Our defense is just simply NOT very good....

[SoulfishHawk]

3 inch girth? Nicely done brother. My pops always said "It may not be big, but it's round as a can of corn."

 

[kf3339]

Our defense has improved with a Healthy Jefferson, Reed back, and the addition of Diggs. You can't really use full season stats on a defense which isn't really the same defense we started with.

^This.

I think we are much better than the stats season to date show. We have had a few anomaly games which every team has at this point in the season. The Saints were blown out a few weeks ago, with Brees. Does that make them a poor team? No, just that on any given day another team can beat you. That is especially true with division games.

We have made improvement thruout this season from a player standpoint. Our secondary is looking far better with Diggs as the FS. Our corners are playing very well, and McDougald is better than average at the SS spot. If anything we may need some help with our experienced depth, but that will come in time.

Our LB's are much better than average, but showing a little bit of age. Still far better than most LB groups in the league. Our D-Line has been the issue, but we knew that going into the season. Our run D is very good, but we all know the pass rush still needs work. Jefferson had to play out of position on Sunday as he is better suited for a rotation DT spot for interior pressure. Ansah is just not very dependable and can only hope he will be able to help by the playoffs. Clowney needs a second player to really get attention and take pressure off him to be more effective. It doesn't help that he is playing hurt. Reed has played well, but not as dominant that I hoped for coming back from suspension.

I think we have the makings of a very strong defense, but doubt it will happen this season. Next season could be a very different matter with the right changes this off-season.

The bolded was kinda my point.....

Yes, I know. I have made similar statements in other threads in the last few months, but nothing wrong with having the same thought process. All is good!

 

[kf3339]

The defense might just be barely good enough to get the Hawks to post season ; but not deep into the post season . I'm actually seeing the offense digressing lately . That concerns me more than the defense right now .

The point about the offense is very true. We just don't seem to be very creative on that side of the ball. Not that we ever were great at it, but do seem to have taken a step back lately.

 

[knownone]

Our defense is capable of being good/great, they just haven’t had a game where they consistently put it all together. The Vikings game is a perfect illustration of this. The defense dominated the Vikings for large stretches of that game, but it doesn’t show up on the stat sheet because they gave up 14 points on what amounts to 2 or 3 massive mistakes.

I do think they need to bring in someone outside of Pete’s scheme to help with the defense. Maybe that’s Matt Patricia if he gets fired, or someone else with a decent track record in another scheme. Really we just need someone capable of coming up with a plan to hold the Rams under 450 yards because what we are doing now clearly isn’t working.

 

[Tamerlane]

Just curious, is there any rating for the defense since we addressed the hole at safety and fixed our approach a bit?.

I just posted this in another thread but since you asked, the Tweet below indicates dramatic improvement over that stretch, bringing the Hawks as high as #6 in opponent passer rating.

[tweet]https://twitter.com/GrahamBarfield/status/1199482298887888896[/tweet]

The defense has real potential and the offense has already proved itself to be elite at times. Though it has faltered lately, the offense is still currently ranked #1 in pass DVOA and #5 in run DVOA.

IMO defensive line inconsistency is the achilles heel. Clowney has flashed brilliance but has also been erased in some games (e.g. last Sunday and against the Bucs). Jefferson has raised his game this year. Ansah and Reed both started very slow but have come on in recent weeks. The problem obviously is that we almost never have them all on the field at the same time and when they are playing they are playing injured.

If this all came together eventually, it would no doubt be a magical thing and wreak devastation on all opponents. But it might not all come together....

 

[SeAhAwKeR4life]

Well as I have just seen mentioned here, yes, we have the pieces for a very good to great D, with some adjustmets, maybe just an added piece or two. What I haven't seen all year, is any ability to keep all parts of the D functioning well at the same time. Either we are generating no real pass rush, or weak in the secondary (or both) or giving up big runs. There's been improvement, but no real stretch of consistent solid reliable play.

Perhaps it is coaching, I hear a lot of complaints about that, but I suspect it's a little of a lot of things. What I do know is if we continue as we are even if Russell and the offense starts clicking, this is not gonna be good enough to go too far in the playoffs. Nobody wants to see us go to Dallas and get burnt, but with the way our D has been, I could see it happening.

I just had a feeling this Rams loss showed us for who we are, basically a bottom of the top ten level team at best, and that mostly because of Russell Wilson. I read in an article on NFL.com that one writer likes our team, but doesn't feel it's "special", and I think he's right. The 49ers this year, that's something "special" and certainly no one expected it of them.

We are I think a year out from being a serious championship caliber team. I still love my Seahawks, but the Rams game, I mean I had a bad feeling about it. Its showed us to not be as good as some of us had hoped. I have to admit I was one, at least up to this last game, who maybe bought into dreams of a Super Bowl run this year. I'm sure not seeing it now, not at all, but as a long time Seahawks fan, I sure hope to be wrong.

 

[Sgt. Largent]

I just had a feeling this Rams loss showed us for who we are, basically a bottom of the top ten level team at best, and that mostly because of Russell Wilson. I read in an article on NFL.com that one writer likes our team, but doesn't feel it's "special", and I think he's right. The 49ers this year, that's something "special" and certainly no one expected it of them..

