[The Athletic] Wilson's Six Sacks, Week 2 Edition

NOTE: This requires a subscription to view, but I have summarized the main points

https://theathletic.com/532852/2018/09/ ... -vs-bears/

Samuel Gold has been doing excellent film breakdowns on the Hawks for a couple years and now works for The Athletic. He broke down each of the six sacks.

Sack 1: Coverage sack - no one was open. Lockett should've changed his route to account for obvious slot CB blitz - most likely OC's fault for not drilling this into him.

Sack 2: Wilson could've thrown it to Carson or in his direction to avoid the sack. Pocket collapsed from multiple angles and swallowed him up.

Sack 3: Great read by defense. Accounted for the bootleg and had Wilson dead to rights as soon as he rolled out.

Sack 4: This one's on Ifedi. Says Ifedi takes a wide path in his pass set that allows Mack to bull rush him straight into the QB. I'll add that four of the routes were vertical and the one flat was covered well - no one was open.

Sack 5: Blitzing LB bull rushes Prosise into QB and RW trips on Prosise foot as he tries to scramble in the pocket. I'll again add that every singe route was a vertical release - there were no short options in the middle and everyone was covered.

Sack 6: Wilson at fault for losing the ball, but no one is open. Sam says this is a coverage sack. I'll add that no one was open. Receivers running double moves against 10 yard cushion so DBs were not fooled

Overall: Sam says Wilson is responsible for one sack (I'd throw in losing the ball on the fumble). Otherwise it was bad protection, great coverage, and going up against a great pass rush.

Personally, I was mad at Wilson watching the game, but the broadcast didn't show downfield much at all. This was worse than the Denver game, BUT Wilson played better this game. At least on the sacks, it appears he didn't more than one open receiver and I don't think there was a shot of converting any of them outside of something crazy happening. Playcalling seems to be terrible. Lots of vertical releases, not many outlets, if any, and the Bears did a great job of disguising coverages and rotating right before the snap.

What worries me the most is that again, there are no short routes being ran on these plays. Every sack seems to come when the route options all include vertical routes.

I do not view The Athletic and never will, so I appreciate your summary.

We're once again stuck with endless vertical routes. I'd like to blame Schotty, but he didn't hire himself.

Great breakdown

Week 1 Wilson panicked and tried to do too much

Week 2 Wilson learned from week 1, decided to hang in the pocket. But no one was open. They looked like coverage sacks to me. Add in no Baldwin and Wilson isn’t sure who to trust to win tight coverage

Also should note that Wilson needs an O-coordinator and coach without an ego. People were saying Wilson sucks at pre-snap reads last week, but before the season many NFL experts were praising his pre-snap reads. He has shown huge success with audibles dating back to last year and even 2014. We can’t stick to the script with the O-line protection he has, let him improvise and read the defense

Brock Huard's anger towards the OC this week was pretty telling, he usually gives them benefit of the doubt. Though at the heart of it is Pete's system.

You'd think after 7 seasons of Russell getting destroyed by blitzes and poor o-line play they'd think about adding check downs instead of all verticals :34853_doh:

MontanaHawk05":396mxcuq said:

I do not view The Athletic and never will, so I appreciate your summary.

We're once again stuck with endless vertical routes. I'd like to blame Schotty, but he didn't hire himself.

Click to expand...

I would argue that The Athletic is worth it at this point with Sam R Gold there - I supported him last season via Patreon and it was a hoot. Glad that he found a steady home with more than just his analysis available.

mrt144":1znt6p9t said:

MontanaHawk05":1znt6p9t said:

I do not view The Athletic and never will, so I appreciate your summary.

We're once again stuck with endless vertical routes. I'd like to blame Schotty, but he didn't hire himself.

Click to expand...

I would argue that The Athletic is worth it at this point with Sam R Gold there - I supported him last season via Patreon and it was a hoot. Glad that he found a steady home with more than just his analysis available.

Click to expand...

I, too, am glad for Sam. One of the few Seahawks Twitter voices who's not a self-aggrandizing smuglord and he absolutely deserves the gig.

I'm afraid, though, that I'm too turned off by the attitude of The Athletic's founders to give them any clicks.

MontanaHawk05":1oyhjmst said:

mrt144":1oyhjmst said:

MontanaHawk05":1oyhjmst said:

I do not view The Athletic and never will, so I appreciate your summary.

We're once again stuck with endless vertical routes. I'd like to blame Schotty, but he didn't hire himself.

Click to expand...

I would argue that The Athletic is worth it at this point with Sam R Gold there - I supported him last season via Patreon and it was a hoot. Glad that he found a steady home with more than just his analysis available.

Click to expand...

I, too, am glad for Sam. One of the few Seahawks Twitter voices who's not a self-aggrandizing smuglord and he absolutely deserves the gig.

I'm afraid, though, that I'm too turned off by the attitude of The Athletic's founders to give them any clicks.

Click to expand...

Fair!

adeltaY":1q6ib8cl said:

Sam says this is a coverage sack. I'll add that no one was open.

Click to expand...

How is that an addition? Just busting your balls a bit there.
I think he's giving Russ a bit too much credit and the protection too much blame (though Ifedi's set is too deep and punch too passive). Are we really supposed to believe it's reasonable for him to be surprised when a blitz prevents a perfect long-lasting pocket?
This stuff also shows why I didn't like the OC hire. Much of the judgment out there is unreasonably harsh, but I still saw it as a sign that Pete was sticking to what he always wanted. He cares too much about success being a show of superiority and has no patience to just keep moving the chains and be picky about when to go deep. He seriously needs to keep his hands off the offense for awhile or we'll still never be able to judge an OC of his.

On Brock & Salk show today, Jake Heaps reported the same conclusion after reviewing the All-22. At least for when it was on Wilson.


He also noted that the TD to Lockett was a run play that Wilson changed after seeing the coverage. He thought they needed to do a better job of getting Wilson in rhythm with their play calling. Possibly going a little uptempo earlier, instead of at the end of the half.

I added it in because Sam didn't say it. He did say coverage sack so that implies no one is open and the all 22 backs it up. How are guys supposed to get open if they're running vertical routes and the DBs are better than them?

Full disclosure I thought RW was not good enough in the Denver game and at least half those sacks were his fault. This game was very different. Guys just weren't open. He missed many more throws in week 1. Monday was a scheme and WR problem more than a Russ problem.

Guys don't get open if all you do is give them long developing routes that are easy to sniff out.

Exactly where the pathetic/putrid play calling goes. You have to know your personnel and what they can and can't do.