Putting the shutout in perspective

[ilikedlargent]

Damn, brothers gotta learn how to quote properly.

I'm not great with my phone and try to cut these things down in size lol

 

[RiverDog]

The glass half full side:

It was a shutout, which are extremely rare in the NFL.

The Bears punted every time they had the ball. That's the first time that's happened in something like 35 years.

We were favored by 16, ended up winning by 26, so we exceeded expectations by quite a bit.

Our rookie backup running back broke the century mark.

Jimmy Graham finally got into the offense, catching 7 of the 8 balls thrown in his direction, good for 83 yards and a touchdown.

We only had 5 penalties and no turnovers.

Now the glass half empty:

The Bears are one of the worst teams in the league. Every noteworthy publication has them ranked at or near the bottom in their power rankings.

The Bears were without their starting quarterback, without their #1 WR, and were playing on the road in one of the toughest venues on the planet.

We scored one offensive touchdown on the Bears defense. That defense has allowed the most points in the league in the past two seasons and is leading that category again this season.

Personally, I thought it was a good, solid win but that the game still indicates that we are a long ways away from being a legitimate SB contender, especially considering we dug ourselves an early 0-2 hole. We have to get better.

 

[JSeahawks]

My only disappointment so far is that we're now 3 games in without a single interception, tied for dead last (obviously) in the league alongside Washington and NO.

Clearly we havnt gotten a chance to play against Luck or Kaepernick.

 

[BlueTalon]

I'm a football fan,not a exclusive Seahawks fan. I've watched football for 35 years and know how it ebs and flows.
I already know they wont be as good this year. It's not hard to figure out. They might have a good regular season and you'll see exciting moments but this time the so called luck runs out. Player holds out,another player injured,weak offensive line ,Russell thinks he's some mystic christian etc. I've seen this story before 100 times already.
Enjoy football for what it is but there is no championship this year

Kingdome Karlissimo? Is that you?

 

[HawKnPeppa]

I'm not happy that the Bears were running at will on us in the 1st half, especially when it's really the only option they had. We can say this issue was fixed, but it was more by us getting ahead by 2 scores and the Bears being forced to throw.

My feelings exactly. Our DL is looking woefully soft against the run. I wasn't liking what I saw in that respect at all...it jumped off the screen. If that continues, we will lose too many closely-fought contests. On the bright side, the Bears were fully committed to, and concentrated most of their assets on running the ball against us because Cutler was out. Still, we don't seem to have the requisite "stoutness" on the DL for that sort of contest, if the QB is at least competent. McDaniel wasn't exactly a monster run stopper, but so far it appears he's much better than Ahtyba 'can't seem to play low enough' Rubin

 

[Seahawk Sailor]

I'm not happy that the Bears were running at will on us in the 1st half, especially when it's really the only option they had. We can say this issue was fixed, but it was more by us getting ahead by 2 scores and the Bears being forced to throw.

My feelings exactly. Our DL is looking woefully soft against the run. I wasn't liking what I saw in that respect at all...it jumped off the screen. If that continues, we will lose too many closely-fought contests. On the bright side, the Bears were fully committed to, and concentrated most of their assets on running the ball against us because Cutler was out. Still, we don't seem to have the requisite "stoutness" on the DL for that sort of contest, if the QB is at least competent. McDaniel wasn't exactly a monster run stopper, but so far it appears he's much better than Ahtyba 'can't seem to play low enough' Rubin

It wasn't as woeful as some are making it out to be in the first half of that game. Forte may have had 100 yards rushing on us if he kept up the pace of the first half, but aside from a couple of runs that kept drives going an extra set of downs or so, we really weren't giving up all that much. And that was their entire offense. Hardly anything more. That is a) not sustainable, and b) only about 150 yards of projected offense the entire game.

Bear in mind their longest drives were only 47 yards and 37 yards. Those are extremely short drives to have as your longest in an entire game. Other than those, they were three-and-out, or very little more. Even if it was all rushing, it wouldn't be very much at all.

 

[SoulfishHawk]

26-0, 10 punts forced by the D. I don't care who you are playing, that is a solid day.

 

[hawk45]

The D played as well as they could without scoring themselves, but the Bears weren't trying to win the game they were going all jumbo packages in an attempt to have a few good runs and not turn the ball over a million times. They avoided turnovers by exchanging those for any hope of scoring or sustaining drives, which is sort of what we do offensively in the first half minus the jumbo packages.

The shutout means less to me and probably most NFL fans than the performance against Rodgers where we went into Lambeau and he didn't totally have our way with us despite being out Kam and not tackling well.

 

[marko358]

The shutout means less to me and probably most NFL fans than the performance against Rodgers where we went into Lambeau and he didn't totally have our way with us despite being out Kam and not tackling well.

Agreed. I think our defensive performance at Lambeau was more impressive given the circumstances. I'm encouraged that we could go back and win if need be now that Kam is back. We'll also likely have Clark more involved next time we meet.

 

[KiwiHawk]

Let's not put too much stock into this "punted on every possession" stat.

Realise that in every shutout the losing team's drives all ended in futility. The difference between the average shutout and the "first time in 35 years" thing is that we didn't make the Bears turn the ball over.

It's still awesome to have a shutout, and a tremendous performance by the defense. It's just that the all-punts thing actually makes it slightly less awesome, not more awesome. I'm sure we all would have enjoyed a few pick-sixes, fumble returns, etc. as icing on our cake.

