if that's coincidence or not.
- Doug Baldwin had another solid outing and made a couple beautiful grabs on some "yippy" Wilson throws.
- Luke Willson (to quote Dumb and Dumber) TOTALLY REDEEMING HIMSELF for a brutal drop inside the 5 earlier by catching the winning touchdown today.
- Robert Turbin was not terrible at fullback, and played a very solid game altogether.
- Marcus Burley making a really nice interception off of good pressure from Avril/Bennett. Tharold Simon should have had one as well. Nice to see the young corners have good games
- Steven Hauschka suddenly morphing into Jason Elam in Denver on his 58 yard kick. That would have been good from 65. He absolutely destroyed that ball.
- The defense did a great job containing Greg Olsen today. Tight ends have given us hell all year and yet they surprisingly held Olsen to one catch. I also have to give an assist to Panthers OC Mike Shula for some truly jaw-droppingly bad calls all game though. He made Darrel Bevell look like Bill Walsh.
- Richard Sherman probably should have had a pick on the deep pass to Benjamin.. but I felt he again had a pretty solid outing in coverage. I like that he shadowed Benjamin all game as well. The thing I was most impressed about with Sherm today though was his open field tackling. He made some beautiful stops today when runners got to the outside.
- Kevin Norwood had one really good catch where he wasn't expecting the pass to come his way. (He will be in the next set of points too though)
- Earl Thomas had his best game of the season today.. made some really good tackles in the open field, including one for a loss.
- Non Seahawk related, but can we petition the league to have Ian Eagle do most of our games? Just such a money announcer.
Things I really did not like.. as I enjoyed waffles and coffee
- The offensive line still stinks. No long winded paragraph required about that one.
- Marshawn seemed a bit checked out early in the game. Not sure if this was related to all the reports before the game, or if he was just not really into the game because of lack of touches.. but he just did not really seem too into the game. The pass at the goal-line before half should have been an easy touchdown, but lack of concentration makes it a turnover. He did play better in the 2nd half however.
- Offense again came out sputtering and shooting themselves in the foot. Fumbled exchange on the read-option and an under center snap. Lynch's drop which led to a rare red zone INT. Wilson (more on this later) throwing some weird duck when he had Helfet wide open for an easy TD. Willson dropping a pass inside the 3. Bad blocking on run plays. Etc. Etc. This team seems so close to making the necessary steps to becoming elite again, but continues to shoot themselves in the foot. What was a nail-biting 13-9 win should have been a comfortable victory. They just refuse to make things easy on themselves.
- While Sherman had a great day tackling in the open field, the defense still had way too many missed tackles. I know Cam Newton is a load to handle.. but he really should have been sacked at least 3 more times, one of which would have been a safety. The defense needs to correct this before they start playing the likes of Arizona, San Fran, Philly, etc.
- Final drive excluded, Russ was all over the place today.. very puzzling considering how red hot he was last week in St. Louis. And one could really say that aside from the 2nd half against the Rams, he's been pretty erratic throwing the football since the first quarter against Washington. I would wager a lot of these problems are due to shoddy protection.. but even when he had time today he flat missed throws, or had WR's bail him out with some really nice grabs (see Baldwin, Doug and Helfet, Cooper).
- Probably in relation to said shoddy blocking, but I really wish we'd take shots down the field. If my memory serves correctly, Wilson took one shot down-field all game.. and that was to Richardson who IMO was interfered with.. but that's neither here nor there. I just think with the speed we have in Rich and Lockette that they can afford a couple big shots down the field, especially if the offense is sputtering all over the place.
- Kevin Norwood running a route one yard short of the sticks. Nice hands by the rook, but need better field awareness than that. (Kind of nitpicking at this point)
All in all.. even though the win was freakin' ugly.. it still feels really damn good.
