Why our 3rd and long defense is about to get a lot better

[JSeahawks]

Ponder
Sanchez/Tebow
Tannehill
Cutler
Skelton/Kolb
Fitzpatrick
Smith
Bradford.

Not exactly a murderer's row of QB's that we have left to play. I expect our 3rd down Defense to improve drastically and our interception totals to rise signifigantly.

And, I still expect playoffs. (but wont be shocked, or really bummed out, if we dont make it)

 

[glasgow seahawks]

Think getting WT3 back and Jasone Jones will also help too. We need to dial up some different schemes though. Always seems to me to be drop off and let them throw and catch and try and stop them before the line...it aint working whatever it is

 

[strohmin]

I wouldn't be surprised if those QBs has a good 3rd down conversion day. Our D sucks horribly at 3rd down conversions.

 

[SharkHawk]

Hey, we made the Pillsbury Doughboy look like Brett Favre today. There's no telling how many of the rest of them look like Young, Montana, Marino, Unitas, Manning, Elway, and Moon in the coming weeks.

 

[FlyingGreg]

We have a habit of making less than stellar players look great.

I wouldn't count on that as evidence of victory.

 

[JSeahawks]

Hey, we made the Pillsbury Doughboy look like Brett Favre today. There's no telling how many of the rest of them look like Young, Montana, Marino, Unitas, Manning, Elway, and Moon in the coming weeks.

The Pillsbury doughboy is a pretty damn good QB. Even though he doesnt look the part.

 

[jkitsune]

Hey, we made the Pillsbury Doughboy look like Brett Favre today. There's no telling how many of the rest of them look like Young, Montana, Marino, Unitas, Manning, Elway, and Moon in the coming weeks.

Doughboy happens to genuinely be a great QB. If we'd pulled it out, we'd be adding him to the list of elite QBs Wilson toppled.

 

[HawkWow]

My only expectation is that we will be drafting half way through every round of this next draft. Same as it ever was, same as it ever was.

The good news is this is the most promising .500 team we've had in ages. Our glass is as half full as it is half-empty so......well, that.

 

[Sarlacc83]

Hey, we made the Pillsbury Doughboy look like Brett Favre today. There's no telling how many of the rest of them look like Young, Montana, Marino, Unitas, Manning, Elway, and Moon in the coming weeks.

Doughboy happens to genuinely be a great QB. If we'd pulled it out, we'd be adding him to the list of elite QBs Wilson toppled.

Agreed. Stafford threw for 5000 yards and 41 TDs last year. He's no Caleb Hanie.

 

[mistaowen]

It has much more to do with our defensive scheming than who is throwing it. Any NFL QB can make the throws that our defense has been leaving open over the middle. On first and second down we smash them in the mouth which is why we always have long third downs, but then drop everyone back into soft zones that coaches are learning how to beat.

Alex Smith isn't a good QB and when he wasn't taking what we gave him, looked like a bad QB. When they adjusted at halftime, every pass was short over the middle and they moved the ball easily in the second half. Stafford loves the deep ball and very rarely took chances today because our D is good in that area. Expect to see a whole lot of short passing from Ponder next week. Like usual, none of their WR on the outside should scare us, it is everything in front.

I don't know what it is that we are calling on these long third downs, but people are ALWAYS open. Maybe Wagner is dropping too deep into his zone? I notice Earl and Kam are always very deep on those downs.

 

[SharkHawk]

Doughboy had a good season last year. Lots of guys have a good season. He hasn't been consistently great. Lots of players put up that "one year" and then do jack squat. What has he done before today this season? We're at the halfway point and he has what? 6 TD's or something coming into today? He was awful awful awful all year. Now he's good again so he's last year doughboy again? That's not really comparable. He has sucked this year and just chewed up our D and spit it out. Why couldn't the Hawks do what everybody else did to him this year? Why did the Hawks get outcoached by Linehan? That guy can't coach himself out of anything but jobs.

 

[chris98251]

Megatron was singled out by the defense as shut down, Young is a very good receiver quick and smaller in stature, the kind that will prove more difficult to gaurd against since he has real good quickness, he also played with a chip on his shoulder. Stafford has been a very good QB that has needed a running game to protect him. They are a top offense. They have the players on defense that if they had a secondary would be top ten I would think. Don't discredit the Lions based on history, they are a decent team and were picked as a playoff team this year.

