Why the poor Offensive performance this year?

SeaChat

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I keep reading post after post with folks talking about how poorly our offense is playing this year, and I have to wonder if any of the folks forwarding that thinking along, have listened to anything that anyone has said in recent history about the crap job the officials have been dumping on Seattle this year and the increasingly obvious fact that it isn't just a bunch of cry babies and sore loser, excuse making, die hard fans, making crap up.

Did anyone listen to Richard Sherman in the Thursday Press Conference? The guy is risking his ass telling the truth to everyone by way of possible fines or other disciplines from the NFL head office should they elect to try and suppress him.

Like Sherman said when asked by reporters about how concerned he was about retribution from higher ups as a result, he answered them "the truth is the truth, it is what is, this is supposed to be reality TV, and I must be good for ratings" maybe that's why no heat from on high.

For so many reasons I respect Richard Sherman, and some of the others out there who have risked having the heat brought down on them for speaking what they believe to be the truth,. I've been shooting my mouth off on this matter, since the first week of the season, and a lot of folks have written me off as a naïve Sunshine and Lollipops poster, wherein I excuse everything that suggest that Seahawks are not playing at their best, which is far from the truth.

I'll be the first to tell it like I see it, and have and have been ridiculed at times as a result, that's ok, I'm not easily swayed in my opinions and takes on things, but I will readily admit when I'm wrong or mistaken. I'm not saying that the Seahawk offense is without areas that need improvement, I am saying that if you were able to wave a magic wand and retract all of the unwarranted and out and out crap calls against the Seahawk offense alone, folks would have an entirely different take on them.

Why so many are willing to view all the penalties as justified and conclude that the Offenses failed efforts to convert and score, is due to their belief instead, that our offensive players are all a bunch of no talent bums, that can't score to save their souls. I beg to doubt.

I'll also check my know it all, can't ever be mistaken, all year campaign to paint the Seahawk offense as a bunch of rag tag wannabe losers that can't play at college level players, and open my mind and eyes up to some obvious truths, and admit I was wrong, like a number of posters have, and continue to do.

Some folks are so repulsed by the idea of having to eat a little crow, that goes along with admitting they are wrong, that they won't relent until the truth is so clear that even Helen Keller can see it. I truly hope that by the end of this season, having called the NFL on this crap yellow rag tossing assault on our games, that it is absolutely clear to everyone that the Seattle Seahawks are finally acknowledged as being one of the best in the game. As for those that are proven to be wrong, please do message me your address so i can mail you, your salt & pepper kit to go with your serving of crow.

Since the start of the season I've defended our Offenses inability to produce yards and points, as being directly linked to way too many highly questionable calls and penalties being levied against them by the officials, and always they seem to find our players deciding to commit these offenses just when we completed a meaningful play that might bring us another 1st and 10, or might put us in a position to score, worse yet even, we do sneak by them and score, only to have them toss a flag as an after thought and negate even that.

Then they fail to account for our opponents, who, almost everyone of them have traditionally, game after game, drawn many more penalties than the Seahawks do, and suddenly they have managed to clean their play over the course of the week prior while preparing to play the Seahawks, just so that while playing us, they magically manage to draw almost no penalties at all, and the ones they do draw are at times where they don't have any real affect on their 1st and 10 conversions or scoring opportunities.

When its out there in front of us week after week and a number of folks we respect, and that are considered by most of us to be in the know of the sport, are coming out publically and telling us the truth of the matter, do some folks continue to bash our offensive line, blame all their failures on their poor play instead of what is black and white in front of their eyes is beyond me.

Go back and watch the games we have played this year and the penalties that have been called against us, and when they are called. Also consider that after the fact, when challenged penalty by penalty the NFL has confirmed many of them were not penalties that warranted being called, or simply were not penalties at all, and confirmed that penalties that should have been called on our opponents that were not, were indeed penalties that should have been called, with little more than an apology, oops sorry, I guess we cost you that win didn't we? Oh well nothing that we can do about it now, we'll try to better next time, but they haven't it just keeps coming our way,

Remove all the crap calls levied against our Offense alone and try to be objective for just a moment, then you can go back to bashing our Offense again, and ask yourself how many times we would have converted and how many times we would have found ourselves in field goal or scoring range and how many games we would have easily won had both our offense and defense not been plagued with the onslaught of penalties being levied against us this year, I wouldn't hesitate to say every damn one of them.

