Thoughts and observations on the game thread

I basically missed this game due to a freak power outage that occurred during the 1st quarter and lasted 8 hours. I saw most of the first quarter, and most of the second half at a sports bar where I could barely see what was going on. (I did see the highlight plays on NFL.com.) Anyway, a few things I thought I saw:

Lynch is still awesome.

Kearse is better than ever. There isn't a receiver I trust more on a deep route or contested throw more than Kearse right now.

Wilson was running for his life almost every play that I saw even with the starting line out there and Jared Allen on the bench. How Wilson is able to spin constant protection lapses into productive, ultra clutch play so consistently amazes me.

I thought Seattle caught some breaks from the officials in the first quarter. I thought Maxwell caught a huge break when he ripped that ball out of Jeffery's hands.

I've watched a lot of preseason games as research for fantasy football, and I honestly haven't seen a good looking secondary yet. Seattle's has been the best, but even they've been getting carved up for yardage with soft coverage that gives me Gus Bradley flashbacks. I know some of that is just defenses being vanilla, but I think a lot of it is in reaction to the new rules emphasis.

Boy, this seems to help Seattle on offense though. Harvin had over 20 yards a catch in this game. Play him loose and he cashes in.

Other than Cutler getting some tough breaks from drops and throwing a horrible pick after the snap smacked him in the face, other than that I thought he looked really sharp.

I saw a highlight of Hauschka making a 59 yarder at the half. Also from the part of the game I couldn't see, Earl Thomas got a lot of green grass on a punt return and did something with it. Apparently the Bears punter has got some serious wheels.

I could barely follow the second half, but it looked like Scruggs made a nice play. And Pryor threw a pick that will make supporting him on message boards a lot tougher.

Anyone else want to chime in? I basically only got to see about a quarter of this game.

Okung was extremely rusty. Unger was probably also. But this is why you play these meaningless games.

Britt is still hot/cold but its really not much different than Giacomini. He'll learn.

Carp/Sweezy are both have the talent to be dominant but their inexperience continues to challenge them.

Wilson is just so brilliant. I can't believe this guy is our QB.

Seahawks have a 3 headed Beast at RB. While I think the brunt of the carries will go to Lynch/Turbin... Michael is going find a niche as a backfield WR... guy is almost as sexy as Harvin in space.

Speaking of Harvin. Golden Tate who? As long as he stays healthy, he's worth everything we gave up for him and to him.

I agree with you on Kearse. Guy is unstoppable at grabbing the contested ball.

Seahawks are sitting pretty at WR and their chemistry with Wilson is amazing.

However, once Luke Willson can learn to take a hit, he's going to be dangerous.

I liked what I saw out of the starting defense so far in the pre-season, they are still working out kinks as expected trying to work new bodies on the D-Line while adhering to the rule emphasis in the 2ndary.

The bend don't break results don't bother me, the league is pushing for more offensive scoring but the Seahawks D is virtually unbeatable inside the RZ. Not only that their stupid rule emphasis, only allows our own WRs to play in space, which mean separation, which means Wilson is going to exploit that defender. And if our Offense can get out to early leads, our D can dictate the flow of the game once teams get a little pass-happy.

Seahawks are also still missing Wagner who has elite range and is like a heat seeking missile to the ball-carrier. His presence allows the Seahawks to do things differently but its good to know that they are survivable without him as well.

Thoughts on Earl Thomas returning kickoffs?

Was that just a trial thing?

Kind of scared seeing him open like that. You know someone will do him dirty, just to make a name for himself.

Coyle injury updates anyone?

I thought the O line did look improved over the last couple weeks but still a ways to go. I agree, Okung looked really rusty, hard to judge the inside (Unger), but I would suspect the same for him. I get the feeling this Oline is going to be a work in progress, especially to start the season. Our saving grace is RW's ability to escape and create as mentioned. It seems to me that as long as only one guy slips up and lets a guy through RW can handle it no problem but if there are 2 or more gaffs he is in trouble. Only so much he can do.

I really like the WR's and RB's diversity and what all we can do. Looks like we should shred some D's this year.

I love all the young talent in the LBr group as well as the DL guys. Coyle and Marsh really stand out to me as playmakers. They just seem to be all over the ball both on D and ST's.

