Preseason game 2: Seahawks vs Vikings

[Danny Darko]

VS.


Who plundered who?

Famous for the poison pill stealing of Steve Hutchinson, the Minnesota Vikings got a taste of their own medicine when OC Darrell Bevel, Sydney Rice and Tavaris Jackson defected to the Seattle. Among the various story lines is the chance for the three new Seahawks to stick it to the purple people. Some players will write off playing against their previous team, but not Tavaris Jackson, who said this will be "specialer" to him.




Injury update:

Seahawks-
Out: Russell Okung (LT), Colin "kankles" Cole (DT), Deon Butler (WR), Roy Lewis (CB), and Cameron Morrah (TE) Walter Thurmond (CB), Kelly Jennings (Dbag), John Carlson (shoulder), and Chris Clemons (DE).

Vikings-

The roof

Things to Watch:

1-Tavaris Jackson in extended minutes.
Two series is not enough to judge a new QB on. I am however ready to launch torpedos! Ok maybe not yet, but it's safe to say the most important position on the field will be a focus to watch.

2-The rookie right side of the line mauling and the familiar story at left tackle. Moffit and Carpenter are some mean road graders, pass protection could use work, but I enjoyed watching the violence with which they play. Ol "Troy" will be back at left tackle, as well, so Cable Guys will be in focus

3-Tate vs Balwin in the slot. The rookie has shined so far on the practice field and 1st game. If Tate is going to be Percy Harvin, he better first look at sharp as Andrew Lucks favorite receiver last year has in his rookie campaign. Of course, ask Golden how far a strong pre-season will get ya.

4-The secondary- Midget Jennings it out. Enjoy a real look at what could be the biggest starting corner in the league as Browner continues either be a great physical CB with unlikely fluidity, or a guy who is getting away with PI on most plays.

5-The return of Red "dead redemption" Bryant. Can he pick up where he was last year putting the bully back in bull rushing the edge?

Predictions-

a preseason game will be played. Pete will be pumped and jacked.

[Sweezo]

I'll miss it because I'll be at wedding, but that's what a DVR is for. This is a great chance for Tarvaris Jackson; he really needs to show progress or fans will be griping and wanting Whitehurst to get a chance. Clearly the 'Hawks have incidated Tarvaris will be the Seahawks' starting QB, and it would look quite poor if Whitehurst blatantly outplays Jackson and isn't given the chance to compete for the spot. Kind of goes against everything Carroll says he stands for.

Here's hoping Bryant looks healthy, and no one gets hurt. The Cardinals saw Williams go down last night to an ugly looking knee injury. I hope we don't suffer a similar fate.

[Bulltalk]

I'm alone at home tonight. I'm in. At least for awhile. Will be looking at:

--Tarvaris Jackson
--Red Bryant
--Sidney Rice
--Kam Chancellor (Is this our guy?)
--Offensive line
--Some others...

Beautiful summer night here for the game. Beautiful day today. We needed more of these this summer than we had.

[Sweezo]

Just got home, starting the DVR...tried not to listen to anything until I started.

Boy, Tarvaris looked decent on the first drive but Tate just did him no favors on what should have been a 20 year pass. He has to bring that ball in. Jackson's having to avoid pressure on just about every pass attempt. The first string OL did a terrible job of run and pass blocking for the first couple series. The Vikings just keep bringing blitzes...the blocking isn't there, but should Jackson be doing a better job recognizing/audibilizing?

[Sweezo]

Tate drops an extremely easy pass that would've been a first down...right into the hands of a Vikings DB who takes it back for a TD. That INT was as much my fault as it was Jackson's. Terrible game for Tate so far...two drops and he took a kickoff out of the end zone, stuttered stepped, and failed to get to the 20. Baldwin's not all that athletically gifted as a slot WR, but at least he can make a catch when needed.

[Sweezo]

Nice play by Leroy Hill on A. Peterson, stopping out of the flat for no gain. And he follows it up a bit later on a stretch play for the same result.

Jennings burned on a long completion because he gets turned around on a back shoulder pass. He is just awful. And then Jennings has Peterson in the backfield and...well, he has no chance of stopping him from getting a first down. Maybe someone Browner's size actually could.

[Sweezo]

I'm a little less worried about our LB depth than I was. Wright's intriguing, and M. Smith is quick and all over the place. He also knew to stay home on a play action pass against a mobile QB.

Not horribly impressed with Bigby. He's missed a fair amount of tackles, and was just bailed out by Josh Pinkard on what looked like a sure Vikings' TD.

Durham's totally a Jurevicius clone.

Whitehurst is completing passes left and right. Jackson had issues with his pass protection, but Charlie's just quick. He gets the ball from the center and does what he needs to do. I think he needs his chance to play with the first team and see how things go. He moved the team down the field on the series he had. Things stalled on his second and third series primarily because of drops on well-placed passes.

[Bulltalk]

Well we're just going to have to be patient while our mostly young and new offensive line develops. It's hard to accurately assess Tarvaris under such conditions. Hell, he couldn't take a deeper drop back, or even attempt to throw downfield much at all when he was out there.

Golden Tate did not look good. His best quality is his elusiveness, and I'm not seeing much of that yet. Saw more of that in the first few games he played last year, and not much since.

Our TE's look good so far, even without Carlson.

The defense was ok. Just don't have much to say about the unit quite yet, although I agree that our LB corp doesn't look as thin as might be expected. Still waiting for Curry to be the "man". I had once dreamed of a lesser version of Lawrence Taylor in him.

Leon Washington looked good. Forsett ok.

It is tempting to give CBJ some run with the first unit before the pre-season ends. He's just looked decent throwing the ball so far. But this has been the case before with him in pre-season.

I don't know. No great assessments out of me yet.

[Danny Darko]

Things to Watch:

1-Tavaris Jackson in extended minutes.
Torpedos away. I get that Tavaris has been running for his life, but I want Charlie to get a run with the 1st squad so we at least know if it's the horrible line play and TJ or if it's just the horrible line play. Either way.... look for us to grab a highly touted guy in the draft and/or make another push for Carson.

2-The rookie right side of the line mauling and the familiar story at left tackle.
Yeesh, Carpenter needs to get in shape, Okung needs to come back, and the running backs need to pick up blitzes better than that. terrible.

3-Tate vs Balwin in the slot.
Tate got benched, Carrols conference basically called him out.

4-The secondary- Midget Jennings it out.
Damn he played and proved he is the worst cb in the league seeing that many minutes... please just cut his ass.

5-The return of Red "dead redemption" Bryant.
Looks like he made an impression without making plays. Double teamed and avoided. Stay healthy big guy.

Predictions-

a preseason game will be played. Pete will be pumped and jacked.- actually Pete smoldered in the post game conf. 1st time I've seen him that edgy. Should be an interest week of practice, also we know when Pete is pissed people get cut quick. I look for some movement.

[Sweezo]

also we know when Pete is pissed people get cut quick. I look for some movement.

And movement you shall have: The Seahawks signed David Vobora, and renegotiated Curry's contract [and voided the final two years of it]. That's interesting...

[Danny Darko]

good call on Curry. I wonder if he's being put into play for Carson Palmer?

[Bulltalk]

Let's say the Seahawks had the 5th or 6th pick in the 2012 NFL draft. Let's say that the team with the 1st pick wasn't going to pick a QB. What would you trade to move up to the first pick and take Andrew Luck?