Random Thoughts on the Washington game

[bbsplitter]

Anyone want to explain why if Percy is so important to this offense his snap count always seems to be like this every game

Seems like he should see the field more. Reminds me of when he was with the Vikings and they would routinely take him out of the game, especially in the redzone which was infuriating.

Is this by design or just to get him rest?

Does he come out on running plays?

I am ok with Harvins snap counts so far, it has seemed to keep him fresh and ready to go. He seems to be very effective when he gets the ball as well. He was also out with cramps for basically a whole drive, so that would contribute to some of the lack of snaps this week. They had him on the field the couple of times they were in the redzone I believe this game. They are trying to negate one of the negatives about his play - injuries - and so far I think they have done a great job.

 

[kearly]

Anyone want to explain why if Percy is so important to this offense his snap count always seems to be like this every game

Its not about snaps, it's about targets and touches. I'm fairly certain that Harvin leads all Seahawk WRs in those categories.

 

[WilsonMVP]

Anyone want to explain why if Percy is so important to this offense his snap count always seems to be like this every game

Its not about snaps, it's about targets and touches. I'm fairly certain that Harvin leads all Seahawk WRs in those categories.

That is true...he does lead the team in catches and has 8 runs.

When I went to the stats I didnt realize Lynch had the 3rd most catches with 13 and 3rd most yards. He is only 1 catch behind Baldwin.

 

[Attyla the Hawk]

Anyone want to explain why if Percy is so important to this offense his snap count always seems to be like this every game

Its not about snaps, it's about targets and touches. I'm fairly certain that Harvin leads all Seahawk WRs in those categories.

Which in my mind is not necessarily a good thing. It certainly has appeared since week 1, that teams are loading up to defend the WR screen passes that we seem to keep featuring. His low snap count/high probability for targets allow for teams to cheat his way.

Of course, I completely understand how that cuts both ways. There is no way Wilson runs for 100 without the Harvin effect. And Lynch's success up the middle on plays Harvin is in there is not to be discounted either. He is an effective decoy precisely because he's a high probability target when he's on the field.

I had hoped that we would see Harvin run some real routes for a change. That post over the middle for the 3rd scuttled TD catch was exactly what I am hoping to see as the season goes on. It just seems that teams are far too comfortable defending the 0-10 yard area. The lack of deep passes is worth noting. You don't see free safeties 30 yards off the LOS like we did last year. I can only imagine what the stretching of the field both horizontally and vertically could do to loosen up defenses going forward.

 

[onanygivensunday]

- At the end of the day Harvin had 27 yards receiving, 7 yards rushing, and 0 yards for Kickoff Returns. That's a grand total of 34 yards. And while yes he did appear to get robbed multiple touchdowns (need to re-watch the game to see which of those calls were 100% a joke...), history will mark this down as a day Harvin had 34 all-purpose yards.

Even if Harvin had gotten 2 of those Touchdowns (2/3 of the nullified TD's were on the same drive) under the best circumstances that would have only been 67 more yards.

So 34 yards (he really got) + 67 yards (he potentially could of got without penalties) = 101 yards

I'm pretty sure Harvin averages more than 101 all-purpose yards for us this season so I'm not sure how you can say this was his best game as a Hawk, but at least it's optimistic which is nice after a game like this.

What you failed to mention is the effect Harvin has on kickoffs.

By avoiding Percy, Washington gave us excellent field position to start our drives.

 

[Tokadub]

I managed to re-watch the game before I passed out last night thanks to some not entirely legal means thanks to NFL Rewind having like a 24 hour delay on Monday Night Games...

But anyways I would like to make some updated thoughts on the points I made before:


- Harvin did have a better day than I originally thought even though he only had 34 yards officially.

It looks like only 3 of our 11 drives started at the 20 yard line or worst.

In comparison 11 of the Redskins 12 drives started at the 20 yard line or worst!

Now a lot of this is due to John Ryan and Haushka but Harvin did clearly affect several kickoffs giving us free and easy field position, they clearly didn't want the ball in his hands.

Harvin was also ripping dudes up with his runs after catch. After watching the replays I think you could have a legit complaint that Harvin really should of had 2 Touchdowns yesterday.

The play where Carpenter hit the guy on the ground did not appear to be excessive, yeah he probably should of tried to avoid hitting him in the helmet but the camera angle they gave didn't really show if he even made clean contact there. It certainly did not seem like the kind of penalty that should nullify a 41 yard Touchdown pass giving us a 15 yard penalty!?

However we were still able to score a touchdown on this drive thanks to Wilson barely staying behind the line of scrimmage and hitting Luke Willson for 19 yards on 2nd and 20, followed by John Ryan running 5 yards for the 1st down on 4th and 1 on the fake 49 yard field goal attempt. That was a very nice play, Ryan is quicker than I would of expected they didn't really have time to react to stop his run.

I thought the penalty on Harvin for the False start was totally bogus, I'm not a rules expert but it didn't look like he did anything illegal there. Harvin had TWO Touchdowns nullified on that drive and that time it did hurt us, we only got a Field Goal.

So overall I'd say Harvin did have a pretty solid day, about as good as someone could be with that official stat line in the end. I still wouldn't go so far to say it was his best as a Hawk though.


