Game 4: Lambs vs Sackhawks

[TTown]

ehhh..... i got on giacomini earlier, but i didn't really see much on that personal foul there. kind of a ridiculous call at this point in time.

[Sweezo]

NOW they try a long pass play, and it's 3rd and long...

[Sweezo]

Well...that's the game. All kinds of badness in this one. This team should be 1-3. I thought this team had the look of a playoff team but I just don't see it happening right now.

[TTown]

man, settling for field goals when lynch and turbin were tearing it up like they did is just brutal.

[TTown]

big ups to the ram's special teams today, though. THEY were in beast mode, too.

[TTown]

... aaaaaaaaaaand we're in rams territory, down 6, with 2 minutes to play. who's up for another game winning INT? anybody?

[Sweezo]

Maybe I spoke too soon...great stop by the defense, and now the offense is picking their way up the field at the 2:00 minute warning. A real chance at coming away with a win or are they just getting my hopes up

[TTown]

ugh

[Sweezo]

Ha ha...yeah, McCoy falls down and that's it. Can't wait to hear a bunch of Pete Carroll's rah-rah bull after this one.

[TTown]

the patriots can make the playoffs by bringing out their 'B' games every time out. they're just that good. we're a playoff team if and only if we play our 'A' game every sunday. we just aren't good enough to get away with so many mistakes.

i mean good god, anthony mccoy.

[Bulltalk]

WTF else can you say other than penalties, turnovers, and missed opportunities. We deserved to lose. Even if we had pulled that game out from the fire, I would have been disappointed in our play, would have felt we deserved to lose more than last week. And I mean that, as funny as it may sound given the circumstance.

[Bulltalk]

Resisting temptation to get too negative here, that was one of the grittiest performances by a running back I've ever seen today. Marshawn Lynch made more yardage than he ever should have on just about every carry.

What a f*cking stud of a running back and football player Lynch is.

[Sweezo]

Well...for me, these factors [and mostly in this order] were big reasons for the loss and somehow have to be addressed:

[1] Play calling: Boy, it looks so good when things are rolling. The running game starts clicking, Wilson starts using play action, and the team can really cut down the field. But then we do something like call a stretch run with Lynch on 3rd and short, or a QB draw in the red zone, or a deep pass late in the game to force a 3rd and long. The team's margin for error is low; I'd much rather see a run up the middle stuffed on 3rd and short where we forced the opposing defense to stop up us where we are strongest than run a low percentage play in hopes of catching the opposition off guard.

[2] 3rd down defense: It seems like the bane of the team's existence sometimes. Not much else to say about it.

[3] Penalties: Same old story. PC may say he thinks the penalty issue is being dealt with, but clearly just saying 'don't do it' isn't cutting it.

[4] Lack of WR/TE talent: Between the WR failing to get separation and then McCoy falling on his ass where the team needed a play, I think I've substantially overrated how talented this group is. Evan Moore and Braylon Edwards are invisible.

[5] Russell Wilson: I still think he's the future at the position. For a rookie QB, he's doing well enough. It's hard for me to determine which mistakes are on him and which mistakes are on someone else. Was the deep pass to Golden Tate his idea or what was called in from the sideline? I like Wilson in space but nothing good happens when the pocket collapses on him.

[6] Giacomini: Whether that second personal foul was legitimate or not is debatable. But the first one certainly was. And the other ones we've seen from him the last two seasons have been. I don't expect the referees to cut him much of a break, and they probably keep a very close eye on him. He's good in pass protection and against the run, but I don't care. I know the team wants to keep Carpenter at guard [which he looked pretty good at today], but Breno probably needs to have his ass on the sidelines for a series or two if he keeps racking up the personal fouls.

[Bulltalk]

You forgot the onside kick. I left the room briefly and missed it. WTF was that? You do such things against a team that's better than you. Not a team that you should beat, even on the road.

Bradford had too much time to throw the ball. Maybe this was a result of our fear of Jackson. I don't know. But he's too good of a QB to have that much time. He'll eventually beat you.

And the waste of that kickoff return by Leon. That should have been at least a FG there.

[Bulltalk]

I need a bottle of Listerine to wash this taste out of my mouth.

[Bulltalk]

I heard an interesting stat this morning on sports radio this morning. They broke the football team down to 5 areas:

1) Pass defense
2) Run defense
3) Special teams
4) Run offense
5) Pass offense

If you exclude one of the 5 areas (pass offense) for the Hawks, and compare the aggregate of the other 4 categories (pass defense, run defense, special teams, and run offense) with the rest of the league, we're #1 in the NFL.

