ME TALK SEAHAWK - Week 5: Did we lose or something?

(I used to do a segment on Portland radio I dubbed, 'Me Talk Seahawk'. I think the name is kewl, and am learning to love writing again, and not just waste it on facebook)

((AND, this was originally directed at a broad audience. the football IQ and historical knowlege here is remarkable, and I mean no disrespect, nor am I talking down to anyone here. I copy-pasted. And will trim here and there. Future postings will be aimed at HERE, and pasted THERE))


ME TALK SEAHAWK - Week 5:

The "You'd think we'd LOST based on dumbass Sportscenter" Edition.

BOTTOM LINE: Seattle is now tied for the lead in the NFC West with a foe that's down to its 3rd-string QB. That's what we call 'favorable'. Seattle won for reasons that aren't-so glittery. They stuck to a very simple game plan: STUFF ALBERT MORRIS. That guy is no less than a running factory, and with an O-Line better suited to his skills, he'll be Madden-cover material, if he hasn't been already. I'm not gonna Google it. Seattle shut THAT guy down. Kirk Cousins does not suck, and his strikes found home for a reason. But Seattle absolutely, positively, masterfully-derailed the Washington ground game, and that is as much reason they won as any. Actually, much more-so the reason.

Don't believe a WORD you're hearing from the countless talking heads on 'talkin' 'bout sports' television. The Seattle Seahawks beat the living bejesus out of the Washington (Natives) tonight. The final score is not, and dare I say, never...the sum of the game. You can play better and still lose. Or as tonight, you can play way better, and have a close outcome.

Before DeShawn Jackson's excellent TD catch-and-run at the end of the first half, D.C. had 5 first downs in the entire first half. FIVE. The only reason it wasn't 31-0 was due to 10+ Seattle penalties. More on that soon. And btw, congrats to DeShawn for not letting go of the ball on the one yard line. No, he'll never live that down. Nor should he.

If you watched the game I watched, you saw felled-player after felled-player wearing yellow and maroon. And ONLY yellow and maroon. Seattle's offense beats the hell out of defenses. Defense rests. That's Bizarro world. And Bizarro world has a Ring. Much of what Seattle is currently doing does not show up in statistics, and that is just baffliing fantasy owners.

"Seattle needs to cut down on penalties", "Seattle need to clean that up", "Seattle needs to play more disciplined". Or else what? They'll win another Super Bowl as the most penalized team in the league, like last year? The first team to do so since the '74 Steelers? Who won 3 more titles in their next five years? I'll take more trophy-earning, ugly wins, please.

Because of Super Bowl XL, Seattle fans are bigger targets for whining about the officials than other fans. But if you've ever seen your team's lead cut in half, seemingly due to penalties, well, you know how I felt tonight.

Ok, you negate one Harvin TD due to a penalty. It happens. Two? Are you kidding? THREE??? Absolute BS. Television money influences this game FAR more than some suspect (It's why we have the bye week). Sometimes the Refs can't influence this. Sometimes they CAN. Give Harvin ONE of those TD's*, and the final score is a 31-10 laugher. Give him two, and it's 38-10. But that doesn't sell Doritos, does it. I saw a 45-10 game and so did everybody else.

ESPN was able to buy MNF away from ABC, yes? That's a step down for the show. Perhaps that's why they keep reminding us how long it's been on in the intro for the last couple years, unlike before. The Sunday Night Game took over years ago. MNF is in kinda-trouble, and they can't have too many blowouts. My speculation. I could be wrong.

Am I discrediting D.C.'s play? I don't mean to. I'm just not here to talk about them. Their D gave Seattle fits in the 3rd quarter, and they had some spectacular catches to keep them in the game which had nothing to do with the officials (that I detected). They came into this game with a 1-3 record, but were in the top half of ALL NFL statistics, as far as running and passing offense AND defense are concerned. This isn't a bad team, and they were at home. Hell of a game.


NOTES:

BEASTMODE is hurt. These 'back spasms' are hindering him, not past effectiveness, but we're seeing an awful lot of him on the sidelines getting treatment. Turbin is playing beastly also in reserve, could we not give him the wealth of reps for a bit? It won't affect Beast's wealth. Aren't we all salivating for Mr. Michaels? This is the strongest depth I've seen in the Seattle backfield since...since...well, this is IT.

Y'know the one thing it lacks? That definitional Seattle fullback. The John L. Williams. The Mack Strong. We're missing...

I'M KEEDEENG!!! We're not.