I don't know why this happening, maybe Sherman is right, we are too good and they have to help the other teams out, or maybe the Seahawks have unified and taken a stand and need to be punished for having done so, because the NFL thinks that might be why their ratings are down this year. Sooner or later the truth will be found,.

So from me to you, I think we have a fantastic Offensive line, so damn fantastic that the NFL has found it necessary to do everything they can to stop us from winning, and doing everything they can to help our opponents with their officiating to try and beat us. Had it not been for all of this crap penalty calling, I think our Offense would currently be rated as one of the top in the NFL.

Our Defense is, in spite of the officiating, and I applaud them for that, It's not easy walking out on to that field game and game, knowing ahead of time that unless you manage to beat the officials and your opponents you are not likely going to walk off that field a winner at the end of the game.

Just my take on things as shared by many others, especially as more and more notables are coming out and speaking the truth, damn the torpedoes lol. I sure hope the NFL gets it, the jig is up, they have been called on their crap and need to clean it up before it really comes full turn and kicks them in the wallet where they really feel it. I wonder if they have stopped to consider that the reason viewership is down is because people want to see a competitive football game with fair officiating and have gotten sick and tired of watching them try and manipulate the outcome with their officials.
If they don't clean it up they will continue to lose viewers and fans in general.

I love the Seattle Seahawks, and believe that the thing that separates them from a lot of the other teams out there, is that they demand honesty and integrity from their players and from their coaches, and they get it. The also get it from their 12, who need to support them in their times of troubles as much as we do when they are riding high and on their way to another Super Bowl title. I still believe.

I know I'm a wordy SOB, seems like you have to be if you want to get through some of the really thick skulls out there, even then, wordy or not, its a pretty tough uphill climb. Like my dad used to say, "you can fix a lot of things in life, but the one thing you'll never fix, is stupid". I don't think I ever fully accepted that truth, because I still keep trying.
Go Hawks !
 

seabowl

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I don't need 10,000 words to sum up our problems. Wait for it.....

Our O Line SUCKS!!

I'm done.
 

brimsalabim

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Why? Because Pete and John screwed the pooch. Russell is getting the ball out in 2.4 seconds (2nd fastest in the league) it still getting hit nearly 50% of his drop backs. (Tops among starters).
Add to that injured running backs who have to make the first man miss just to get the hand off. Our o line will have to improve to suck.
 

cymatica

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I think it' the piss poor officiating and the offense combined. It seems like the offense tends to rely on using all 3 downs to get the 1st(unless in hurry up mode), constantly putting themselves in the position to convert 3rd downs. So instead of getting 5 to 10 yds on 1st downs, its 5 or less, followed by usually a penalty or a play that doesnt work.

Thats what i have noticed for years, an offense that lives off chunk plays or miraculous effort by individuals, as opposed to a nickel n dime/rhythm style. Spectacular effort by lynch and wilson in the run game has masked a somewhat predictable offense, i mean how many times do we see db's constantly all over the routes. We dont see variety in the run game mixed in the game plan, it's usually an inside zone run even with no qb threat. Wheres the sweeps, misdirection, even screen passes(not bubble) mixed in? What about qb sneak?

Having said that about the offense; 1 bad call here, 1 false start there, and then we are screwed. With a more rhythmic offense, at least there would be some yards and TOP gained around these stalled drives. So again, when you depend on chunk plays or using all 3 downs to get a first, one bad call stops the drive. This almost never happense when the offense is working up tempo, almost always out of necessity.

Having said all that, our d-line gets the shaft of holding calls, i swear the only time they get the call is when it doesn't matter, or its so blatantly obvious it has to get called. Even some of the blatent ones get ignored( i still remember in the AZ game bennett getting thrown down by his facemask by the right tackle in plain view of the ref closing in on palmer, which he scrambled for a first down i think).

I think our recievers should just start pushing off every play, if we are going to get called for ticky tac opi may as well get away with some in the process
 

SoulfishHawk

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O Line Sucks

Not too hard to see what the problem is. The QB is nursing 3 injuries directly because of the O Line. And Michael is average at best as a RB.
 

MontanaHawk05

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Our O-line doesn't suck.

Our left tackle certainly does, but overall, our O-line is middling in quality.

