Issues with both of our coordinators. Chime in please.

[seabowl]

We all know the issues that have surrounded Bevell for a long time now. I know replacing a coordinator is a big deal but I just don't know what John/Pete see in this guy to keep him around. As far as the D is concerned, yes we are without Kam which is a big deal however Richard has had 2 games under his belt and the D hasn't come close to maximizing its potential.

As stated on last nights broadcast the lack of blitzes is absolutely puzzling. We all thought in preseason that they were running a base D and come the regular season they would unleash the dogs. Other than the one time this season that I saw the blitz (Cary Williams sack, strip and td) they bring only 4 DL. They played Foles who when is rattled, can't complete passes and Rogers where if you give him time or room to slip away, will pick you apart as he did last night.

I really hope Pete takes firm control of what these coordinators are doing because I think the talent, if used correctly, is mostly there. Unfortunately to this point the OC and DC have called games that take away our strengths and if they continue we will keep losing games that we should win.

Thoughts?

 

[seahawksny]

We all know the issues that have surrounded Bevell for a long time now. I know replacing a coordinator is a big deal but I just don't know what John/Pete see in this guy to keep him around. As far as the D is concerned, yes we are without Kam which is a big deal however Richard has had 2 games under his belt and the D hasn't come close to maximizing its potential.

As stated on last nights broadcast the lack of blitzes is absolutely puzzling. We all thought in preseason that they were running a base D and come the regular season they would unleash the dogs. Other than the one time this season that I saw the blitz (Cary Williams sack, strip and td) they bring only 4 DL. They played Foles who when is rattled, can't complete passes and Rogers where if you give him time or room to slip away, will pick you apart as he did last night.

I really hope Pete takes firm control of what these coordinators are doing because I think the talent, if used correctly, is mostly there. Unfortunately to this point the OC and DC have called games that take away our strengths and if they continue we will keep losing games that we should win.

Thoughts?

Richard and the d held Rodgers to 16 at start of fourth. I think they were an improvement over last week. The offense still has this disease of playing only one half. Its more on the offense.
By the 4th, the d looked tirrd

 

[brimsalabim]

I'm just curious... How many plays did the offense run in the first half? Are we still running the scripted plays? We don't seem to be game planning any one before the game begins do we? It's almost as if we play the first half only to see what the other team is doing. The entire first half has become a throw away?

 

[kearly]

IIRC, Rodgers passer rating goes up quite a bit when you blitz him. He's one of the best blitz beating QBs in the league. Four man pass rush was the right game plan, and if they had given Frank Clark all those snaps that Rubin got, it probably would have worked very nicely.

 

[marko358]

Tied for third worst defense in points allowed and in the bottom half of yards allowed on defense. One game against a mediocre offense missing key weapons and another game against a top tier offense who was also missing their star RB, their best WR, and had another WR with ankle issues. The DLine rotations seem unimaginative so far. Unimpressed so far by the Richard era but things should be getting better with a string of winnable games coming up.

 

[LymonHawk]

IIRC, Rodgers passer rating goes up quite a bit when you blitz him. He's one of the best blitz beating QBs in the league. Four man pass rush was the right game plan, and if they had given Frank Clark all those snaps that Rubin got, it probably would have worked very nicely.

Word. You don't make a living against Rodgers by blitzing him.

 

[hawksfansinceday1]

IIRC, Rodgers passer rating goes up quite a bit when you blitz him. He's one of the best blitz beating QBs in the league. Four man pass rush was the right game plan, and if they had given Frank Clark all those snaps that Rubin got, it probably would have worked very nicely.

Word. You don't make a living against Rodgers by blitzing him.

+2

 

[xgeoff]

I have no problems with Richard whatsoever. I don't see any problems with the scheme. Kris Richard isn't causing Richard Sherman to take a bad penalty, nor is he causing Michael Bennett to jump offsides. I have a lot of confidence in what Kris is doing, but the guys on the D with the big contracts (or at least those who were bitching about their contracts) need to step it up.

On Bevell....jeez where do I start. Sometimes, and this always seems to be late in the games, he does seem to get the offense into a rhythm, and I am ok with his play *calls*. However, I don't like his pass pattern combinations (or route trees or whatever you want to call it) and I don't like his play calling early in the games. Ultimately, I think we need new blood here.

I do temper my criticism of Bevell a little bit because the O-line is so godawful bad. I almost think it may be more important to get a new O-line coach than a new coordinator, I don't know.

 

[Sgt. Largent]

IIRC, Rodgers passer rating goes up quite a bit when you blitz him. He's one of the best blitz beating QBs in the league. Four man pass rush was the right game plan, and if they had given Frank Clark all those snaps that Rubin got, it probably would have worked very nicely.