That's the beauty of the NFL, a bottom of the top 10 team can win the SB if they get HFA, get rested with first round byes and only have to play two games to get to a SB.

Look no further than the Patriots dominance the past 20 years. Very rarely did they have more talent then their opponents............but they had HFA, a healthy roster and more than two weeks to prepare for their divisional opponents and their SB opponents.

So NO ONE should think what you're thinking, that we've got no shot due to lack of talent or what you saw Sunday night.

Everyone's good in the playoffs, it's no coincidence that the teams with byes and HFA wins SB's. So go get the #1 or #1 seed, and anything's possible.

 

[SoulfishHawk]

The Saints got smoked AT HOME by a 1 win Falcons team. Did that "show them who they are?"
The Seahawks kicked the Niners in the mouth, did that show then who THEY are?

10-3

 

[SeAhAwKeR4life]

I just had a feeling this Rams loss showed us for who we are, basically a bottom of the top ten level team at best, and that mostly because of Russell Wilson. I read in an article on NFL.com that one writer likes our team, but doesn't feel it's "special", and I think he's right. The 49ers this year, that's something "special" and certainly no one expected it of them..

That's the beauty of the NFL, a bottom of the top 10 team can win the SB if they get HFA, get rested with first round byes and only have to play two games to get to a SB.

Look no further than the Patriots dominance the past 20 years. Very rarely did they have more talent then their opponents............but they had HFA, a healthy roster and more than two weeks to prepare for their divisional opponents and their SB opponents.

So NO ONE should think what you're thinking, that we've got no shot due to lack of talent or what you saw Sunday night.

Everyone's good in the playoffs, it's no coincidence that the teams with byes and HFA wins SB's. So go get the #1 or #1 seed, and anything's possible.

I never said we have no shot. I said it's a long shot. If we can't play better than the past three weeks though, it might be no shot.

 

[SeAhAwKeR4life]

The Saints got smoked AT HOME by a 1 win Falcons team. Did that "show them who they are?"
The Seahawks kicked the Niners in the mouth, did that show then who THEY are?

10-3

For divisional teams, it's a lot more "in character" for a good team to lose to a bad one. Being in the division, sometimes a team "has your number" per se.

I'm just saying this game illustrated all the weaknesses of our team. Without adjustments and improvements, other teams will, if they can, exploit the same weaknesses the Rams exposed.

So yeah, we can adjust, we can get guys back from injury, and we can even sign new players. MY real point is, we have to change something to win, clearly.

 

[SoulfishHawk]

So a team that was 10-2 and lost a game to a good, motivated Rams squad is now just average is what it sounds like to you're saying to me. EVERY team in this league has weaknesses. Maybe the Hawks should just pack it in, clearly they have no shot. Even if they get the 1 or 2 seed.

They won 5 in row coming in to that Rams game. Sorry it's not pretty enough for you. Don't be a "12" be a Seahawks Fan :irishdrinkers:

 

[Largent80]

The Hawks played a stinker. So what?...Shake it off and go kick ass, that game we played could become a perfect motivator after winning 5 in a row.

 

[Sgt. Largent]

I'm just saying this game illustrated all the weaknesses of our team. Without adjustments and improvements, other teams will, if they can, exploit the same weaknesses the Rams exposed..

Pete's been playing the same schemes on both sides of the ball since he got here.

So it's not like McVay all of sudden figured us out that every team can now copy. He just happens to have the personnel and deeper knowledge of our tendencies than most teams, because he now has three years of inter-divisional tape and experience with what we do.

That's what football is, it's a chess match between personnel, scheme, in game adjustments and the intangibles like motivation, preparation and determination.

In our first meeting with the Rams we matched all of these, and on Sunday we matched none of these.

I complain about Pete's stubbornness with scheme, but when we lose it's not solely responsible.........and you can't just think "well, I guess we're screwed now, everyone knows what we're doing!!!!"

Everyone already knew.

 

[Largent80]

No. We let Coleman go and so there went our nickel CB. We don't have a replacement so Pete thinks that we have the best coverage LB's in the league. It may be partially true but if you watched Sundays game you saw different.

If this team doesn't quit this base defense experiment it will end the season.

 

[xray]

So a team that was 10-2 and lost a game to a good, motivated Rams squad is now just average is what it sounds like to you're saying to me. EVERY team in this league has weaknesses. Maybe the Hawks should just pack it in, clearly they have no shot. Even if they get the 1 or 2 seed.

They won 5 in row coming in to that Rams game. Sorry it's not pretty enough for you. Don't be a "12" be a Seahawks Fan :irishdrinkers:

Take a break from the glass is 3/4 full and rising BS.

 

[DomeHawk]

I think the best measurable would be to throw out the Niner game and the Rams game, then look to see where you're at.

Lol, yeah, let's just throw out all of the playoff-caliber teams to gauge where we are at. :sarcasm_on: :sarcasm_off: