MontanaHawk05":3ver3hhc said:
The three-and-outs are coming because Wilson refuses to throw interceptions. I just summed up the Seahawks offense.
Russell Wilson is conservative and has simply started meeting more teams who know how to keep him in the pocket. We have to recognize just how much of Wilson's success has come from him leaving the pocket and either running for a first down or hitting a scrambling WR open downfield. It's a huge chunk. In the last month or so, he hasn't had much of that. Defenses have given him only his pocket. And when he's in anything but a broad, wide-open pocket, he's not going to perform as well.
BECAUSE HE'S SHORT.
Yeah, I'm goin' there. What we have right now is how Russell Wilson is probably always going to be. He's short. He can't see over his offensive line. It's going to make sideline strikes and swing throws more comfortable for him, slants and crosses more dicey, and work between the hashes flat-out dangerous. It's no surprise to me that the game plan is distributed accordingly. He's also very conservative. He doesn't make "2004/2006 Hasselbeck throws" into double coverage. It just never happens. The tight ends won't be there because Pete (not Bevell) is constantly looking for the big play and thus has play-action as a huge component of the playbook, which means few TEs and RBs being released for outlet routes and instead getting kept in to block.
Combine all these factors and you have a QB who's feast-or-famine, maddeningly conservative, constantly making his O-line look bad by not getting the ball out, and has his worst brought out by defensive front sevens with the ability to keep him in the pocket. Why do you think we traded for a short, frail receiver known mostly for his prowess in swing passes and YAC? Percy Harvin is an answer to Wilson's height. He gives his QB, and thus the offense, breathing room.
We can upgrade at guard a bit perhaps, and get that big-bodied WR who can make automatic red-zone catches on any ball thrown his way. But after this year, I don't see much more room for upgrade. QB is the bottleneck of offensive talent; his abilities always dictate the playbook. Leave Bevell alone. Wilson's conservatism and limited vision requires his O-line to block for eight seconds regularly. Leave the O-line alone. Our receivers could be improved in the height and red-zone department, but they still have to be seen by the passer. Leave the WR's alone.
This is Russell Wilson; this is what we have in him. I think we'd better start getting used to it. And from the 26-9 record he's posted so far, I think we're pretty well off.
Wrong as usual. The existence of Drew Brees is enough to immediately destroy your hypothesis.
Care to explain the many times Wilson dominated from the pocket in his career, even after teams "figured him out", e.g., Arizona on the road this season?
Arizona had the #2 defense in the NFL this year and has precisely the personnel to implement the optimal strategy against Wilson, and yet Wilson still threw all over them. That should literally be impossible because he's too short.
If you've been following Wilson, you know that teams didn't just figure out that they should keep contain on Wilson. They've known that and tried to implement it with varying degrees of success since about game 8 of last season. To the extent that they can hinder him depends on talent and chance.
I can guess that from now until the end of his career, any time Wilson's passer rating dips when we coincidentally face a streak of elite defensive passer rating teams, which is 100% what you would expect, and happens with every single QB who has ever existed, you'll explain it as Wilson being short.
Wilson's slump over the last few games is vastly overblown, as described here:
http://www.fieldgulls.com/seahawks-note ... n-the-edge
Luckily, Wilson is the first QB EVER to have >100 passer rating his first two seasons, so it looks like the short hypothesis isn't good for too much.