While it was a total ass-whipping, it was not complete domination as we might have expected, offensive position to position. The run game was hugely dominant, but that was it. McCoy had 100 yards. But that was it. No other starters really stood out.

Wilson did not have a particularly stellar day. Threw for under a buck fifty and had a pick to go with his lone touchdown pass. He'll look pretty critically at his contribution to this game, and look to be far better next week.

Our star receivers had very mediocre days. Rice - 2 catches for 35 yards, Baldwin 2 for 29, Tate 2 for 6. That's pretty horrible for our top three receivers. They'll see a lot of room for improvement next week. Even McCoy should have scored a TD on his long catch. He turned to stiff-arm the defender instead of plowing into the end zone.

There is a lot of room for improvement on offense. For a home game, to have our starting quarterback and top three receivers play like that, we'd think it was a loss if we hadn't seen the performance from the rest of the team. Hopefully Carroll focuses on that aspect of things and drills it home to the players so they don't take next week lightly.

This was a very encouraging win, a statement game. But it's even better because of the room for improvement. There is a lot to call out and work on for next week, and that should help keep things in perspective. And that is a good thing for this young team.

_________________
I blog, I tweet. When I'm not writing or goofing around on Seahawks.NET.

The Cardinals tossed the ball to us so much on TO's that our offensive players didn't get much of a chance to get good stats. What can I say?

Way to pick nits Sailor. Our starters didn't need to do much today. They stood on the field and Arizona gave them points. There was no need for huge numbers days...none

This post makes little sense. It misses the forest for the trees.

This game was complete domination in every sense of the term.

I would argue that it was complete domination BECAUSE our offense had such a statistically mediocre day. When you can score 58 points with your starters out of the game by half time - it is complete domination.

_________________
Beast Mode...try BORG MODE

Driver of the PC/JS Bandwagon since 2010

No offense to your post as I get the point but it was 38-0 at halftime with two defensive TDs. Within minutes of the 3rd the plug was pulled.

Not really a lot of time or even actual room (in yardage) for anymore domination.

(I can never understand why this board always has 5 or 6 threads after every win focussed on some need for improvement, need for perspective, whine about the ref or moan about the media)

That said, we will need steady performances from all next week like you said to win on the road

Makes perfect sense to me. Those players weren't needed today, but they will be most every other week. I think that is what the OP is saying. Each guy will look and say, "Usually if I put up only 6 yards we won't win" as is the case with Golden. Or RW will say, "If we play SF and I barely get 150 and 1 TD and an INT we aren't going to beat them 58-0. We'll be lucky to win that game." They know everything went right today. But you can't have those games more than about once every 10 years. The team knows that they each have to do better to win the rest of the their games, and they won't rest and decide they are the 72 Dolphins now. That is an important lesson and one I also hope the coaches drill into their heads this week. This week was an anomaly. Simple as that. Now get focused and get back out there and play your hardest, because harder challenges are coming our way shortly.

_________________

R.I.P. Dad. I miss you. You will never be forgotten
1/12/39 - 8/7/08

Don't read me wrong here, I'm not picking nits or trying to find fault in our game. I think this is actually a good thing. I'm just saying there are stats that we can look to and see the need for improvement outside the overall feel of the game. Sure, we didn't need our starting offense out there for most of the game. But Wilson still didn't have much for passing in the second quarter, and he did throw a pick. He'll see that as a need for improvement. So should our receivers.

We did dominate them. But as long as we understand we got a lot of lucky bounces, we'll be able to focus on the areas of improvement, rather than resting on our laurels and buying into our own hype. Turnovers are huge. But fumbles are also strokes of luck, and they accounted for half of the turnovers today. If Chicago had won last week, there's good argument they weren't nearly as good as the win would have indicated. Same with today's game. No knocking the monumental ass-kicking we handed them today. The win - and the shutout - was well earned. And damn it felt good!

But there is room for improvement, and this game was a great opportunity to get not only the easy win, a feel-good game, and see the need for improvement. That's what this post is about, not nit-picking, not trying to put a damper on things. A silver lining within a great game, perhaps. We get the huge, ass-stomping win AND see opportunity for improvement.

_________________
I blog, I tweet. When I'm not writing or goofing around on Seahawks.NET.

493 yards of offense. I'm not worried who got the yards.

_________________
SEAHAWKS.NET. We All We Got, We All We Need

I feel you, Sailor. You know for sure that Wilson won't be satisfied with his performance today. He'll be bothered by that pick and by the other missed plays. I trust that he won't let the team coast on the high from this win, either.

_________________


Okay, so maybe that pass rush is still an issue. Lather, rinse, repeat.

There's always room for improvement. I don't think any of those are sitting at their lockers after the game saying, "Man, what a game. We whooped on them but I only made 2 catches." They just weren't really needed today. Wilson threw 13 times and Flynn threw 9 in garbage time. Not much anyone can do when we're dominating on the ground and hardly passing.

Other areas we can point to for work:

- 10 penalties for 97 yards. Unacceptable.

- 3rd and 4th down conversion rate: 3 for 12 combined. Poor, and not going to win us games when all other aspects of the game aren't clicking 100%.