The problem is that our pass offense is ranked 32nd, dead last in the league. This is the entire difference between us being 2-2 (barely, could be 1-3), and being either 3-1, or even 4-0.

We've all known from the very beginning of training camp that PC was playing an unconventional, perhaps dangerous game in his approach to our QB situation this year. The "competition" thing was making it so neither RW not MF was getting the kind of reps in preseason that nearly all the starting QB's on other teams were getting. Consequently, whomever our starting QB was going to be was going to leave us at a disadvantage early on in the season for this reason.

So it should be no surprise that we're ranking near the bottom in passing offense 4 games into the season. Add to that that PC went with a rookie QB to start the season in RW instead of MF and in all likelihood you were going to be compounding this problem.

Again, none of us should be surprised by the events that have transpired these first 4 games from this standpoint. The writing was on the walls from the very beginning. And it has played out just as any reasonable person might have expected it to.

So the question now (what is in the air now in the Seahawk kingdom) is what do we do now? Well, one of two things has to happen:

1) Russell Wilson must show improvement/be given more chances to do so
2) Matt Flynn must at least be given a chance

We play Carolina next on the road. We well might need a win here for our playoff chances down the line. Why? Because the following week, within the span of 5 days, we will play New England at home, and then San Francisco on the road. We could EASILY emerge from the 49er game with a 2-5 record. If so, this would mean we would have to win 7 out of our last 9 games and finish at 9-7 to even have a chance at the playoffs. Hell, we might have to win 8 of our last 9 games and finish at 10-6 to make the playoffs.

This week is going to be a very telling week for our fate as a team this season. It's really all on PC and how he responds to this situation. These next few weeks could well be some of his most important from the standpoint of his legacy as our coach.

I know that might sound overly dramatic, but at the moment that's where my mind is at.

*** On a final note, PC/his coaching team and John Schneider have done a remarkable job remaking our defense and its mentality. They have done a great job with the special teams. The have done a great job with our running game and its blocking schemes. You can't argue this. What they haven't done well is get our QB into place, our passing game into place.

Which gets me to my one potential criticism of PC, or potential concern about PC. Does PC have a stubborn arrogance about himself that will not permit himself to adjust his thinking when the data calls for it? It's one thing to believe in what you're doing, but it's another thing to be stubbornly arrogant about what you're doing beyond the point of reason.

This is what I'll be watching closely in the coming weeks in PC.

[Sweezo]

I'm admittedly worn out by the 'who should we start at QB' argument already. Between the stream of people on my Twitter feed who are on the ledge and listening to people screaming on sports radio this morning...I'm just not that into it.

I think we can win with Flynn. I think we can win with Wilson. I don't think Flynn is such a clear-cut improvement over Wilson that a switch is a no-brainer. As much as pre-season doesn't mean a ton, I did not think Flynn looked great against pressure either.

Presently I think too many people are supporting this false dichotomy where our only options are to keep struggling with a rookie QB, or winning with Flynn. I have trouble seeing how many people are concluding we're certain to be better with Flynn.

Flynn isn't Whitehurst. But so many people [myself included] last year clamored for Whitehurst to start just so we would know. Which he did, and that flat out cost us the game against the Browns. I learned a bit of a lesson there.

*** On a final note, PC/his coaching team and John Schneider have done a remarkable job remaking our defense and its mentality. They have done a great job with the special teams. The have done a great job with our running game and its blocking schemes. You can't argue this. What they haven't done well is get our QB into place, our passing game into place.

Which gets me to my one potential criticism of PC, or potential concern about PC. Does PC have a stubborn arrogance about himself that will not permit himself to adjust his thinking when the data calls for it? It's one thing to believe in what you're doing, but it's another thing to be stubbornly arrogant about what you're doing beyond the point of reason.

This is what I'll be watching closely in the coming weeks in PC.

Speaking of PC, Hawkblogger has a great article up right now on his webpage which really puts the responsibility on PC's shoulders. Whether it's Cable or PC or Bevell, the playcalling at key points is a problem. The quasi-trick plays on 3rd and short. Telegraphing passing plays to allow the defense to drop into coverage. The lack of coverage on the fake FG. The onsides kick attempt. The team is choosing to NOT play to its strengths in key situations, and that baffles me.

If we don't do that **** yesterday, we win that game. And there's then very little discussion about what to do at QB, etc.