What is contributing most to Seattle's struggles so far?

[EWA]

Sloppy, Uninspired, No Fire!
Watch the sideline...
No one is 'into' the game.
Last 2 years everyone is fired up, jumping around, celebrating good plays.
This year they aren't united, aren't 'IN' as it were.
And, it shows.

Got to agree with this, no fire, just seem to be going through the motions.

 

[edogg23]

What is so frustrating is both of these games were there for the taking! It's as if out coaching staff doesn't even prep for these games anymore. It's so frustrating knowing we have the best players but are not using them correctly.

 

[ChiefHawk]

Lack of preparation, lack of drive.

This falls on the DC and OC.

The defense is not controlling the line like they used to, and the LBs and secondary thus are being reactionary rather than pro-active in attacking the opposing offense. This lack of preparation lies at the feet of the DC, and has little to do with Kam - although his lack of desire to be with his (now former) teammates does not help the lack of drive problem.

The offensive line did pick up from last week, but they still have a way to go and stupid penalties cost us dearly. The offensive plays do not properly use talent for the most part - and what is attempted is clearly not properly drilled in practice -shown by the lack of production until the second half. Bevell has gotten away with poor play calling and poor preparation in the past because our defense has always suppressed the opponent, so he didn't have to produce much. That is not happening so far this year, and it is exposing Bevells lack of skill.


While we are behind in the NFC running, I still see GB and SEA being the deciding factors in the NFC at the end of the year. I'd be more impressed with DAL's 2-0 if they had not just lost their QB and #1 WR.

 

[BadgerVid]

I think the basic problem with the offense is Bevell...and I have been a defender of him in the past. The 'Hawks have a fine collection of offensive talent suitable for sets that could make a defensive coordinator crazy, but it seems only one or two of them are on the field at any given time.

Secondly, I am a big RW fan, but he just doesn't seem to be here this year. I was thinking yesterday about the fact that for the past 3 years everyone is always talking about how Russ is the first at the facility in the morning and the last to leave at night and how he is always in the film room or practicing with receivers. We aren't hearing that any more...we are hearing that Lockett is the one who is always there dawn to dark practicing and nothing even about Russ sticking around to throw to him. I don't know if it is the big contract, distraction due to the new woman or getting a bit too much into being an "A-list" celebrity...but something needs to change.

 

[justafan]

What is so frustrating is both of these games were there for the taking! It's as if out coaching staff doesn't even prep for these games anymore. It's so frustrating knowing we have the best players but are not using them correctly.

Last night the Pack was at home, had the better Oline QB WRs and Dline who stopped the run and stayed on there side in crucial situations.
Even so we stayed in the game until the end.

Different night different place we beat them IMO.

 

[jblaze]

A few things jump out to me:

1. O Line is green and unexperienced. Their pass pro might be better right now than it was last year on paper but run blocking is way worse. I think they may come together, but it'll take time. They certainly seem better in second halves, wish they'd make adjustments earlier.

2. Defense does not look like the same old crew. They're giving up a ton of points and they're not scaring anyone. The underneath stuff is there all day long and no one is making them pay.

3. They don't seem to have that swagger this year. Their energy looks low and they aren't amped like in the past. Something is off. I see it in Lynch's running too.

4. RW seems hesitant but he kinda always has. I'd like to see them let him sling it a bit more if it's the coaching staff that's telling him to be conservative.

 

[Hawknight]

Aside from the opponent scoring more points....

I'm living in the Bay Area and I'm surrounded by Niner fans who say "your players got payed so now they don't play as hard and look it shows" constantly. It's hard to throw up a defense right now looking down at 0-2, but I still believe...no worries here.

 

[fenderbender123]

Against the Rams, the LBs struggled. Against the Packers, I saw a lot of improvement.

Our pass rush has been okay so far, but too often (especially on 3rd down) I'm seeing the line make a good push, but then leave open a lane for the QB to run, buy time and make a throw. Foles and Rodgers both did that to us, but I'll assume we've made improvements since the GB O-line is better and Rodgers is just flat out good at that. In 2013, it seemed like this rarely happened. In 2014, in happened more often. This year, it's even worse so far.

The running game isn't clicking yet. I know Wilson is helping, but Lynch hasn't been able to get going. I didn't expect much against the Rams, but he had even less success against the Packers. That's not good. Some of it appears to be lack of blocking, some of it is poor decision-making by Lynch, and a lot of it is the other team calling run blitzes at the best time and us not recognizing/adjusting to it. Am I the only one who thought our pass protection was way better than our run blocking last night?

Now, what is specifically contributing to this happening? I don't know...somebody smarter and better than me could probably break it down and post GIFs of plays and stuff.