TE's seemed to have a rough day but the Bears were really bringing the heat on those guys but would be nice to see them hold onto those tough catches if they are going to pay the price anyway.

Secondary has seemed to be playing very soft, and lots of zones, all preseason especially on the corners. The funny part is while they may be giving up a little bit more in yardage, they can still clamp down that redzone solid. I don't know if the softness an zones is because of pre season or the rules but I think they step it up during the regular season (especially w/ the scheming). I think we are already starting to see the refs back off on how touchy they are calling games and will probably ease up a lot during regular season.

Overall I did see the one major overall improvement I was hoping to see from RW and our starting O. That is finishing early game drives with TD's in the redzone. Last couple years we seemed to move the ball down the field pretty well but could not seem to get those TD's and settled for FG's the first 2-3 drives of games. A lot of times seemed to be dumb mistakes messing us up like holds, false starts, and fumbling hand offs. That all is looking much better this year.

The other big thing of note I like seeing this year for RW is him doing much better job settling down and not overthrowing so much those first few passes. I did see one overthrow on a potential TD but hay, it is a work in progress.....that adrenaline can be a real pain to harness sometimes.

Go Hawks!!!

Putting on mu Tokadub hat....wtf ET? You let a punter run with you down the sideline? That punter either ran a 4.4 or Earl is not in top speed shape yet.

I love RW's body language. Very Peyton Manning like with his swagger after making a big play and walking up to the next huddle. Let it be known that the hard work is paying off.

Its year three guys and as much as PC keeps saying that our philosophy hasn't changed, if totally has. RW said during the Superbowl that the game is slowing down for him. That's huge. He's making all the right reads at the right time. This is the year he is expected to take that next big step that will define him as a QB.

I'm expecting big things from him

My 2 cents.

offense:
Wilson was great! looks like he has taken another step forward in his development. TJ has been serviceable. A top level backup QB. TP is a player I haven't been impressed with. He plays like kraphisnickers but without as much defensive reading ability and less accuracy or two of the more important traits a QB needs to have.

Lynch looked like Lynch. Turbo regressed into his old self. Michael looked as good as I have seen from him, now we just need to see it every week.

WOW! I kept finding myself say this watching Percy play! The added pressure he puts on a defense is going to be fun to watch this coming season! Kearse also looks like a player who took another step forward in his development this year. Didn't see much of ADB. Loved the play Lockette made on special teams! Bates hurt his chances a little bit. Is it just me or has he had little chance to show his skills in the preseason so far and if so is this by design? I'm excited about P Rich but think he will spend most of this year on the sideline while he perfects his game up to pro levels. Willson should have hung onto that ball! Yes he got hit but this is the pros. Hope Helfet is ok!

Okung looked rusty. I hope he can get that worked out before the opener! Carp is still playing better then he has ever before. Unger only played a few snaps tonight. Love me some Sweezy! he has such a mean streak. Britt is getting a little better every week. Got beat a few times but you would expect that from a rookie 2nd round pick. Just think about how bad he looked during the first game when people were in meltdown mode to now.

Will do defense later as I'm getting tired and such :les:

I really think this is the best Wilson I've seen in the pros. He really seems to be playing the game at a different speed. Some of the split second decisions he made last night were just unreal.

Lynch is Lynch. Still looked like the boss we all know and love.

I'm hesitant to give Britt too much of a thrashing for the way he played (he just seemed to get blown up all game long) because he was going against Lamar Houston pretty regularly who I thought was a really good pick up for the Bears in the offseason. Stunned Oak let him go.

But even so, Okung got a beat a few times and that bothers me, he seemed a little rusty and I think he limped off the field at one point. It's really frustrating that we have line issues. I would hate for this offense to be shutdown because of horrible protection.

As far a Defense goes, I agree completely on the secondary concerns. Sherm got beat a few times last night and it just looked like WR had way more space than I'm used to seeing. To say I hate this point of emphasis is an understatement. The vengeful side of me wants the NFL to crash and burn for this so they stop turning my favorite game into the Arena league.

