DVOA be damned. This is very disturbing... As Per Sando.. .



http://espn.go.com/blog/nfcwest/post/_/id/85518/overlooked-area-favors-49ers-vs-seahawks

Our defense HAD a physical identity, it doesnt anymore. I have not seen that physicality, that nastyness, or that presence that they had at the beginging of the season.

We are winning right now. But this fact still bugs me. Maybe the think tank has some ideas as to why teams have been gashing us since the 49ers did?

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I don't care about stats. I've seen breakdowns on FG about this, and it is because of our young LB's not being assignment correct. They are fixing this problem, so it is all good. It is certainly not as bad as it was a few weeks ago, or in the Vikes game.

I got nothing, and you are right. They HAD that identity and now it's gone. I can't imagine why it would drastically change seemingly over night, and not get fixed.

Well the Vikes game was one thing. Adrian Peterson.

That dude is flat out scary.

Now I aint bitching about this team. I love what I am seeing all over the place. I just want our defense to get that nastyness back that they definately had early in the season. I want Dirtbags!

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Trust me though, I have seen the breakdowns, and we truly were horrible in our gaps. Peterson's longest run? We had massive penetration by our DT's on that play. Leroy Hill took a shallow angle, allowed Peterson to bounce it to the outside, and bam, he's gone! Almost.

The only stat I have EVER given a real rip about is wins. Dead serious.

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"WE ALL WE GOT! WE ALL WE NEED!"

So does it matter that Minnesota, San Francisco and Buffalo are the top-3 teams in rushing average for the season - and we have played all three during that span? Does it matter that we shut down all three passing games when we did play? Also, does it matter that we have only faced 1 bottom-10 rushing average team over that time?

I would be on board if we played Jacksonville, Dallas etc. (the bottom) and were giving up that kind of yardage/carry - but to AP? I mean dude is super human.

This is the same as when our passing game gave up big yards to Stafford and Brady - it was inevitable. You have an average day against those guys and they will get you.

This thread seems a little bit like an overreaction to a stat that is a little bit out of context. We have played a tough schedule this year and DVOA reflects that.

I maintain the only anomaly to our defense so far has been the 4th quarter of the Miami game. That was the worst quarter I have seen this defense play in a long time.

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Beast Mode...try BORG MODE

Driver of the PC/JS Bandwagon since 2010

I fully expect this upcoming game to be very physical on both sides of the ball. The Seahawks players know what's up -- and what will happen if they don't bring the wood.

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I understand we have played good running teams. But to drop to worst in the league? I expected us to give up some yards to teams but not to be the worst. This is not an overreaction. It is a legit concern.

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Techworlds, I think Seattle's defense has weathered the storm pretty well considering they have gone up against some pretty prolific offenses. They are fast, and IMHO play with an attitude. Just wait until this Sunday.

Godspeed DVOA Godspeed.

Can somebody please tell me what DVOA is? What is the abbreviation stand for and what the heck is it?!

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Go Hawks!

Last...since week 7 - a small sample size which includes the three teams I mentioned. We are still 10th in the league in yards allowed per game - even if the average dropped.

When we played some of the worst teams in the league for rush average - Dallas, Arizona we were fine. Moreover, During our latest Arizona game - they got 40 yards on the ground.

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Beast Mode...try BORG MODE

Driver of the PC/JS Bandwagon since 2010

End of the 2nd qt against buffalo was pretty bad as well.

Yeah, but then we shut them out in the second half. As well we were up by a ton - I think we needed half time to refocus.

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Beast Mode...try BORG MODE

Driver of the PC/JS Bandwagon since 2010

I'd link you to football outsiders where you could read about it and get a better description than anyone here could really give you but their site is down at the moment. Think of it like ESPN's new Total QBR on steroids. It's an in depth value based analysis of every play of every game every week, weighted towards the end of the season, so results from week 1-3 aren't nearly as important as results from weeks 15-17, actually I think DVOA might actually drop the first weeks of the season all together from their analysis by the end of the season, not 100% on that though. Right now Seattle has the 9th best DVOA in the history of DVOA for as far back as the guys at Football Outsiders have had time to chart through this point in the season. We're #2 in the NFL behind only the Patriots for the season right now in DVOA.

It's the art of figuring out how good of a performance a player/unit/team has while factoring in their opponent, created by Football Outsiders. Example: QB 1 takes 3 sacks, and QB 2 takes 2 sacks. All other stats are identical. QB 1 could have a better rating despite taking more sacks if he faced a defense that rushes the passer well, and QB 2 faced a defense with bad pass rushing. They factor in like everything under the sun to come up with weighted values.

DVOA explained: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/s ... clnk&gl=us

So I guess we will get gashed again this Sunday since the Ninners are so good running the ball? So I guess our average will get even worse.

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For whatever reason the rush defense has gone from excellent to terrible in the 2nd half of the season in each of Carroll's seasons here. At first we thought it was because of Red Bryant's injury in 2010. Then it happened with a healthy Bryant in 2011 and again with a healthy Bryant right now.

There are a lot of theories- maybe our line is getting tired. Maybe our LBs are missing assignments (Wagner never was a stellar run defender in college). And maybe the faster RBs (Peterson, Spiller) are just designed to give our plus sized defense problems. Maybe we faced easy opponents early and tougher opponents late.

It's true that our defense isn't very good right now. For a while it felt like 31 points wouldn't be enough in the Buffalo game.

Something to remember though-a bad game here and there are just a drop in the bucket compared to an entire season. Seattle's defense is allowing around 16 points a game on average. That means they've had a lot more good days than bad ones. Though they've certainly been bad lately.

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"I believe there’s merit to the idea that once something in life becomes conventional, it’s no longer the safest path to success." -Matt Waldman
"If everyone's thinking alike, no one's thinking." -Bill Walsh

We're tied for 1st place in the league @ 15.6 points per game with San Francisco. They've allowed a league-low 218 points on the season, and we've allowed 219. Lol.