My semi buzzed post game impressions

[Hawks46]

Once again my caveat is that I watched this in real time, 4 feet away from a very big screen TV and I missed the first series for the Hawks.

My biggest bummer of the night was only getting to see 1 series of Rodgers. Then Graham Harrell almost got their offense into the end zone against our 1s. I didn't need to see much more...the way our offense played, Rodgers would've been ahead comfortably by halftime.

I'll start generally. We have a badass, elite, physical and punishing defense that is very tecnhically sound. I hope you folks aren't looking forward to punishing hits and physicality out of our defense this year because I have bad news: the NFL just isn't going to allow it. From the terrible call against Wagner, to the "WTF" call against Blackmon, then moving on to the retardedly bad call against the Packers on the Brady sack.....the NFL just doesn't want to see guys get hit hard enough to snap their heads around. If the preseason is any indicator, they want that kind of play banned.

Our biggest weakness is our interior OL. I'm actually getting buyer's remorse over shipping Moffitt out, since Sweezy went out and had a craptastic game. McQuistan also got owned in pass pro and pushed off the ball several times in the run game. OG is our biggest weakness on the roster, and it really worries me.

On to the specifics:

To all the guys calling out Turbin as not being good after contact, I beg to differ. And I aint beggin here either. He looked really damned good. Turbin average 5.0 ypc against GB's 1's. He was trucking people and breaking tackles....a couple of times I actually thought it was Lynch out there blowing through people until I saw Turbo get out from the bottom of the pile. Man, we're deep at RB.

Michael looked damned good too. His burst is amazing, and he's going to be great, but I still think he's the 3rd guy. Turbin has a better grasp of the offense, and he looks a bit more polished. When Lynch retires, this is going to be a battle royal over the spot.

McDaniels looked very very domiant when I saw him. He got pushed back when double teamed and they ran the ball right at him, but if you slanted away from him, gave him 1 on 1 for a pass rush, or even tried to power block him man up....he dominates. It's amazing the penetration he gets for being 6'7". I'm not exactly sure how Miami let him go.

Wilson looked a bit off tonight. He ran into at least one sack, and tried to stiff arm a DLman and got dragged down by that arm. I hope he learns that that might work on DB's, but just don't let a 300 lber get his mitts on you. He cut down on the overthrows, but the few I saw were egregious. He's the one guy I think cleans up all his problems by the season.

Our ST's didn't look sharp tonight. That's where we got about half of our penalties. The rest were either our Guards getting dominated, or just dumbassed penalties by our OLmen (Sweezy going all Breno, and the most obvious false start in the world by Okung). There was about 1/3 of our penalties that were completely "WTF's?". I hope this doesn't carry into the reg season.

Holy crap I hope Golden Tate gets to return punts. He has the most exciting 6 yard return I've ever seen. You can get him down within 5 yards, but he's still going to make at least 4 guys miss doing it.

Thurmond looked a lot better out there. Maybe he just needs more reps; Winfield is still way more polished ,but Thurmond is definately a better physical specimen.

Not excited about our run blocking. GB was 17th in the league last year against the run. We didn't punch many holes in their 1st team defensive line. I'm not really carrying Michaels' exploits against 3rd stringers into the regular season as hope.

 

[Happypuppy]

Turbin is terrible after contact. Did you miss in the first series or 2 he could not even get a yard into the stack? Did you see him come off the field when someone removed his shoe with yet another ankle tackle ? Look at his stats from last year in short yardage... Not good. He can get yards when the blocking is good and its open field or he just runs straight ahead carrying people. Most NFL backs can do it.

What Lynch and our new man from Texas do is get yards when there is only a crease. They can get skinny. I have not seen it from Turbin ...he looks more and more like J Jones 2.0. I am not saying he has does not have role, he catches the ball well and as a change of pace back. However he has a low ceiling IMO .


