Rams #16 Seahawks #17 Read it and Weep

[Seymour]

The Rams have to actually beat a good team before I'm impressed.

Careful now.

Jared Goth will sick his girlfriend on you! :twisted:

 

[hawk45]

On paper, yes. This D is loaded with All Pro talent, but IMO the 2012-2013 defense is not only the best Hawk defense of all time, it's a top 2-3 ALL TIME defense.

Look at our PPG, it's slowly gone up each year with this core group on defense.........and these guys are now 5-6 years older, which means slower and more prone to nagging injuries.

It's very hard to have a great OLD defense, and that's what we have now. Still very good, but IMO not great, as we saw Sunday watching them melt and lose their composure in the sun as soon as they encountered adversity. That's not a sign of a great defense.

There's no question our core players are older but I need to see more games. I still think it's possible this D will be one of the best in this era. To my eyes there is very little performance drop-off in Earl, Sherm, Wagner, KJ, Bennett, and Avril. Clark and Richardson are more disruptive than the other starters we had on the 2013 DL. Shaq may be a better CB2 than we've had (too early to tell but looks promising so far).

Yet I'm inclined to agree that this year's D won't rise to 2013 D and to me the reason is Kam's decline. Still a good player, but no longer dealing out game-changing hits nearly every game. The entire character of games would change when he did that. For 2-3 years those hits and his other plays would just take over games at times, esp in the playoffs.

We'll see. It's also possible of course that other core players will struggle to stay healthy a full season due to age.

 

[Sgt. Largent]

On paper, yes. This D is loaded with All Pro talent, but IMO the 2012-2013 defense is not only the best Hawk defense of all time, it's a top 2-3 ALL TIME defense.

Look at our PPG, it's slowly gone up each year with this core group on defense.........and these guys are now 5-6 years older, which means slower and more prone to nagging injuries.

It's very hard to have a great OLD defense, and that's what we have now. Still very good, but IMO not great, as we saw Sunday watching them melt and lose their composure in the sun as soon as they encountered adversity. That's not a sign of a great defense.

There's no question our core players are older but I need to see more games. I still think it's possible this D will be one of the best in this era. To my eyes there is very little performance drop-off in Earl, Sherm, Wagner, KJ, Bennett, and Avril. Clark and Richardson are more disruptive than the other starters we had on the 2013 DL. Shaq may be a better CB2 than we've had (too early to tell but looks promising so far).

Yet I'm inclined to agree that this year's D won't rise to 2013 D and to me the reason is Kam's decline. Still a good player, but no longer dealing out game-changing hits nearly every game. The entire character of games would change when he did that. For 2-3 years those hits and his other plays would just take over games at times, esp in the playoffs.

We'll see. It's also possible of course that other core players will struggle to stay healthy a full season due to age.

The only player I don't see a drop off from that defensive unit is Earl. Everyone else seems a step slower and not quite as ferocious as they once were.

- Sherman is still a great corner, but I don't see the competitive fire ON the field, just a bunch of nonsense. Where are the picks?

- Bennett and Avril look a step slower, and should be DOMINATING right now with Richardson and Clark on the line not allowing teams to double team and chip them. Don't really see the pressures and pocket collapsing like they used to do.

- Where are all the Bam Bam Kam hits that make SC highlight reels? Still a very smart competitor, but Kam is nowhere near that level of feared monster that teams shy away from when scheming.

- Wagner is a toss up. I can listen to arguments that he's the same player he was, but again where are the plays?

Yep, all still early, only game three. But if we're HONESTLY evaluating this group of players using last year and the beginning of this year? Nope, not the same unit. Still good, maybe even great. But I just don't see that ferocious ball hawking speed and ferociousness.

 

[Seymour]

On paper, yes. This D is loaded with All Pro talent, but IMO the 2012-2013 defense is not only the best Hawk defense of all time, it's a top 2-3 ALL TIME defense.

Look at our PPG, it's slowly gone up each year with this core group on defense.........and these guys are now 5-6 years older, which means slower and more prone to nagging injuries.

It's very hard to have a great OLD defense, and that's what we have now. Still very good, but IMO not great, as we saw Sunday watching them melt and lose their composure in the sun as soon as they encountered adversity. That's not a sign of a great defense.

There's no question our core players are older but I need to see more games. I still think it's possible this D will be one of the best in this era. To my eyes there is very little performance drop-off in Earl, Sherm, Wagner, KJ, Bennett, and Avril. Clark and Richardson are more disruptive than the other starters we had on the 2013 DL. Shaq may be a better CB2 than we've had (too early to tell but looks promising so far).

Yet I'm inclined to agree that this year's D won't rise to 2013 D and to me the reason is Kam's decline. Still a good player, but no longer dealing out game-changing hits nearly every game. The entire character of games would change when he did that. For 2-3 years those hits and his other plays would just take over games at times, esp in the playoffs.

We'll see. It's also possible of course that other core players will struggle to stay healthy a full season due to age.

The only player I don't see a drop off from that defensive unit is Earl. Everyone else seems a step slower and not quite as ferocious as they once were.

- Sherman is still a great corner, but I don't see the competitive fire ON the field, just a bunch of nonsense. Where are the picks?

- Bennett and Avril look a step slower, and should be DOMINATING right now with Richardson and Clark on the line not allowing teams to double team and chip them. Don't really see the pressures and pocket collapsing like they used to do.

