I have more time than I used to and since Kearly is taking a break (its just a break, right Kearly?) I thought I would start contributing a bit to the board outside of the political forum.
I sometimes saw things differently than Kearly and Im not presenting myself as an expert by any means. But its a good jumping off spot for conversation and since I have the time to watch the games now more than once and some people dont.. its fun to share extra things you might notice. Most people are probably like me..the first time through I watch the ball when I watch the game. The second, third time I watch other things and learn a lot more about what is really happening. Sometimes individual plays I may watch 10 times trying to figure out where everyone came from and how they ended up where they were.
Anyway.. here are my Smoke Signals on the game:
My game ball goes to Zach Miller. He did it all. He played FB, springing long runs by Lynch. Converted a couple of 3rd downs. Blocked on first and second levels on plays he lined up as an in line blocker, and generally knew when and how much to chip the rusher before going out for the pass. Nothing sexy, but so valuable.
The Seahawks ran 2 TE, 1 WR sets quite a bit and I was surprised to see that in that formation the WR they leave in is Kearse. I would have guessed Tate. Kearse did the job though, throwing effective down field blocks.
There has been some debate about whether or our WRs get seperation. This game sort of clinches it for me. I dont think they do. There are times Wilson is getting time, even creating time and directing traffic..but still ends up having to throw it away. HOWEVER, though they arent getting seperation per se, I think our WRs kind of specialize in winning the battle when the ball is in the air. Baldwin will grab it from anywhere and Tate and Kearse seem to come down with nearly every jump ball. Defenses have adjusted how they play Seattles WRs this year, I think Wilson is going to have to do more of what he has been starting to do some: just throw it up and trust them to get. They dont need 2 yards to be "open".
We arent getting the production we should from our pass rushers and I think its because..we are using too many pass rushers. We had 3 sacks..one was from Glennon tripping over the feet of a blocker whod been pushed back. With Avril, Clemons, Irvin, Bennet, etc youd think we could expect more. We are blitzing to get sacks generally and we shouldnt have to. I think essentially theyve gone too light on the line. Even in pass rushing situations a big body collapsing the middle or demanding help in the middle would benefit the edge rushers but against the Bucs, especially in the first half, it was 4 under sized edge guys on the whole line. Making it worse, our game plan seemed to expect a lot more passes than their were: we often had pass rushing D-lines in on 1st and 10, 2nd and 6. I would like to no the number of snaps Mebane played.. as a percentage it was very low , especially in the first half.
Sweezy gets beat by delayed blitzes consistently. If you want to get to Russel Wilson every time then do what the Bucs did a few times.. Put 2 DTs in the 1 gaps, 2 DEs over the 5 or 6 gaps.. creating space. With no one in front of him immediately Sweezy unfailingly will help Unger. Then a delayed blitzer will come through where he just was. he must know it by now, surely after the Cardinals game he was told (the first game I watched and noticed)..but he cant help himself at this point. It has to get better.
McQ is awful. Total regression. Even when he played at LG for a while he was a turnstile. After plays where his guy gets Wilson you can see him apologizing and feeling awful. Its in his head now.
Football is always a game of inches, and this game was no exception. The Bucs td off of a James jump pass, a la Tebow, didnt fool Wagner. You can see him read it, stop, wait for the ball, jump..and just miss it. If he times his jump better or gets better air we would be talking about his genius. Brandon Browner on a 3rd and 8 play makes a beautiful read as well, leaving "his" guy..but just a moment to late.
How frustrated is Revis? Probably still a premier man coverage guy stuck in zone defense so much?
Bailey isnt a great LT, but he is better than McQ at this point.
On Wilson's 2nd int, he had Kearse for a TD and Tate for a possible one but , in a rare instance for him, he locked on one guy.
Overall impressions:
I think the run stopping woes are game planning problems, not ability problems. Wanting to get more out of the pass rushers we have, we seem to be expecting pass all the time. I think we need to go back to base defense more on first and second downs, keep the edge guys on the edge and plug the middle. Our LBs fly around but they arent good at getting off blocks, except perhaps KJ Wright. They need to be protected more. With the Legion of Boom in the back we shouldnt NEED 4 pass rush specialists out there at the same time. one at a time, but rotating so they are always fresh is ideal I would think.
The o line didnt allow sacks and did really well against the run, but there is no deep run in January if we dont get better there. I owe an apology to MRob.. I had undervalued him. He had a great game out of the FB position , as did Miller when he lined up there. It was night and day compared to earlier in the season.
Well, Im off to dinner. I apologize for a presumptuous post but I miss the conversation starter that was Kearly's post, even when I disagreed. I am sure many of you saw it different.
