Adam Schein points out the Seahawks' flaws

[Sgt. Largent]

Folks have to quit thinking that SB teams are these juggernauts who play complete games all the time and never have off games and certainly never struggle against a team with a worse record. And the sad irony is that I've already had to make a post like this before, and people still see what they want to see.

You are most definitely right, but with high expectations comes letdowns when your team isn't playing to it's full potential.

I'm OK with a few clunkers, as long as we're still winning those clunkers and not making the same mistakes week after week. If we get back to stuffing the run and Russell stops getting sacked and hammered 10 times a game I'm a happy fan. If these trends continue, then we do have some serious issues that may prevent us from going to the SB. Because if bad teams are exposing us, just wait til we play the good ones. It'll be downright ugly.

 

[stack600]

The national media has watched,talked,discussed and debated, more about our Hawks this season than any other I can remember, and damn I'm old. As fans and especially 12th man nation Hawk fans. We are not use to all the east coast media attention, take the big 3= ESPN-NFL-FOX I am surprised how often this season I hit one of these channels and there is a segment about our team and players. We have been on the National stage 3 times, 49ers game we looked great came out and put a good lickin on em/ And the National media saw. Cardinals on the road, We struggled a bit but came away with a pretty good divisional win, and Prime,QB Kurt, Rich Eisen and Thursday night crew and the national Media saw. Rams monday night we struggled on both sides of the ball, but fought a hard ugly fight in the division and won. My thoughts are this is the only really ugly game we played, and the one there using to make thier case of not playing to our potential, and the National media saw. 3 Nationally Televised Games-3 Divisional Games-3 Divisional wins.(3-0 in the division).
Let Adam Schein or Mort or Charley Casserly talk, thats what they get paid to do. 8-1 and the only game that looked bad was the Rams game. Granted some other wins were not classic blow em out of the water games, But if you look the numbers are there. R.W. actually has put up some good stats along with Beast and Tate. And the D has dropped a bit. But only 2 games. Let em talk and our guys will shut em up. By just Winning.
I'm looking forward too the 9ers at thier house and the Saints on Monday Night after the bye. But for now lets get a win in Atlanta and Get the Vikes at home.
Gooo Hawks

 

[Hawks46]

Look at the caliber of teams that actually do win the Super Bowl. Look at the games they play throughout their season.

By that measure, we've looked like a Super Bowl-caliber team all season long.

Name a Super Bowl champion that went down by 21 against a winless team halfway through the season or later. I'll be surprised if there has ever been one.

The poster above beat me to it, but the Giants have squeaked in the playoffs twice, went ON THE ROAD and won 2 SB's, one against a historically good team.

The Pitttsburgh team that won the SB against us barely made it into the playoffs, then barely won a playoff game against Indy. Regardless how much they got helped out in that win, they made it to the game, which makes them a SB team at least.

You've had multiple teams that barely made the playoffs and won the big one. That GB team mentioned above got gifted with a terrible call that won them that game; they should've never even really been there. Whining about one half of one game we already one, and using it to disqualify us as potential SB champions is patently ridiculous.

Do I think we could play better ? Everyone could play better. Do I think we've looked bad at times ? Yup. Half the league are potential SB champions right now. There are some teams shaping up to be Wild Card berths that could scare people.

 

[RolandDeschain]

SB caliber teams struggle at times, even putting together losing streaks at some point during the season. SB caliber teams are not immune to bad play, bad matchups, bad luck, or boneheaded mistakes.

My point is, I think you'd be very hard-pressed to find a Super Bowl champion that has made as many major mistakes in as many games by week 10 of the regular season as we have this year. I'm not talking about one specific game. I'm talking about the fact that in nearly EVERY SINGLE FREAKING GAME WE HAVE PLAYED THIS YEAR, we've made MULTIPLE critical mistakes that could easily have cost us the game. We are overcoming those every time except for @ Indy, and that bodes very well for us in terms of experience, learning, etc.; but regardless of our record, we are "Benny Hill Theming" our way through a lot of games and THAT is what makes us not look like a "Super Bowl-caliber team".

