Initial thoughts on game 3

[hawksfansinceday1]

Dear Pete and John: Can we PLEASE get Gresham back NOW?!

Signed, Jon Ryan

 

[McGruff]

Dear Pete and John: Can we PLEASE get Gresham back NOW?!

Signed, Jon Ryan

I don't know. Bad snaPS semester to make Ryan punt even better.

 

[Cyrus12]

1. Wilson looked a lot better or should say motivated. Boykin did some good and not so good last night but imo he is ready to back up Rw. Hopefully his coin toss guess skills are part of practice.

2. Michael still looked good but he seems to just drive himself into the ground? Is it because hes a head down runner? After that I would Procise is a lock because of draft position and fact he has been hurt we have not had a chnance to see what he can do, Collins imo is on the bubble and short of a couple runs has not imprerssed. Brooks is out. Farmer has looked good and maybe gets a PS spot. Pope, like his story and looks good but think the numbers game will put him off the roster. Be nice to see him make the PS.

3. Lockett is the real deal if he can sustain the hits he takes. Richardson looked good too and hope he can stay healthy. All of which adds to Kearse getting a reduced role and like 3 or 4 on the depth chart during the season. After that imo it Mcevoy or Goodley fighting for that 5th spot. Lawler has not impressed me (maybe its the hair) and Mcneil and Williams are nowhere to be seen. Might come down to who is the best on special teams though.

4. Graham, Willlssson and Vannet are not going anywhere. I like Williams, big body plays hard. If 4 TE's are kept that almost certainly means one less spot for a WR.

5. I never thought I would say this but the o line is not looking terrible. Of course lets see what happens vs the Rams in the real season. Britt short of a couple low snaps has looked okay. I am still not sold on Sowell but dare I say this o line is not as terrible as last year?? Imo its still going to be mish mash of guys going fwd until they see something they like or can live with. Does Evans make the cut? Thought they might have with first team but never saw him.

6. Imo the defence still has a serious hole to fill with covering TE's. Teams know this now and will look to expose them all season long. The linebacker core does not looks as mean as they used to and I am not sold on Morgan or anyone else on the roster filling Irvin's old spot. Coyle at best is a special teams guy. The front four is solidified with extra guys to spare. Hoping Clark gets more action this year. As for the DB's, Simon is not good enough to make this roster. He is getting beat by receivers who are likely not even gonna make a roster. Its Shead for me at that spot or Lane. Is the LOB core as dominant as they once were?? Browner's role has been a mystery all pre season? What is his role? Is he even going to make the team? No reps that I have seen vs the number ones and not sure if they are saving him or what??

7. Special teams are all good of course except the long snapper. Its a no brainer to get Gresham back before Ryan gets hurt or a blocked punt costs a win in the reg season. Ryan has really been booming those punts too. Little bit worried about coverage on punts. Better this week but who is the gunner on this team now? I like when Locket retunrs the ball but kinda cringe thinking he won't get back up sometimes after the hits he takes.

As for the rest imo the pre season is done and just waiting on who gets what jobs and spots. This team cannot afford the slow starts and crappy play from last year or it will cost them. Not a fan of the speaking out against each other in the media and hope Pete addresses that behind closed doors. Oh and bubble screens have not worked ever for this team so stop calling them!!!

 

[blazen2392]

Kearly usually you're awesome but really? Dallas? Zack Prescott? Come on man. This is a team with no pass rush, two actual options on offense and a quarterback made of glass. In an actual game we beat them by 30 points. They aren't good. The Giants and Redskins are right at their level. Each of them are BAD.

Lol I have no idea what game you were watching but if you take of the homer glasses for a second you could see our 1st string defense getting torched out there by a rookie RB and a rookie QB. we scored 1 TD against their starters as did they. To say they weren't very good almost sounds like you're sour about something. Dallas at the very least WITH DEZ and ROMO is a top 7 NFL team. They proved that last night.

 

[McGruff]

Kearly usually you're awesome but really? Dallas? Zack Prescott? Come on man. This is a team with no pass rush, two actual options on offense and a quarterback made of glass. In an actual game we beat them by 30 points. They aren't good. The Giants and Redskins are right at their level. Each of them are BAD.