#40 Derrick Coleman is a gosh-darn battering ram. Maybe Ram-Man himself. I saw, more than once, this guy slamming into LB's for FUN. It MUST have been for fun, because they sent him right, with a misdirection hand-off left to Lynch. And he STILL blasted the LB...9 light-years away from the play. Most. Underrated. Seahawk.

ROBERT GRIFFIN THE TURD. What good is a 'worldbeater' QB who can't keep himself healthy? Why do I bring him up? He didn't play. Well, because he was on the bloody show 23-ish times doing dutiful backup bluetooth work! Something he is quite used-to, since his style of quarterbacking is irrelevant and ineffectual. Hasn't Michael Vick spent his career proving this? No such QB has ever won a Championship. No QB like that shall. Not in the NFL. But East Coast pundits draw their life-force from his teats.

BYE WEEK: I was worried. For I believe in magicks and hexes, and Seattle sucks after the bye week. But since the 80's, they have thrived on Monday Night ((when not facing Bo Jackson) once). That I didn't see the signs, well, it makes me feel less a Man-Thing.

NEXT WEEK: Hellllooo, Cowboys. Welcome back, to the stadium where your playoff dreams go...to die.

You major in epicology.

Why thank you

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I like you.

The broken English might come off a tad PI, given the opponent.

Turbin is beastly...what? He should get 2-3 carries a game at most.

Seanhawk":1g28oyc5 said:

Turbin is beastly...what? He should get 2-3 carries a game at most.

Click to expand...

Agree with this. Otherwise, great stuff man!

I think it's Alfred Morris...

Thanks PDXCHawk.
It was a fun read.

On your ESPN comments. ABC and ESPN are both conglomerates of Disney. So they didnt really buy MNF from ABC as much as it was a new deal that the company decided to put on their sports network. The thing a lot of people dont know is, ESPN is the most expensive channel on Cable. And its required to be on every single basic tier Cable package. Every channel on a cable line up gets an average of something like $0.80 per subscriber. ESPN gets over $5.00 per subscriber. Thats insane. So they are making the money to cover the loss of viewers from network TV.

However, Ad Revenue is still their biggest money maker. And you are correct that they dont like blowouts because of the hit it takes. And MNF has not had good games lately. A lot of those flags last night screamed "please keep the games closer"

Well done thanks for the write up look forward to more of these. I was not a frustrated with the game as some. There was only one penalty I thought was total BS the Unger false start. One that was a marginal call, the Carpenter personal foul. What got me going was the lack of calls against the Skins, the hair pull and the face mask tackle on Garcone, also the Tackle of Harvin, that seems excessive even within 5 yards. Also I am concerned about Chancellor's Ankles. Hey we Got the W. I feel like it is time for a complete game and Romo's due for a total meltdown game. I think we totally decimate the cowpokes with a complete, disciplined game next week.

I dont feel we beat the crap out of them tonight. To many bonehead mistakes kept them in it to the end. 10 points is nice but frustrating knowing how many you left on the field. Yes we are 3-1 and tied for division lead. BUT we have 12 more games to go. It is about sustainability. How we win makes a difference. The mistakes made we not new and seem to be repeating themselves. We committed some really dumb penalties at crucial times. Anyone remember San Diego?
Sure many calls were ticky tacky but that is the game. We don't have control over that. We can control the secondary giving up the big play multiple times and our offense stagnating from front line issues. Playing like this will not yield us another Superbowl.
Yes we won but how good do you feel if we played Dallas this way? I still believe we will win because Pete will right the ship. The win is the ultimate positive but there are some glaring problems we need to address. The sky is not falling but seems a bit overcast.

Great, rational write up OP. Refreshing.

As a long time Sports programmer myself, I encourage you to NEVER change your well thought out positions for the sake of popularity, or to accommodate the less informed. That's too slippery of a slope.

PM me anytime if you'd like to talk sports radio, production, etc and I look forward to reading more from you here.

Nice work.

You have my permission to do these each week.

Sincerely,
Mandy Patinkin

I like the write up OP. I look forward to reading them in the future.

Permission? You're now required to. It's your duty as a twelve.

Nice write up, you have an entertaining writing style.

One thing I will say: there actually is a stat that measures how our offense (and defense) beats teams up. They were calling it the Seahawk Hangover last year. Teams that played us lost something like 80% of their next games. For a while we had an 8 week streak long going where teams would lose after playing us.

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Can we keep him Dad!