Do you get it, yet?

 

[Popeyejones]

My point is, I think you'd be very hard-pressed to find a Super Bowl champion that has made as many major mistakes in as many games by week 10 of the regular season as we have this year.

The 1988 9ers were 6-4 at this point for that Super Bowl and of their six wins, save for beating the Hawks 38-7, their largest margin of victory in a game was a single touchdown (the other 4 wins they won by 1, 3, 3, and 3 points).

 

[volsunghawk]

SB caliber teams struggle at times, even putting together losing streaks at some point during the season. SB caliber teams are not immune to bad play, bad matchups, bad luck, or boneheaded mistakes.

My point is, I think you'd be very hard-pressed to find a Super Bowl champion that has made as many major mistakes in as many games by week 10 of the regular season as we have this year. I'm not talking about one specific game. I'm talking about the fact that in nearly EVERY SINGLE FREAKING GAME WE HAVE PLAYED THIS YEAR, we've made MULTIPLE critical mistakes that could easily have cost us the game. We are overcoming those every time except for @ Indy, and that bodes very well for us in terms of experience, learning, etc.; but regardless of our record, we are "Benny Hill Theming" our way through a lot of games and THAT is what makes us not look like a "Super Bowl-caliber team".

Do you get it, yet?

Really? You can find a SB champion that does that pretty much EVERY YEAR.

The 2012 Ravens were 7-2 at Week 10, and the only convincing victories they had to that point were against Cleveland and Oakland. And they would struggle even MORE later in the season.

The 2011 Giants were 6-3 and were 1 game into what ended up a 4-game losing streak with plenty of mistakes. They'd also lost by 11 on their own turf to our own 7-9 Hawks, lost by 2 TDs to the Skins, and were barely squeaking by teams like Arizona, Buffalo, and Miami.

The 2010 Packers lost 3 games in a 4-game stretch during the first 10 weeks (and had an awesome -3 TO margin in that stretch). They wouldn't even win their division that season. They had played both the Lions and Vikings at home, and barely won each game over those eventual 6-10 teams.

 

[hawk45]

The article was solid when it was just pointing out our issues and not making any comparisons with the Niners. I have no disagreements with the specific criticisms about our team. Yes the team has played like garbage against garbage teams, even at home. Yes they can and must play better to emerge on top of the NFC. Injuries to OL, passing game anemic, none of this is really debatable.

When it moved on to a discussion of schedule and of the other NFC teams it devolved into...well into crap quite honestly. Calling our upcoming schedule difficult while simultaneously waving away any chance the Niners lose to the Saints or the Panthers is pretty laughable. Also, putting injuries in the "flaw" category for us but in the "strength" category for the Niners is about as inconsistent as the refs in the Colts game. The injury situations are nearly identical. Players on both teams have been out for about 8 games and will be returning soon.

The article managed to be about 50% very fair, and 50% shite. To my mind, the guy started off being able to keep a lid on his bias, but just couldn't maintain discipline throughout an entire article. I have to give the nod to those calling the guy a craptastic homer-douche.

 

[scutterhawk]

Look at the caliber of teams that actually do win the Super Bowl. Look at the games they play throughout their season.

By that measure, we've looked like a Super Bowl-caliber team all season long.

Name a Super Bowl champion that went down by 21 against a winless team halfway through the season or later. I'll be surprised if there has ever been one.

So you're not impressed with the Seahawks spotting the TB Bucs those 21 points, and then STORMING back to erase their lead, and win the best Seahawks come back game, ever.

 

[Popeyejones]

^^^ Agreed with your reading of it.

 

[scutterhawk]

Do you get it, yet?

I think both Popeye and Volsung have "Got It", and has shown you the error of your flippant prognosis. LOL

 

[volsunghawk]

Just to be clear, I'd feel a whole hell of a lot better if the team wasn't having the pass pro issues, was not giving up the yardage on the ground it has recently, was scoring more in the red zone and turning the ball over less, and was winning by more comfortable margins. I think all of those things would be WONDERFUL.