I sometimes saw things differently than Kearly and Im not presenting myself as an expert by any means. But its a good jumping off spot for conversation and since I have the time to watch the games now more than once and some people dont.. its fun to share extra things you might notice. Most people are probably like me..the first time through I watch the ball when I watch the game. The second, third time I watch other things and learn a lot more about what is really happening. Sometimes individual plays I may watch 10 times trying to figure out where everyone came from and how they ended up where they were.
Anyway.. here are my Smoke Signals on the game:
My game ball goes to Zach Miller. He did it all. He played FB, springing long runs by Lynch. Converted a couple of 3rd downs. Blocked on first and second levels on plays he lined up as an in line blocker, and generally knew when and how much to chip the rusher before going out for the pass. Nothing sexy, but so valuable.
The Seahawks ran 2 TE, 1 WR sets quite a bit and I was surprised to see that in that formation the WR they leave in is Kearse. I would have guessed Tate. Kearse did the job though, throwing effective down field blocks.
There has been some debate about whether or our WRs get seperation. This game sort of clinches it for me. I dont think they do. There are times Wilson is getting time, even creating time and directing traffic..but still ends up having to throw it away. HOWEVER, though they arent getting seperation per se, I think our WRs kind of specialize in winning the battle when the ball is in the air. Baldwin will grab it from anywhere and Tate and Kearse seem to come down with nearly every jump ball. Defenses have adjusted how they play Seattles WRs this year, I think Wilson is going to have to do more of what he has been starting to do some: just throw it up and trust them to get. They dont need 2 yards to be "open".
We arent getting the production we should from our pass rushers and I think its because..we are using too many pass rushers. We had 3 sacks..one was from Glennon tripping over the feet of a blocker whod been pushed back. With Avril, Clemons, Irvin, Bennet, etc youd think we could expect more. We are blitzing to get sacks generally and we shouldnt have to. I think essentially theyve gone too light on the line. Even in pass rushing situations a big body collapsing the middle or demanding help in the middle would benefit the edge rushers but against the Bucs, especially in the first half, it was 4 under sized edge guys on the whole line. Making it worse, our game plan seemed to expect a lot more passes than their were: we often had pass rushing D-lines in on 1st and 10, 2nd and 6. I would like to no the number of snaps Mebane played.. as a percentage it was very low , especially in the first half.
Sweezy gets beat by delayed blitzes consistently. If you want to get to Russel Wilson every time then do what the Bucs did a few times.. Put 2 DTs in the 1 gaps, 2 DEs over the 5 or 6 gaps.. creating space. With no one in front of him immediately Sweezy unfailingly will help Unger. Then a delayed blitzer will come through where he just was. he must know it by now, surely after the Cardinals game he was told (the first game I watched and noticed)..but he cant help himself at this point. It has to get better.
McQ is awful. Total regression. Even when he played at LG for a while he was a turnstile. After plays where his guy gets Wilson you can see him apologizing and feeling awful. Its in his head now.
Football is always a game of inches, and this game was no exception. The Bucs td off of a James jump pass, a la Tebow, didnt fool Wagner. You can see him read it, stop, wait for the ball, jump..and just miss it. If he times his jump better or gets better air we would be talking about his genius. Brandon Browner on a 3rd and 8 play makes a beautiful read as well, leaving "his" guy..but just a moment to late.
How frustrated is Revis? Probably still a premier man coverage guy stuck in zone defense so much?
Bailey isnt a great LT, but he is better than McQ at this point.
On Wilson's 2nd int, he had Kearse for a TD and Tate for a possible one but , in a rare instance for him, he locked on one guy.
Overall impressions:
I think the run stopping woes are game planning problems, not ability problems. Wanting to get more out of the pass rushers we have, we seem to be expecting pass all the time. I think we need to go back to base defense more on first and second downs, keep the edge guys on the edge and plug the middle. Our LBs fly around but they arent good at getting off blocks, except perhaps KJ Wright. They need to be protected more. With the Legion of Boom in the back we shouldnt NEED 4 pass rush specialists out there at the same time. one at a time, but rotating so they are always fresh is ideal I would think.
The o line didnt allow sacks and did really well against the run, but there is no deep run in January if we dont get better there. I owe an apology to MRob.. I had undervalued him. He had a great game out of the FB position , as did Miller when he lined up there. It was night and day compared to earlier in the season.
Well, Im off to dinner. I apologize for a presumptuous post but I miss the conversation starter that was Kearly's post, even when I disagreed. I am sure many of you saw it different.
