Paralleling the 1984 and 2015 Seahawks ...

[babyblues]

Excellent post! Very interesting parallels between the two teams. I'm optimistic that the 2015 team can make a much deeper run in the playoffs. Go Hawks!

 

[raisethe3]

Great post, good read. :th2thumbs:

 

[sutz]

One significant difference between then and now is in coaching. Chuck Knox, for all his successes in the NFL, including taking teams from 3 different divisions and both conferences to the playoffs and even winning divisions, was for some reason not a good playoff coach. He never won a championship, and fairly regularly went one and done in the playoffs.

Pete is better in that regard.

 

[Hawkscanner]

One significant difference between then and now is in coaching. Chuck Knox, for all his successes in the NFL, including taking teams from 3 different divisions and both conferences to the playoffs and even winning divisions, was for some reason not a good playoff coach. He never won a championship, and fairly regularly went one and done in the playoffs.

Pete is better in that regard.

Here's a question I was considering just the other day ...

Chuck Knox was a coach who was as hard nosed and as tough as nail. He was about as gritty and as tough minded as they came. His teams were always really well coached ... and he was known for producing teams who had strong running games (he was known as Ground Chuck) ... and playing tough as nails, hard nosed defense. His defenses played with the same ferocity that burned within him. And he had a reputation for being one of the best coaches in the NFL.

For all his accolades though ... Chuck Knox always seemed to produce 8-8 teams -- teams that were very talented ... but in the end always seemed to never truly be real contenders. He was the epitome of the 8-8 coach ... the guy for whom the brass ring was always perpetually out of reach.

That got me to thinking. Doesn't that describe the coach the Hawks are going to face tomorrow? For all the accolades that he receives, has Jeff Fisher become the Chuck Knox of this era?

 

[hawksfansinceday1]

One significant difference between then and now is in coaching. Chuck Knox, for all his successes in the NFL, including taking teams from 3 different divisions and both conferences to the playoffs and even winning divisions, was for some reason not a good playoff coach. He never won a championship, and fairly regularly went one and done in the playoffs.

Pete is better in that regard.

Here's a question I was considering just the other day ...

Chuck Knox was a coach who was as hard nosed and as tough as nail. He was about as gritty and as tough minded as they came. His teams were always really well coached ... and he was known for producing teams who had strong running games (he was known as Ground Chuck) ... and playing tough as nails, hard nosed defense. His defenses played with the same ferocity that burned within him. And he had a reputation for being one of the best coaches in the NFL.

For all his accolades though ... Chuck Knox always seemed to produce 8-8 teams -- teams that were very talented ... but in the end always seemed to never truly be real contenders. He was the epitome of the 8-8 coach ... the guy for whom the brass ring was always perpetually out of reach.

That got me to thinking. Doesn't that describe the coach the Hawks are going to face tomorrow? For all the accolades that he receives, has Jeff Fisher become the Chuck Knox of this era?

No, Knox was a better coach as his career win pct would attest to (.558 to .520) and taught tough, hard nosed defense WITHOUT resorting to cheap shots.

 

[chris98251]

The problem with Knox is that come playoff time he would not adjust, the better teams knew he would run, they played the run and shut down the go to plays, he never really ever trusted his QB and passing game to win things or change things up to make a defense play both parts of the game, why he got to the dance but never took home the prize.

 

[Hawkscanner]

One significant difference between then and now is in coaching. Chuck Knox, for all his successes in the NFL, including taking teams from 3 different divisions and both conferences to the playoffs and even winning divisions, was for some reason not a good playoff coach. He never won a championship, and fairly regularly went one and done in the playoffs.

Pete is better in that regard.

Here's a question I was considering just the other day ...

Chuck Knox was a coach who was as hard nosed and as tough as nail. He was about as gritty and as tough minded as they came. His teams were always really well coached ... and he was known for producing teams who had strong running games (he was known as Ground Chuck) ... and playing tough as nails, hard nosed defense. His defenses played with the same ferocity that burned within him. And he had a reputation for being one of the best coaches in the NFL.

For all his accolades though ... Chuck Knox always seemed to produce 8-8 teams -- teams that were very talented ... but in the end always seemed to never truly be real contenders. He was the epitome of the 8-8 coach ... the guy for whom the brass ring was always perpetually out of reach.

That got me to thinking. Doesn't that describe the coach the Hawks are going to face tomorrow? For all the accolades that he receives, has Jeff Fisher become the Chuck Knox of this era?

No, Knox was a better coach as his career win pct would attest to (.558 to .520) and taught tough, hard nosed defense WITHOUT resorting to cheap shots.

You're right about the cheap shots and better record.

What I'm saying is -- is that there seems to always be those coaches out there who are in essence teases. They always seem to tantalize you year after year. That eternal hope that's attached to them at the beginning of each season is kind of like the carrot that's dangled before the horse, but is always just out of reach. What have we been saying and hearing since he was hired in St. Louis? When we talk about Jeff Fisher, isn't it always some version of ...

Oh, look out for the Rams. The Rams are an up and coming, dangerous team. Who's the Seahawks main competitor this year for the division crown? (the Rams always seem to enter in to that conversation).

Yet for one reason or another, the Rams never seem to have ever been able to put it together under Fisher.

Marty Schottenheimer was a coach just like that. Is he Marty Schottenheimer? Is he Chuck Knox? Is he a coach who will tease ... but in the end always seems to end up every year like Charlie Brown flat on his back after Lucy once again yanks the football away at the last second? What I'm asking is, "Is for all his talent, and all the accolades that he gets as a defensive mastermind, in the end is Jeff Fisher truly a mediocre coach who will never truly challenge for a Super Bowl title?"

 

[HawKnPeppa]

Here's a question I was considering just the other day ...

Chuck Knox was a coach who was as hard nosed and as tough as nail. He was about as gritty and as tough minded as they came. His teams were always really well coached ... and he was known for producing teams who had strong running games (he was known as Ground Chuck) ... and playing tough as nails, hard nosed defense. His defenses played with the same ferocity that burned within him. And he had a reputation for being one of the best coaches in the NFL.

For all his accolades though ... Chuck Knox always seemed to produce 8-8 teams -- teams that were very talented ... but in the end always seemed to never truly be real contenders. He was the epitome of the 8-8 coach ... the guy for whom the brass ring was always perpetually out of reach.

That got me to thinking. Doesn't that describe the coach the Hawks are going to face tomorrow? For all the accolades that he receives, has Jeff Fisher become the Chuck Knox of this era?

There are some parallels. Chuck wasn't really the trickster that Fisher is, but they were the same in that neither are very good at adjusting. Both very set in their ways. I would rather compare Knox to a redux version of Schottenheimer, because Fisher's low-browed cheapshots, choice of DC, etc do not deserve to be compared with the likes of Chuck Knox.

 

[andyh64000]

Great post OP...

 

[crucifyd]

for the sake of accuracy, the opener wasn't Monday Night Football, it was a Monday afternoon game, but only because of a Sunday scheduling conflict with the Mariners.

 

[Seahawkfan80]

Wow, 1984 was a great year. Thanks for posting this. Awesome stuff there. Kinda forgot that Jim Zorn was relegated to backup duties at that point in his career. Interesting.

 

[bigskydoc]

This is why we can't have nice things around here. Cough, Random Thoughts, cough.

-bsd

 

[Rose City Hawk]

Thank you for this contribution, fabulous work sir. I read the whole post, watched the video (what a walk down memory lane) and look forward to all the comments from the rest of .net. Pumped and Jacked to watch the game now!

Go Hawks!