Some observations off the cuff

[bbsplitter]

I do not think Kam's stock rose significantly. Most the defensive issues I saw were that the defensive line didn't get any pressure for some killer stretches (while yes they were very good overall). Most of the big plays the secondary gave up I do not think would have been solved by having Kam. Cary Williams and Dion Bailey had major issues with handing off WR's and switching zones when they were supposed to. Neither of them seem to be over-matched physically speaking - it's just mental issues that hopefully full speed reps will solve. We had the same problems with BB coming back and when BMax was first starting. If anything I am most confused why they didnt play Cary Williams more during the preseason. He needed the reps badly, and its coming back to hurt us.

 

[bigskydoc]

Great post. Love the thought process. A few things stuck out to me in this game that pretty much line up with your thinking.

1 - Offensive line. Not nearly as bad as I expected it to look in what should be their most difficult game of the season. First regular season game, against the toughest front seven we are likely to face all year. For a patchwork line that is a work in progress, I was impressed. There is a lot of potential there. Can't really evaluate it until the all 21 comes out, but there were definitely some nice pockets for Russ to step into (the fact that he refused to step into them is another matter). There were a lot of sacks, but they weren't all on this line. As this young line gels, I think it will be a solid unit.

2 - Lack of quick attack game was puzzling. If ever a game screamed for a quick passing , dink and dunk, let your receivers fight for YAC against a suspect secondary type of game plan, this was it. But no, we stick to our standard, slowly developing route trees. Everybody knows there isn't going to be time in this game for routes to develop. Everybody knows the St. Louis secondary is their weakest defensive link and should be easy to carve up. Since everybody knows that this is what we should do, we decided to do something completely different?!?!

3 - Lynch. Looked to me that he isn't quite in game shape yet, and Jackson hasn't had time to get in sync with our system. I suspect that is why Rawls was a surprise active player. It looked like Lynch's back is already bothering him. I'm not buying the 30-year-old curse just yet. I just think he wasn't quite in game shape yet. This doesn't worry me. A slow start and saving him for the stretch is ok.

4 - Sense of malaise on the defense. I think the lack of pre-season playing time for Sherman, Thomas, and the other defensive leaders really showed in this game. Like Lynch it looked like they weren't really in game shape yet. Once again, not really worried about this. They will get in sync and wake up.

5 - Big plus to take from this game... No injuries. I honestly think that was the number one goal for Carrol and Co. You have a team that has played more football in the last two years than any other team. They are physically and mentally worn down, and it shows. Many of the stars were held out of preseason just to give them the opportunity to nurse injuries from last season. They are going up against a physical, hungry, hyped up team that is known for taking cheap shots and trying to injure opponents. It looked to me that Carroll and Bevell approached this game as if it was the 3rd pre-season game with the primary goal of keeping everyone healthy and the secondary goal of getting some game speed reps. I suspect this is why we didn't see that quick passing attack game as that does tend to expose your receivers to a lot more abuse.

My prediction for the start of the year was that we will go 3-3 then 6-4. So far that looks about right. I think it will take some time of playing in real games before the efforts of the off-season begin to bear fruit. Then I think we go on a tear, much like last year, and we ultimately face off with Green Bay in Green Bay for the NFCCG.

- bsd

 

[purpleneer]

Great overall observation, with a couple quibbles. The lack of deep threat thought is crazy, especially considering Lockett as not up to that use. Who have been the Hawks best deep ball threats recently? Tate, Kearse, and Baldwin have been effective when deep shots have been called at the right times and the execution is there. We tend to overemphasize how much straight speed matters on those, particularly when we consider speed like Lockett's to be insufficient. Even without the need to respect his YAC prowess, it doesn't require elite speed to effective deep (even without jump-ball size).
For this game, all that is a little moot, because of the pressure issue (even though the fade can be pretty deep even on a 3-step). But not because the short passing game needs to be emphasized. It's the intermediate routes that more consistently make a defense pay for big pressure; not everything beyond 5 yards requires loads of time for the QB and defenses are usually happy to see a QB answer every pressure with short stuff. Make the LBs think about stuff behind them rather than just supporting the flat. Corners are getting pretty decent at handling that block well enough to give pursuit a chance and it's not an easy 3 yards like it has been at certain times.

