Random Thoughts™ on the Saints game

[HawkWow]

Awesome write up Kearly. With your ability to churn these things out so quickly, while still adding flavor, you really should have a daily column...if not writing for radio. If you haven't yet done so, you should send some stuff around.

I have the Hawks a 33% favorite to win the SB...so your numbers validated mine. I always like it when that happens.

If I had a knock on the coaching tonight, it would have to be Pete's decision to not go to TJack late in the game. Can't get my head around that at all. Otherwise, awesome performance, post to post. Oh...and something's got to be done with kick-offs. Love Turbin the RB, but at KR, he's worse than Kearse. Better figure out how to get CM in there. And if the ST can't stop holding on PRs, Tate might as well fair catch every ball. No sense jeopardizing him or risking turnover, if every return is going to get called back. IMO.

 

[muxpux]

i could read this again, it was that good.

 

[FortWorthSeahawk]

Funny, right after the game I was thinking "Man, the only thing that would make this better would be a Random Thoughts thread".

Mission complete. Thanks for posting one again, Kearly!

 

[NJSeahawk]

Kearly!

Awesome post. What can I say, these thoughts are always on point! Gracias!

 

[pmedic920]

I appreciate your work. Thanks for taking the time to do what you do.

 

[Always Fierce]

Makes ZERO sense.

The Buccaneers, a vastly INFERIOR team to the Saints, should have closed the kill on Seattle in Seattle.

The Saints, a much better team, get blown out.

 

[KK84]

Makes ZERO sense.

The Buccaneers, a vastly INFERIOR team to the Saints, should have closed the kill on Seattle in Seattle.

The Saints, a much better team, get blown out.

It's amazing what actually having your starting tackles play can do, isn't it?

 

[Evil_Shenanigans]

Thank you Kearly! Damn glad to have you back.

This might just be the win we all look back on in the years to come to say "that was the one, the one that put us over the top". Today any national press that doesn't recognize that the Seahawks are the best team in football should have their heads examined. And the voters for League MVP had damn well better recognize that this Wilson kid is for real and he's here to win the whole damned thing!

This just might be my best day as a Seahawks fan!

Go Hawks!

 

[aawolf]

Thanks Kearly.

I think we gave up a little on our pass rush by dropping our tackles to cover the seem routes. Which was genius! I've never noticed us doing that before, but it worked to perfection. No cheap crosses or seams for their receivers to run through. Much props for thinking about that, though our QB hurries and sacks took a hit.

 

[Sarlacc83]

Makes ZERO sense.

The Buccaneers, a vastly INFERIOR team to the Saints, should have closed the kill on Seattle in Seattle.

The Saints, a much better team, get blown out.

No tape on Glennon + bad tackling day in the run game + a team turning things around (they've won 3 games since) versus a cocky team that got smoke blown up their ass all week will do that.

 

[Seeker]

This game was so good it brought Kearly back.
oh what a night.

 

[EastCoastHawksFan]

I woke up this morning thinking " Man This season is great , really wish there was a Random Thoughts' post today "

thanks for the post

 

[Lieutenant Dan]

This game was so good it brought Kearly back.
oh what a night.

My exact first thought when I saw this thread, LOL.

Great post as always, Kip...and thank you very much for posting.

 

[MizzouHawkGal]

Thanks for coming back Kearly.

 

[Hawks46]

Ryan thought the key to this game was stopping Lynch. He was dead wrong.

Rob Ryan? You are probably right, but it didn't show in his defensive personnel groupings. They were in nickle defense constantly. It is so incredibly ironic that they went nickle with a good pass D and a terrible run D and still got destroyed by the pass, while stopping the run cold, sometimes with as few as 5 guys up there.

Agreed on Hocculi. There were a few awful calls against the Saints that felt like "make up" to me.

It looked to me, and I haven't watched a replay yet, that he wanted to line up in a big nickel with lots of safeties and run blitz. They did a great job of bringing a mob to stop Lynch.

I was seeing the same thing. They were playing sometimes 3 safeties at once, keeping them out of the box and goading Seattle into running, then blitzing them in. This was effective last night, but if you run a cutback (Lynch surprisingly missed a big one in the 2nd quarter) or a counter and your blitzers miss it, then you're in big trouble.

It's also why our play action naked bootlegs were murdering the Saints. There was no one on that side of the field and Wilson could've run or passed it. Wilson usually chooses to pass it.

 

[Largent80]

The call on Thomas and Brees acting job dropped my respect for him a notch.