"For a rookie back who averaged a seemingly impressive 4.4 yards per carry, Turbin's tape wasn't so impressive. Strictly as a ball carrier, he's a gets-what's-blocked runner. With few exceptions, I didn't see Turbin add yardage to runs and pass plays with broken tackles or elusiveness. Although Turbin demonstrated some open-field pop when he lowered his shoulder to take defenders head on, his ability to generate yards after contact was disappointing. Albeit in a small sample size, I noticed Turbin was ineffective in short-yardage situations as a rookie. He carried the football four times on third-and-short plays (two yards or fewer), and executed just once for the first down. "

Evan Silva

http://www.rotoworld.com/articles/nfl/4 ... ert-turbin

 

[seatownboy]

Turbin reads runs well and has good burst too get threw the hole. Which is great for a second running back to have and I am happy with that. With that said Michael runs like a starting running back. He might have other problem's but when he is healthy he runs like a pro bowl running back. I want to rag on Turbins pass blocking, but why was he matched up 1v1 against clay Mathews?

 

[razgriz737]

Turbin had a decent game tonight. He has very good hands and good burst.

That being said, Michael sure stole the show tonight in my book. Finally added some excitement to an otherwise dull game.

 

[Hawks46]

Turbin is terrible after contact. Did you miss in the first series or 2 he could not even get a yard into the stack? Did you see him come off the field when someone removed his shoe with yet another ankle tackle ? Look at his stats from last year in short yardage... Not good. He can get yards when the blocking is good and its open field or he just runs straight ahead carrying people. Most NFL backs can do it.

What Lynch and our new man from Texas do is get yards when there is only a crease. They can get skinny. I have not seen it from Turbin ...he looks more and more like J Jones 2.0. I am not saying he has does not have role, he catches the ball well and as a change of pace back. However he has a low ceiling IMO .


"For a rookie back who averaged a seemingly impressive 4.4 yards per carry, Turbin's tape wasn't so impressive. Strictly as a ball carrier, he's a gets-what's-blocked runner. With few exceptions, I didn't see Turbin add yardage to runs and pass plays with broken tackles or elusiveness. Although Turbin demonstrated some open-field pop when he lowered his shoulder to take defenders head on, his ability to generate yards after contact was disappointing. Albeit in a small sample size, I noticed Turbin was ineffective in short-yardage situations as a rookie. He carried the football four times on third-and-short plays (two yards or fewer), and executed just once for the first down. "

Evan Silva

http://www.rotoworld.com/articles/nfl/4 ... ert-turbin

Yup, I get it. Thing is, this is my impressions from watching THIS game, not last game, and not last year. He broke a ton of tackles tonight; I didn't chart it, but from my memory it's upwards of 8. He "trucked" 3 GB DB's. He cut somewhat better (he's still weak on lateral agility), but he moved guys forward. Did he move the pile ? No, but neither did Lynch when he ran into GB's Dlmen. BTW, GB's DL (whoo, 3 acronyms in a row!) averages around 325. Not many RB's are gonna shove that guy backwards. Ask Russell Wilson. He thought he could stiffarm one of them and got his ass dragged down backwards.

Watching Michael blast into the DL was much the same. If any of our RB's didn't get blocked well and ran into a DLman, they got stuffed. Lynch and Turbin moved LBers backwards at times. Michael victimized a bunch of DB's; I'd have to rewatch the game to see if he trucked any LBers.

I also started my post with "i missed the 1st Seahawks series". From then on, Turbin really surprised me, as he wasn't reminiscent of last year at all, or even last preseason game where he got taken down by two single arm tackles.

 

[Steve2222]

I beg to differ it being a battle royale. Michael is clearly on another level than Turbin.

 

[YaktownHawK]

What I see with Turbin is that he has a hard time making the 1st defender miss, and is easily taken down in one on one situations as well as leg tackles. It seems everytime someone grabs a foot Turbin easily goes down. He needs to gain some strenth in the lower half and be able to break those. Which by the way is a strength of both ML and CM.

 

[Mick063]

Love watching the team.

They are not going to clown stomp every team long the way. Road games will always be tougher. There will be an unexpected loss or two. Young teams will make mistakes.

But......the pieces are all there. Punching a ticket to post season is the goal. Playing at least one at home increases the odds.

It is going to be a great ride. Soak it all in and just enjoy it.

 

[RolandDeschain]

Sorry Turbin, but Michael is blowing things up right now. Need to see him get a half-load each game during the regular season to see what he can do against real defenses.

