Wrong cleats

Do the players on the opposing team not get an opportunity to test out of the field with their cleats before the start of the game? I thought it was odd that so many of the Seahawks players seem to be slipping around on the turf during that first half. It was like they were trying to play football on ice skates. Who picked the cleats?

hawknation2015":9l8txya3 said:

Do the players on the opposing team not get an opportunity to test out of the field with their cleats before the start of the game? I thought it was odd that so many of the Seahawks players seem to be slipping around on the turf during that first half. It was like they were trying to play football on ice skates. Who picked the cleats?

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Not sure they can properly evaluate the field on such short notice. It was covered in plastic until just before the game, so I'm not sure whether they could have squeezed that into pregame warmups or not.

hawknation2015":3siaib8r said:

Do the players on the opposing team not get an opportunity to test out of the field with their cleats before the start of the game? I thought it was odd that so many of the Seahawks players seem to be slipping around on the turf during that first half. It was like they were trying to play football on ice skates. Who picked the cleats?

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Exactly! That's been my question since the beginning of the game. I said the same thing about appearing to be on skates... I've heard that from a few people... How could they not have the right cleats on for such a huge game. Pete even said on the radio interview before the game that he was concerned about the field. Some of the players like Richard Sherman don't wear shows with adjustable cleats, but this was a mess in my opinion and cost us the whole first half. Carolina had such an advantage over us, because we weren't prepared for the field... Somebody messed up on making sure our players had the right cleats to start with... Some players were over on the sideline in the first quarter having cleats changed and others didn't have cleats changed until halftime... Therefore, I believe after the adjustment was made we came out in the second half with major better footing on the field. However, it was way too deep of a hole to climb out of...Too little too late... :34853_doh:

We played terrible in the first half and the field was worse in the second, in which we did better. We just got our asses handed to us right away and then fought back too little too late.

Pete told one of the sideline reporters that he was concerned we had the wrong screw in's during the pregame warm up.

My questions are why does it take so long to change them and why don't the players have two different pairs of cleats?

I watched part of the pregame, and there were hawks on the field looking at the divots they were putting on the field in pregame warmups. I dont know if they were smart enough to change cleats or did not plan for that event. It was in pregame tho that they were slipping. Personal opinion here.....I think they did not think too much of it as it had just snowed and considered that the grass may drain. Grass placed there 7 days prior...will NOT ROOT. So the field was in really bad shape. It takes 2 weeks for sod to root. I worked at a golf course and we built a tee box with sod. I know.

Billion dollar stadiums with shit fields. The crowd, the weather, traveling, those should be the home field advantages. They should all have field turf.. IMO

I believe the Panthers used it as a tactical advantage. Whether it was planned or not, I don't know. They ran a ton more than usual. My wife even made a comment at some point "do they ever throw the ball?" Back in the day teams would grow the grass longer in some places to slow down faster teams. I think the NFL really needs to do something about the quality of some of these fields. The Redskins stadium, 49ers, Panthers, Bears, and a couple of others have just atrocious fields. It's dangerous. If the league is so worried about injuries why don't they set a mandate for the quality of the field? I'm sure requiring field turf will never happen but I'd like to see it one day.

Mandatory field turf, the DH in the National League, where does it end? :lol:

Pak40.":1fy0oa25 said:

Mandatory field turf, the DH in the National League, where does it end? :lol:

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with ObamaCare.

Sign37now":1m9rrwt4 said:

Billion dollar stadiums with shit fields. The crowd, the weather, traveling, those should be the home field advantages. They should all have field turf.. IMO

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BofA cost less than $250mill, not a bill. And the reason the field was shit was BECAUSE of the weather....

mrford":ysbgfg6s said:

Sign37now":ysbgfg6s said:

Billion dollar stadiums with shit fields. The crowd, the weather, traveling, those should be the home field advantages. They should all have field turf.. IMO

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BofA cost less than $250mill, not a bill. And the reason the field was shit was BECAUSE of the weather....

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(And redoing the field right before playing the seahawks )

Food for thought

In a sport that is so physical you would think that they would have just took a peek at the Panthers shoes to see what cleats they had on. It's not like they were gonna hide'em. They could've had the answer within 5 plays.

OneLofaTatupu":mo78i4vw said:

We played terrible in the first half and the field was worse in the second, in which we did better. We just got our asses handed to us right away and then fought back too little too late.

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Not buying it. You can't just apply that in wholesale fashion. There is a reason they make different lengths of cleats, as there is a reason everyone on our team looked like they were on ice skates in the first quarter, some even an entire half.

