Darrell Bevell, you're an idiot.

[pehawk]

I think I'd be just fine with losing Bevell. Or, if that would hurt continuity, if we kept Bevell but just sewed his mouth shut. We have to be honest about what Bevell's WAR would be. He did great in Minny with an all-world OL, AP, and Brett Favre. I'm supposed to believe that's all Bevell? He did great in SEA with a Cable-led OL, Lynch, and all-world rookie QB Russell Wilson. I'm supposed to give the Lion's share of credit to Bevell?

I mean come on, who doesn't think that a simple OC who just sprinkled in runs and read options early, then switched to all-Russell mode quickly if that didn't work out, would do just as good or better than Bevell? I'm being dead serious. The OC can be a weapon when they make the offense diverse, I think Russell's multi-tool arsenal does that all on his own better than Bevell can.

That's where I am on this one.

Word.

But what do I know? I loved Bates.

 

[theENGLISHseahawk]

I have to wonder if Bevell was distracted from his game planning for this game by all the head coaching overtures? Is it fair to wonder that?

No.

 

[RolandDeschain]

unfortunately, they were better prepared than anyone expected.

It's the playoffs. You expect an O-coordinator to adjust quickly when you unexpectedly fail.

 

[pinksheets]

unfortunately, they were better prepared than anyone expected.

It's the playoffs. You expect an O-coordinator to adjust quickly when you unexpectedly fail.

I'm with you.

I was ready to post a new thread, but I'm not an Xs and Os type smart football guy, so I'm worried to get dismissed/owned within a post or two. But why the feck are we always losing the first half? Granted, it's not really always, but against good teams, we're always sitting here saying "the second half adjusments will save us". Why aren't we going into the game with a better approach than our opponents? We can still make second half adjusments to better our chances, but we'd be better off than making them to save our lives. Past 2 games have shown opposing teams ability to score on us and stop our offense with ease right off the bat, we can't be so reactionary if we're going to control a game.

 

[jdblack]

Bevell did what he should have, attacked a weak run defense, unfortunately, they were better prepared than anyone expected.

I can agree with that, but only for the first series, and even then it is questionable. Atlanta was putting 8 or 9 in the box. Bevell sees that, he should immediately dial up Wilson's arm. It's not like we have a bad passing game - it is arguably BETTER than our running game. I cannot fathom the decision to keep running the ball when our guys were outnumbered up front.

 

[pinksheets]

Bevell did what he should have, attacked a weak run defense, unfortunately, they were better prepared than anyone expected.

I can agree with that, but only for the first series, and even then it is questionable. Atlanta was putting 8 or 9 in the box. Bevell sees that, he should immediately dial up Wilson's arm. It's not like we have a bad passing game - it is arguably BETTER than our running game. I cannot fathom the decision to keep running the ball when our guys were outnumbered up front.

Well what bothers me is how good our 2nd half adjustments to be, yet we don't make any of these until...the 2nd half. Let's fix our crap earlier.

 

[salamander]

No need for headlines like this today. Today we lost, but you can't be down. What a season! What a QB!

 

[themunn]

I think... that Lynch is actually too good and we rely on him too much, but that said, I don't think HE had a poor game tonight, Atlanta simply

315 carries is a LOT, and I think it may have contributed to his fumbling towards the end of the season as his body was just not holding up as much as it usually would.

I mean, yes he was coming off of 5 straight games with over 100 yards, but it seemed pretty obvious after about 5 runs to me that the running game just wasn't working at all, and whilst i wouldn't suggest abandoning it, I'd have changed up from a run-first approach to a pass first, and when Atlanta were forced to play honestly and stop giving up those 15-20 yard passes in the middle, we could have run the ball down their throats again. Take that 4th quarter again for example, Wilson was passing all over the place, imagine we had called the plays like that in the first quarter, then after one of those big gains we just run Marshawn Lynch right down the middle and wear them out. Instead we did the exact opposite, we ran Lynch (which they expected) then were forced to pass (which they expected) and they snuffed it out.

I don't put that all on Bevell though, Carroll and Cable are absolute proponents of the run-first philosophy and I think they have some influence in not abandoning the run.

Lynch gained 46 yards on 16 carries in the end - and 11 of those yards came on one play... which he fumbled. So for the rest of the game Lynch was 35 yards on 15 carries. We should have abandoned it much much earlier than we did

 

[TDOTSEAHAWK]

Bevell did what he should have, attacked a weak run defense, unfortunately, they were better prepared than anyone expected.

I can agree with that, but only for the first series, and even then it is questionable. Atlanta was putting 8 or 9 in the box. Bevell sees that, he should immediately dial up Wilson's arm. It's not like we have a bad passing game - it is arguably BETTER than our running game. I cannot fathom the decision to keep running the ball when our guys were outnumbered up front.

