Bevell is at it again... bad plays against a weak Defense

[RolandDeschain]

To me, much worse than not going for it on 4th and 2 is the belief that we cannot convert a 4th and 2 while seeing ourselves as a "power football" team.

It's even worse than that. S.D. wasn't stopping our run at all the few times we did run it, that 4th & 2 was all but a guaranteed conversion. Wussing out like little girls is not the Pete Carroll Seattle Seahawks, yet it's exactly what happened there. I don't get it, at all.

 

[fenderbender123]

Our 3rd drive of the game it's 1st and 10 and we go for a short pass to the left for BRYAN WALTERS for no gain... why did we go to Walters on 1st and 10 throwing to him in the backfield??? We would have been MUCH better off going to Harvin, Baldwin, Lynch, Turbin, Coleman...

Sometimes you just throw it to whatever guy is open.

I could be wrong Montana but I think in that case it was one of those planned quick throws like a bubble screen behind the LOS. That's why the criticism; he'd rather see that type of play go to Harvin (me too).

Yeah the play definitely looked designed to throw to Walters.

 

[HawkWow]

To me, much worse than not going for it on 4th and 2 is the belief that we cannot convert a 4th and 2 while seeing ourselves as a "power football" team.

It's even worse than that. S.D. wasn't stopping our run at all the few times we did run it, that 4th & 2 was all but a guaranteed conversion. Wussing out like little girls is not the Pete Carroll Seattle Seahawks, yet it's exactly what happened there. I don't get it, at all.

I'm not telling you anything you don't already know, Ro, but as you know, running for 6 on 1st and 10 is much different than running for 6 on 4th and 2. I don't have the numbers at my disposal, but I'm confident we are in the bottom 20% of the league in such conversions and that's the number most pertinent to the situation, imo. I too love gutsy football, but with our crap track record regarding this topic, I think we'd be even more up in arms had we went for it, not converted, then lost. I could be wrong.

 

[bevellisthedevil]

scrap the empty backfield on 1st and 2nd down and most of our plays work. The empty backfield screws us everytime. Defense pins their ears back and wilson either throws it out of bounds or takes a sack. The worst play of the game is always on an empty backfield play.

 

[razgriz737]

I can't blame Bevell for this loss because our D was clearly outclassed today, but I do think we tried to a get a little too cute at times.

 

[TDOTSEAHAWK]

This thread is laughable. Truly. Where are the people calling for Dan Quinn's head? Why wasn't our defense ready for the heat and hurry up? How did we not account for Rivers scrambling on multiple occasions? Why weren't we bumping at the line? How did we let a 34 year old TE embarrass us?

This place is so unbalanced.

Our offense was fine but couldn't get a drive together when it mattered. That was my only issue with them. The last two drives were abysmal. Beyond that, they played better than our defense did today.

 

[HawkWow]

scrap the empty backfield on 1st and 2nd down and most of our plays work. The empty backfield screws us everytime. Defense pins their ears back and wilson either throws it out of bounds or takes a sack. The worst play of the game is always on an empty backfield play.

Excellent observation. I hate 'em and I'm unsure why we are gravitating towards them. Is it part of Bevell's Percy factor?

 

[Largent80]

How can someone blame Bevell when the defense made SO many boneheaded plays?

Seriously, I saw Malcom Smith hold on a huge 3rd and long, Of course they got a first down. Shorltly after that, he whiffed on an easy tackle. So instead of them punting from their own 5, they drive the ball down the field, then Irvin makes the dumbest mistake ever.

They score, we lose.

Not Bevell, sorry, you are WAY off base.

 

[Seahawk Sailor]

Well sure, the defense most definitely has its share of the blame. But let's not pretend Bevell got more than three drives to score any points here. Lotta fault to go around this game.

 

[bbsplitter]

Honestly I didn't really have that much of a problem with Bevell's play calling, with a few exceptions:

I agree with many people on here that we under-utilized Lynch, but I wonder how much of the personnel factor is in Pete's control as well?

A designed back field throw to WALTERS? I mean don't get me wrong I get he is shifty back there on punt returns and caught a laser from Wilson later, but at that point Harvin hadn't had a touch in a while, and I feel like even if the D had a slight idea of what was coming, Harvin would have still gotten a couple more yards.

Not going for it on 4th down was a bad call looking back on it, but at the time, I think Pete was just being Pete and he trusted his D, even though I am not sure they had given him much reason to...

