Grantland breakdown of the game

[mikeak]

Some interesting points and make a big deal about Clemons injury and huge flag on Lynch injury....

http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/883 ... yoff-games

 

[SeahawksFanForever]

Lynch's injury

Curtis Crabtree ‏@Curtis_Crabtree
Carroll was asked what it would take for Lynch not to play: "Miss the flight? Doesn't show up in Atlanta? He's fine. He'll be all right."

 

[redhawk253]

pft.. his whole point about irvin stepping in and going from 30 to 60 snaps is inaccurate.. 30 snaps may be his season average.. but i literally just read in an espn article (dont know which one..) that his percentage of snaps played had increased dramatically in the last several weeks to where he was playing like 54 percent of snaps.. lynch has been on the injury report pretty much all season.. the guy runs hard its to be expected.. i think pete likes to give him a little extra recovery time and a bit of iversonism by lynch possibly as well.. "i mean we're talkin about practice.."

i expect the dinged up atlanta defense stands to be a bigger issue facing a seahawk's offense that already has potentially the strongest weapon their team will see this season vs their biggest weakness.. beastmode. but also their corners being slowed by injury could really cost them in the play action game especially if we run the ball early and get them involved in trying to stop the run.. play action dangerussss throws downfield touchdown rice.. touchdown tate.. touchdownnnn miller.

actually i found the article on espn "Irvin has been building to this moment, however. He has played 57.3 percent of the defensive snaps since Week 14 after playing 39.5 percent of them previously this season." so yeah he's been playing more like 40 snaps a game since week 14 and we all saw him in an increased role last week and he looked like he had plenty of juice at the end of the game and he looked good.

 

[formido]

It's always hard to take seriously analysis that makes a big deal of the home/road split without immediately mentioning that the offense is fundamentally different since Chicago and that we're 3-0 since the read option was added. That's not coincidental. The offense is now far more efficient and no one in the NFL has shown a reliable way to stop the read option, and especially not Seattle's[1]. If you want to pretend that's cherry picking, then by all means, take your predictions to Vegas. Bet the house on Seattle being much worse on the road.

I'm fine with mentioning the split, but it's ridiculous to give it first paragraph prominence at this point, unless it's to immediately qualify it. At this point, anything else is the most superficial of analysis. Also, you can't just dismiss 8-0 at home as if Seattle doesn't even have to show up for those games. Especially when they're blow outs. Every Seattle analysis pretends that our home games don't count and aren't predictive.

What's annoying is, most likely we won't win both the next two games. So this narrative will never die, notwithstanding that it would be hard for any team to win 3 playoff games on the road, no matter how good they are and what their home/road split is.

[1] This is all aside from the clear upward trend line in our rookie QB's play, the only rookie QB who didn't get a preseason full of starting team snaps and who has elite passer rating and QBR on the road. Of course, Barnwell is the same guy who a few weeks ago said that Wilson couldn't keep his low interception percentage going, which, to anyone acquainted with Wilson's history, knew immediately that that claim was hogwash. At least he wrote a follow-up article admitting he was wrong. But it was a stupid claim to begin with.

 

[mikeak]

Lynch's injury

Curtis Crabtree ‏@Curtis_Crabtree
Carroll was asked what it would take for Lynch not to play: "Miss the flight? Doesn't show up in Atlanta? He's fine. He'll be all right."

I don't think there is more to it than that but would I trust a coach making non-official comments like that - heck no

Did anyone think Ponder wasn't playing?...... I know Lynch is different, I know he has been on the report all week, I expect him to be a beast in Atlanta but I do think raising a warning flag is valid

 

[mikeak]

pft.. his whole point about irvin stepping in and going from 30 to 60 snaps is inaccurate.. 30 snaps may be his season average.. but i literally just read in an espn article (dont know which one..) that his percentage of snaps played had increased dramatically in the last several weeks to where he was playing like 54 percent of snaps.. .

Hmm if he is playing full time now and that is about 60 snaps and he has been playing 54% before isn't that pretty close to going from about 30 snaps to 60...... math wasn't my strong suit but it seems like that ABOUT works out

lynch has been on the injury report pretty much all season.. the guy runs hard its to be expected.. i think pete likes to give him a little extra recovery time and a bit of iversonism by lynch possibly as well.. "i mean we're talkin about practice..".

I agree but this is his foot and not his back and last I checked the field last week was crappy

i expect the dinged up atlanta defense stands to be a bigger issue facing a seahawk's offense that already has potentially the strongest weapon their team will see this season vs their biggest weakness.. beastmode. but also their corners being slowed by injury could really cost them in the play action game especially if we run the ball early and get them involved in trying to stop the run.. play action dangerussss throws downfield touchdown rice.. touchdown tate.. touchdownnnn miller.

agree exepct us to tear them up on the ground, runs by RW opening up the deep ball which will be much more accurate on the field turf than last week

 

[Evil_Shenanigans]

His statement about Clemons importance to the D is a point not lost on me. I had no Idea Clem had taken 82% of the snaps this year though. I think he seriously underrates Irvin though. Clem has taught him well!

 

[mikeak]

[1] This is all aside from the clear upward trend line in our rookie QB's play, the only rookie QB who didn't get a preseason full of starting team snaps and who has elite passer rating and QBR on the road. Of course, Barnwell is the same guy who a few weeks ago said that Wilson couldn't keep his low interception percentage going, which, to anyone acquainted with Wilson's history, knew immediately that that claim was hogwash. At least he wrote a follow-up article admitting he was wrong. But it was a stupid claim to begin with.