Well what bothers me is how good our 2nd half adjustments to be, yet we don't make any of these until...the 2nd half. Let's fix our crap earlier.

We also started to execute better. Not let the Falcons have 10+yards per carry and actually push their defensive line at the point of attack.

We seemed to have taken our BYE in the first half.

 

[Russ Willstrong]

The loss is not on Bevell but the SLOW start was as much to do with him as it was with the players. In the first half I don't know if they were trying to protect RW by not running him or if Lynch was hurting BUT we were not giving them option looks and opening up our offense.
Bevell went ultraconservative not calling enough zone options in the first half but instead reverting to hammering Lynch against a stacked run defense. When we can't gain 1 MEASELY YARD in successive tries deep in their territory and when their defense continues to be able to read our run plays it's more than likely ourplaycalling.

It took Caroll to say 'we've got to call more option reads' at the half for Bevell to realize we've got to call more option/zone reads. The difference in the second half was not just that we came out passing but because we were willing to run the qb on option plays.
I LOVE RW and he again shows how he NEVER QUITS. We are never out of a game with him. Same as it was at Wisconsin. Same as it was at NC State.

To say the comeback was Bevell's orchestration is RIDICULOUS. Wilson made those plays and anticipated throws. And if Bevell was so good where was our offense in the first 30 minutes?

 

[kearly]

I wonder, did Seattle have the best offense in the NFL since week 8? I'd guess they did. If not, they are right up there.

Seattle has a VERY bright future on offense, and Bevell is a part of that future.

 

[BadGuy711]

I'm no coach, but it seems to me that if you score 4 Touchdowns on the Road, it's not the Playcalling that lost the game.

 

[m0ng0]

stupid thread

 

[Sports Hernia]

Yeah, the execution level didn't change at all. It was all playcalls.

No game has ever been perfectly called. My issue was with execution in the first half, not the playcalling. But then again, I haven't spent all year villifing Bevell like a lot of you.

No, but you've probably spent the whole year defending him. There's never been a perfectly executed game by the players, some thing you "coach apologists" need to realize. Both coordinators today crapped the bed with the play calling, and some players did today too. Just because you may be little juniors pee wee coach doesn't make all coaches infallible.

 

[Sports Hernia]

I'm no coach, but it seems to me that if you score 4 Touchdowns on the Road, it's not the Playcalling that lost the game.

It is when you score ZERO points in the first half..... you going to defend Bradley too???

 

[Twisted]

Too harsh.
Some of the design plays are excellent. They are built around Wilson's strengths nicely. The offense didn't really lose this game. Our defense mostly did.

no, not adjusting to the lock box EARLY was huge, its an easy escape and they often run that formation anyways

its like they were taunting Atl to stop Lynch with 7-8 in the box, seriously?

C'MON MAN

 

[FargoHawk]

So, Wilson has his best passing game of the year and Bevell is to blame? I don't understand our fans sometimes.

 

[bellingerga]

Offensive coordinator and defensive coordinator both bug me, but I don't think I want either of them gone, I just agree with the sentiment that they need to learn to adjust quicker.

Seems like they're stubborn to a fault sometimes with sticking to the original game plan, and that's just not going to cut it week by week, but I can't pin this entire loss on those guys, and I think they deserve some more time here.

I'll have to the final year of the rebuild, year 4, and see how things go, before I start making harsh judgements. Next year really is put up or shut up for the coordinators though, I think.

 

[Shane Falco]

I used to be severly down on Bevell. But that was like 10 or 11 games ago now. We've really become one of the top offenses in the league. How can we really be so bent on a few individual plays here and there? I've really changed my tune towards Bevell throughtout the year personally.

And even when I was down on him, I always thought you already better have someone you think would be better and that you think you can get in line because it could definitely get worse. But like I say, I like where we are at now.

 

[jdblack]

My opinion of him has eased up quite a bit in the last 8 weeks as well, but the first half tonight was a major regression on his part.

I know plenty of players made mistakes that could have made the difference. Like Wilson failing to throw it away/intentionally ground at the end of the half, costing us a field goal. That is an understandable mistake that any rookie or veteran (like Brady giving a safety) could make under pressure.

The thing that set Bevell apart tonight is that his coaching decisions span whole quarters, and he had plenty of time to think to think about the next series while the Hawks defense was on the field. I don't think he should be fired unless a stud OC is lined up, but he needs to be made aware of his weaknesses/failings so that he can improve on them (if that is practical for someone as veteran as he is). There is no excuse for his decisions tonight.

I suspect he thinks too much of himself, and too little of Wilson.