Don't Lose Sight...

[onanygivensunday]

I still hope to see big improvement pre-season #3 and #4.

The improvement you're looking for in preseason game #4 won't materialize because there's no game #4 for any team starting this year.

 

[sc85sis]

In the early years, it was a barometer for the quality of our depth. And back then, our depth was very good, top to bottom. But those were the days before we had to pay premium money for premium players. And those depth players were dealing in a simple system that the NFL hadn't yet figured out.

This year, we have less depth and a system players are learning on both sides. So the drop off from starter to backup is significantly greater than its been in the past.

Struggling in preseason isn't a surprise.

I agree with this. I’ll add that some of the young guys WILL be good depth as they get more experience. I’d expect us to look better in preseason next year.

 

[sc85sis]

The special teams play is surprisingly bad. Don't know what the deal is there.

Pete was distinctly displeased about it too. He said in postgame that guys either improve or they won’t make the team, which is about as blunt as I can recall him being.

 

[onanygivensunday]

I think that we should all keep in mind that this year's team has close to $50M in dead cap space, which is getting close to 25% of the team's cap limit of $208.2M.

Only ATL ($63M), CHI ($60M), PHI ($56M) and HOU ($54M) have more than the Hawks ($49M).

Let's not lose sight of that as well.

 

[keasley45]

And the superbowl favorite broncos got blasted , 42-15...

 

[TwistedHusky]

We have one more game to show improvement.

Sure, some of us are hoping for a good draft pick (though I still think finding someone later that has a flaw, like the 49ers did, or like we did with Wilson, is just as appropriate a strategy). None of us want to see this team turn into a dumpster fire like the old Browns or Bengals.

The issue is you go back to all the bad teams, and you generally see problems with fundamentals and lots of flags/mistakes. Teams that do this are often a sign of bad coaching.

There is also the issue with the bad tackling. Sometimes, bad tackling can be a sign of a team going through the motions. Doing what is asked, but not emotionally investing. Activity but no commitment. Where players just stop caring. We will see if it is that. Hard to believe that would manifest in the preseason because if nothing else people should be caring about keeping their jobs. But teams with this problem tend to have coaching issues as well.

2 games isn't a sign things are a given, but 3 games is a trend. If this happens again, especially in the 1st quarter with your top of depth people and starters? Then we need to be concerned.

Throughout Carroll's history here, how we do in the preseason is how we tend to work in the regular season. Our SB runs, we were dominant in the preseason. When we couldn't score TDs in the preseason a few years ago? Same thing in real games. When we struggled to protect our QB? Same thing when the scoreboard mattered.

This isn't like the 90s for me at all, because that 90s team was a great team - but missing key pieces. I am not sure what I am watching right now, but we have one more game to figure it out.

 

[keasley45]

Good post.

I dont know that it's a case of lacking emotional investment. In a strange way, I think it's the opposite. Listening to interviews and camp reports, the one common thread has been how energized everyone is and committed to proving the world wrong.

There is such a thing as coming out too amped and playing out of your socks. There's also the very real tendency that when you are new at something or a method isn't familiar, a person's natural tendency is to rely on their natural ability or whatever it is they might be gifted at to get them by. To a man, for this year's seahawks, that strength is speed. They are fast and it pops on film from Barton and Brooks, to Taylor and Mafe, to Bryant and Woolen. Speed , when balanced against knowledge and experience, gets you sacks and tackles for loss. Speed without that gets you bad angles, broken tackles and overpursuit.

One constant in coaching young players is that if they're going to make a mistake, you want them to make them at a million miles an hour. They've done that now for two weeks.

Where I dont agree is that this team suffers from poor coaching. The difference between the seahawks and other teams even when we were at our peak, is that the strategy has been to find the edge of a players aggresiveness and then of the unit, and get them dialed in to play right there for 60 minutes. Right . On. The . Edge.

These guys right now are playing beyond it.

That's doesn't excuse the special teams mishaps, but I can't even count how many times back in the day Michael Bennet would jump offsides or our CB s woukd get called for a grab on a crucial 3rd down situation. That wasn't because they were poorly coached. It's because they'd jump the line now and again. Those guys who were getting flagged were part of arguably the best coached and performing defense of all time.

But like you said, they need to show they can get it in check before it starts to effect morale and confidence.

I tend to think getting Diggs and Adams in the lineup and Brooks back, along with experience at one of the corner spots will help to ratchet in some of what currently is just unchecked aggression, speed and emotion.

 

[TwistedHusky]

Well on there we agree. I love flags on defense.
The NFL ties defenses' hands around their back. Completely cool with getting a flag because you played through the whistle but sent a message now and then (nothing dirty). Or you did a Bennett and got caught offsides, because some of those you get a great jump and it turns into a sack/fumble. Totally worth it.

And some flags are just referees hosing defenders because offense usually gets the benefit of the doubt.
Flags on offense are a bit harder to defend. Maybe an OL taking one or two because he is absolutely mauling a guy blocking a bit too far downfield - that would be great. But those are not the flags we are seeing.
We are seeing flags that unspool gains, or keep us stuck in 1st gear.

I would like to think your explanation is the cause. But again, poor tackling + excess flags? Usually equals coaching issues.

 

[BlueTalon]

For example, I really expected to see a lot of roster churn, similar to 2010/2011. Does that mean PC/JS have more confidence in depth? ... or they've decided that teaching and training results in more success than swapping out players? ...or maybe (as some advertise on this site) they've grown old and can't function the way they once did?

I think you could still see some churn. Besides cutting down our own roster, I fully expect that JS & team are actively scouting the bottom half of all teams' rosters, and that we'll pick up a player or two from that pile when it happens.

 

[keasley45]

Well on there we agree. I love flags on defense.
The NFL ties defenses' hands around their back. Completely cool with getting a flag because you played through the whistle but sent a message now and then (nothing dirty). Or you did a Bennett and got caught offsides, because some of those you get a great jump and it turns into a sack/fumble. Totally worth it.

And some flags are just referees hosing defenders because offense usually gets the benefit of the doubt.
Flags on offense are a bit harder to defend. Maybe an OL taking one or two because he is absolutely mauling a guy blocking a bit too far downfield - that would be great. But those are not the flags we are seeing.
We are seeing flags that unspool gains, or keep us stuck in 1st gear.

I would like to think your explanation is the cause. But again, poor tackling + excess flags? Usually equals coaching issues.

I can't say you're wrong. Every coach on defense is new at their role. Hope if that's the case, that they get it fixed.