- Our pass rush was putting up a bit more pressure than I thought after re-watching the game. The problem was it didn't seem to effect Kirk Cousin's as much as we would of liked. He does have a quick release and he's pretty dang accurate, seems like a very solid QB considering he was the back up.

Our defense played pretty solid overall but it seems like they were exposed a bit with their zone defense. The Redskins were able to generate a lot of mismatches for DeSean Jackson, he should never be covered by Kam Chancellor when he's going deep.

I'd still like to see more production with our pass rush with actual sacks, but it's not like they were just lollygagging around all day.


Final Thoughts:

Russell Wilson was phenomenal. Our Pass Rush was passable. Our Offensive Line was pretty bad. Our offensive penalties were horrid although some of the calls were bad.

I think the main issue that is starting to dominate my thoughts with our team right now is our Zone Defense. It seems like teams might be starting to figure us out and creating mismatches very easily. I might make a new topic if nobody has yet just to see what others think about that specifically. It seems like our zone defense could be our biggest weakness against the passing game which could explain why we are 22nd in opposing passing yards. I'm not an expert at all with defensive formations and schemes so maybe others will have more info for me.

 

[TDOTSEAHAWK]

I loved this game in the sense that we won a game where we weren't at our best....on the road. We aren't going to be executing to perfection every night - so we really need to win when we aren't at our best.

 

[mikeak]

I thought Harvin was moving forward before ball snapped. Not a false start as he was not on the LOS but illegal motion. I might be wrong but that was my thought at the time.

Secondly. Redskin fans saying RG3 could have done what RW did are ignoring one detail. The ability to stay healthy. It is like saying Demarcus would have been good if he could have overcome being lazy....and hungry.... And an addict.
RG3 can't slide and when you look at his 2012 season he took brutal hits on runs in traffic.

Finally I think it can't be underestimated what a huge call the onside kick ended up being. The Redskins never recovered in the 3rd quarter from it. We started on 45, 50 and 45 yard line. Redskins on like 1 and 10 yard line. I thought it was a calculated good risk at the time but in retrospect if they stopped us on first series from the 20 yard line the second half might be way different....

 

[byau]

Also in the middle of re-watching the game on NFL Game Rewind..man seems our receivers dropped quite a few catchable passes so far.

 

[UK_Seahawk]

I couldnt watch the game as I had a work thing I needed to be semi alert for. Have recorded it and planned to ignore the internet, that lasted until about 30 seconds after I woke up. So bearing in mind I know the score and have seen the brief highlights on nfl.com, would anyone recommend that I watch the full game or is likely to make me have a stroke?

The officiating was bad, really bad.
The o-line was not good.

But watch it just to see a future first ballot HOFer QB your team. It's worth it for that alone.

It's funny watching a game back when you already know the result. I have to say I wondered what all the fuss was about. Apart from a couple of explosive plays, a lull from the offense after half time and the officiating which killed us at times I thought we were well in control of the game and not really in any danger.

One concern was I dont really feel the LOB quite has it's mojo back yet, it's not like they are playing horrible football or anything like that it's just like they are playing at 90% or something. Maybe they just need more time or more likely the officiating has to calm down with the laundry throwing.

 

[brimsalabim]

I have watched the game a second time now and while I agree with most of the points above I would also like to add that Lynch is not only our best runner he is our most reliable receiver. He and Russell work well together. Heck I'd like to see Beast move to TE for a few snaps just to freak out the defense. So the biggest thing I took from this is that we have to re sign Lynch and Willson. We have Percy for a while and every one else on the offence is replaceable.

 

[TwilightError]

Lynch and Wilson are the two best and smartest all around football players on This team. And that is saying a lot wit all those physical freaks in the defense. They would be the two best players on a lot of teams though. I expect to see a few great years from Lynch, so hopefully the team defies conventional wisdom here and 'overpays' an overage RB.

 

[byau]

One concern was I dont really feel the LOB quite has it's mojo back yet, it's not like they are playing horrible football or anything like that it's just like they are playing at 90% or something. Maybe they just need more time or more likely the officiating has to calm down with the laundry throwing.

Yes true. They aren't doing poorly, we (and they) know they can do better. I was surprised on one of the radio shows they said overall defense efficiency (whatever that is) for the Seahawks is 12th out of 32. Numbers wise they aren't doing so well. However besides San Diego it doesn't seem like they are ever not in control for the most part.

 

[hawkfan1975]

Man this post is spot on, Kearly.

Loves me a Kearly recap! Take the win, the better team won.

 

[morgulon1]

It felt like we owned the stadium tonight. There were so many of us there it was surprising to me.

You have more "fans" show up at games when you're the world champions. I disagree with Kearly regarding
Walters at PR. He doesn't have acceleration and normally gets mauled . Otherwise great post OP!

 

[morgulon1]

Lynch and Wilson are the two best and smartest all around football players on This team. And that is saying a lot wit all those physical freaks in the defense. They would be the two best players on a lot of teams though. I expect to see a few great years from Lynch, so hopefully the team defies conventional wisdom here and 'overpays' an overage RB.

I'd have to go with Earl Thomas III