Random Thoughts™ on the Giants game

[UK_Seahawk]

Meh. Lynch doesn't look any different at all to me. I don't agree that the run blocking has been good. The initial push has been fine, but the blocking in the second level has been poor the last few weeks. Lynch's explosion looked the same as it always does on his receptions.

I thought he lined up minus his full back a hell of a lot last night. I wonder how much this was a factor in the lack of rushing yards.

 

[dunceface]

I, for one, am not worried about Lynch one bit.

and I'm in the camp that this vanilla stuff is just us keeping our hand close to the chest for now so we have some new looks come playoffs

 

[Hawkscanner]

So, when is it okay to worry about Marshawn Lynch? To my eye he's had good run blocking the last 3 weeks. Not elite run blocking, but average blocking at worst. It has now been over a month since the last time Lynch averaged over 3.6 yards per carry in a game. In 14 games, Lynch has averaged 3.7 YPC or less 7 times. He had 2.9 YPC today. Though Turbin looked good and ran in obvious rushing situations, his numbers weren't very good either. If Christine Michael plays well the next couple weeks, he needs to be a part of the game plan come the postseason. For the second time in 3 games, Russell Wilson was Seattle's top rusher (50 yards on 8 carries).

Lynch was our top receiver though. Kind of surprising given the day Doug Baldwin had

I'm with you Kearly in beng a bit concerned about Lynch and the lack of productivity in the run game at this point. Yeah, I understand completely that the Giants came in to this game ranked 10th in Defense DVOA. On the flip side though, Kiwanuka was in there in place of JPP ... whom Pro Football Focus had ranked 49th out of 50 Defensive Ends (abysmal in his run defense) -- Kiwanuka, that is.

It's just that from here on out, we're going to be going up against VERY good Defensive Lines. We're not going to have any patsies on the schedule anymore. If Seattle has any real ambitions to get to the Super Bowl, then they've got to something from Lynch more akin to Jamaal Charles than what we've seen out of Lynch lately. I'm not saying he's done by any means, but decline in RB's can be quite subtle -- to the point where one might not notice until all of a sudden the cliff comes. It sure happened that way for Shawn Alexander. And personally, I wouldn't judge him by physical age. As Indiana Jones said, "It's not the years ... it's the mileage." Lynch, by his Beast Mode style of running, has sure accumulated a lot of miles.

Again, this may turn out to be nothing ... nothing more than issues with Seattle's Offensive Line not blocking well for him and defenses specifically gearing up to stop him. After all, he looked good on the receiving end of the football yesterday. That said, this is something that should certainly be monitored from here on out.

 

[hawksfansinceday1]

..............That said, this is something that should certainly be monitored from here on out.

Calling Tech Worlds............

 

[BlueTalon]

I can't fathom any defense being in the top 10 with anathema for an offense.

We had exactly that in 1992.

 

[themunn]

Bevell is not the reason we lost in Atlanta.

I really don't know how you can say that. Of course he's not the only reason, but his play calling was the biggest one. What, you're going to try and argue that the soft zone with under a minute remaining in the 4th quarter to let the Falcons get in field goal range is worse than failing on a bunch of offensive drives for most of the first half? Give me a break. You can't believe that.

So you think it's Bevell's fault that Lynch fumbled, our running backs failed to convert 3rd and 1 and 4th and 1 (moan all you want about the fact that Lynch wasn't used, every single running back in the league should be able to convert a 3rd and 1, and Robinson had a 100% success rate during the regular season with that same play. It stands to figure that it's a pretty good playcall if you succeed with it 100% of the time.

Or maybe you think it's Bevell's fault that Wilson took a sack to end the half with no timeouts when he should have thrown it away.

Like you already said, Pete probably control's the type of game we play and Bevell implements the actual plays. This is where teh conservative gameplan comes from. When the need comes to throw away all forms of convervative play we get second halves like we do in Atlanta, where Wilson ends up breaking the rookie record for passing yards in a playoff game and almost brings about the biggest comeback in playoff history.
He doesn't do that without good playcalling

 

[Seahawk79]

I am a bit concerned about Lynch's lack of running productivity over the past month. Is Lynch injured and trying to play through pain or are defenses just stacking the box to the point that it negates any real running game? Or maybe a combination of both? We all know RB's stats steadily decline once they hit 30...Isn't Lynch around that magic number?

That Chancellor hit was similar to his Vernon Davis hit where the refs are reflexively throwing the flag because they see a sharp movement of the head at the point of contact, assuming it's helmet-to-helmet but it's not. The hit appeared totally legal on the replay and I agree 100% those plays should be reviewable. That would be a nice rule change from the NFL.

I am concerned about Lynch as well but to be honest I think it is a matter of game planning by our opponents. In my non-expert opinion, for the past three weeks our opponents have seemed to have prepared to do two things:

1. Stop Lynch
2. Mitigate against the Read Option

All the while opening the door for RW to dominate with his arm. Heavens help our opponents when they can not achieve 1 and 2 above.

This, and this. Lynch is going up against good run defenses that are aiming to stop him and the read first and foremost. Often it opens up the doors for RW to have huge passing games, like he could of had yesterday. 5 picks by our D and a Giants D aiming to stop the run, should of/could of have led to bigger numbers in the air. It didn't, and we won 23-0... All is well in 12th Man land!

