After a day to think about it...

[pehawk]

I'm really starting to think Bevell-Cable limited their playcalling yesterday. The Panthers came hard, and often, in a manner which would've been so easy to exploit.

I know that sounds odd, since it seemed like it could've been a loss, but Pete does things like that.

1) Pete SLOWLY added things to Russell Wilson's playbook last year. The easy play, for most, would've been going with Flynn. It would've shielded Pete from any criticism early on, really. But, with the playoffs in mind, an up to speed Wilson was the best long-term choice.

2) Against NE last year, Marshaun Lynch split reps with Turbin, ALOT. At the time I remember thinking; I bet he's saving him for their next game, on a short week, at SF.

3) Hosting SF last year, it sure looked like Wilson had some instructions to "wear out" the 49ers defense as much as possible. Yeah, that's what Wilson does, but he ran in his own backfield more than any other game. Makes sense...wear them out before their division clinching game the following week.

Am I nuts?

 

[cacksman]

Your #3 point is nuts.

 

[pehawk]

Your #3 point is nuts.

Ya think? Maybe...some of those plays with Wilson making their DL look like keystone cops seemed out of place.

 

[JesterHawk]

Fake FG on third and 2. Brilliant!

 

[Scottemojo]

I think the defensive tackles of Carolina getting the best of our guards and center is what limited play calling.

 

[pehawk]

I think the defensive tackles of Carolina getting the best of our guards and center is what limited play calling.

Well, yeah, but a delay or two could've helped that. Don't you think?

And, I thought Carolina's DL sucked, which is why our OL should've stonewalled them? Two posters have clearly stated their DLine is SO bad, Wilson should've literally had 30 minutes to throw.

 

[PNWJoshua]

I have been trying to harp this over and over again. On a surface level the game looked 'Ugly'. Being a student of the game i clearly saw the genius of the game. I saw what carolina was trying to do but that it was only mildly effective. Instead of freaking out, we stayed with our game plan and grinded out the win. We won despite their defensive play. We hardly had to adjust! Had they made adjustments, we very well could have put 30 points on carolina but why? To have a pretty, "look at us and how we killed Carolina" win? So that future teams see our film of our adjustments? So that we are hyped up as some super team and bring their A+++ game? How would san fran feel about this game if we went down to carolina and stoned them 28-7?

STOP LOOKING AT THE SCORE! Look at the play calling...Conservative, just enough, not flashy, just physical. Drives me crazy that people harp on the ol like they sucked...lol! Carolina STUNTED...A LOT...try blocking a #330 DL who has only one job, crash down and split the OL Gap and move up field as fast as possible. If you know anything about football this is a RISKY way to play defense! Stunting is typically used by the inferior team as a gamble to cause massive pressure and mistakes by the QB. Was our OL perfect? No. We made mistakes but gosh dang they played hard and recovered great! Not only that, they were asked to accomplish more than what normally is required because we hardly made adjustments to their D. Their LB's were jumping every run play with no second thought of play action. We could have KILLED them with simple TE option routes on play action. but we did not need too! We did a little of it in the 4th with RB flat passes which KILLED them. I think we ran 3 in a row! lol. I understand if your a fan that just watched football cause its popular...yeah, ugly game, ugly win, we got lucky, man we are not as good as we thought, oh no look out...But rest assured. This is just simply not the case!

I will say that it takes a lot of confidence in your D to play call the way they were...One big play by carolina and we would be left with little time to mount a comeback.

Who was worried going into halftime down 7-3? lol. I was so excited for the second half because i knew carolina had little chance at that point. They needed to be up by 15 points at half to have a chance in the second half. There is so much more to football than points on the board. SO MUCH MORE! Look at the big picture. This win was perfect.

 

[DavidSeven]

Limited the play calling for what purpose? Are you suggesting they limited their playbook against Carolina, so they could spring some surprises on SF the next week? That seems like it goes against one of Pete Carroll's primary coaching philosophies -- every week is a championship week. No one game matters more than the other.

 

[SouthSoundHawk]

Carolina man handled Seattle's offensive line.

No conspiracy there, just getting straight outclassed.

