If our coaching staff, Wilson and our O-Line don't effectively protect against the blitz.

Shanahan and his staff knows that he's outmatched personnel wise, so he's going to do what they did in the Dallas game, blitz the hell out of Wilson to force mistakes and long down and distances. We saw the Rams do it last game, which resulted in six first half sacks and WAY TOO MANY 2nd/3rd and longs.

This game should be a bout quick hits, rollouts, draws, screens and big passing plays down field. If if takes Sweezy and the rest of the O-Line well into the 2nd half like the Rams game to get their protection issues figured out, it could be a long day for our offense.

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If there is no Seahawk football in heaven, then we will never die.

To me it'll be about not giving up the big play.

Yes our secondary has been good; no, we haven't been burned very often at all by big plays - BUT - I have seen a lot of very close calls. Some dropped balls in games that should have been caught for huge plays, and some poor throws by usually accurate QB's. We've been a little lucky in that regard. Granted, EVERY team has these close calls and the fact that we play good defense in the secondary means the opportunities just aren't happening enough for offenses to capitalize on them.

Still, RG3 has a great arm and they have some big-play type receivers. They are going to get their points but as in so many of our games, we have to make them sweat and hopefully wear them down by the 4th quarter to earn them.

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good thing rams game went the way it did then, good film to find better ways to beat the blitz... hopefully

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On to the Next Episode

I think your giving Washington too much credit. The Rams lead the league in Sacks, They have a dominant pass rush. The Redskins finished behind Seattle in Sacks by 5. Sure they'll blitz, but that doesn't guarantee they'll get home. Dallas had time to throw despite all those blitzes last week. INfact it it wasn't for Romo throwing three horrific picks they probably win that game.

Interesting stats brought up in the Sportsguy podcast with football outsiders iirc, that the Seahawks offense is the worst in the league when the defense blitzes from the DB position, and that the Redskins either blitz a DB more than any other team or has more sacks than any team in the league when blitzing a DB. - I forget the exact on the latter, but the former in near 100% on.

Agreed, with the addition of controlling the ball and our emotions. The last game was a glimpse into the early season penalty festivals and it simply has to stop.

Our blitz isn't all that, but we have the home "jump" that you guys enjoy when playing on your home turf. The crowd noise will make things more difficult on your OL without false starting.

Our blitz forced Romo into 2 of those picks...one of them was entirely on him though. That said, your run game is much stronger so the blitz this week will be negated to some extent just by that.

Romo didn't throw four picks because he had lots of time, he threw them BECAUSE of the blitzes Washington bringing on a constant basis.

Obviously I have more faith in RW than Romo, but that doesn't negate the fact that our O-Line's protection has to be rock solid against the blitz...........which btw has been the weakest part of our O-Line this year.

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If there is no Seahawk football in heaven, then we will never die.

Yeah, STL has some phenomenal talent up front and brings the heat as well as any team in the league. I think if Washington tries to blitz Rusty like they blitzed Romo, he could really take advantage of their overzealousness and make them pay. Russ has been watching film of that Dallas game. He'll know what they're doing before they do.

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Papaki douchebag love turtle long time

What...? it's not like anyone banged a turtle or anything. Just chill.....

He threw 3 picks. 2 of which we failed to score pts after in the first half. The 3rd when we were up 21-18, was the backbreaker. Rob Jackson made a phenomenal play and fake blitzed then dropped back to cover the FB when he saw Romo had gestured to the FB and tipped his hand.

I think the biggest thing is not beating ourselves. Clearly, had we not have made so many mistakes against the Rams, the outcome would be a little more convincing. 10 penalty's for 80 yard's is bad enough, let alone 45 yards of it from defense in itself. We have (in my opinion) three head coaches on our team, so really, I am not worried about being "outcoached". Tom Cable will take care of the o-line, I mean come on, he is the mastermind behind it.

I have a ton of respect for the skins and if you beat us, chances are I'll be rooting for the skins to take out everyone else.

However that wasn't a phenomenal play, it was a standard play in that situation.

Lets call it what it is...another in a long line of Tony Romo choke-jobs, horrible throw, even worse decision.

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I'm not worried about being out coached, I'm worried about our O-Line (in particular Sweezy) missing protection assignments like they did against the Rams, and to a lesser extent against other blitz heavy teams.

This is not a preparation worry, I have no doubt the coaches are scheming for the blitz.............this is a "is our O-Line going to hold up against the Skins blitzing the hell out of us from every direction" worry.

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If there is no Seahawk football in heaven, then we will never die.

I'm far more concerned about our defense protecting the middle of the field. With Browner back and Sherman still playing, we've got the corners protected. We need our linebackers to stay assignment correct.

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My single greatest contribution to the board: "42-13" (formerly 24-14)

http://www.thebiglead.com/index.php/...-nfl-playoffs/

Since 1980, 30 teams have been Vegas underdogs at home in the playoffs.

Those underdogs won the game straight up 20 out of 30 times.

Those underdogs are 21-8-1 against the spread

This shows two things...over a 30+ year history, underdogs at home in the playoffs have been undervalued. It also shows that if they cover, they are likely to win outright...only once in 30 examples do we see an underdog that covered and lost.

Three of the past four home underdogs in the playoffs won outright:

2010:

--Chiefs were a slight underdog in KC vs Ravens and got drilled
--Seahawks were 10.5 point dog at home and upset Saints

2011:

--Broncos were 9 point dogs vs Steelers and won
--49ers were 3 point dogs vs Saints and won a thriller

Of couse this has nothing to do with the game this weekend, but it's interesting none the less.

It's funny how worried about the blitz you guys are and i'm sure it's all in your coaches heads as well. We went total opposite of the first gameplan we threw at Romo where we didnt Blitz at all. This is why it worked so well since they didnt expect it.

Shanny is big on putting things on film to make teams prepare for it and I wouldnt be surprised if we showed a lot of blitzes and bailed pre-snap. We've also done this a lot.

I think Russell Wilson has proved that he can turn around whatever category the Offense is the worst at. We've seen it with 3rd down efficiency and Red Zone success. This is what gets folks when they analyze this team.

Russell's coaches have said that he is an extraordinary learner. It takes one time. You can see it when you look at where we have progressed on the Offensive side of the ball this season. I believe that this is the talent that makes him different. You think you have a weakness to exploit and he negates it by learning quickly to overcome it.

When you look at the Rams game, the 2nd half was a completely different story from the first. In the first half, Russell didn't know where to go to get away from the pressure. In the 2nd half he started escaping and they also adjusted the gameplan.

we'd be worried about the blitz vs. any opponent, and in any case it would be something we'd spend time on. Our guards haven't been very consistent this season. Our LT and C have been excellent, RT has been okay when he's not manufacturing stupid penalties, but our guard play has been one of the weak links on an otherwise top-to-bottom solid roster.

It would be silly of Shanahan to not sent multiple blitzers at them.

However I wont be surprised if we see a lot more of WIlson running this game, trying to out-rg3 rg3.

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It worked because Romo is a failure.

If you don't blitz Wilson, he's going to burn the tar out of your gameplan. For all this talk of Shanahan, people forget how intelligent Wilson is. He's already devoured your team's defensive film and found the holes. He's not going to get confused.

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My single greatest contribution to the board: "42-13" (formerly 24-14)

Rdskns4eva, you do realize that Vegas lines have nothing to do with who they think is going to win, right? Those lines, and how they adjust and where they adjust to, are all about keeping betting action going on both sides so Vegas basically can't lose.