- Where are all the Bam Bam Kam hits that make SC highlight reels? Still a very smart competitor, but Kam is nowhere near that level of feared monster that teams shy away from when scheming.

- Wagner is a toss up. I can listen to arguments that he's the same player he was, but again where are the plays?

Yep, all still early, only game three. But if we're HONESTLY evaluating this group of players using last year and the beginning of this year? Nope, not the same unit. Still good, maybe even great. But I just don't see that ferocious ball hawking speed and ferociousness.

I agree with much of this...but NOT Wagner.

Let me find him for you.....

 

[Sgt. Largent]

On paper, yes. This D is loaded with All Pro talent, but IMO the 2012-2013 defense is not only the best Hawk defense of all time, it's a top 2-3 ALL TIME defense.

Look at our PPG, it's slowly gone up each year with this core group on defense.........and these guys are now 5-6 years older, which means slower and more prone to nagging injuries.

It's very hard to have a great OLD defense, and that's what we have now. Still very good, but IMO not great, as we saw Sunday watching them melt and lose their composure in the sun as soon as they encountered adversity. That's not a sign of a great defense.

There's no question our core players are older but I need to see more games. I still think it's possible this D will be one of the best in this era. To my eyes there is very little performance drop-off in Earl, Sherm, Wagner, KJ, Bennett, and Avril. Clark and Richardson are more disruptive than the other starters we had on the 2013 DL. Shaq may be a better CB2 than we've had (too early to tell but looks promising so far).

Yet I'm inclined to agree that this year's D won't rise to 2013 D and to me the reason is Kam's decline. Still a good player, but no longer dealing out game-changing hits nearly every game. The entire character of games would change when he did that. For 2-3 years those hits and his other plays would just take over games at times, esp in the playoffs.

We'll see. It's also possible of course that other core players will struggle to stay healthy a full season due to age.

The only player I don't see a drop off from that defensive unit is Earl. Everyone else seems a step slower and not quite as ferocious as they once were.

- Sherman is still a great corner, but I don't see the competitive fire ON the field, just a bunch of nonsense. Where are the picks?

- Bennett and Avril look a step slower, and should be DOMINATING right now with Richardson and Clark on the line not allowing teams to double team and chip them. Don't really see the pressures and pocket collapsing like they used to do.

- Where are all the Bam Bam Kam hits that make SC highlight reels? Still a very smart competitor, but Kam is nowhere near that level of feared monster that teams shy away from when scheming.

- Wagner is a toss up. I can listen to arguments that he's the same player he was, but again where are the plays?

Yep, all still early, only game three. But if we're HONESTLY evaluating this group of players using last year and the beginning of this year? Nope, not the same unit. Still good, maybe even great. But I just don't see that ferocious ball hawking speed and ferociousness.

I agree with much of this...but NOT Wagner.

Let me find him for you.....

I said I'd listen to arguments for Wagner........and yeah he's like Kam 2 year ago, still VERY good and smart at his job, which puts him in position to make a lot of tackles. Btw, your middle LB should always lead the team in tackles.

But I don't see the big hits, tips and gap piercing sacks like we saw a couple years ago.

 

[Seymour]

I said I'd listen to arguments for Wagner........and yeah he's like Kam 2 year ago, still VERY good and smart at his job, which puts him in position to make a lot of tackles. Btw, your middle LB should always lead the team in tackles.

But I don't see the big hits, tips and gap piercing sacks like we saw a couple years ago.

Check the graph again. He was not just leading our team, he lead the entire league and by an unheard of nearly 20 tackles!

 

[T-Hawk]

I think the lack of big hits by Kam can be partially explained away by QBs being smarter about throwing in his area. There was a play last week where he lined up close to the LOS, he shed a block from an OL and stuffed the RB right at the LOS, that's classic Kam. He also had a pick that was negated by penalties. I think he's still a top tier SS.

Along the same line, Sherm doesn't get picks because he doesn't get many opportunities. He doesn't get tested down the sideline ever anymore, the completions on him are short underneath stuff and out routes on the sidelines. He hasn't lost his competitive fire, he still sticks is nose in there in the run game better than any other corner. Also, look at the big hits on Goff and Fitzgerald last year, and the late hit on Mariota last week. Not many corners do that, Sherm definitely still has his edge.

Bennett has been great for 2.5 out of 3 games so far, he's mostly lived in the backfield disrupting everything. He's tied for second in the NFL with 6 TFLs, and he has 2.5 sacks, he's on pace for 13.33 sacks and 32 TFLs, sign me up for that!

Seymour already showed all that needs to be shown about Bobby.

I don't think our defense will be 2013 level, but I think it'll be our best defense since and lead the NFL in points again. We haven't fully clicked yet, but I fully expect a coming out party for the defense this Sunday night in front of a riled up crowd that just watched #45 go up in the rafters.

 

[Missing_Clink]

I mean as far as the Rams go, it's pretty clear that they are an up and coming team with a lot of talent, like the Hawks 6 years ago. The Hawks have peaked and are now on the downside of the slope. Happens to all good teams

 

[Bobblehead]

Well..

CBS also has us in it's latest mock draft, picking 12th.. some obscure LT from some obscure college I"m sure.

 

[SoulfishHawk]

Our chances of playing Alabama in the playoff are dropping quickly.