I'm optimistic about this season. Probably our 2 hardest games are out of the way, and we were in good position to win both of them.

 

[652cHAWK]

Offense. We only play it for a half.

Hear, hear!

 

[Sgt. Largent]

IMO the biggest contributor to struggling is new players playing vital positions, especially DB's and O-line.

The good news is we already saw some improvement over last week, especially with the DB's..........which is what Pete Carroll teams do, they get better as the season goes along. So I have faith that trend will continue and we'll get rolling here with these two hard games out of the way.

 

[Austin Hawk]

Pretend the first half is the second half. Problem solved.

This.

 

[lukerguy]

I used to want to blame Bevell, but now I think the offensive woes were a function of Russ not keeping the D honest with the read option. I was screaming at the TV all first half "KEEP IT". Sure enough as soon as he started to keep it, we started to score points. I think we would have easily scored 28-35 points had they played with the same sense of urgency all game.

I've been saying this for months. Russell Wilson is a bottom 15 QB without the Read option. It's just a fact. look at his numbers in the first half of 2012 before they started running that. Then once they started to run it is when they started blowing out opponents like 42-0. They need to commit to it and run it from play 1 to the final play. Or, look at the first half of the NFCC game vs. the last 5 minutes.

The seahawks D didn't look any better last year if you remember correctly. They got torched by SD. They blew a late lead vs DEN. They got crushed by Dallas.

The D will figure it out, and so will the offense as long as they keep running WIlson.

If you were to circle the 3 toughest games on the schedules 2/3 would be @STL and @GB. I think we'll be 12-4 or 11-5.

 

[erik2690]

Secondly, I am a big RW fan, but he just doesn't seem to be here this year. I was thinking yesterday about the fact that for the past 3 years everyone is always talking about how Russ is the first at the facility in the morning and the last to leave at night and how he is always in the film room or practicing with receivers. We aren't hearing that any more...we are hearing that Lockett is the one who is always there dawn to dark practicing and nothing even about Russ sticking around to throw to him. I don't know if it is the big contract, distraction due to the new woman or getting a bit too much into being an "A-list" celebrity...but something needs to change.

Where have you heard of any big change? Nowak specifically said Russ will come into the film room having already seen the film, implying he's prepared even before the study sessions. I have heard no reports of any lack of focus or effort. If you are making this leap purely because Lockett gets talked about as the one of the early guys in that doesn't seem like great logic for RW working less. There's also just the notion that as you get more experienced you don't keep the same pattern. That's not RW specific, that's just kinda true in general. I think connecting 0-2 to RW off the field is a bit of a leap at this point.

 

[jake206]

Honestly...one word penalties. If we had cut this down by 1/2, we are 2-0.

 

[WilsonMVP]

Simply put, our defense is no longer the best in the league, or at least it has been far from it during the first two weeks of the season. This season I think our defense comes back down to earth due to several factors. The most glaring, being the lack of depth in the secondary. Cary Williams has played poorly, and lacks the ball skills that Maxwell had. There have been several plays that I have noticed where he has had good coverage, but the pass still gets completed due to poor ball skills. Kam being gone is obviously a huge blow, he was a big playmaker for the Hawks, and also the resident enforcer. Teams were visibly afraid of the man. Both Earl Thomas and Sherman look like perhaps they are still healing. While they are not playing bad by any means, they are not playing up to their standards. Our linebacker play is also questionable, Wagner, Wright, and Irvin are missing easy tackles. This development has me perplexed, even if Norton did leave, one does not simply forget how to tackle because they have a new coach. Last, but not least I think Kris Richards is also having a learning curve. I've seen some odd decisions regarding coverage, for example putting Dion Bailey in an unfavorable one on one matchup with one of the Rams better receivers.

Our secondary right now looks like it is lacking in communication, I'm seeing some uncharacteristic breakdowns in coverages, and our safeties, including Earl Thomas being late in over the top help.

The second part of the equation is the offense. Now that the defense is not the world beaters the offense needs to pick up the slack. The problem is the offense is operating like it did when we had a world beater defense. Our play calling is still very conservative, and vanilla. We're playing it safe here when we cannot afford to do so. Our offense needs to pick up some of the slack, and they just aren't doing it. On the playcalling front we are incredibly predictable. Whenever I see Lynch lineup in the shotgun, and only two receivers on the field I know it's going to be a run to the left side, and most of the time I'm right. I was able to call where Lynch was going with boring predictability. Our line is also noticeably lacking in the running game department. Lynch is getting no room to do anything of note.