I thought the interior line looked better. Saw a couple of good things from Hill/Smith/Scruggs/Marsh but I still think we'll go through some growing pains with this group of linemen. There just doesn't seem to be consistent interior pressure this season. Avril has looked absolutely great this preseason though so there's that. I also saw some things late in the game from Jackson Jeffcoat which is a first. I still think he'll be one of the cuts later this week but might make a nice PS addition to develop.

Seattle is going through a new cycle of DB depth it seems. Last year we had 5 guys that I thought were great but they'd all been in the system multiple years. (Sherm, Browner, WTIII, BMax, Lane) I think Simon will continue to grow and if AJ Jefferson comes back, he looks interesting but I'd be lying if I said I'm not worried if any starter in the secondary (particularly CB) goes down this year. I hope that it has a lot to do with the rules just making DBs look bad in general but our depth just isn't was last year in the DL or Secondary.

Though I think our depth at the offensive skill positions is about as deep as our defensive depth was last year. And for the record, (and this isn't just taking the awesome gunner tackle) I'd take Lockette over Bates. For all the hype for Bates this year he hasn't really stood out to me so far in preseason.

Michael had his best game so far I think and consistently made positive/chunk plays. I think Turbin has the #2 spot locked down but I expect Michael to get playing time this year. I don't think any other back on our roster could've turned that 3rd and long into a 4th and 1. Spencer Ware was one of my favorite players last preseason. Looked like mini lynch. This preseason he just looks fat and slow. Looks like he may be one of the players that came in fat and sassy this offseason.

I'll have to watch again to see Bailey at RT. Did he stand out to anyone?

How did Maxwell catch a break on his defense of the ball to Jeffery? I just got home from work and finally watching the game and that play happened right as I'm reading this...Maxwell hits his arm after the ball hits his hands

The only thing that really bothered me about the game was the inability of our WR's to gain separation. Only when Wilson broke pocket was there good separation most of the time.

I thought the run blocking was pretty good. I really think Britt is gonna be a step up from Giaca meenie.

Willson had an off night as far as I could tell-compared to the great play of Kearse/Harvin/CMike. Willson dropped at least two passes. CMike is an amazing receiver. We have to get him involved during the season.

I thought the Bears were in the end zone and somehow we robbed them. Cutler did look good and the Bears offense under Tressman is getting much better. He was a great hire for them.

The defense is even better than last year. How does our team keep getting better?

That was a great play by Maxwell stripping the receiver from behind.

NFL network screwed the pooch on the SoCal coverage, and when they joined in it was 28-0, so I can't comment on any of that.

Farwell was all over the place on D last night in what I did see. Pryor's decision to pass that ball instead of sidestepping or pillbugging automatically got him cut in my eyes. I don't ever want to see that in a regular game. Of course his chance of getting in one is small anyway.

He will get a hefty shot at Oakland I am thinking. A 59 yard field goal?...Longest ever by a Hawk kicker = awesome.

Lots of difficult cuts headed our way.

Earl looked fantastic returning that punt, I'm glad he finally got a chance to break one. A lot of people have been down on him as a punt returner, but that was his first real opportunity where he had some space to make a play. His speed and shiftiness are obvious, but I'm also impressed by his vision and decision-making. He's been smart about fair catches so I'm really not that much more concerned about injury risk than I am on any other play. The whole point of trying to protect him from harm is to save him for plays in important situations....like punt returns. If Earl ends up taking over on PRs then I'm a lot less worried about the position than I was when Golden left.

NJSeaHawk":187q5n5j said:

Thoughts on Earl Thomas returning kickoffs?

Was that just a trial thing?

Kind of scared seeing him open like that. You know someone will do him dirty, just to make a name for himself.

Click to expand...

Punts... not kickoffs... and it looks like it's not a trial thing anymore.

I'd say Earl is our PR this year.

-The Glove-":1dakxycm said:

How did Maxwell catch a break on his defense of the ball to Jeffery? I just got home from work and finally watching the game and that play happened right as I'm reading this...Maxwell hits his arm after the ball hits his hands

Click to expand...

I agree did I miss something?

Percy changes the offense and while I've been a Percy supporter since the trade happened, his impact is even bigger than I expected. Really looking forward to seeing what they do with a full year with Harvin.

Offense looked pretty sharp, overall.