 

[ivotuk]

Not to turn the thread away from the key points but I don't think the bickering will stop. The $11milion per year is unfortunately an issue.
:2:

As fans of the SB favorite, and maybe a dynasty franchise in the making, I think it's okay to let one little detail go. We're talking about less than 10% of payroll, for a player that was injured through luck, not fault. Further, when he comes back, I guarantee that nobody will be bringing up the price then. And I say this as someone who was iffy on the trade on day one because of the price and the unusually strong late 1st round talent pool. But it's a sunk cost now, I have learned to enjoy what I have.

I'm glad we have Harvin and he could become the difference in winning or losing the Superbowl which is why I believe they got him.

Mike Holmgren when he was in Green Bay said they would not have won that Superbowl without Desmond Howard. Desmond was the difference in that game and Percy might be the difference in our Superbowl which makes him worth every bit of the draft picks and money.

You don't scrimp when your window is wide open. This is part of Pete's Win Forever strategy, build a young talented team, sprinkle in an elite FS, QB, RB and WR along with some top notch defensive linemen and defensive backs, and you are good to go for many years to come.

Kip, your work is a thing of beauty, covers so many points that most of us miss and you add such great color to the descriptions. The rest of the NFL world would be absolutely jealous of what we have here at .NET if they knew about it. And I think the atmospehere here is the reason we get some class act opposing fans like Guido.

Always thanks to Todd for starting this place and Rock for doing all the dirty work in keeping it up and running. And I won't forget the mods who work for free :th2thumbs:

One thing that I think has been slightly overlooked, and something that I harp on constantly is the coaching. A lot of these players would never reach their potential without Pete and his crew. The job that BMax and Lane did last night are a testament to that.

Is today a good day to be a Seahawks fan or what?

 

[BamKam]

Agree on the bit with the refs. Whenever flags start flying it usually means the refs are going to be dictating the game. They will just start throwing flag on plays because they haven't called one on a certain team in awhile. I swear they will just throw a flag get into a huddle and go "OK guys we haven't called one on Seattle in a few plays what can we get them for on this one?"

That also happens for other teams as well not just us.

 

[Pandion Haliaetus]

Mikeak,

I think Harvin was to push the threshold on our play-making ability. But that's not just it either.

1. They were playing keep away from the 49ers, which was big if Harvin's injury didn't pre-exist prior to coming here.

2. Golden Tate isnt always a sure thing to stay and he's awesome but not franchise tag awesome. If Tate is going to be asking for 8 mil per, I think I'd take Harvin at 11 per nine times out of ten. And that 1 time is just questioning if Harvin can maintain his health in the future.

3. When Marshawn Lynch is done, Seahawks are going to need someone to pass the buck to that can burden the offense along with Wilson. Harvin is a swiss army knife of play-making ability. Teams will have to respect that, like they fear Lynch. Michael can become many things in the future, but Lynch is one of a kind, EVER.

"When Marshawn Lynch is done, Seahawks are going to need (Harvin) to pass the buck to that can burden the offense along with Wilson".

Yeah unlike the fragile Golden Tate, Harvin is uber-durable. Just comes to work, giving his best week in and week out, at camp, at practice and on the football field. Tate is all about Tate. Harvin ?...more the team player.

Percy Harvin is every Coach's dream and you can bet Wilson and the rest of Tate's 11-1 teammates will sure be glad to see Tate's sorry ass kicked to the curb! Piss off Golden Tate...'cuz here comes Percy Harvin.

Now THAT'S how you build a dynasty.

I don't get your point. Did I say Tate was fragile? No.

Nor did I say anything about Tate getting kicked to the curb, I just said he's not franchise tag material and Tate himself 1) not want to remain with the team 2) might price himself out of the range of what the Seahawks thinks he's worth.

All speculative and not facts.

But the fact is in talent Harvin is the better player than Tate, they are pretty much equals but Harvin is more faster, more athletically graceful (as in he makes everything look easy), and he's more explosive in the short to immediate passing game where he's better a getting separation.

If you want to use Harvin's injury history against him... go ahead.

I wasn't trying to discount Tate in any way, for all we know Seahawks will keep both, and cut Harvin after next season if it doesn't work out.

Also I had a sub point that got deleted in my original thread and it was Seahawks likely also knew Rice had issues with his knee, pre-Harvin which could have helped fan the trade fires.

Could also explain why the Seahawks drafted Chris Harper despite not having a huge need for WR at the time.

 

[Laloosh]

Thanks Kearly. Good stuff.