That's not to say that Pete is thinking ahead, and keeping some of his playbook a secret. It's really not a terrible idea, IF the outcome of the current game isn't a loss...haha.

 

[PNWJoshua]

Limited the play calling for what purpose? Are you suggesting they limited their playbook against Carolina, so they could spring some surprises on SF the next week? That seems like it goes against one of Pete Carroll's primary coaching philosophies -- every week is a championship week. No one game matters more than the other.

Then why not do pitch passes and trick plays all the time? There are a lot of reasons to not run certain plays. Main one being if you can run safer plays and still win then you do that. If you can run run pass and continue to get 1st downs then why go pass pass run? Obviously the first quarter didnt work too well but they got it going in the second quarter with only simple changes to play calling. the run game was getting stuffed for three quarters but we kept calling it...because it was accomplishing more than just yards. It was getting the D tired, it was safe, it was keeping the D honest so they couldnt sit on passing routes. By the 4th quarter they couldnt stop us and we got first downs till we could run the clock out. Who has a doubt in their mind that we couldnt have ran the ball into the endzone on the last possession if we needed to?

 

[pehawk]

Limited the play calling for what purpose? Are you suggesting they limited their playbook against Carolina, so they could spring some surprises on SF the next week? That seems like it goes against one of Pete Carroll's primary coaching philosophies -- every week is a championship week. No one game matters more than the other.

Yes, that's what I'm suggesting. While I think I'm right, I understand disagreement with #1 and #3. But, the NE game in particular, Turbin spelled Lynch earlier than usual. There's something to that one.

A delayed handoff would've killed their gameplan, eventually. Not the bubble screens, but a delay at the point of the stunt (where the DL started).

 

[FlyingGreg]

O line is definitely going to want to redeem themselves this week, and they better bring their "A" game.

A lot of people forget we didn't have Justin Smith to contend with last December when we kicked the snot of the 49ers. He's back.

It's going to be a war.

 

[PNWJoshua]

Carolina man handled Seattle's offensive line.

No conspiracy there, just getting straight outclassed.

That's not to say that Pete is thinking ahead, and keeping some of his playbook a secret. It's really not a terrible idea, IF the outcome of the current game isn't a loss...haha.

Yes, but they didnt do it by being "better" they played a type of defense where the DL gives up gap responsibility in order to maximize penetration. If it were not for run happy line backers we should have been able to run the ball for 5ypc all day long. IF the hawk D was unable to stop the Panther O then i think we would have seen 2-3x more play action passes and a lot more of #3 to #86 up the middle. but even with the disruption of their DL Stunting we were still able to get positive yards with more conservative play calling.

 

[DavidSeven]

Limited the play calling for what purpose? Are you suggesting they limited their playbook against Carolina, so they could spring some surprises on SF the next week? That seems like it goes against one of Pete Carroll's primary coaching philosophies -- every week is a championship week. No one game matters more than the other.

Then why not do pitch passes and trick plays all the time? There are a lot of reasons to not run certain plays. Main one being if you can run safer plays and still win then you do that. If you can run run pass and continue to get 1st downs then why go pass pass run? Obviously the first quarter didnt work too well but they got it going in the second quarter with only simple changes to play calling. the run game was getting stuffed for three quarters but we kept calling it...because it was accomplishing more than just yards. It was getting the D tired, it was safe, it was keeping the D honest so they couldnt sit on passing routes. By the 4th quarter they couldnt stop us and we got first downs till we could run the clock out. Who has a doubt in their mind that we couldnt have ran the ball into the endzone on the last possession if we needed to?

Did you mean to write that in response to my post? I agree with what you're saying, but it doesn't seem closely tied to what I wrote.

 

[Sarlacc83]

I have been trying to harp this over and over again. On a surface level the game looked 'Ugly'. Being a student of the game i clearly saw the genius of the game. I saw what carolina was trying to do but that it was only mildly effective. Instead of freaking out, we stayed with our game plan and grinded out the win. We won despite their defensive play. We hardly had to adjust! Had they made adjustments, we very well could have put 30 points on carolina but why? To have a pretty, "look at us and how we killed Carolina" win? So that future teams see our film of our adjustments? So that we are hyped up as some super team and bring their A+++ game? How would san fran feel about this game if we went down to carolina and stoned them 28-7?