 

[hoxrox]

Lynch had 110+ all-purpose yards today. He was our most productive skill player. Teams are gearing up to stop the run against Seattle. I'm sure that was especially true this week with the threat of a snow game. Let's not overlook the fact that the Giants also have a top 10 DVOA defense. I'm sure we still have some blocking issues, but not worried about Lynch at all.

I'm glad they are mixing it up more, actually. Use Lynch in space more and let him get some yards after catch. We can still pound the ball in the middle, and get the tough yards, but with Lynch's banged-up shoulder and back, it's better to mix it up and preserve him for the play offs.

 

[AbsolutNET]

Bevell is not the reason we lost in Atlanta.

I really don't know how you can say that. Of course he's not the only reason, but his play calling was the biggest one. What, you're going to try and argue that the soft zone with under a minute remaining in the 4th quarter to let the Falcons get in field goal range is worse than failing on a bunch of offensive drives for most of the first half? Give me a break. You can't believe that.

So you think it's Bevell's fault that Lynch fumbled, our running backs failed to convert 3rd and 1 and 4th and 1 (moan all you want about the fact that Lynch wasn't used, every single running back in the league should be able to convert a 3rd and 1, and Robinson had a 100% success rate during the regular season with that same play. It stands to figure that it's a pretty good playcall if you succeed with it 100% of the time.

Or maybe you think it's Bevell's fault that Wilson took a sack to end the half with no timeouts when he should have thrown it away.

Like you already said, Pete probably control's the type of game we play and Bevell implements the actual plays. This is where teh conservative gameplan comes from. When the need comes to throw away all forms of convervative play we get second halves like we do in Atlanta, where Wilson ends up breaking the rookie record for passing yards in a playoff game and almost brings about the biggest comeback in playoff history.
He doesn't do that without good playcalling

So we're only allowed to blame everything or nothing on someone? We can't just isolate an area or two we'd like to see improve?

 

[Zorn76]

Bottom line is: We shutout the Giants out at their house.

And there hasn't been many of those, period, this season in the NFL.

 

[dontbelikethat]

His two fumbles in the playoffs near the end zone still haunt me. Hope we don't turn the ball over in the playoffs this year.

 

[KK84]

Bottom line is: We shutout the Giants out at their house.

And there hasn't been many of those, period, this season in the NFL.

Hell, we shut a team out on the highest scoring day in nfl history.

 

[themunn]

Bevell is not the reason we lost in Atlanta.

I really don't know how you can say that. Of course he's not the only reason, but his play calling was the biggest one. What, you're going to try and argue that the soft zone with under a minute remaining in the 4th quarter to let the Falcons get in field goal range is worse than failing on a bunch of offensive drives for most of the first half? Give me a break. You can't believe that.

So you think it's Bevell's fault that Lynch fumbled, our running backs failed to convert 3rd and 1 and 4th and 1 (moan all you want about the fact that Lynch wasn't used, every single running back in the league should be able to convert a 3rd and 1, and Robinson had a 100% success rate during the regular season with that same play. It stands to figure that it's a pretty good playcall if you succeed with it 100% of the time.

Or maybe you think it's Bevell's fault that Wilson took a sack to end the half with no timeouts when he should have thrown it away.

Like you already said, Pete probably control's the type of game we play and Bevell implements the actual plays. This is where teh conservative gameplan comes from. When the need comes to throw away all forms of convervative play we get second halves like we do in Atlanta, where Wilson ends up breaking the rookie record for passing yards in a playoff game and almost brings about the biggest comeback in playoff history.
He doesn't do that without good playcalling

So we're only allowed to blame everything or nothing on someone? We can't just isolate an area or two we'd like to see improve?

In that respect, there's room for improvement everywhere, but blaming Bevell for the loss in Atlanta is like blaming Sherman for tripping or Lynch for fumbling, Bradley for playing prevent, Wilson for taking the sack or Carroll for choosing not to kick on 4th and 1. Bevell didn't force Wilson to throw the ball into double coverage yesterday did he? Maybe it's time we improve at QB.

 

[AbsolutNET]

Nevermind.

 

[RolandDeschain]

So we're only allowed to blame everything or nothing on someone? We can't just isolate an area or two we'd like to see improve?

In that respect, there's room for improvement everywhere, but blaming Bevell for the loss in Atlanta is like blaming Sherman for tripping or Lynch for fumbling, Bradley for playing prevent, Wilson for taking the sack or Carroll for choosing not to kick on 4th and 1. Bevell didn't force Wilson to throw the ball into double coverage yesterday did he? Maybe it's time we improve at QB.

 

[themunn]

very clever. you both make compelling arguments.

 

[themunn]

Don't get me wrong, I don't sit here and think that Bevell never ever calls a bad play.

But I don't think hiring one of the offensive coordinators that never ever calls a bad play is the solution here

 

[Zebulon Dak]

Of course he makes bad/wrong play calls. It would be literally impossible not to.

 

[FlyingGreg]

I liked that they split Lynch wide a lot yesterday and used him like a WR. If teams want to keep gangbusting to stop him running, beat them throwing the ball.

 

[Zebulon Dak]

I liked that they split Lynch wide a lot yesterday and used him like a WR. If teams want to keep gangbusting to stop him running, beat them throwing the ball.

I think they're actually doing a really good job of mixing things up from wekk to week to keep teams guessing what kind of offensive game plan we'll be coming in with, and I think that in turn makes it easier for us to be good enough on offense without having to take too many chances.