 

[hawker84]

after watching Turbin and Michael against Denver and now GB, there is no doubt in my mind, Michael is the better running back, turbin is a good back up indeed, but he should be backing up lynch and Michael, and Michael when he eventually gets the starting job after lynch departs.

Nothing against turbin, but theres no comparison in talent and speed between those two, Michael to me is clearly the better back.

Sweezy and McQuinton got owned, bad all night. And that bonehead penalty on Sweezy was just dumb, Pete needs to put a stop to that crap ASAP.

Liked what i saw from Bennett tonight, but our defensive line is getting gashed in the running game and that needs to be fixed..

I love Wags, but he clearly can not cover a tight end or back, how do we adjust for that?

Sherman had a couple more catches on him and the PI, but i still like what i see from the Legion.

RW looked ok, but made some rookie mistakes, I fully expect him to clean that up by Carolina, the offense just looks vanilla as hell, boring actually to watch at this point.

Overall, was not happy about the game at all, Rogers had his way with us, and had he stayed in the regular 3 qrts, i'm sure we'd have lost that game handedly. The defense just does not bring the intensity on the road, that worries me a bit.. Offense, recievers still having problems getting seperation, love what i saw from Williams again, He's definately on the roster, great third down catch and run, and the TD, wow.

Noticed MRob didn't play all game, didn't know he was out.

Lynch looked like he's in mid season form

Too many stupid penalties that killed drives, got to get that under control now. Plus IMO the ref's are out of control this year, man i hope the reel it back a bit once the season starts..

 

[AROS]

For me it's not even close. Michael is by far the better RB over Turbin.

 

[CaptainSkybeard]

I think Michael should definitely be the backup on the depth chart. That would make Turbin maybe the best third string RB in the NFL. Depth!!

 

[TJH]

Turbin might be the most overrated player on this whole board. He's top heavy with weak legs and runs with a soft mentality. Michael is already miles ahead.

 

[CaptainSkybeard]

Nobody should be surprised Michael looks better. Look at where they were drafted.

Turbin is a solid runner, it the other stuff I worry about. When he's in protection and when he's catching.

I still have nightmares about that awesome pass he dropped in SF last year near the sideline. I think he makes that catch, we win, and win the division... Play the Atlanta game at home... Etc etc.

 

[RolandDeschain]

Nobody should be surprised Michael looks better. Look at where they were drafted.

There is not a team in the league where this matters less than the Seattle Seahawks.

 

[JSeahawks]

Nobody should be surprised Michael looks better. Look at where they were drafted.

There is not a team in the league where this matters less than the Seattle Seahawks.

But it is a hint to their skill level, which is what I believe Skybeard was pointing out.

 

[-The Glove-]

Nobody should be surprised Michael looks better. Look at where they were drafted.

Turbin is a solid runner, it the other stuff I worry about. When he's in protection and when he's catching.

I still have nightmares about that awesome pass he dropped in SF last year near the sideline. I think he makes that catch, we win, and win the division... Play the Atlanta game at home... Etc etc.

Brady Quinn was drafted in the 1st RD. RW in the 3rd. Just saying. Draft position doesn't matter

 

[RolandDeschain]

But it is a hint to their skill level, which is what I believe Skybeard was pointing out.

It's more of an indicator as to how big of a school they played at than their skill, I'd say.

 

[CaptainSkybeard]

Nobody should be surprised Michael looks better. Look at where they were drafted.

Turbin is a solid runner, it the other stuff I worry about. When he's in protection and when he's catching.

I still have nightmares about that awesome pass he dropped in SF last year near the sideline. I think he makes that catch, we win, and win the division... Play the Atlanta game at home... Etc etc.

Brady Quinn was drafted in the 1st RD. RW in the 3rd. Just saying. Draft position doesn't matter

Oh I agree. But when you are talking about two players both drafted by PC/JS I think it holds some weight.

A PC/JS 3rd round pick is a lot different than a Jacksonville jaguars third round pick, for instance.

 

[JSeahawks]

But it is a hint to their skill level, which is what I believe Skybeard was pointing out.

It's more of an indicator as to how big of a school they played at than their skill, I'd say.

#1 overall pick Eric Fisher from Central Michigan disagrees. With scouting these days it doesn't matter where they play.