Seeds of our Discontent

[Vetamur]

Lots of angst, anger, sadness..a bit of panic among us today. And with good reason, obviously.

Game ended sometime after 5am here.. and I didnt want to wake anyone so I went for a walk. Ended up at neighborhood shrine that doubles as a park and just thought.

I think our troubles are on a deeper, different level.. so, for extra food for though, or ammo to call me an idiot, or blame to ponder over here are some things that I think are behind our trouble.

1) I think for the first time JS made more than one major mistake in the offseason. Im not down on him, long term hes awesome. But there are some mistakes I think that hurt us. These are:

a) Trading for Graham. Im not even going to say we arent using him right. Im saying its allocation of resources. We are a spread it around, relatively few passes type of team. Its just not going to happen that suddenly tight end is our focal point, and so why put all those dollars there? Even if he caught 5 passes each and every game.. at his salary thats an imbalance.

b) Making Kris Richard the DC over Ken Norton. Richard is a really smart and really articulate guy. But hes the DBs guy and always been the DBs guy. There was a sense last year for me that the D was particularly loyal to Quinn, and I think some of our mojo has moved to Atlanta with him. I am not sure Richard has the "cred" to get people all in and to motivate at the same level as Quinn. Maybe Norton would have matched our teams character better.

c) Cary Williams. Again, a lot of money. To be a CB in Seattle on the outside you gotta do one think very well: stop the over the top ball and treat it like its as much yours as the WRs. You gotta be above average at run support. You have to be decent at the rest of the stuff. Cary Williams LOOKS the part of a Seattle CB, but hes above average at everything, but not great at stopping the over the top. And it means the safety has to cheat over or spend time evaluating if he needs help.. which in a domino effect really hurts coverage every where.


next over all point..

2) People got paid. People got paid and got civilized. Its the Rocky III effect for sure I think. 2 Super Bowls, 2nd contract.. people are still playing hard and playing well. But they arent playing hungry like before. Sherman isnt out there hoping to be picked out so he can be picking passes off. Earl isnt belting out lessons. Dont get me wrong, outside of last week Earl has played "well". But look at game tape of 2012, 2013. Does anyone feel the team is playing with the hunger they did back then?

3) People Got Paid II. Wilson is established.. and his game has changed. Again, go watch 2012 when he wasnt anyone.. and he was still careful with the ball but didnt need a wide open guy.. deep fades slightly underthrown were the norm, owning the Red Line was a concept we talked about...cant remember the last time that came up. Wilson is being overly careful now, and its compounded with the new contract with a feeling , coming from outside or from himself, that he needs to be a pocket passer. Yesterdays game was a perfect example. This is the exact type of game in the past that Wilson would have taken over afte 3 bad possessions in the 4th quarter. We saw it again and again in 2012, 2013, and 2014. Knowing we needed one drive , he would have done it. Just willed it to happen.

4) Natural need to reload. Weve drafted really late the last few years. And only get 7 picks (supplemented by trades etc). But more guys came up to be replaced than could be in the draft.. we needed to nail it at CB and didnt. Needed to nail it at OL , either projects or linemen ready to play.. but didnt. OL could still come around. CB talent still could. But losses exceeded replacement this year. 24 UDFAs on the team right now. In some ways that shows how talented our scouts, JS and PC are, but it also shows how many guys have left that we hadnt replaced by draft yet.


I think we will be back in the Super Bowl hunt next year, but we will probably suffer a down year this year. I think Graham will be one and done, I think Lynch is gone next year. Rawls is actually one of the best things that could happen..his salary is negligible and hes HUNGRY. With Grahams and Lynch's salary off the books.. theres a chance to shore up.

Nothing profound, but hopefully enough to have warranted me starting a new thread.

 

[Optimus25]

The Graham thing is particularly frustrating to me. I just never will understand Bevells insistence on not isolating him out wide on what would be an either slower or smaller defender. It seems like the easiest way in the world to gain between five and eight yards at will, but we just arbitrarily throw him in bunch formations and even on the offensive line incessantly.

It's between this, the refusal to stop calling RO even when it just gets shut down, and the complete underutilization of matthews that gets me thinking Bevell is the problem for much of the offense. He literally cannot adapt fast enough to the rapidly changing landscape.

The switch to tons of i formation was a good start at least. I have given him that.

But in overtime, crunch time, and we call two suicidal, waste of a down RO. Two plays that could have been JFG time.

 

[Sgt. Largent]

Still a lot of football to play, so I'm not giving up yet.

BUT, in order for us to get back on track Pete needs to fundamentally change the way this offense plays. No longer can we nurse 4th quarter leads being predictable and safe on offense and punting over and over thinking our defense is going to rise up and be the elite D they were in 2012.

Not happening, this D is terrible in the 4th quarter.

 

[TwistedHusky]

There are a series of moves that teams make after losing a SuperBowl that prevent them from going back.

We did every one of those moves, thereby assuring this year was going to be a step back, if not several steps back.

Once that hit, it was clear there will be problems. Both because those moves rarely pan out and because there are consequences to them that hit other team members when they start to realize those moves won't pan out.

Wait until Jimmy Graham starts chirping to the media because he isn't scoring touchdowns AND we are not winning at the clip he expected. Wait until the defense gets tired of carrying the offense and starts publicly calling out that side of the ball. These are the types of things that hit teams that start to miss expectations when they try to integrate utterly new pieces that do not fit the existing system.

At some point, maybe, some of the pieces find their place. But the truth is that is fairly uncommon, more commonly it creates cracks and divisions in the organization. So we will see how this goes, but there is a fairly large body of data to pull from to see examples of this.

And we are following the script perfectly.

 

[HawkGA]

One thing I actually wanted to happen last year that I still have some hope of happening this year is for the Seahawks to go Wild Card team and make it to the Super Bowl. Obviously it's nice having home field advantage and one fewer game, but I would like to see the Seahawks shake the "really good at home but can't do it on the road" label that I think they have. They only times they've made it to the Super Bowl have been when they've had home field. Time for that to change.

 

[nanomoz]

Great post. I went full Verndog/Vin Baker yesterday after the game. Both on the boards and in my life. I can't articulate my frustrations very well.

Posts like yours help me make sense of the meltdown.

I think you might be right about Graham and Lynch and the overall down year. I don't know everything, but I'm of the opinion that good teams destined to really contend don't meltdown like that. Especially not after nearly pooping the bed the week before against a far-inferior team.

There's lots of little problems that are working in concert to muffle this team's ability to get and hold onto leads. Some are probably coaching, some are personnel and injuries, and there might even be some entitlement/expecting to win in the mix.

 

[Greenhell]

Still a lot of football to play, so I'm not giving up yet.

BUT, in order for us to get back on track Pete needs to fundamentally change the way this offense plays. No longer can we nurse 4th quarter leads being predictable and safe on offense and punting over and over thinking our defense is going to rise up and be the elite D they were in 2012.

Not happening, this D is terrible in the 4th quarter.

This. That whole let's let our D keep us in the game has got to change. Not the same LOB of 2012 and 2013. Still a lot of football to be played but changes need to happen and happen soon if this team is to make the playoffs.