 

[Seahawk Sailor]

Realise that in every shutout the losing team's drives all ended in futility. The difference between the average shutout and the "first time in 35 years" thing is that we didn't make the Bears turn the ball over.

This is the downside, for sure. But it isn't terribly surprising when you consider the Bears' game plan. They only threw the ball 17 times, and didn't make many risky throws that I saw. The rest of their game was keeping it on the ground and protecting the ball. It's hard to force turnovers when your opponent is in conservative, ball security mode.

And we did get what very well could have been a turnover for seven points, if you recall. The sack that was called down by contact instead of a sack-fumble recovered for a touchdown by Clark. Not enough video evidence to overturn it, but it was incredibly close. If it were to have been called a sack-fumble, I highly doubt video evidence would have reversed that call either. And if that call were different, we're looking at a 33-0 shutout, with scores from offense, defense, and special teams.

 

[c_hawkbob]

Let's not put too much stock into this "punted on every possession" stat.

Realise that in every shutout the losing team's drives all ended in futility. The difference between the average shutout and the "first time in 35 years" thing is that we didn't make the Bears turn the ball over.

It's still awesome to have a shutout, and a tremendous performance by the defense. It's just that the all-punts thing actually makes it slightly less awesome, not more awesome. I'm sure we all would have enjoyed a few pick-sixes, fumble returns, etc. as icing on our cake.

That's part of it, but it also means that they didn't ever get close enough to even attempt a field goal.

 

[SoulfishHawk]

Nah, I put plenty of stock in it. Regardless who the team is, they punted every single time they had the ball. That's impressive.

 

[SoulfishHawk]

Just once it would be cool to see a Hawks win w/out drama following it. If they beat a crappy team it was just because "x" team they played sucks etc. If they lose to a very good team, they blew it blah blah blah.

A win is a win, it's not the BCS. Just seems like no matter how they win, some people won't be happy about it.

They won........but........just not my way. :lol:

 

[RiverDog]

Just an FYI... no one, and I mean NO ONE, in the national media is talking about the fact that the Hawks forced the Bears to punt on every single possession. They're all focused on Tom Brady's 400th career TD pass, the injury to Ben Worthlessburger, and Aaron Rodgers 5 TD passes. The only place the punt on every possession factoid is being discussed is in Seahawks Nation amongst stats monkeys and football freaks like us. It's a neat answer to a very obscure trivia question that 95% of sports fans across the nation are completely oblivious to.

 

[PlinytheCenter]

I'm a football fan,not a exclusive Seahawks fan. I've watched football for 35 years and know how it ebs and flows.
I already know they wont be as good this year. It's not hard to figure out. They might have a good regular season and you'll see exciting moments but this time the so called luck runs out. Player holds out,another player injured,weak offensive line ,Russell thinks he's some mystic christian etc. I've seen this story before 100 times already.
Enjoy football for what it is but there is no championship this year

Kingdome Karlissimo? Is that you?

BOOM!! Nailed it!!

 

[idahohawk]

Shutout, great. Fantastic.

Chicago mailed it in the week before. Clausen at QB and no Jeffery made this game essentially a BYE.

Unless the D galvanizes with Kam back in the fold, and gets back to 2013 levels, this game will prove to be nothing more than fool's gold.

I'm happy for the W. It was much needed. But there are some serious red flags on this team. Many can be improved/fixed, the OL... not so sure.

The Lions are struggling, but they surely won't mail it in like the Bears did. The first real litmus test will be this Sunday against a team that actually has the roster to try. Last Sunday was Varsity vs. JV scrimmage. And the JV team looked pretty feisty in the 1st half.

 

[Bigpumpkin]

I thought the fight went out of the bears when they as a team realized Fox was not really trying to win a game, but seemed more intent on just finishing a game.

Rumor had it that the Bears sent scouts to the Cal vs. Huskies game to evaluate the Cal. QB....just in case the Bears ended the season with a Top 5 choice in the 2016 Draft.

 

[c_hawkbob]

Just an FYI... no one, and I mean NO ONE, in the national media is talking about the fact that the Hawks forced the Bears to punt on every single possession. They're all focused on Tom Brady's 400th career TD pass, the injury to Ben Worthlessburger, and Aaron Rodgers 5 TD passes. The only place the punt on every possession factoid is being discussed is in Seahawks Nation amongst stats monkeys and football freaks like us. It's a neat answer to a very obscure trivia question that 95% of sports fans across the nation are completely oblivious to.

I've seen it mentioned an almost every single highlight reel from NFLN's many shows to the Worldwide Leader to FS1.

 

[hawk45]

Just an FYI... no one, and I mean NO ONE, in the national media is talking about the fact that the Hawks forced the Bears to punt on every single possession. They're all focused on Tom Brady's 400th career TD pass, the injury to Ben Worthlessburger, and Aaron Rodgers 5 TD passes. The only place the punt on every possession factoid is being discussed is in Seahawks Nation amongst stats monkeys and football freaks like us. It's a neat answer to a very obscure trivia question that 95% of sports fans across the nation are completely oblivious to.

Even local media aren't very impressed with it, at least on local radio. Maybe Wyman, whose football analysis rarely rises to the level of Mike Golic (although on a show with Danny O'Neill and Jim Moore he is the shining "gem.")

It appears to be a mildly interesting factoid that doesn't say anything significant about what we can expect vs. a team that doesn't come out of the tunnel in the fetal position.