But I don't think that those issues mean we're not a SB-caliber team, especially when you actually look at what a SB-caliber team actually has been for the most part in this century.

 

[muxpux]

what it all comes down to is this:

we dont need to go undefeated, or 15-1 to win the super bowl. thats not what the regular season is about. how often in the last oh, 10 years or so has the best record won the SB?

what were trying to do is win HFA. the easier our path the better. and unlike other teams who get the bye, and lose, our HFA is recognized and respected.

im not worried about what our record, or how the games look really, just that we keep winning and stay ahead of the competition. i dont think anyone doubts that seattle will be the SB favorite if they lock up Home Field for the playoffs.

theres no style points

 

[hawk45]

I feel like it's been pointed out often enough on this board that the reason "style points" matter somewhat is that the way you perform, even in a game you win, is a legitimate predictor of how you may perform in the future. Thus, a team that nearly pisses away HFA against 2 crap teams may continue to nearly piss away HFA in future games, and there's a high likelihood - not a certainty, but a likelihood - that this will hurt us and jeopardize HFA in a league where the talent gap between the best teams and the worst teams is not that large. Saying it doesn't matter how you play is not an argument.

We should be able to agree that Superbowl teams do not play the way we are playing *right now* at the (very) end of the season.

We should also be able to agree that there's quite some reason to believe that our play will elevate substantially in the next few weeks when our OL gets healthier and if Harvin ever returns. At that point our margin for error against some of these crappier teams increases. Specifically because a better OL means Russell can be a bigger factor in the passing game. And Russell I don't think is EVER in danger of a letdown, even against inferior opponents. And none of us expects to see many more multi-pick games.

 

[hawkfan68]

Another mediot spouting blather. I don't think the 49ers looked like Superbowlers when they played the Colts and Seahawks earlier either.

When's the last time we looked like a Super Bowl-caliber team? Week 3 against Jacksonville? Lol.

True. Even in the Jags game there were some mistakes made. My point is the Seahawks haven't played their best against the Bucs, Titans, Cards, Rams, etc but when facing playoff type teams like the Panthers, 49ers, and Colts, they have played quite better. Schein made some points about 49ers, how have they fared when playing playoff caliber teams? They lost to Seattle and Indy (at home). Not only did they lose but they lost by 20+ points. Do the Seahawks have issues they need to fix? They sure do but so do other 31 teams in the NFL. No team is a clear cut above the rest. The positive thing is that even with the Seahawks issues they are winning games. That's what they need to do.

 

[scutterhawk]

this will hurt us and jeopardize HFA in a league where the talent gap between the best teams and the worst teams is not that large. Saying it doesn't matter how you play is not an argument.

We should be able to agree that Superbowl teams do not play the way we are playing *right now* at the (very) end of the season.

We should also be able to agree that there's quite some reason to believe that our play will elevate substantially in the next few weeks when our OL gets healthier and if Harvin ever returns. At that point our margin for error against some of these crappier teams increases. Specifically because a better OL means Russell can be a bigger factor in the passing game. And Russell I don't think is EVER in danger of a letdown, even against inferior opponents. And none of us expects to see many more multi-pick games.

The fact, as you point out, that the "Talent Gap" between the best and the worst, NOT being that large?, tells me that coming back from a 21 point deficit is huge.
Both the Rams and the Bucs are being dismissed as a bunch of nobodies, and that is just BS.
Too many people thinking that the Seahawks should be blowing the doors off these teams, and I say, that some of these faltering teams are sometimes just not that far away from turning shit around, and can beat your ass.
A lot of folks are taking some of these teams for granted, and assuming that your talent level should get you a win without having to play your best football, and when the table gets turned, those same folks are jumping to conclusions, that YOUR team has been somehow "Exposed" as pretenders?
The fact that the Seahawks are 8 & 1 (for the first time EVER), and coming back several times when the chips are down, says something about the dogs in the fight, and the fight in the dogs, eh?

