The Elephant in the room......

[Hawknballs]

Yup.

Everyone wondered what RW would look like without wheels and we are seeing it.

He is not BAD by any means; the real problem is that he has an offense around him built for a QB who can move.

The reason we re-singed Kearse is because of his ability to find his way open for a QB buying time, and because he's a very good blocker on the edge when RW needs to go. Baldwin has many of those qualities also. Our O-line wouldn't have been nearly as neglected.

We are lucky to be 4-1, both because of the PI non-call this game and because of some of the injury challenges we've faced this season.

 

[RichNhansom]

Here's the real elephant in the room...

Russell Wilson isn't close to 100%.

It's OK saying this and that about the run game but completely taking away Wilson as a running threat has removed the read option and he helps with his own collection of explosive (+12yd) runs.

Plus teams are taking the approach that a hurt Wilson can beat them -- but their best chance to win is to try and take away the run and see if he can. He burned the Jets and ultimately worked the Falcons. But that's still the best way to stop this offense right now -- take away the run and force Wilson to throw. It's a good job he's insanely brilliant.

This is my line of thinking also. If Wilson were healthy and mobile C-mike has much more success.

I also believe the reason Michael has had so much problems is his mental mistakes. He looks great on some runs but makes dumb mistakes like forgetting where the 1st down marker is and those mistakes kill our momentum. After paying closer attention to C-Mike I feel I understand better why he has struggled in the NFL. The talent is there but the brain isn't.

We really need Collins to figure it out. If he does I think C-Mike will quickly get relegated to back up again.

It kind of sucks to see so much talent get wasted though.

 

[seedhawk]

I would say the true elephant in the room is, RW has now won 50 games, and 20 of those wins involve either a 4th quarter or overtime winning drive. That is an unbelievable statistic, and also not a metric that is sustainable.

 

[RichNhansom]

I would say the true elephant in the room is, RW has now won 50 games, and 20 of those wins involve either a 4th quarter or overtime winning drive. That is an unbelievable statistic, and also not a metric that is sustainable.

He also won another game were the opponent scored at least 24. You think Equapo is impressed?

 

[hawker84]

Let's also not forget the first down drops by Graham and stone hand spiller. Not saying he has stone hands always but he did yesterday, and the drops by those two were absolute momentum killers. Russ was off on a couple throws as well, but all in all I thought the offense looked pretty good most of the game.

 

[MontanaHawk05]

Here's the real elephant in the room...

Russell Wilson isn't close to 100%.

It's OK saying this and that about the run game but completely taking away Wilson as a running threat has removed the read option and he helps with his own collection of explosive (+12yd) runs.

Plus teams are taking the approach that a hurt Wilson can beat them -- but their best chance to win is to try and take away the run and see if he can. He burned the Jets and ultimately worked the Falcons. But that's still the best way to stop this offense right now -- take away the run and force Wilson to throw. It's a good job he's insanely brilliant.

I don't think it has anything to do with his injuries, actually. People were commenting during the preseason on how much slower he looked.

 

[NINEster]

I would say the true elephant in the room is, RW has now won 50 games, and 20 of those wins involve either a 4th quarter or overtime winning drive. That is an unbelievable statistic, and also not a metric that is sustainable.

He also won another game were the opponent scored at least 24. You think Equapo is impressed?

I haven't spoken with him yet, but I will point it out....2 wins all time.

I will admit I saw the 24 points on the Falcons scoreboard and got nervously excited.

 

[Ozzy]

They played a 2 deep zone with their safeties and we took what we were given. We needed the running game to get going to stress that defense and it never really did for a few different reasons. The explosive plays will be there. I saw some good things from Ifedi in run blocking and I think as the line gets better, Wilson gets healthier it will open things up.

 

[theENGLISHseahawk]

Here's the real elephant in the room...

Russell Wilson isn't close to 100%.

It's OK saying this and that about the run game but completely taking away Wilson as a running threat has removed the read option and he helps with his own collection of explosive (+12yd) runs.

Plus teams are taking the approach that a hurt Wilson can beat them -- but their best chance to win is to try and take away the run and see if he can. He burned the Jets and ultimately worked the Falcons. But that's still the best way to stop this offense right now -- take away the run and force Wilson to throw. It's a good job he's insanely brilliant.

I don't think it has anything to do with his injuries, actually. People were commenting during the preseason on how much slower he looked.

I don't recall those conversations, must've missed them. I'm not sure how anyone can judge Wilson's speed during pre-season when he won't be doing barely any proper running to avoid injury.

He's clearly hurt and hampered. He's not just suddenly slower.

 

[Sterling Archer]

I would say the true elephant in the room is, RW has now won 50 games, and 20 of those wins involve either a 4th quarter or overtime winning drive. That is an unbelievable statistic, and also not a metric that is sustainable.