.. Willson had two drops, at least one of which was a sure TD. Both Kearse and Baldie had some great clutch catches. Harvin was showing off his speed, and he has great hands, too. The only neg was Kears making body catches. I don't like that. Most of our WRs are good at reaching up and catching with their hands. That's the way it should be.

.. I'm not really worried about the O-line. Sure, there were some breakdowns, but under Carroll the O-line always seems to start slow. I think it may have something to do with their penchant for mass substitutions and getting backups playing time. In the long run, it seems to work. And yeah, Okung and Unger were rusty, as would be expected in their first game. Some of the comments from the annoucing crew about Sweezy being nasty were kind of funny. Maybe he's Jock's replacement as the bad guy on the line?

.. Yeah, Lynch was Lynch. I thought I saw the ball bobble in Michael's grasp on at least one hit, but mostly he was max protecting it in traffic. It never hit the ground, at least. He is explosive, TBS, and I would hate it if a fumbling problem de-railed his Seahawk career. He's exciting to watch.

..I though Turbs had a great game, and even broke a few takcles and picked up some extra yards, kind of Lynch Lite-like.

..I wondered about the love for Pryor. From what I saw in the other games, he ran more than he threw, and he didn't throw that well when he did. That INT was fugly. Maybe if you're down by 30 and desperate you throw one up for grabs like that, but not in that situation. He'd have been better off eating it and taking the sack.

The D also looks in mid-season form and it doesn't look like we'll miss the departed players that much.

.. Pass pressure started slow, but eventually started to get home in the 2nd-3rd Qtr.

All for now.

The ball was slightly under thrown, but, Maxwell recovered from being beat and his length lets him make plays like that. (Int vs giants, punching the ball out, etc)

Maxwell made a terrific defensive play knocking the ball out from strong hands Jeffery at the end zone. He nearly caused a turnover from ripping the ball on another play (upon further review, the decision on the field reversed). He also made another one of those "tackle the receiver short of the first down stick on third down" plays. He should patent it as he does at least one of these (if not more) per week.

Those that don't think he is a stud are simply not watching.

I thought Richard Sherman had one of his worst games I can remember. He was constantly getting beat by Alshon Jeffrey and Brandon Marshall, and Jeffrey in particular was creating a lot of space.

I watched most of the game, so I'll give those who didn't see this one my observations and thoughts. I'm going to preface this by saying that I watched this one at a bar, so I've only seen this game once (I haven't seen any replay footage) -- off the top of my head ...

Overall thoughts on the game: I just got through reading Danny O'Neal's thoughts over on 710 ESPN and it's funny, his sentiments were virtually the exact same as mine -- which are -- OK, can we basically just skip this last Pre-season game and get to the regular season? I know the point of Pre-season, so don't need the lecture ... but from an overall team standpoint these guys are ready. On both sides of the ball, the #1's did absolutely anything they wanted to. This was a thorough whooping. The Bears are supposed to be one of the best teams in the league ... and the Hawks made them look like a mediocre high school team at many points. To my eye, it very much looked like a case of men vs. boys. OK, on to some specifics I can remember off the top of my head ...

1) I loved all the comments coming from Jerry Jones this week about how the new defensive rules were mainly the fault of the Seahawks due to how they play. Well guess what? The Hawks really haven't been drawing the laundry this Pre-season and that trend continued last night. Those 6 penalties on the official stat sheet are very misleading. Most of those came late in the game and against the #2 and #3's. There was one against Philip Adams I believe that was basically bogus -- the receiver took advantage of the new rules to purposely draw a flag. If you take a look at the replay on that one, you'll see that the receiver set him up and purposely draw contact. Baldwin admitted to doing that this week and this guy did the same thing. Oh well. I can envision that this is going to become the NFL's version of flopping, as receivers are going to do this. For the part, the Hawks were solid in that category. Lockette getting flagged for "hitting a defenseless receiver" -- complete and total crap and the entire crowd at the CLINK knew it. That smack he laid on that kickoff returner was sweet.

2) Percy Harvin. I don't think I can stress enough just how much of an impact this guy is going to have. If he remains healthy all season long, I see scoring taking a major leap forward because:

A) His speed changes the way opposing DB's play our receiving corps. Last year, opposing secondaries didn't have anyone who really frightened them. They could play right up in our receivers' face, as they knew the Hawks didn't have anyone with that real breakaway speed that could burn them. Last night, I saw a lot of separation between receivers and opposing DB's. Harvin showed amazing acceleration during those times that RW got him the ball. Honestly giving an even more improved Russell Wilson (very evident) a weapon like that is just almost flat out not fair.