Seahawkfan80":1csfni2d said:

I watched part of the pregame, and there were hawks on the field looking at the divots they were putting on the field in pregame warmups. I dont know if they were smart enough to change cleats or did not plan for that event. It was in pregame tho that they were slipping. Personal opinion here.....I think they did not think too much of it as it had just snowed and considered that the grass may drain. Grass placed there 7 days prior...will NOT ROOT. So the field was in really bad shape. It takes 2 weeks for sod to root. I worked at a golf course and we built a tee box with sod. I know.

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The effect becomes magnified when you have player that depends largely on their speed and quickness to make plays. Exhibit A: Earl Thomas slip which turned a 7 yd run into 50+.

To me this goes back to Pete not being a detail guy. He does really well with philosophy, teaching and motivating players but he doesn't have all of the details dialed in.

Sometimes it seems like we win in spite of our head coach, because of the talent level on the team. Which is one of the many things that Pete does well. He brings in very talented football players who fit the scheme.

I think he needs to have someone who handles all of the little details including challenging plays and clock management.

If Carroll was worried about it pregame, he should have done something about it pregame. It is part of home field advantage.

HawkNuts":fkalfwx5 said:

To me this goes back to Pete not being a detail guy. He does really well with philosophy, teaching and motivating players but he doesn't have all of the details dialed in.

Sometimes it seems like we win in spite of our head coach, because of the talent level on the team. Which is one of the many things that Pete does well. He brings in very talented football players who fit the scheme.

I think he needs to have someone who handles all of the little details including challenging plays and clock management.

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The amount of time Carroll spends on game theory, planning out responses to different scenarios rivals any other coach in the league, including Belichick. You don't see a team playing as one, with that kind of total discipline and focus, without a coach who has managed the details to the point that every player on the field is perfectly suiting his role within the game plan.

But part of Carroll's philosophy is about empowering the players to make some of their own decisions and to maintain their individuality. So he allows them to pick their own cleats, like a lot of teams do. I just wish their would have been some way to allow them to really test them out before the game started.

hawknation2016":vkkzu0nd said:

HawkNuts":vkkzu0nd said:

To me this goes back to Pete not being a detail guy. He does really well with philosophy, teaching and motivating players but he doesn't have all of the details dialed in.

Sometimes it seems like we win in spite of our head coach, because of the talent level on the team. Which is one of the many things that Pete does well. He brings in very talented football players who fit the scheme.

I think he needs to have someone who handles all of the little details including challenging plays and clock management.

Click to expand...

The amount of time Carroll spends on game theory, planning out responses to different scenarios rivals any other coach in the league, including Belichick. You don't see a team playing as one, with that kind of total discipline and focus, without a coach who has managed the details to the point that every player on the field is perfectly suiting his role within the game plan.

But part of Carroll's philosophy is about empowering the players to make some of their own decisions and to maintain their individuality. So he allows them to pick their own cleats, like a lot of teams do. I just wish their would have been some way to allow them to really test them out before the game started.

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Bingo! The players select their own cleats, so most of the problem was on them. Even with recommendations from the equipment guys, and/or a field that feels more slippery, I'm sure many players will still give the benefit of doubt to what has worked for them all season long...especially the youngsters. Tough way to learn the lesson.

acbass":6ddtkjtx said:

I believe the Panthers used it as a tactical advantage. Whether it was planned or not, I don't know. They ran a ton more than usual. My wife even made a comment at some point "do they ever throw the ball?" Back in the day teams would grow the grass longer in some places to slow down faster teams. I think the NFL really needs to do something about the quality of some of these fields. The Redskins stadium, 49ers, Panthers, Bears, and a couple of others have just atrocious fields. It's dangerous. If the league is so worried about injuries why don't they set a mandate for the quality of the field? I'm sure requiring field turf will never happen but I'd like to see it one day.

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Yes, some teams would leave the grass outside the numbers longer to slow down the other team's WR's.

Theoretically, if you look at the matchup, the Seahawks had a much better WR corps than the Panthers did, and the Panthers game plan looked to be very run heavy like they knew it. Since I don't know if that is illegal or not, I'll chaulk it up to manufacturing a bigger HFA.

That said, Stewart didn't get 100 yards on us earlier in the season, and we held their run game in check the first game. Poor run fits and not stopping an obvious game plan are not the fault of the field. If our defense had shut down their run game, it's an entirely different story.

The Panthers have a good team. We needed to go in there and not make mistakes, but the offense turned the ball over and the defense allowed them to run the ball on us. We've all seen how easy you can beat a team when you establish a dominant run game. It was poor execution all the way around.

Couple this with us pissing away the game earlier in the year, and it gave Carolina the confidence to jump on us early and hold out for a win. I've said this before about divisonal rivals: if you let them come into your house and win, they gain confidence that they can repeatedly do it. As evidenced by the Cardinals and Rams recently.