Storm74 nice call on the empty backfield observation... I hadn't seen that before you said something. Part of the empty backfield is probably the Percy factor... but it has to be just that, a FACTOR! You cant let him disappear for so long and still expect a defense to respect it. Also whatever happened to like, a normal route tree? It seems like if we aren't getting cute with Harvin, or throwing a jump ball to Kearse... Our WR's routes are "wait til Wilson scrambles" then get open... It was such a emphasis coming out of training camp from Russell on having really good "timing" with the recievers.. but so far including the first game I haven't really seen many truly "timing" routes.

 

[Sarlacc83]

Well sure, the defense most definitely has its share of the blame. But let's not pretend Bevell got more than three drives to score any points here. Lotta fault to go around this game.

Not counting the final FG 'drive', the Chargers scored on 5 of their 7 possessions. You just can't win games like that.

 

[Largent80]

I had a great vantage point above the east endzone. I could see the plays develope. The culprit(s) wasn't the O.C

Yeah, we could have stretched their defense out a couple of times. But players need to execute the plays, and the Hawks body language told me everything today. They didn't have enough juice, even though we were the better team.

 

[RolandDeschain]

How can someone blame Bevell when the defense made SO many boneheaded plays?

Seriously, I saw Malcom Smith hold on a huge 3rd and long, Of course they got a first down. Shorltly after that, he whiffed on an easy tackle. So instead of them punting from their own 5, they drive the ball down the field, then Irvin makes the dumbest mistake ever.

They score, we lose.

Not Bevell, sorry, you are WAY off base.

Maybe because the defense carries our team literally five times as often as the offense carries it? Not that the defense gets out of this unscathed, but our defense has saved our offense's ass a billion times more than the other way around. They've built up a lot more good will, you might say.

 

[bbsplitter]

How can someone blame Bevell when the defense made SO many boneheaded plays?

Seriously, I saw Malcom Smith hold on a huge 3rd and long, Of course they got a first down. Shorltly after that, he whiffed on an easy tackle. So instead of them punting from their own 5, they drive the ball down the field, then Irvin makes the dumbest mistake ever.

They score, we lose.

Not Bevell, sorry, you are WAY off base.

Maybe because the defense carries our team literally five times as often as the offense carries it? Not that the defense gets out of this unscathed, but our defense has saved our offense's ass a billion times more than the other way around. They've built up a lot more good will, you might say.

Very true. I think that you are right that Pete gets caught up in playing "preventative offense" a little too often... Maybe it's time he trust the O as much as he trusts the D.

 

[Jacknut16]

The punt on 4th & 2 was the big one.

Yes, this was game over, and I and all of my friends were yelling at the TV, saying we have to go for it!

There is no way you can give that ball back to that Offense with our gassed defense having to come back on the field.

Gutless call, and it cost us a shot at winning this game.

With the way the game was going we are lucky we got the ball back at all.

 

[bbsplitter]

The punt on 4th & 2 was the big one.

Yes, this was game over, and I and all of my friends were yelling at the TV, saying we have to go for it!

There is no way you can give that ball back to that Offense with our gassed defense having to come back on the field.

Gutless call, and it cost us a shot at winning this game.

With the way the game was going we are lucky we got the ball back at all.

Hasn't that always been kind of Pete's MO on offense though? As soon as I saw the down and distance I knew what was going to happen, this shouldn't have been much of a surprise...

 

[RolandDeschain]

Hasn't that always been kind of Pete's MO on offense though? As soon as I saw the down and distance I knew what was going to happen, this shouldn't have been much of a surprise...

Not really, to be honest. We've gone for it on 4th down in "non-absolutely-critical" situations with him a number of times in the past.

 

[Seafan]

Not running the ball like we are suppose to do, like any run oriented team that likes to keep their defense rested does. Playing in the worst conditions for leaving your defense on the field, Pete are you kidding me? Bevell and Pete's game plan sucked and their in game decisions sucked. But hopefully they learned but what I don't understand is what were they freaking thinking?

 

[bbsplitter]

Hasn't that always been kind of Pete's MO on offense though? As soon as I saw the down and distance I knew what was going to happen, this shouldn't have been much of a surprise...

Not really, to be honest. We've gone for it on 4th down in "non-absolutely-critical" situations with him a number of times in the past.

With that same type of field position though?

 

[RolandDeschain]

Hasn't that always been kind of Pete's MO on offense though? As soon as I saw the down and distance I knew what was going to happen, this shouldn't have been much of a surprise...

Not really, to be honest. We've gone for it on 4th down in "non-absolutely-critical" situations with him a number of times in the past.

With that same type of field position though?

Around midfield? Yes. Don't ask me to list which games specifically, though. However, with your defense failing hard all day and eight minutes remaining, it's inexcusable to have punted on 4th & 2 there, in that situation, all things considered.