B) Harvin's return to open up the game (46 yards) was beautiful and was a reminder of just how much he is going to help this offense because of starting field position. And guys, that's nothing new. When he was with the Vikings, he was absolutely sick as a returner. Prior to him getting hurt in 2012, Harvin gained 574 yards (and 1 TD) on 16 carries -- that's an average of 35.8 yards/return. With a shorter field to start off with, points for this offense are going to go up.

3) Russell Wilson has improved by leaps and bounds. One play in particular really said it all to me. Wilson was being chased down the back side by a defender (right behind him). Wilson was scrambling forward and I thought he was going to get smashed. Instead, Wilson merely calmly flipped the ball to a wide open receiver (I believe it was Kearse on that play) for a 10-15 yard gain or so. In my mind, it showed how much the game has really slowed down for him.

4) Sticking on offense, to my eye Justin Britt looked good overall. Sure there were times he made rookie mistakes, but overall (to me) he looked as in charge and as physically imposing as Giacomini ever looked. No question he's the starting RT.

5) Both of Seattle's back-up running backs looked good. There were times that Turbin showed a lot more speed, acceleration, and quickness than I've seen out of him in the past. Christine Michael also had a good game though. It looked like he was much more patient, looking for the holes and accelerating through them. He showed the type of real cut back ability that I don't know I've honestly seen from a Hawks RB since Curt Warner in his rookie season. If the season were to begin today, I'd say Turbin's the #2. That said, Michael showed that he can be a weapon and from what I saw last night, could carry the load just fine as this team's #1 next year (or this year if Lynch were to go down).

6) Luke Willson had a sure TD pass and had another ball that got knocked away earlier IIRC. Those were tough catches to make, no doubt. However, I'm starting to see a pattern from him -- he doesn't seem to be able to make those tough catches and hang on to the ball when he takes a shot. The great ones make those plays though. He's got to improve in that arena.

7) O'Brien Schofield -- monster game. He had a sack and 3 QB Hits in that game and showed can be a force to be reckoned with if inserted there at the LEO.

8] Brock Coyle continued to impress. He showed very quick read, diagnose, and get to the ball ability. There's no way he's not making this team (barring injury). I'd say he's Bobby Wagner's backup at MLB right now.

9) KJ Wright looked a mite rusty to me. He got a bit turned around on that pass down the sidelines that ended up at the 1 yard line. Nothing to panic about -- it's Preseason.

10) To my chagrin, I'd say Earl Thomas just won the punt returner job. I gotta admit, that 59 yard punt return was mighty impressive, as Earl showed a lot of elusiveness in the open field. I hate the idea of putting him out there (and I was glad to hear Kam Chancellor say that flat out in the pregame show -- that he doesn't want Earl returning punts) as he is the key to the secondary IMO. That said, he looked good in that role last night.

11) Paul Richardson -- not as good of a night for him IMO. He showed a lot of straight line speed, but looked to me to have trouble separating and creating space for himself to make the catch especially on those go routes. On one, he slowed down in the end zone which then allowed the defender to catch up and make the play. I wasn't there and didn't see the view from the entire field, so don't know if that was more a function of his play or the quality of the throw.

12) Jeremy Lane's pick and return was again a great play, though in all fairness it was virtually thrown right to him. He had a missed INT opportunity earlier on a leaping grab that got knocked away. Looks like he's continued to make improvements.

13) Byron Maxwell had a very good play in the first quarter on pass he knocked out of the receiver's hands in the end zone. Textbook positioning and play on the ball.

14) Terrell Pryor -- *sigh* He can so impress you with that athleticism and then he goes out and makes dumb plays like that interception on a long bomb to Arceto Clark. It was a long, looping throw that looked more like a punt. Jon Ryan couldn't have done better. If I were making the decisions on the 53 man roster, I would cut him -- roster spaces on this team are just too valuable a commodity. From my standpoint, he looks more like a guy who belongs in the CFL or the Arena League.

Just a few thoughts/observations off the top of my head.