 

[chris98251]

I think it really comes down to each persons eye and history of watching the game. Each person watching this years team has their own measureing stick, mine says we have talent but were not playing in sync, were not playing with the same intensity as we did last year consistently. Doesn't matter who's out there, the 7 - 9 team played more consitent attitude wise then this years team.

Call it headline reading, call it a change of offensive philosophy, a change in defensive philosophy creating it, or whatever, it's different.

In the Tampa Bay game it took till we got pissed off to start making an impact, we play well pissed off is all I can say. Looking flat in the Texans, Rams, Colts and Tampa games out of the gate has to change.

We have played with injuries over the Pete era and survived, we are now, it's the on/off switch I worry about.

 

[MontanaHawk05]

Folks have to quit thinking that SB teams are these juggernauts who play complete games all the time and never have off games and certainly never struggle against a team with a worse record. And the sad irony is that I've already had to make a post like this before, and people still see what they want to see.

We've had more struggles than complete games against bad opposition at QB. That's my problem.

It's be one thing if we'd had 6 solid games and 3 bad games, rather than the reverse. It'd also be different if we'd saved our "winning ugly" for teams with good QBs as we did in 2012, rather than middling-to-laughable ones at the helm of winless teams. But that's not the case.

There are plenty of redeeming factors here. Road wins are an accomplishment, period. A lot of our offensive talent is sidelined. And we've somehow found our way into games against all the underrated defensive lines in the NFL, which sounds like a convenient excuse on the surface but holds up under scrutiny. And only a churl finds ways to criticize 8-1. So there's reasons to be content.

I just wonder when it's finally going to tip the scale. Given that we often win by less than six and an elite QB on the other side is easily capable of managing that winning TD, a lot of us are kinda just waiting for the other shoe to finally drop.

 

[volsunghawk]

Folks have to quit thinking that SB teams are these juggernauts who play complete games all the time and never have off games and certainly never struggle against a team with a worse record. And the sad irony is that I've already had to make a post like this before, and people still see what they want to see.

We've had more struggles than complete games against bad opposition at QB. That's my problem.

It's be one thing if we'd had 6 solid games and 3 bad games, rather than the reverse. It'd also be different if we'd saved our "winning ugly" for teams with good QBs as we did in 2012, rather than middling-to-laughable ones at the helm of winless teams. But that's not the case.

There are plenty of redeeming factors here. Road wins are an accomplishment, period. A lot of our offensive talent is sidelined. And we've somehow found our way into games against all the underrated defensive lines in the NFL, which sounds like a convenient excuse on the surface but holds up under scrutiny. And only a churl finds ways to criticize 8-1. So there's reasons to be content.

I just wonder when it's finally going to tip the scale. Given that we often win by less than six and an elite QB on the other side is easily capable of managing that winning TD, a lot of us are kinda just waiting for the other shoe to finally drop.

What if it doesn't though?

What if the injuries along the O-line combined with an out-of-sync offense and a slate of very strong defenses, exacerbated by some fluke plays on special teams... what if that's the low point?

What if the explanations of the struggles have MERIT, and when some of those factors start being addressed - whether it's through the return of starters, or Harvin's presence opening up the passing game, or just some less imposing defenses - we start seeing improvements?

What if instead of assuming that the way the team is now is the way it's always going to be this season, you assume that there will be improvement as guys get healthy and as the team continues to try and address the issues they've faced? You know, like they did last year?

What then?

 

[Lords of Scythia]

...and gushes about how much he loves the 49ers.

Am I the only one waiting for the Seattle Seahawks to play better?

Yes, they have incredible talent, coaching and management. They will beat the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday and the Minnesota Vikings next week, meaning they'll head into their Week 12 bye at 10-1. However, they don't have the look or the feel of Super Bowl champions -- yet.

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap20...ilsons-seattle-seahawks-must-solve-key-issues

That gave me goose pimples. 10 and 1! OH HELL YEAH.

 

[Lords of Scythia]

The article seems about right. I don't watch the guy's show. We ain't losin to no Saints, though. When we're healthy we'll be the best team in th e NFL.