Wilson looks as if he has regressed. He looks far more hesitant to throw the ball, he doesn't look like he trusts any of our receivers, and he keeps double clutching. His decision making has been questionable, he's lucky that he has only came away with two INTs. I can honestly say that I would take 2012 Wilson over the current iteration that we are seeing on the field right now. Wilson was very decisive, and he played with more moxie. Now he is starting to look a little like Tarvaris Jackson did when he played for us in 2011. I also starting to doubt whether Bevell's offensive philosophy really fits Wilson as a player. I just think that we are not taking advantage of his greatest strengths as a player.

To put this all into perspective, in two games our offense has only scored three touchdowns, Carson Palmer threw for four touchdowns in just one game.

What is worse is our offense has only scored 6 points in the first half of both games combined. Lockett on 1 special teams return has equaled the offense.

We CANNOT start slow game after game. We need to pick it up. Even the bad teams score more than we do, its rediculous

 

[WilsonMVP]

There are multiple reasons, but to boil it down the #1 factor is the Offense is on a tight leash, and is not allowed off of it until it gets down in games, or is in a 2 min situation. Once it gains the lead it goes back to being on the leash. This leads to a ripple effect that causes or magnifies the other problems on the team.

Beast Mode in Super Bowl 48 sarcastically, but truthfully asking Pete Carroll if it is OK if we can score more points? Pretty much summarizes it.

This philosophy can work if you have a GOAT Defense, but if it is not GOAT all it will do is cost you games, and lead to mediocrity. Which is what Pete Carroll was in the NFL before Russell Wilson came along. Why Russell Wilson? Because he has been incredibly efficient and makes so many explosive plays given only 25 throws a game. It allowed / allows Pete Carroll to have his cake and eat it too, but if the D doesn't return to form in a hurry his philosophy will crumble, and lead to 7-9 to 10-6.

I've seen some comments on .NET about the Defense blowing 4th quarter leads, but it is cause and effect. Because once the offense gets the lead in the 4th quarter it goes back on the leash.

#2 Darrell Bevell. Bevell has proven on many occasions he doesn't know how to game plan, and attack opponents weaknesses, and avoid there strengths. Instead he does the opposite thinking it will surprise them. His Red Zone / 3rd down play calling and scheme is some of the worst stuff you will see in the league. Beast Mode, Jimmy Graham, & RW on the same team, should not be as hard as the Hawks make it out to be on Red Zone / 3rd down situations.

#3 The Lack of a strong leader on defense (Kam Chancellor). I see guys that are worn down by having to bail out the Offense week after week (leads back to #1 & #2). While also being fat & paid. (The highest paid D in the league.) They need a guy to kick them in the butt, and scream in there face, do Pete Carroll's dirty work, but it can only come from a guy like Kam. E.T. is in his own world. Sherm is a corner. Bobby Wagner is a quiet guy. Mebane is quiet also. Michael Bennett is crazy, and funny (The class clown.) Kam is the only guy personality wise that has leadership qualities on defense. This can be overcome if you play more aggressive on offense and score more points, but if PC refuses to do so = mediocrity.

#4 The Offensive Line - From all aspects: the available talent pool, scouting & drafting from that talent pool, development, free agency, & coaching. This is a league wide problem, not just a Seahawks problem.

#5 The schedule: You couldn't have drawn up anything worse than Rams on the road wk1 10 AM with a green offensive line, and the Pack week 2 on the road. Overall it is one of the tougher schedules in the league, but the worst is behind them. There is no need to panic yet. The Seahawks can't afford a home loss at this point though. The Hawks have to play 8-0 home ball, and find a way to go 4-2 on the road the rest of the way to get to 12-4. That should be good enough for the #2 seed, and another crack at the Pack in the NFC championship game.

#6 Pre-snap Penalties - the Okung false starts, and the Michael Bennett off-sides is getting tiresome, the rest of the penalties I can live with because they won't call it every play. You can actually gain an advantage.

#7 The loss of Dan Quinn. I saw the return of the Gus Bradley soft zone 4 qtr D in this game. What I loved about Quinn is he would go man, or press bail 90% of the time, soft zone generally only appeared as a change up, or if they had a big lead. Dan Quinn's D-Line background was a perfect complement to Pete Carroll's defensive back background as well.

#8 The loss of Ken Norton. Ken Norton filled the vocal leadership void of a MLB. Also just look at the guys Ken Norton has coached. He just knows how to turn seemingly anyone into a stud linebacker.

#9 Russell Wilson - suffers from mobile QB syndrome. Which is where a QB with mobility is hell bent on proving he can win with his arm and not his legs, thus surrendering the better option on multiple plays. Aaron Rodgers meanwhile had no shame tonight he was looking to extend and scramble on nearly every given drop back tonight. Part of the game plan appeared to get Russell Wilson's legs involved early. Wilson didn't want any part of it. He waited until the 3rd quarter got the lead then the offense went back in the tank (see #1 & #2).