Lol I have no idea what game you were watching but if you take of the homer glasses for a second you could see our 1st string defense getting torched out there by a rookie RB and a rookie QB. we scored 1 TD against their starters as did they. To say they weren't very good almost sounds like you're sour about something. Dallas at the very least WITH DEZ and ROMO is a top 7 NFL team. They proved that last night.

I've heard this story line about the Dallas backup only giving up one TD. I watched the end of the 2nd quarter on and Dallas' starters where in till midway through the 3rd quarter. Sure, they were rotating, just like we were, but that was their starting defense that we put 20 points up against.

 

[McGruff]

Also, on defense we were without Jarran Reed, and I think that made a big difference in the run defense. The linebacker were never really clean, they always had a hat on them.

Clark lost contain a few times on the big runs.

But I really put this on the lack of Reed and the linebacker not doing a good job getting off blocks.

 

[kearly]

The Schedule may be "softer", but we start off with the following Dline players in our first 4 games, Ndamukong Suh, Aaron Donald, Analyst are raving at the 49ers front 4 and then we finish off with the Jets who have Wilkerson, Richardson and William. Oline has their work cut out for them.

From what I've seen of the niner's DL, they are like the Cowboys or Pats DLs: all-around solid, but not scary.

 

[kf3339]

So first thanks Kearly and all the rest for the write ups!

I didn't get to see most of the first half, so hard to give opinions until I watch a full replay.

But I am interested in the first Dallas drive against our D.

How was our D Line play on that drive. Who was starting? Was it Rubin and Hill as the tackles?

I ask because my guess is that is the case and both did pretty much nothing. I am really not a fan of either and believe Reed would have helped to make a difference.

I also wonder why McDaniel wasn't out there more in the first half? It seems to me he would have been a better choice next to Rubin than Hill, if that was the case. Also, they need to get Jefferson in much sooner in the games. Evey time I see him he is in the backfield making plays it seems.

Anyway I want to see the full game in replay before saying any more at this point.

 

[kearly]

I think Elliott helped wake this team up. We seemed to be sleepwalking again out the gate and Dallas just punching us in the mouth on that drive after the Romo injury seemed to give them some semblance of a wake up call.

I'm calling it right now though, Romo is going to get knocked out of a game and open the door for Dak to pull a Tom Brady on him.

There's a ton of pressure on Romo not just to stay healthy, but to perform at his best. If Romo plays poorly the first six weeks, Prescott could pull a Tony Romo on Tony Romo.

 

[kearly]

Good grief, Bevell and his stupid situational play calling. 3rd down and short, and a bubble screen to Baldwin. As soon as that ball was in the air, I knew it was a doomed play because Dallas broke on it so fast it was like they were in the huddle. It's not that screens don't work for us, it's that Bevell calls them in the same exact situations in every game. When we throw one on 1st down, it typically works. I hope he's just trolling everyone because it's preseason.

You are completely right about that being a typical Bevell playcall. However, I think plays like those really come down to execution rather than situational awareness. On that play, Kearse hesitates before making a mediocre cut block attempt on rookie DB Anthony Brown. Brown has been having a good preseason for them and he did a good job recovering from the cut block on this play. If Kearse aces that cut block and takes Brown out of commission 1 second longer, it's likely a 1st down. In fairness Kearse is normally a solid blocker.

[tweet]https://twitter.com/SportsSturm/status/769020089832181760[/tweet]

Do I love the playcall? No. But if Seattle could ever get really good at executing these kinds of plays, it would be fine. My bigger issue with them is that Richardson and Lockett are poor blockers (due to their lack of bulk). I would have liked this play way more if Richardson had caught the ball with Kearse and Baldwin being the two blockers ahead of him.

I don't think McEvoy deserves to be on an NFL roster as a receiver. But... it sure would be nice having some 6'6" 230 muscle out there for blocking when Bevell dials up a 3rd and 2 play like this. Maybe McEvoy can be the new Ricardo Lockette.