I agree - I am not a big fan of Barnwell but at times his numbers make sense and this time he did follow it up with saying he watched films and didn't just crunch numbers

I think he makes valid points about Atlanta running and why they are way down. I think he should have looked at Seattle for the past 6 weeks as you point out that is the team playing now and for someone that does what he does that should have been obvious

 

[redhawk253]

pft.. his whole point about irvin stepping in and going from 30 to 60 snaps is inaccurate.. 30 snaps may be his season average.. but i literally just read in an espn article (dont know which one..) that his percentage of snaps played had increased dramatically in the last several weeks to where he was playing like 54 percent of snaps.. .

Hmm if he is playing full time now and that is about 60 snaps and he has been playing 54% before isn't that pretty close to going from about 30 snaps to 60...... math wasn't my strong suit but it seems like that ABOUT works out

lynch has been on the injury report pretty much all season.. the guy runs hard its to be expected.. i think pete likes to give him a little extra recovery time and a bit of iversonism by lynch possibly as well.. "i mean we're talkin about practice..".

I agree but this is his foot and not his back and last I checked the field last week was crappy

i expect the dinged up atlanta defense stands to be a bigger issue facing a seahawk's offense that already has potentially the strongest weapon their team will see this season vs their biggest weakness.. beastmode. but also their corners being slowed by injury could really cost them in the play action game especially if we run the ball early and get them involved in trying to stop the run.. play action dangerussss throws downfield touchdown rice.. touchdown tate.. touchdownnnn miller.

agree exepct us to tear them up on the ground, runs by RW opening up the deep ball which will be much more accurate on the field turf than last week

i edited the percentage its actually 57 percent.. and seahawks opponents were averaging closer to 65-70 snaps a game since week 14 so yeah... closer to 40 snaps per game. but more importantly like i was saying we saw irvin play in a more expanded role last week and you could tell he had a lot of juice left at the end of the game.

 

[MontanaHawk05]

Ironic, given that when we traded for Clemons, the big knock was that he'd be weak against the run. He's certainly grown.

 

[12evanf]

Atlanta was openly known to be a lucky team taking advantage of an easy schedule all season. Then all of a sudden they whoop the Giants and everyone shuts up. They're the #1 seed, but there's no other team left in the playoffs that I'd feel as confident in facing. Maybe I'm naiive but the Falcons don't scare me.

 

[ThrowItToJulio]

Atlanta was openly known to be a lucky team taking advantage of an easy schedule all season. Then all of a sudden they whoop the Giants and everyone shuts up. They're the #1 seed, but there's no other team left in the playoffs that I'd feel as confident in facing. Maybe I'm naiive but the Falcons don't scare me.

Luck (not the QB) doesn't win you 13 games in the NFL. Maybe you are naive.

 

[12evanf]

Atlanta was openly known to be a lucky team taking advantage of an easy schedule all season. Then all of a sudden they whoop the Giants and everyone shuts up. They're the #1 seed, but there's no other team left in the playoffs that I'd feel as confident in facing. Maybe I'm naiive but the Falcons don't scare me.

Luck (not the QB) doesn't win you 13 games in the NFL. Maybe you are naive.

Not 13, but certainly it won Atlanta a handful. Seriously, the term "paper tiger" was synonymous with the Falcons until they beat the Giants.

 

[mikeak]

but there is a quality about the team that makes them win those games. We were better than Detroit and Miami and we lost to them.......different seahawks team. Don't underestimate their ability to win games they were about to loose.......

 

[SoCalSeahawk]

Ah yes, the anomaly. Miami rushed 16/145 on first downs against us. 45 of those yards came on three carries after that one drive when ET was called for a rough on THill, they scored and then Leon returned the ensuing KO for a TD. The D came right back on the field and Miami was able to run 3/45 yards on that drive on first downs. This game was an anomaly that should be stricken from the record! ukeface:

The stat they use for ypc on first downs when the game is within 14 points is worthless. The Buffalo, SF and AZ games should just be thrown out altogether, I would argue that NJY game should be thrown out as well. So in competitive games we have Miami (the anomaly), Minnesota, CHI and St Louis. Here's the scoop on the 1st and 10 rushing, game within 14 points BS. I went play-by-play off of Sportsline and ESPN:

Minnesota 8/64 8.0 ypc (21 and 28 yarder)
Miami 16/145 9.0 ypc (20, 21 and 22 yarder)
Chicago 14/45 3.1 ypc
St. Louis 11/29 2.7 ypc

So really, there was one game that completely threw this stat out of whack. To make a claim that the Seattle defense is vulnerable based on this is idiotic-dumb-stupid! Look for something exactly in line with what CHI and StL accomplished, unless the Falcons signed AD and the Vikings offensive line this week.

 

[BocciHawk]

Random aside, if anyone has gas in the tank, it's Irvin. Think of all the snaps he DID NOT play this season. He's healthy, and super fast, probably the fastest guy on the field for the first five steps... I look at this as a good thing! His workload may temporarily go up, but given how many snaps a guy normally plays in the season, and the fact he didn't play all that much early, and has been coming on... well, he could play fifty snaps a game for the next three games and still not be up to the "normal" season total for your average defensive player.