- First downs: 22. With that score, indicative of an outstanding defensive performance, but a fair offensive performance.

Great points to build on for future games. We know we can't rely on defense and special teams putting on that kind of a show week in and week out. I'd much rather have games like this - especially with such a young team - than games where we look completely unstoppable on offense. Both huge offensive performances and huge defensive performances are somewhat anomalies. Defensive performances like we saw today are much easier to recognize as anomalies instead of simply taking them at face value and believing we are that good.

This is exactly the kind of game we needed at exactly the right time.

_________________
I blog, I tweet. When I'm not writing or goofing around on Seahawks.NET.

After about half way thru the 2nd quarter nothing in this game counts and you cant take anything from it going forward. Except possibly momentum.

_________________

Certain aspects of the team today were ridiculous. The pass coverage was phenomenal, as was the running game.

But yeah, it's not 58-0 without 8 turnovers and an opponent mailing the game in with 40 minutes left to play. Couldn't agree more.

My only quibble would be that I thought both our QBs played really well today. Wilson's ANYA would have been amazing if not for a fairly unusual interception. Flynn outplayed his statistics. He was extending plays and finding targets- although he did have a little trouble overthrowing some of them. The contribution from the QB position was a big reason Seattle had 28 points that didn't come from turnovers.

That and 22 first downs is actually pretty good. Seattle had the big play clicking today too.



Against one of the best defenses in the land. Even when they were still trying Seattle was gashing them.

_________________

"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

Great points all around Sailor. I think next week's game and how the team starts the first quarter will go a long way to answering whether they did precisely what you spoke of as the "business as usual approach" and improve on what needs to be improved on attitude, or whether they feel they are all set and it will be a cakewalk. This has trap game written all over it. We've seen some corners turned.... let's keep it going.

I think we can look back at a few things over the last few weeks that have changed the attitude and made the team focus harder and do precisely what you're advocating.

1- The INT by Wagner that got called back on the really shady called on ET. We lost the game on that play I feel (yes, there were other chances, but that play really really changed things).

2- The end of that game when the Hawks are walking off the field and realizing they just beat that team up pretty hard and the scoreboard shows an opposite result.

3- The hardest off the field issue hits hard in short order with the Browner and Sherman news. If the team was ever to fold, last week's game would have been the time.

4- Lovie going for it on 4th and short on a play that would have made it a 2 score game. I felt the season turn. For those who remember 1995. That play to me was the equivalent of Ken Griffey Jr. hitting that extra inning homer off of John Wetteland. I was there, and I could FEEL it. Refuse to lose was BORN.

5- The Hawks come out like gangbusters and pound the crap out of the Bears leaving a trail of injuries behind them and showing that they will NOT be denied. Reminded me of a couple of games in 2005.

6- Today's game was the equivalent of the Monday night game against the Eagles and Sherman running that INT back for 6 to me was the equivalent of Lofa running in and beating up the goal posts. Turning points. We saw a few today, and this game was eerily reminiscent to that Philly game in the way we just flat out kicked a team that would have beaten us earlier (and did) and just demolished them.

7- The team leaves the field and realizes that without much to-do they put up 58 freaking points and allowed NONE to a team that they had lost to earlier in the year. Browner is off the field and Sherman doubles down and goes crazy. Our LBer's play great. DB's play great. Special teams is awesome. It all comes together.

8- Off to Toronto. This is where we see if this team is now ready to take that step and is not going to have a good week, an average week, a bad week, etc. They are the Sonics of Payton and Kemp and realizing that they can't be beat if they play their game. They control the results. It's going to be a fun ride.

9- The huge issue which has been talked about... but we have 3 regular season games left at least, and Pete has already beaten his win total for any one season with the Seahawks and tied his win total including the one playoff win. This is called GROWTH gentlemen! Many of you said you saw no growth and that the team should start looking to replace Pete. I think that this is why you play the whole season before firing a coach. You see what's going to happen. Pete has had great success to start his Hawk's career if you ask me. I've seen every coach come through, and Pete is darn impressive. I'd have loved for all coaches to have done this well, but to be 7 win competitive and completely flip the roster and start a rookie QB and still build? Absolutely amazing. We're talking coach of the year and GM of the year material here with the job that PC and JS have done guys. How much difference that Dolphins game made. Maybe it is precisely the kick in the pants the boys needed and it will benefit us in the end.

10- We could be 13 days from knowing if we're locked into the playoffs as a legit contender to win a title. Who thought we'd be there this quickly with a rookie QB, a rookie MLB, and a lot of castoffs on the roster? I sure hoped... but I am in awe of the job our front office and ownership have done. Awesome work guys.

And let's not forget..... Marshawn has beaten his career high in yards already and Robert Turbin showed us today against a very good run defense that he is the future. Brilliant drafting. Brilliant depth. I think we're seeing some great things in these last 14 days (even though the end of that Miami game was hard... but it showed the boys what they were made of that week prepping for the mighty Bears and they left the Bears scattered and battered!).

_________________

R.I.P. Dad. I miss you. You will never be forgotten
1/12/39 - 8/7/08