He also won another game were the opponent scored at least 24. You think Equapo is impressed?

I haven't spoken with him yet, but I will point it out....2 wins all time.

I will admit I saw the 24 points on the Falcons scoreboard and got nervously excited.

Ah yes, the days of fandom when your team is so horrendous all you can do is find pleasure in another teams demise. So sorry to disappoint you. Funny that the 2 wins have come the last two years when Pete has finally allowed Russell and the offense to open up. If needed, we'll be seeing a lot more of these wins and you will have less justification to grab onto.

 

[Sgt. Largent]

There's no elephants in the room, it's a fairly simple equation.

1. Russell's not 100%, so defenses not having to respect his escapability and running and just send 8-9 guys at the line to stop the run and pressure Russell is hurting the run.

2. For as much a Michael has improved, he's not a workhorse and every down back. He's just not. Great change of pace back.......but this offense is predicated on having a workhorse RB that can punish defenses and wear them down in the 4th quarter. Not even sure we have a workhorse back on he roster yet. I hope it's Rawls, but he hasn't proven anything.

Bad news good news.

bad news is it's probably not going to get any better cause Russell probably won't be 100% maybe even the rest of the year. Good news is we're still winning and this offense CAN and should be dynamic enough to score 24-30 pts a game even without a 4 yards per carry run game.

 

[Sgt. Largent]

Oh, and the real elephant in the room is why is this defensive backfield with all it's experience of playing together STILL having "miscommunications we need to clean up?"

 

[Flyingsquad23]

I would say the true elephant in the room is, RW has now won 50 games, and 20 of those wins involve either a 4th quarter or overtime winning drive. That is an unbelievable statistic, and also not a metric that is sustainable.

93 consecutive game the Hawks have been tied or within one score.....seems sustainable to me

As far as Cmike goes he had 8 total carries in the second half against a stacked box and one of those was a TD, not sure what you want from him, if Atl doesn't get three TD's in the 3rd Cmike probably gets at least 15 carries and maybe he gets stuffed or maybe he breaks one for a 50 yard td and everyone here is loving him. Perspective people there is a middle between great/terrible.

 

[Anonymous]

It's what English said.

No, it's what brim said about what English said.

:mrgreen:

 

[edogg23]

We were playing another cover 3 team build like the Seahawks but with less talent. They were giving us the middle of the field all day long for short passes whenever we wanted them. They were trying to take away the deep ball. If anything we should have kept hitting those more.

 

[LeftHandSmoke]

We were playing another cover 3 team build like the Seahawks but with less talent. They were giving us the middle of the field all day long for short passes whenever we wanted them. They were trying to take away the deep ball. If anything we should have kept hitting those more.

Much like how the Seahawks try to force the game.

ADB and TL being hobbled leaves few other guys for the defense to worry about. Lock Graham up and who's left besides the RB?

That said, they were a missed EP and a missed FG from putting up 30 points on the Falcons despite it, which suggests there's a high ceiling to this offense.

 

[Flyingsquad23]

3 rushing TD's...... Terrible day

Three short rushing TDs... and only 2.7 ypc.

TDs don't define anything. That's Fantasy Football.

The running game clearly needs work.

Last time I checked, teams don't get W's for yards gained but for scoring the most points. So really TD's clearly define something. The Hawks rush game successfully converted three run plays into three touchdowns.....

 

[jlwaters1]

The idea that we "kept trying to run" is mistaken. We passed 37 times and ran 21. If anything, running MORE would have made us more balanced.

Maybe we were watching different games. But the running game wasn't happening yesterday. They were giving us 5-8 yards on little swing passes to the RB all day long. The drives which stalled always featured us trying to run it several times, we'd get 1-3 yards and be left in 3rd and long.
To make matters worse we had some horrific execution problems on 3rd down in the 3rd QTR with Wilson missing a wide open Lockett (after ATL's first TD), Then Michael foolishly not turning it upfield hard on 3rd and short. We only had 3 drives in the 3rd QTR.

 

[mrt144]

Even with an ailing wilson he was 67% and set up one of the scores with a pass to spiller. the touch passes are proving difficult and sailing high.

 

[lobohawk]

Think it's due to the running game issues. Wilson with bad wheels is no longer hiding the mediocre run game and without that threat, other teams don't have to commit to stopping the run too much.

Posted in another thread.

Removing Russell's rushing total and the Hawks subsequent ranking.
2010 31st
2011 21st
2012 9th
2013 22nd
2014 12th
2015 18th
2016 28th

Ranking, including Russell's rushing
2010 31st < Beast
2011 21st < Beast
2012 3rd < Beast & Wilson
2013 4th < Beast & Wilson
2014 1st < Beast & Wilson
2015 3rd < Wilson
2016 25th