One of Wilson's three injuries came from him extending a play far away from the OL. Another was on Mark Glowinski, whom everyone has acknowledged as one of the better players. The third was on the aforementioned left tackle.
 

Siouxhawk

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Nice post Pacific.
They say that penalties have a way of evening themselves out. If that's the case, we should have a huge advantage in that department the rest of the year.
 

Sparkchaser737

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SoulfishHawk":1d0l3zwv said:
O Line Sucks

Not too hard to see what the problem is. The QB is nursing 3 injuries directly because of the O Line. And Michael is average at best as a RB.
I have to disagree with this partially. The tackles suck on the o line, but two of the injuries sustained by Wilson were his own doing. He holds onto the ball too long sometimes and trys to make make magic happen. Most times it works. After Suh rolled his ankle in game one, it snowballed on him
 

Sgt. Largent

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brimsalabim":389r737a said:
Why? Because Pete and John screwed the pooch. Russell is getting the ball out in 2.4 seconds (2nd fastest in the league) it still getting hit nearly 50% of his drop backs. (Tops among starters).
Add to that injured running backs who have to make the first man miss just to get the hand off. Our o line will have to improve to suck.

I don't know about screwed the pooch, but they definitely gambled bigtime on going with a band aid O-line again and rolled snake eyes with Russell's injuries not having him healthy to cover up the glaring issues.

Also Rawls being hurt is another issue.

Bottom line as to what's wrong? Perfect storm of Russell's injuries, Rawls injury and terrible O-line making it next to impossible to play like we have to play.........run game and play action.
 

hawk45

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MontanaHawk05":bfci1qvw said:
Our O-line doesn't suck.

Our left tackle certainly does, but overall, our O-line is middling in quality.

One of Wilson's three injuries came from him extending a play far away from the OL. Another was on Mark Glowinski, whom everyone has acknowledged as one of the better players. The third was on the aforementioned left tackle.

there is no run game without Lynch and Wilson to cover for them and they struggle to hold up in pass pro after the entire offense has been revamped to get the ball out quickly.

They also stall drive after drive with penalties.

They suck and this year there is no read option or Lynch allowing them to pretend they are a good run blocking unit.
 

RichNhansom

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Sparkchaser737":1zo2kqrf said:
SoulfishHawk":1zo2kqrf said:
O Line Sucks

Not too hard to see what the problem is. The QB is nursing 3 injuries directly because of the O Line. And Michael is average at best as a RB.
I have to disagree with this partially. The tackles suck on the o line, but two of the injuries sustained by Wilson were his own doing. He holds onto the ball too long sometimes and trys to make make magic happen. Most times it works. After Suh rolled his ankle in game one, it snowballed on him

Even on the last injury you can honestly question if the way officials have been calling holding on our O-line is it forcing our lineman to play so cautious they are being ineffective? Leading to defenses pinning thier ears back and increasing the difficulty to protect Wilson.

We have some problems right now. Michael is not a good RB and it appears very obvious the coaches don't trust him or feel they can lean on him and we don't have a better option right now to make him a change of pace back.

Injuries have been huge all over but Wilson has been the most affected and has the biggest impact on our offensive performance.

We seem to be getting healthier and that will help but unless the officiating becomes more honest it likely won't matter and we will probably incur more injuries trying to over compensate for it.
 

RCATES

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1. O-Line is easily the worst in the league (actual starters that suck)
2. RW is not a very good pocket QB (Shouldn't be compared to Bree's like he so often is). Without his scrambling ability is a average at best QB.
3. OC is too conservative. By the time he opens things up its too late.

There is still hope that they can turn things around with Wilson getting his legs back, O-Line improving and Rawls coming back. It will be a shame if they don't. Wasting away another year with this Elite defense.
 

Sgt. Largent

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RCATES":1zw7i0i0 said:
1. O-Line is easily the worst in the league (actual starters that suck)
2. RW is not a very good pocket QB (Shouldn't be compared to Bree's like he so often is). Without his scrambling ability is a average at best QB.
3. OC is too conservative. By the time he opens things up its too late.

There is still hope that they can turn things around with Wilson getting his legs back, O-Line improving and Rawls coming back. It will be a shame if they don't. Wasting away another year with this Elite defense.

Look at the stats, Russell is as good in the pocket as he is out of it.

The problem is he needs to have that threat of running for the defense to respect that pocket passing. THAT'S what's missing right now, defenses are just pinning their ears back knowing Russell can't run............and neither can our RB's.
 