This. Really need to see more of Clark.

Rubin had a good game, and he's a much better run stopper. Even Pete said as of now Clark is more of a situational passing down rusher.

Since Starks was having success, that's why we saw more Rubin than Clark me thinks.

I agree though, I thought with the amazing preseason Clark had, he'd be a bigger factor than he's been.

 

[Erebus]

I'm on the Fire Bevell bandwagon, but you have to understand what Pete sees in him. Pete's offensive philosophy is to be a run-first team. Last year we had a historically great running game. So it appears Bevell is excelling at the job Pete is asking of him.

 

[HawkFan72]

Tied for third worst defense in points allowed and in the bottom half of yards allowed on defense. One game against a mediocre offense missing key weapons and another game against a top tier offense who was also missing their star RB, their best WR, and had another WR with ankle issues. The DLine rotations seem unimaginative so far. Unimpressed so far by the Richard era but things should be getting better with a string of winnable games coming up.

Don't forget they were missing their starting RT too.

I don't care how good Rodgers is, the Seahawks had no excuses for getting beat by that Offense, that's for sure.

 

[Hawks46]

I have a problem with our OC, in that he honestly doesn't seem to know how to make in game adjustments or use his personnel properly. Matthews comes in and once again, 1 target, 1 catch. Uhhhh, throw to him more ? Not saying all of it is Bevell, something seems to be up with Wilson. So, is our QB coach doing anything ? Isn't it the OC's job to oversee the positional coaches ?

On defense, the biggest issue I have is tackling. We lost the STL game because of poor tackling; Cunningham got 3 key first downs after broken tackles. That game went to OT: any of those drives ends in a punt and we win. Bennett also needs to get some discipline, I think he's feeling the pressure from Clark and is trying to play too hard.

 

[xgeoff]

I have a problem with our OC, in that he honestly doesn't seem to know how to make in game adjustments or use his personnel properly. Matthews comes in and once again, 1 target, 1 catch. Uhhhh, throw to him more ? Not saying all of it is Bevell, something seems to be up with Wilson. So, is our QB coach doing anything ? Isn't it the OC's job to oversee the positional coaches ?

On defense, the biggest issue I have is tackling. We lost the STL game because of poor tackling; Cunningham got 3 key first downs after broken tackles. That game went to OT: any of those drives ends in a punt and we win. Bennett also needs to get some discipline, I think he's feeling the pressure from Clark and is trying to play too hard.

Some really good stuff here, and our plays, perhaps more than any other team, seem to be plodding and predictable. Chris Matthews and Jimmy Graham are huge targets. It's got to be really tough for smaller guys to deny the ball to these receivers. The Patriots certainly struggled against Matthews in the Super Bowl.

Have you ever tried to deny someone the ball in basketball who is a six inches taller than you? It's really friggin hard, and it's hard in football too, especially with the receiver-friendly rules.

And you're spot on with respect to poor tackling, which is another reason I don't think you blame Kris Richard for the defensive issues.

 

[TwistedHusky]

We still are dancing around a big problem:

This team is slowly/or raggedly transitioning from a team where defense is the strength to a team that needs to win with the offense (QB) BUT we have a coordinator that is below average competency.

I do not think there are many teams I can remember where their strength is in an area their coordinator is below average. But considering we have a rookie DC, it makes sense the offense will have no choice but to pick up the slack.

And we can, but we cannot do so with the current coordinator.

So since we are not going to dump our OC midway through this year, and we are going to have to rely on the offense more than ever before, what is the option?

Is Wilson going to have to beat both the opposing defense AND his own coordinator? And is this possible considering Wilson looks worse this year? (maybe even because of the issues with both coordinators but most likely because we have an OL that isn't close to cohesive).

I don't know that it makes much sense expecting much from a rookie DC, but expecting anything positive from Bevell to offset that just seems like setting yourself up for worse.

Bevell is basically the equivalent of tying lead weights to the legs of every player on both sides of the ball. You can win in spite of it, ,but it is going to be much harder than it should be.

 

[netskier]

Twisted, I agree. Good post.

The light at the end of the tunnel is that superior athletes have higher upsides, so our OL will come together, inevitably. By my visual impression they were significantly better this week than last. I think they turn it around starting this week.

 

[chris98251]

Early in the season, not enough sustained drives to keep the defense fresh and they still did a really good job over all minus short field turnovers. The defense held up well considering. Now on offense we need to send Bevell a Roster list, the reason we have a 6'7" TE that can run and catch and costs 10 million is because he asked for it.

You find a way to get guys like that open !