 

[marko358]

5 - Big plus to take from this game... No injuries. I honestly think that was the number one goal for Carrol and Co.

I sure hope that winning the game was the number one goal but what do I know.

 

[bigskydoc]

I agree that winning, perhaps, should have been the number one goal, but watching it I got the distinct impression that it wasn't.

- bsd

 

[bandiger]

2 - Lack of quick attack game was puzzling. If ever a game screamed for a quick passing , dink and dunk, let your receivers fight for YAC against a suspect secondary type of game plan, this was it. But no, we stick to our standard, slowly developing route trees. Everybody knows there isn't going to be time in this game for routes to develop. Everybody knows the St. Louis secondary is their weakest defensive link and should be easy to carve up. Since everybody knows that this is what we should do, we decided to do something completely different?!?!

- bsd

http://www.fieldgulls.com/football-...s-russell-wilson-nfl-pete-carroll-jeff-fisher

Wilson ignored alot of open targets on the short routes. He needs to start using them if the offense is stalling. The key difference from Rivers/Peyton/Brady, he'll be a much better QB if he just relaxes a bit more instead of waiting for big plays. First game and a ton of tape showing it, hopefully he knows this already.

 

[bigskydoc]

I should add, the Rams gave us the underneath stuff all day long. They were playing softer than Charmin. Almost a prevent defense. We just didn't take advantage of it. Not taking advantage of it was not all Bevell's fault.

edited to add, I was typing this at the same time bandiger was posting his, so it looks a little out of sequence

- bsd

 

[bigskydoc]

http://www.fieldgulls.com/football-...s-russell-wilson-nfl-pete-carroll-jeff-fisher

Wilson ignored alot of open targets on the short routes. He needs to start using them if the offense is stalling. The key difference from Rivers/Peyton/Brady, he'll be a much better QB if he just relaxes a bit more instead of waiting for big plays. First game and a ton of tape showing it, hopefully he knows this already.

Holy Mackerel Batman. I knew they were playing us soft, but didn't realize just how frequently and consistently they were doing it.

It's like Fisher and Co were standing back their like a school yard bully going





And we didn't or couldn't take advantage of it. Sigh

- bsd

 

[formido]

Carroll on whether Lockett is fast:

"He started one way and got bottled up, and had the speed to get back around. Also, on the big kickoff, lots of times guys make that break and they start to turn the corner, and they get run down at the 30 yard line. He finished it, and that’s 4.3, and it showed up. A lot of fast guys tried to get him, and he turned the corner."

One 4.4 timing doesn't define your absolute speed nor game speed. Even by itself, that's only a hundredth of a second from being able to say you're in the 4.3s, and the 10th place is the only digit people seem to find significant when they repeat this stuff, which is why there are plenty of players with reputations for 4.3 with scarcely better qualification than Lockett. And again, qualification on one public sample. He looks plenty fast to me.

According to PFF only 2 players in college last year caught a higher percentage of deep passes thrown their way. And, the TD pass in the last game of the preseason sure isn't evidence against Lockett being a deep threat.

 

[olyfan63]

I agree that winning, perhaps, should have been the number one goal, but watching it I got the distinct impression that it wasn't.
- bsd

Strange but true. I could actually see Carroll choosing to prioritize player development and players learning the standard they need to play to -- O-Line in particular -- over winning THIS game. By that I mean learning to play Pete Carroll Seahawks football.

It's not that Pete wasn't absolutely trying to win the game, more that he was prioritizing getting players to play the way Pete sees them playing, the reason he chose them, the way they fit into Pete's scheme. Sometimes the only reason for a player to really "get" that he needs to learn and improve is when he just got his ass handed to him. I'm thinking Gary Gilliam on the 4th and 1. I'm thinking Russell Wilson passing up so many shorter pass opportunities.

So last year we went 3-3 and then went on a tear.

Pete is betting on his and his staff's ability to coach up the players they have, and to do it better than anybody else in the league, over the 17 weeks of the regular season.