 

[Hasselbeck]

I think Elliott helped wake this team up. We seemed to be sleepwalking again out the gate and Dallas just punching us in the mouth on that drive after the Romo injury seemed to give them some semblance of a wake up call.

I'm calling it right now though, Romo is going to get knocked out of a game and open the door for Dak to pull a Tom Brady on him.

There's a ton of pressure on Romo not just to stay healthy, but to perform at his best. If Romo plays poorly the first six weeks, Prescott could pull a Tony Romo on Tony Romo.

I promise I'm not trying to make this a Cowboys discussion because I hate Dallas so much, but Dak Prescott is special. You can just see it watching him play. Dude was as poised as a 12 year vet against the best defense in football.

 

[blazen2392]

Kearly usually you're awesome but really? Dallas? Zack Prescott? Come on man. This is a team with no pass rush, two actual options on offense and a quarterback made of glass. In an actual game we beat them by 30 points. They aren't good. The Giants and Redskins are right at their level. Each of them are BAD.

Lol I have no idea what game you were watching but if you take of the homer glasses for a second you could see our 1st string defense getting torched out there by a rookie RB and a rookie QB. we scored 1 TD against their starters as did they. To say they weren't very good almost sounds like you're sour about something. Dallas at the very least WITH DEZ and ROMO is a top 7 NFL team. They proved that last night.

I've heard this story line about the Dallas backup only giving up one TD. I watched the end of the 2nd quarter on and Dallas' starters where in till midway through the 3rd quarter. Sure, they were rotating, just like we were, but that was their starting defense that we put 20 points up against.

Not entirely sure so ill have to watch it again, but the huge play that Russ got on that blown coverage seemed like a fair amount of their starters had been pulled. But even so can we at least give credit where credit is due? Our starting D got torched. The cowboys Oline and Run game is the real deal. The same D we've ridden to back to back superbowls got torched by a rookie RB and a Rookie QB. if we are keeping score of starters out, their O wins, missing their starting QB and top 5 NFL WR in Dez. They are going to be a force this year.

 

[CamanoIslandJQ]

I just watched nearly 2 hours of NFL Insiders/NFL Live this morning & I now firmly feel an NFL BIAS against the Seahawks. In the nearly 2 hours of coverage, the Seahawks were directly talked about for maybe all of 2 minutes. Dallas, however was talked about for probably over 20, 25 minutes out of the 60. Every crappy East coast team got more press than the Seahawks. What a bunch of BS. The BIAS is indeed very real.

During the 2 minutes they actually spoke of the Seahawks, the analyst(?) basically said that all Seattle has is a good defense and a QB that runs around like a headless chicken doing nothing but "unscripted" plays. What a load of crap.

 

[Maulbert]

Does Dallas have a better starting defense than Seattle? Of course not, but Ezekiel Elliot and Dak Prescott sure made it feel that way. How weird is it that arguably the two most impressive offensive rookies in years are both on the same team at the same time?

Holy Hyperbole, Batman!

 

[kearly]

I agree..... Kearly sounds like a cowgirls fan.

Just a fan of good football and good football players. I watched every preseason game in week 1 around the league and have watched non-Hawks games in week 2. I have a threads up in the NFL forum with observations from those games. I love the Seahawks but I also love football.

 

[kearly]

Holy Hyperbole, Batman!

Is it?

 

[kearly]

That Oline made Demarco Murray look all world and Murray shredded Seattle too.

Murray was actually held in check pretty well until the 4th quarter IIRC.

Elliot was ripping us almost from the get-go. And he won both of his collisions with Kam. I don't know if anyone else has ever done that.

 

[Anonymous]

I feel like I need a shower after reading this topic, but this thread is exhibit "A" as to why this place is so awesome. All the heavy-hitters punching their keyboards, ever so gently.

(* ... prepares the Roundup delivery sprayer for a midnight etching of "Go Hawks!" on his Cowboys-Fan ex-neighbor's front lawn...*)

 

[kearly]

One thing that made our pass rush look worse than it really is in the first half- Dallas' OL has mastered the art of the borderline hold.

 

[Largent80]

Our D line players and even coaches need to get in the refs ears on the phantom holds that always seem to plague Seattle.