STOP LOOKING AT THE SCORE! Look at the play calling...Conservative, just enough, not flashy, just physical. Drives me crazy that people harp on the ol like they sucked...lol! Carolina STUNTED...A LOT...try blocking a #330 DL who has only one job, crash down and split the OL Gap and move up field as fast as possible. If you know anything about football this is a RISKY way to play defense! Stunting is typically used by the inferior team as a gamble to cause massive pressure and mistakes by the QB. Was our OL perfect? No. We made mistakes but gosh dang they played hard and recovered great! Not only that, they were asked to accomplish more than what normally is required because we hardly made adjustments to their D. Their LB's were jumping every run play with no second thought of play action. We could have KILLED them with simple TE option routes on play action. but we did not need too! We did a little of it in the 4th with RB flat passes which KILLED them. I think we ran 3 in a row! lol. I understand if your a fan that just watched football cause its popular...yeah, ugly game, ugly win, we got lucky, man we are not as good as we thought, oh no look out...But rest assured. This is just simply not the case!

I will say that it takes a lot of confidence in your D to play call the way they were...One big play by carolina and we would be left with little time to mount a comeback.

Who was worried going into halftime down 7-3? lol. I was so excited for the second half because i knew carolina had little chance at that point. They needed to be up by 15 points at half to have a chance in the second half. There is so much more to football than points on the board. SO MUCH MORE! Look at the big picture. This win was perfect.

So your contention is that we intentionally sucked and kept the game close (and easily loseable), because we WANTED to? And you're saying this as a 'student' of the game.

The motto of the team is "Leave No Doubt." So, isn't it more likely that Carolina almost had our number yesterday rather than "Bevell almost intentionally blew it for us"? Or is that giving too much credit to a stacked defense on a hot day? Bad games happen. They really do. I expect better in the future, and not because "now we're actually trying".

 

[RolandDeschain]

I don't know if there was any intentional "hiding" of stuff or not, but we definitely could have exploited more in the first half. As Kearly mentioned too, I couldn't believe we waited so long to go deep. We have a guy that throws a great deep ball, and their secondary is definitely something to sneeze at; I thought we were going to go deep like 8 times in that game before it started.

Offensive play calling still concerns me. Where were those successful fullback throws to the sideline in the first half? Also, name a better QB in the league to have some DESIGNED ROLL-OUTS for?

***NOBODY*** throws on the run like Russell Wilson. I can't believe we didn't take advantage of that.

 

[DavidSeven]

Limited the play calling for what purpose? Are you suggesting they limited their playbook against Carolina, so they could spring some surprises on SF the next week? That seems like it goes against one of Pete Carroll's primary coaching philosophies -- every week is a championship week. No one game matters more than the other.

Yes, that's what I'm suggesting. While I think I'm right, I understand disagreement with #1 and #3. But, the NE game in particular, Turbin spelled Lynch earlier than usual. There's something to that one.

A delayed handoff would've killed their gameplan, eventually. Not the bubble screens, but a delay at the point of the stunt (where the DL started).

Just can't see Pete doing it. It really undermines his entire message of not treating certain games as being more special than others. Also, Turbin only had three carries yesterday.

 

[pehawk]

I was speaking about Turbin in the NE game, last year. That was the Sunday before they headed to SF (for a TNF) game, DavidSeven. That's an example of Pete forgoing one week for the other.

I guess I can pull the gamelog...?

 

[pehawk]

Lynch had a season low 16 touches against NE last year (season low if you throw out Buff, AZ, whomever they annihilated to end the year).

 

[DavidSeven]

I was speaking about Turbin in the NE game, last year. That was the Sunday before they headed to SF (for a TNF) game, DavidSeven. That's an example of Pete forgoing one week for the other.

I guess I can pull the gamelog...?

Did he say that was his intent? That was a game where Seattle played from behind almost the entire way, so it makes sense that his carries were limited.

And he had less carries against Detroit.