 

[EverydayImRusselin]

In track & field, Lockett was one of the state's top sprinters. He captured a regional title in the 100-meter dash at the 2011 State 5A Regional, placing first with a time of 10.85 seconds.[10] He earned third-place finishes in both the 100-meter dash (10.95 s) and the 200-meter dash (21.90 s) at the 5A state finals.[11]


40-yd dash

4.40 s


Yeah you ain't nothing unless you run a under 4.28 in the NFL.

That statement about Lockett not being fast derailed most your whole post in my opinion.

Burners don't run 4.40. They just don't. Isn't that what Golden and Christine Michael ran? Would you say they have big time top-end speed? That's real world fast, but that isn't running away from NFL corners fast. Pick a draft profile. I'll bet they question his top end speed. It doesn't really matter, he's quick and he's fast enough to be a very effective player, but he doesn't have the speed to consistently get behind people. He just doesn't. It's a fact. That isn't the kind of player that he is. I dunno where it's coming from that everybody thinks he has elite speed.

There are other ways to get behind a defender to make yourself a deep threat. Lockett possess one of them in his route running skills. Maybe he can't sprint in a straight line past every DB, but just watch his TD vs oakland. He shook the DB off the line and was immediately behind him.

 

[bigskydoc]

Strange but true. I could actually see Carroll choosing to prioritize player development and players learning the standard they need to play to -- O-Line in particular -- over winning THIS game. By that I mean learning to play Pete Carroll Seahawks football.

Exactly. Player development and player safety in THIS game. Just like a pre-season game where you want to win, but not at all costs.

I think Carroll had real concerns about how the offensive line would be able to protect Wilson and Lynch in this game against this defense. I think he also had questions about Lynch's focus/ conditioning for this game, thus Rawls was active. He wanted to try out some new ideas on defense (Sherman as nickel cb?), and see how Thomas and Sherm had recovered from their injuries.

It appeared he may have hobbled Russ a bit to ensure he stays healthy for the rest of the season. I imagine him instructing Russ to keep it vanilla, and believing we had a good chance to beat them with vanilla. If so, I would say it was the right call. I would much rather come out of this game healthy with a loss, than come out with injuries to our stars, especially Wilson, and a win.

Can you imagine the s-storm on here if we had let Wilson run the read-option with an untested line and he got murdered?

It's a long season, with a ton of winnable games. After the first two weeks, it is not inconceivable that we win out. Unlikely, but not inconceivable. I think they approached this as a chance to evaluate what they really have, stay healthy, take advantage of an amazing learning opportunity for our new offensive line, and try out a few new twists on defense.

And they almost won with this formula.

- bsd

 

[Seahawkfan80]

Strange but true. I could actually see Carroll choosing to prioritize player development and players learning the standard they need to play to -- O-Line in particular -- over winning THIS game. By that I mean learning to play Pete Carroll Seahawks football.

Exactly. Player development and player safety in THIS game. Just like a pre-season game where you want to win, but not at all costs.

I think Carroll had real concerns about how the offensive line would be able to protect Wilson and Lynch in this game against this defense. I think he also had questions about Lynch's focus/ conditioning for this game, thus Rawls was active. He wanted to try out some new ideas on defense (Sherman as nickel cb?), and see how Thomas and Sherm had recovered from their injuries.

It appeared he may have hobbled Russ a bit to ensure he stays healthy for the rest of the season. I imagine him instructing Russ to keep it vanilla, and believing we had a good chance to beat them with vanilla. If so, I would say it was the right call. I would much rather come out of this game healthy with a loss, than come out with injuries to our stars, especially Wilson, and a win.

Can you imagine the s-storm on here if we had let Wilson run the read-option with an untested line and he got murdered?

It's a long season, with a ton of winnable games. After the first two weeks, it is not inconceivable that we win out. Unlikely, but not inconceivable. I think they approached this as a chance to evaluate what they really have, stay healthy, take advantage of an amazing learning opportunity for our new offensive line, and try out a few new twists on defense.

And they almost won with this formula.

- bsd

I was wondering this myself. A great perspective.

 

[olyfan63]

It strikes me as very similar to the approach in the loss to the Arizona Cardinals in week 16 of 2013, on the way to winning SB XLVIII.