MontanaHawk05
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- Joined
- May 1, 2009
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So the defense that has clamped down on Tony Romo, Aaron Rodgers, Tom Brady, Cam Newton, and Alex Smith is suddenly "overrated" because of one loss? It's "terrible on third down" because it's played against a lot of excellent 3rd-down QB's (which, BTW, is part of the definition of an elite QB)? Seven good games get erased by the eighth?
Am I the only one who thinks this is just a tad bit overreactionary? I'm not gonna buy it. Plenty of other explanations.
People were silly from the beginning to think that this offense was nothing more than Calvin Johnson bailing out a terrible QB. Matt Stafford won this game on the back of uber-accurate passes into great coverage. There are plays that even the best defense can't reliably beat, and Stafford had a bunch of them today. This was the 8th-ranked DVOA offense. It is not embarrassing to lose to them. Young and Broyles on a team with Megaton, Pettigrew, and Scheffler could make this a scary offense for years to come.
(Imagine if we had that many weapons, instead of Charly Martin and Golden "Let's Get Cute" Tate. Sheesh, 7 catches and he still manages to make most of them pointless. STRETCH FOR THE FIRST DOWN AND QUIT HASSELTOSSING, YOU AWKWARD ROLE-PLAYER.)
And not all of Stafford's passes took him five seconds to establish, so don't blame the pass rush for ALL of them. If you're gonna look there, remember that Jason Jones' absence counts for a lot. We were all grumbling about the lack of interior pressure from a good 3-tech last ye4ar - well, today we reverted to that ineffective play and our secondary couldn't cope. But Stafford also made some awesome stick throws into tight coverage today that would have been hard to defend by anyone. Tom Brady made similar throws. I didn't see anyone calling our D "underrated" then. We're just labeling this defense based purely on whether we won or lost.
My inevitable takeaway: This was the most NFL-ish game the Seahawks have played in a long time. A "normal" score instead of a collection of field goals. Actual scoring. No glaring issues that can't be mitigated by better health. No ill effects from youth, self-destruction, or general lack of talent or identity. Just a throwdown by two increasingly complete teams. Sustained scoring by both sides. Spotty but good execution on both sides. Both teams wanting it, playing hard despite losing players. Both QB's proving they can marshal fourth-quarter scoring drives. And in the end, the game came down to whichever team had the last word in the fourth-quarter, and whose injuries were more crucial. That team was Seattle, despite hanging tough with real points in a ROAD game. It felt more like an NFL playoff game than any game Seattle has played under Russell Wilson yet.
Big positives:
* Clutch conversions on the 4th-qtr drive by a pocket-climbing Wilson. QBOTF play from him today despite missing Doug Baldwin AND Braylon Edwards. On the road.
* Almost no penalties. On the road.
* D held Stafford to a merely okay 7.2, further proving that they forced Stafford to earn every yard of this game (he was simply up to the challenge). On the road.
* Zach Miller finally showing up. On the road.
* Further chemistry between RW and Sidney Rice. On the road.
* Run defense floundered early but quickly got their feet back under them. On the road.
* Lynch ran hard and broke 100 yards again. On the road.
* We lost by only four points. On the road.
* Did I mention this was all on the road?
So let's just...simmer down, folks. I know this was a must-win conference game, but for the millionth time, it was rich to expect this team to compete in the playoffs with such few offensive weapons. We'll get there. And the run game/defense will still be here.
And for those of you silly enough to actually put Pete on a hot seat...seriously, you have an estrogen buildup somewhere. Go to a specialist and get it drained or something.
Am I the only one who thinks this is just a tad bit overreactionary? I'm not gonna buy it. Plenty of other explanations.
People were silly from the beginning to think that this offense was nothing more than Calvin Johnson bailing out a terrible QB. Matt Stafford won this game on the back of uber-accurate passes into great coverage. There are plays that even the best defense can't reliably beat, and Stafford had a bunch of them today. This was the 8th-ranked DVOA offense. It is not embarrassing to lose to them. Young and Broyles on a team with Megaton, Pettigrew, and Scheffler could make this a scary offense for years to come.
(Imagine if we had that many weapons, instead of Charly Martin and Golden "Let's Get Cute" Tate. Sheesh, 7 catches and he still manages to make most of them pointless. STRETCH FOR THE FIRST DOWN AND QUIT HASSELTOSSING, YOU AWKWARD ROLE-PLAYER.)
And not all of Stafford's passes took him five seconds to establish, so don't blame the pass rush for ALL of them. If you're gonna look there, remember that Jason Jones' absence counts for a lot. We were all grumbling about the lack of interior pressure from a good 3-tech last ye4ar - well, today we reverted to that ineffective play and our secondary couldn't cope. But Stafford also made some awesome stick throws into tight coverage today that would have been hard to defend by anyone. Tom Brady made similar throws. I didn't see anyone calling our D "underrated" then. We're just labeling this defense based purely on whether we won or lost.
My inevitable takeaway: This was the most NFL-ish game the Seahawks have played in a long time. A "normal" score instead of a collection of field goals. Actual scoring. No glaring issues that can't be mitigated by better health. No ill effects from youth, self-destruction, or general lack of talent or identity. Just a throwdown by two increasingly complete teams. Sustained scoring by both sides. Spotty but good execution on both sides. Both teams wanting it, playing hard despite losing players. Both QB's proving they can marshal fourth-quarter scoring drives. And in the end, the game came down to whichever team had the last word in the fourth-quarter, and whose injuries were more crucial. That team was Seattle, despite hanging tough with real points in a ROAD game. It felt more like an NFL playoff game than any game Seattle has played under Russell Wilson yet.
Big positives:
* Clutch conversions on the 4th-qtr drive by a pocket-climbing Wilson. QBOTF play from him today despite missing Doug Baldwin AND Braylon Edwards. On the road.
* Almost no penalties. On the road.
* D held Stafford to a merely okay 7.2, further proving that they forced Stafford to earn every yard of this game (he was simply up to the challenge). On the road.
* Zach Miller finally showing up. On the road.
* Further chemistry between RW and Sidney Rice. On the road.
* Run defense floundered early but quickly got their feet back under them. On the road.
* Lynch ran hard and broke 100 yards again. On the road.
* We lost by only four points. On the road.
* Did I mention this was all on the road?
So let's just...simmer down, folks. I know this was a must-win conference game, but for the millionth time, it was rich to expect this team to compete in the playoffs with such few offensive weapons. We'll get there. And the run game/defense will still be here.
And for those of you silly enough to actually put Pete on a hot seat...seriously, you have an estrogen buildup somewhere. Go to a specialist and get it drained or something.