#10 Marshawn Lynch - He has lost a step. He hasn't fallen off a cliff, but he has lost a step.

If I was the defense I would be pissed at the offense almost every week for the past 2 years. Seems like the entire first half its about the defense holding on so we dont get too far behind because the offense just kicks FGs or punts. We NEVER put teams away. There are few games where we had a comfortable lead in the 4th. It seems like almost every game has come down to the last 5 minutes the last 2 years. It is rediculous

 

[daveman918]

Re original question.

Tighten up the D. Looked way better last night.

Take less than half of the game to adjust offensively

Throw the blasted ball when receivers are 1 on 1

 

[seahawks08]

I looked at some videos from Drew Brees throwing and RW, I think if RW does a 7 to 10 step drop before he sets his feet and throws, the receivers start getting separation. If he keeps faking it to Marshawn and then goes back, he is moving towards the right or left of the pocket where edge rushers make adjustments and get to him. He looks for open receivers before and the separation is not there, he then starts moving around where the original play breaks down. He needs to go 7 to 10 step drops when receivers can complete their route and get between top and middle, or do a fake and get separation or something of that sort. I looked at the NO tape and studied it for a while and Brees has been stellar on taking 10 to 12 steps drops away from the line, scout the field and make the throws. In this league teams now have tape of our offense. We need to change them. Defense is playing close to the line to stop read options and spy RW. If he can change one thing in his passing attack, I would suggest he try doing this 7 to 10 step drops, where the OL can make a crown of a pocket and he far enough from the line to see the WR's where they are. I hope someone reads this and make's adjustments to make him more successful.

 

[Anthony!]

I used to want to blame Bevell, but now I think the offensive woes were a function of Russ not keeping the D honest with the read option. I was screaming at the TV all first half "KEEP IT". Sure enough as soon as he started to keep it, we started to score points. I think we would have easily scored 28-35 points had they played with the same sense of urgency all game.

I've been saying this for months. Russell Wilson is a bottom 15 QB without the Read option. It's just a fact. look at his numbers in the first half of 2012 before they started running that. Then once they started to run it is when they started blowing out opponents like 42-0. They need to commit to it and run it from play 1 to the final play. Or, look at the first half of the NFCC game vs. the last 5 minutes.

The seahawks D didn't look any better last year if you remember correctly. They got torched by SD. They blew a late lead vs DEN. They got crushed by Dallas.

The D will figure it out, and so will the offense as long as they keep running WIlson.

If you were to circle the 3 toughest games on the schedules 2/3 would be @STL and @GB. I think we'll be 12-4 or 11-5.

ukeface:

yeah stat sums up this post

 

[mikehawks]

Simply put, our defense is no longer the best in the league, or at least it has been far from it during the first two weeks of the season. This season I think our defense comes back down to earth due to several factors. The most glaring, being the lack of depth in the secondary. Cary Williams has played poorly, and lacks the ball skills that Maxwell had. There have been several plays that I have noticed where he has had good coverage, but the pass still gets completed due to poor ball skills. Kam being gone is obviously a huge blow, he was a big playmaker for the Hawks, and also the resident enforcer. Teams were visibly afraid of the man. Both Earl Thomas and Sherman look like perhaps they are still healing. While they are not playing bad by any means, they are not playing up to their standards. Our linebacker play is also questionable, Wagner, Wright, and Irvin are missing easy tackles. This development has me perplexed, even if Norton did leave, one does not simply forget how to tackle because they have a new coach. Last, but not least I think Kris Richards is also having a learning curve. I've seen some odd decisions regarding coverage, for example putting Dion Bailey in an unfavorable one on one matchup with one of the Rams better receivers.

Our secondary right now looks like it is lacking in communication, I'm seeing some uncharacteristic breakdowns in coverages, and our safeties, including Earl Thomas being late in over the top help.



To put this all into perspective, in two games our offense has only scored three touchdowns, Carson Palmer threw for four touchdowns in just one game.

About right. I think over paying Wilson will be the Seahawks undoing. I could think of a million scenarios better than signing Wilson to mega bucks. I think the Seahawks would of been better keeping Bobby Browner, Bryon Maxwell, and signing Kam up for a few buck, than over paying Wilson. Wilson could still be under contract right now and Legion of Kaboom would of still been in place.

It might be a good idea that Kam Chancellor take a vacation and see where the Seahawks are in 6 weeks, they may find out that Kam Chancellor is more important than Russell Wilson. Would you rather have R.J. Archer as QB, Kam Chancellor and Bobby Browner right now, or Russell Wilson with a broken defense? Just saying... Peace!