My favorite stat of the game:

[kearly]

The Seahawks had 7 sacks, which on it's own is obviously terrific. But here is the part I love: 8 different Seahawks contributed to that figure. Smith, McDaniel, McDonald, Bennett, Avril, Clemons, Wright (half), and Bryant (half).

It wasn't very long ago that our pass rush began and ended with Chris Clemons. Take a bow, Dan Quinn.

Clemons, btw, has 3.5 sacks in 5 games since returning from his injury. And he barely played in the Jacksonville game.

 

[DavidSeven]

Clemons, btw, has 3.5 sacks in 4 games since returning from his injury.

Watching him truck that Left Tackle was one of the most amazing things I've seen.

 

[RolandDeschain]

I love our new and improved defense. However, we played some of the softest zone I've ever seen any defense play in my life tonight, just letting them quickly march down the field to get points. I know why we did it, but I still didn't like that.

Regardless, Dan Quinn for president.

 

[JSeahawks]

Seemed to see a bunch more stunts and more exotic blitz packages tonight. As Techworlds mentioned in the gameday forum maybe that was just due to playing with a big lead which we havnt done a whole lot this season. Whatever the reason, I hope it continues.

 

[Blitzer88]

That is very impressive!

 

[JSeahawks]

Oh, and Irvin, even though he doesn't get credit for a sack should get half the credit for Browner's interception.

 

[DavidSeven]

I love our new and improved defense. However, we played some of the softest zone I've ever seen any defense play in my life tonight, just letting them quickly march down the field to get points. I know why we did it, but I still didn't like that.

Regardless, Dan Quinn for president.

Eh, I didn't mind this at all. It took them eight minutes to complete 1.8 drives when they were down three scores. Let them dink and dunk all day in that situation IMO.

 

[kearly]

I love our new and improved defense. However, we played some of the softest zone I've ever seen any defense play in my life tonight, just letting them quickly march down the field to get points. I know why we did it, but I still didn't like that.

Classic prevent defense situation. I honestly think all those short passes were attempting to goad Seattle back into a traditional defense so they could take shots. Arizona couldn't win with dink and dunk, and I think they knew it, despite their play selection.

Either that, or Palmer is just that limited at this stage in his career. Could be that.

 

[AROS]

Roland, don't make me put you on temporary ignore. Tonight is all about cigars and drinks with the fellow brother and sisterhood of 12's, basking in the glory of knowing we have the best team in franchise history before our eyes.

Tonight we party! Tomorrow we can dissect.

 

[Hasselbeck]

Was a great performance for sure. They were tenacious from the opening series.

 

[PlinytheCenter]

Absolutely beautiful.

 

[thebanjodude]

That's Red's first sack since week 10 of 2011

 

[SirTed]

Oh, and Irvin, even though he doesn't get credit for a sack should get half the credit for Browner's interception.

without a doubt.

I love exotic blitzes and stunts as much as the next guy but that, IMO has more to do with us being ahead, and the fact that we basically discouraged the run completely.

 

[RolandDeschain]

I love our new and improved defense. However, we played some of the softest zone I've ever seen any defense play in my life tonight, just letting them quickly march down the field to get points. I know why we did it, but I still didn't like that.

Regardless, Dan Quinn for president.

Eh, I didn't mind this at all. It took them eight minutes to complete 1.8 drives when they were down three scores. Let them dink and dunk all day in that situation IMO.

That's the thing, though, we were still letting them drive down the field a lot faster than they had been all night against our normal defense. Prevent for a great defense just seems pointless to me. Sure, we stopped them from completing a bunch of 10, 15-yard passes at the hashes where they could go out of bounds, but giving up plays as long as we were each down practically, it wasn't making them take that much time, in the scheme of things.

 

[SE174]

I didn't get to see the game (yet... listened to it on the radio), and 7 sacks is impressive, but keep in mind that AZ's OL sucks worse than our line minus both tackles and center. Not to mention that Palmer takes A LOT of sacks... throughout his career.

 

[SeeHawkRun]

Man, I love me some Chris Clemons. Dude is SERIOUSLY underrated by non-Seahawk followers. I cannot believe that no one seems to mention him as a top-tier pass rusher in this league. Double digit sacks for three consecutive seasons as a DE? Check. Coming back from ACL surgery and picking up exactly where he left off as a 31 year old? Check.

Dude is awesome.

 

[AgentDib]

Prevent for a great defense just seems pointless to me. Sure, we stopped them from completing a bunch of 10, 15-yard passes at the hashes where they could go out of bounds, but giving up plays as long as we were each down practically, it wasn't making them take that much time, in the scheme of things.

What may not have been obvious from the TV broadcast was the number of Cardinals fans booing in the middle of that drive, and many of the people sitting around me got up and began to leave after the 6 yard gain that took 30 seconds off the clock around the 3 minute mark, with phrases such as "Well that's it", "Guess we are throwing in the towel", and "Giving up." I think those Cardinals fans were right to be unhappy about the play calling at the end, and Seahawks fans should have no qualms about a defense that did it exactly what it was supposed to do.

The Cards ran out the clock on themselves taking those short passes in the middle of the field, which is why we were happy to let them have it. Our win probability went up with every short completion, which is worth giving up a few yards and misleading a few analysts who only look at the box scores to think our defense was anything but dominant.

I actually felt bad for the Cards fans. Arians decision to kick the field goal was a Cardinal sin in terms of win probability, and demonstrated that he was willing to trade away win probability in order to minimize point differential. Taking those completions and not stopping the clock with out of bounds routes or spikes just made it even more obvious.

 

[MontanaHawk05]

Correct. A dink-and-dunk drive of short passes is a victory for the defense.

 

[RolandDeschain]

Correct. A dink-and-dunk drive of short passes is a victory for the defense.

We took a couple of minutes off the clock in between their two drives in that 8-minute span. They were basically driving more than half of the field in 3 minutes or less each time. Just a little more effective in/near the red zone, they could have pulled out a win, IMO. It wasn't some super close, barely-won-by-the-skin-of-our-teeth game, but one more big mistake by us and one less by them, we could have walked away with a loss despite spending 80% of the game dominating them tonight.

Now I'll probably get called a whiner for complaining about the win by some people, but that's not what I'm doing. Just contemplating. I'm happy.

 

[AgentDib]

Go back and look at the replay or play by play, I think you may perceive it differently with a closer look.



The dip at the 4 minute mark is when we punt. After that, the Seahawks win probability goes up with each play that the Cardinals run because Arians gave up and decided a sure 12 point loss was more attractive than taking a long shot for a win and likely getting blown out.