Those who were at the game yeterday...

[Hawknballs]

Know that Wilson/The offense "bad day" passing the ball wasn't nearly the doom and gloom I'm seeing on the board. For the first 3 quarters the wind was a huge factor. When it was with you it was ok but still unpredictable. Against you it was noticeable that any balls thrown much over player's heads were not on target. Brees only had 104 yards himself before the 4th quarter when the wind had died down and what little there was, was going his direction. Basically a third of his total yards came after the Seahawks had gone up 23-8 (thanks in part to a clutch throw and catch by Wilson/Baldwin). I bring this up because so far I've talked to a couple people who watched the game on TV but didn't seem to think the wind was as huge a factor as it was. Any QB will tell you that of all the elements, rain, wind, snow, sheer cold, etc. wind is by far the most difficult to deal with.

I'm not trying to make excuses for Wilson and the offense, as there are some plays he and the receivers just missed. Receivers are having a hard time finding separation, and our O-line is far from giving Wilson a comfortable pocket. But there is also something to be said for going up against good defenses.

Defenses the past 6 games:

(Team, defense ranking / pass d ranking / pts/game)

NO - 4th/2nd/4th
SF - 5th/7th/3rd
NYG - 8th/10th/18th (mostly due to eli interceptions)
AZ - 6th/14th/7th
STL - 15th/19th/13th (not great rankings but have seemed to match up against us and cause problems the last two years)
NO - 4th/2nd/4th

When you're a run-first team that doesn't try to do anything too out of the box you're going to have games like we've had.

Yesterday's game was against a good D, and when you add the weather elements to everything I think we should count ourselves lucky to have Beast Mode running the ball so Wilson doesn't have to take many shots. The fact that he had to only attempt 18 throws is a good thing IMO. Going against the 2nd ranked pass defense in a game with a significant wind factor, I just appreciate the fact that we took care of the football.

Drew Brees yards by quarter:

1st (against the wind)

19

2nd (with the wind)

14

3rd (with the wind as it was dying down)

71

4th (against the wind, but the wind had died down quite a bit; Seattle was also trying to protect a two score lead)

187; (96 yards after the seahawks went up 23-8 and basically had put the game away and were playing zone defense)


Wilson:

1st (with the wind)

5 for 21 yards

2nd (against the wind)

4 for 37

3rd (against the wind - it was obvious we were just trying to get through this quarter running and milking the clock and putting the Saints against the wind in the 4th. No risks were taken by Wilson. Passes were incomplete, but they were pretty much just safe passes)

3 for 0

4th (with the wind but it had died down)

6 for 35 (clutch pass to Baldwin when it was needed)


I'm not saying that our offense doesn't need to play better; they do. But yesterday, they did exactly what they needed to do to win this game against the saints. They ran minutes off the clock, just about even with the Saints as far as TOP - even though the Saints actually had two more possessions than the Seahawks did. I think it's fair to look at the past 6 games and feel like our O hasn't been very prolific. Wilson with 7 TD's and 3 INTs in a stretch of 6 games against top D's isn't horrible either though when you're a team that runs the ball.

 

[Uncle Si]

Good assessment. And I agree Wilson was limited by the staff to maintain the lead and put the d in the most advantageous position...

Still there are some thing missing of late. I think we will need a few big passes from Wilson to win on Sunday... Honestly if he plays as well as he did in San Fran we should win...and not many thought that was a good game

 

[i5roadrunner]

I was there and the wind was just nasty! I'm shocked anyone was able to make a field goal.

 

[loafoftatupu]

The wind definitely kept Wilson from throwing anything deep. It was BAD for anything deep. Yet that won't stop any experts from getting all over the Niners this week. They will talk about how poorly Wilson played and how great that Kaeperstank is. Get used to it, these guys have all the numbers in the world, but never count the outside factors.

 

[SoCalSeahawk]

The Seahawks did not throw in that mess because they didn't have to. The Saints did have to chance it and Brees threw two interceptions...except the Seahawks forgot to catch them and even tipped one into a 50 yard gain for super scrub Meacham. The game plan was sound, the LOB played great, but they did fail to deliver the kill shot once they forced Drew Brees to challenge our strength.

 

[Hawknballs]

rewatched this game and it was even more obvious.

We called and played a conservative game.

I would like to see the following out of our offense:

1.) Consistent protection. Our Oline has been great at times, ok at others, and down right bad. To me, a 'comfortable' pocket is a consistent one, not one that holds up fine some plays and completely falls apart on others. Any QB would rather have a fair amount of time to pass every time then an overabundance sometimes, and none the next.

2.) better receiver separation. They dont' seem to be finding the holes in defenses like they used too. what's changed? likely the defenses , so we need to hit the film hard and find a way to adjust.

3.) time for Wilson to play his game. I've felt like he's too hesitant to make plays with his feet lately. He needs to trust his instincts and just go when he sees some yards. Not only is it better than an incompletion, it gives the defense something to think about.

 

[mrinsatiable]

Great assessment. I was there..and it was "wild weather" anything in the air a risky play. Not all games will be that windy. We still need the offense to put points on the board.

 

[Spiderdan]

I'm amused by the people talking about how good the 49ers offense was and how bad our offense was over the weekend. We both scored the same amount of points, the 9ers only had 33 more yards of offense than us. The 49ers were playing in perfect conditions, we were playing in a storm.

 

[twelthmanfan]

Was at game and the wind was crazy at time. Rain would move from the south end zone to the north end zone at a high rate of speed. It was crazy and in the 4th it died down. I believe our offense was being limited as well. Don't make any mistakes.

 

[TXHawkFan]

I've been to around 50 games at Qwest/CLink and this game may have had the worst playing conditions of any I've seen. Brees was throwing some ugly looking passes too for much of the game.

The gameplan was obviously to play conservatively in those conditions and ultimately it worked.

 

[HawkFan72]

Carroll does things differently than a lot of coaches. He doesn't care what the media or the fans talk about after the game. All he cares about is doing what gives him the best chance to win by at least one point.

He doesn't care that all week we will be talking about how the Offense looks terrible. You can tell he doesn't care by the way the game went.

It was a specific gameplan that once we were up by 16 in the first half, they played conservatively. In that weather, the ONLY way the Saints were going to win was for them to get some turnovers in our territory. The Offense went into full prevent mode. Hang on to the ball at all costs.

Now, obviously the 3rd down failures were not by design. That is the area that needs to improve. We have to convert on 3rd down and it would have been much more of a lopsided game. The drops by Tate hurt and the fact that the Saints shut down the bootleg took a lot of options away. If the Seahawks can convert on 3rd down, it's not even close.