 

[SharkHawk]

Meh. They still had only 2 wins coming in. To me, that's a team that sucks and should be a victory for a team with a "great defense". We got outcoached by Freddie Mercury. That's awful. The guy is one of the worst coaches I've ever seen. His team DOES have talent, but he always finds a way to blow it. He's that kind of coach. Sort of like Jerry Glanville. Always have great tools, but are an extremely poor craftsman.

 

[hawksfansinceday1]

Hey, we made the Pillsbury Doughboy look like Brett Favre today. There's no telling how many of the rest of them look like Young, Montana, Marino, Unitas, Manning, Elway, and Moon in the coming weeks.

Sadly, I agree with this. 9-7 or 8-8 or 7-9 and another year of watching the playoffs from home.

 

[nategreat]

Doughboy had a good season last year. Lots of guys have a good season. He hasn't been consistently great. Lots of players put up that "one year" and then do jack squat. What has he done before today this season? We're at the halfway point and he has what? 6 TD's or something coming into today? He was awful awful awful all year. Now he's good again so he's last year doughboy again? That's not really comparable. He has sucked this year and just chewed up our D and spit it out. Why couldn't the Hawks do what everybody else did to him this year? Why did the Hawks get outcoached by Linehan? That guy can't coach himself out of anything but jobs.

Sorry, gotta disagree with you here. Stafford is a great QB, if not elite. He is young, and I guess in some ways unproven, but last year he put together the fifth most passing yards ALL-TIME, behind only Brees (twice), Brady, and Marino. And right now he is on pace for about 4800, which would be the 10th best season total for passing yards ever. That's impressive, no matter what. That's not even mentioning his 7th best all-time single season passing touchdowns from last year either. I know this is all "last year's" statistics, but still, you don't put up those numbers without being a great QB. He's just had a slow start. He just happened to break out in the wrong game.

I'm disappointed in the defense as well today, but this is a good offensive team we played in the Lions. In fact, I don't think anyone else on the remainder of the schedule has the offensive capabilities of the Lions. Chicago and Minnesota would be the closest, but I don't think they surpass Detroit.

 

[Hawks46]

Cutler has historically tore us up. One of the recent wins against CHI was against Caleb Hanie (wasn't FOrte out for that game too?)

Tannehill has been playing well although he's injured.

Ponder was actually pretty decent in 3rd downs this year before the Tampa game.

None of this is any indication of success. It's all about individual matchups and how our coaches scheme. Our scheme this week on defense sucked.

 

[Tech Worlds]

Our defense is massively overrated around here.

Nothing is a given. I expect 8 and 8 this season. We have been mediocre and until proven otherwise we will remain so.

 

[endzorn]

So we can't expect our defense to make a couple third down stops against good QBs? I sure hope this super-awesome defense doesn't have to play a good QB if we ever make the playoffs.

 

[hawker84]

my fat ass can sit back and pick a part a defense if i have all the time in the world to do it, and the defense i'm facing doesn't have a scheme in place to stop it... i heard on one of the shows friday that the reason seattle doesn't stop these short passes is, because of the scheme they play, this is the part of the field they're willing to give up... they'll sacrifice the short stuff, and take away the down field stuff. well, news flash carrol, not working, not only are you getting beat deep, you're getting dinked and dunked right out of contention....nice work.

 

[hawk45]

Megatron was singled out by the defense as shut down, Young is a very good receiver quick and smaller in stature, the kind that will prove more difficult to gaurd against since he has real good quickness, he also played with a chip on his shoulder. Stafford has been a very good QB that has needed a running game to protect him. They are a top offense. They have the players on defense that if they had a secondary would be top ten I would think. Don't discredit the Lions based on history, they are a decent team and were picked as a playoff team this year.

That's not what I saw. I saw Megatron have plenty of room to make catches including the game-winning TD if he doesn't drop more than the catches.

The piss-poor 2-4 Lions just got healthy against what was supposedly a number one or two defense. By definition the defense is overrated.