SoulfishHawk

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Can't take anyone seriously who thinks Russ isn't good in the pocket.
Without the threat of a running game, it makes it pretty easy for the defense.
 

StoneCold

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People over complicate things. Oline is not that bad. Russell is good in the pocket, even when he can't run. Reduce the number of dropped balls and stop committing unforced errors. Holding, false starts. Cut down on those by 50% and we are undefeated.
 

Attyla the Hawk

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Ultimately, it comes down to 3rd down issues.

It's boiled down to a lot of different factors. Most notable has been the ruinous effect of negative plays. Whether that's holding calls or Russell misreading his pocket and running into sacks/intentional grounding calls, or receivers dropping 3rd down passes.

With a quick/short passing game implemented, it requires a very high degree of precision. Seattle's offense is sloppy. Instead of one or two explosive plays to get chunk yardage, we need 6-7 well executed plays in a consecutive string. We're not getting that.

The explosive plays served the purpose to mask offensive sloppiness. One play could negate a single bad play by itself. And we could go several series of downs without even facing a 3rd down. And it was easier to flip field position by getting one or two chunk plays even if we faltered on a 3rd down later.

We're running in principle a WCO philosophy offense. It requires a much greater attention to detail. Coaches that run that offense are sticklers for penalty reduction. This coaching staff doesn't place a premium on that.

Until the protection evolves to allow for us to hold the ball longer and to take shots downfield -- we're going to have a similar dynamic. You can't have bad protection AND consistently incur negative plays. Which is what we're seeing this year.

Either protect better or play cleaner and these issues will subside.
 

Rob12

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MontanaHawk05":24jrda03 said:
Our O-line doesn't suck.

Our left tackle certainly does, but overall, our O-line is middling in quality.

One of Wilson's three injuries came from him extending a play far away from the OL. Another was on Mark Glowinski, whom everyone has acknowledged as one of the better players. The third was on the aforementioned left tackle.

Right tackle is a problem, too.

I don't know. I've parroted this thought a lot here lately but Russ is getting the ball out fast. 2.4 seconds fast, which is the second quickest mark in the NFL. Yet, he's still getting hit on 50 percent of his drop backs, which is the highest mark in the NFL.

Maybe they don't suck, but our offensive line is by far the weakest link on this team. I hope as the season progresses, they get better.
 

Sgt. Largent

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StoneCold":ipcrseqo said:
People over complicate things. Oline is not that bad. Russell is good in the pocket, even when he can't run. Reduce the number of dropped balls and stop committing unforced errors. Holding, false starts. Cut down on those by 50% and we are undefeated.


But many of the unforced errors like O-line holding is because the line is bad and has to hold.

I agree unforced errors are a big reason for the offensive woes, but a LOT of those unforced errors are because the line stinks.
 

cymatica

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Ultimately, it comes down to 3rd down issues.

It's boiled down to a lot of different factors. Most notable has been the ruinous effect of negative plays. Whether that's holding calls or Russell misreading his pocket and running into sacks/intentional grounding calls, or receivers dropping 3rd down passes.

With a quick/short passing game implemented, it requires a very high degree of precision. Seattle's offense is sloppy. Instead of one or two explosive plays to get chunk yardage, we need 6-7 well executed plays in a consecutive string. We're not getting that.

The explosive plays served the purpose to mask offensive sloppiness. One play could negate a single bad play by itself. And we could go several series of downs without even facing a 3rd down. And it was easier to flip field position by getting one or two chunk plays even if we faltered on a 3rd down later.

We're running in principle a WCO philosophy offense. It requires a much greater attention to detail. Coaches that run that offense are sticklers for penalty reduction. This coaching staff doesn't place a premium on that.

Until the protection evolves to allow for us to hold the ball longer and to take shots downfield -- we're going to have a similar dynamic. You can't have bad protection AND consistently incur negative plays. Which is what we're seeing this year.

Either protect better or play cleaner and these issues will subside.

This makes a lot of sense. Without the run threat it makes it that much more difficult to get explosive plays.

It's looked like to me that we haven't had a west coast rhythm offense, but sloppy plays and penalties probably just give that illusion. I think speeding up tempo closer to a hurry up would help, if anything to keep the def guessing and our off from overthinking maybe, but what do i know
 
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