Ruminations on the Falcons Game

[Fade]

As per request I will be posting a reoccurring weekly post-game thread for everyone on .NET to post their thoughts (ruminations) about the game.

I feel bad for Quinn. The GM, Dimitrov has been there for years, and is their Ruskell. Quinn & Shanny came in and re-energized the team, but without Shanny, Quinn has too much on his plate. Quinn will bounce back as a DC somewhere else I guarantee it, with a more focused role.

24-0 at the half. Pete Carroll wasn't having any of it. He finds it disrespectful or something to blow opponents out, so he obliged, and let ATL back into the ball game.

Ken Norton's defense continues to get gashed by TE & RB screens. Maybe one day they will figure it out, maybe.
Opponents are not going to stop doing it until they show they can stop it. The more I watch the more disgusted I become. I think Seattle's defense has gotten worse game by game with him as the DC. 24 games worth of a downward trend is plenty for me to know he isn't the answer. Matt Schaub picked apart the easy to decipher zone coverage the whole game, of course I'm ignoring the garbage time throws late in the 4th qtr. Fortunately for Norton, ATL were robbed on a bad fumble call down by the goaline that would've made it a ball game.

Seattle offensively, had a concerted effort to not play offense once they got up in the first half. So there wasn't much to evaluate in the 2nd half. 1st half wise the Seahawks WRs did not consistently win 1-on-1. Every throw is tight window, with very little separation, outside of a couple of coverage busts for DK. It sure would be nice to have Wilson throw to an open receiver for a change. It is very uncomfortable to watch unless Wilson is targeting Lockett. They need another weapon if they would like to make a playoff run. If they are only concerned with just making the playoffs, then by all means, carry on. But they will struggle against the NFC elite in the playoffs if they choose to ignore the issue. Austin Hooper would be a nice fit, and is exactly what they need.

Seattle continues to not really game plan specifically against individual players. Julio Jones was 1-on-1 most of the game. Or running underneath the soft zone in the middle, unchallenged. Stupefying. I would brackett Julio every 3rd down if given the choice.

Random Player Notes:

Shaquille Griffin has developed into a top 5 corner.

Britt got hurt, but I don't think it will matter much. Hunt will fill in fine, and Pocic should be back from IR in a few weeks. I think they are both better players going forward.

David "One Foot" Moore.

Akeem King with the gift interception drop. He was thinking house call, but forgot to catch it first. Did Flowers get hurt? I missed that.

Penny looking like a cheeseburger shy of 240. He still can move pretty well in spite of that, but hard to evaluate in toatl against the bad defensive unit he was going against.

Clowney records a sack at the end of the 1st half, breaking their long as hell streak of 3.5 games, or something like that. ATL broke their even longer streak as well.

Kendricks made an interception in his zone drop, I wonder if it was shaded that way to roll coverage towards Julio, or coincidence? Probably a coincidence.

DK Metcalf on the 1st TD for whatever reason, ATL, was not ready for the snap & DK Metcalf caught the easiest TD pass he will ever have in his life. But then... He gets another on a busted coverage. LOL. Still not as easy as his first TD though.

Where was Jamarco Jones? He was their best O-Lineman for two weeks, so they bench him. Always compete.

Wagner became the all-time Seahawks leading tackle in this game.

Carson looked hurt at the end there, and should've been pulled.


Final Thoughts:

I had a ho-hum kind of feeling watching the game. It looked like the players did at times while playing in it as well.

Ultimately though the Seahawks won the game and handled their business. 4-0 on the road this year. The NFC is a loaded conference, they cannot afford any slip ups against the supposed gimmes like ATL, and TB upcoming.

 

[Shanegotyou11]

Tre Flowers was ruled out before the game.

The hawks went ultra conservative in the 2nd half. The defense will be our downfall and possibly not having a solid 3rd wr. The defense is getting gashed all over and per EPA, this is the worst defense for the hawks since 1995. It is just this bad. They need to figure it out but i just think the hawks will have to outscore teams so we better have perfect weather.

Shaq has looked very good this year. I still wish our corners would look back more. Blair was flying all around. The 2nd half made this game feel gross but 6 and 2 is 6 and 2.

 

[Shanegotyou11]

As per request I will be posting a reoccurring weekly post-game thread for everyone on .NET to post their thoughts (ruminations) about the game.

I feel bad for Quinn. The GM, Dimitrov has been there for years, and is their Ruskell. Quinn & Shanny came in and re-energized the team, but without Shanny, Quinn has too much on his plate. Quinn will bounce back as a DC somewhere else I guarantee it, with a more focused role.

24-0 at the half. Pete Carroll wasn't having any of it. He finds it disrespectful or something to blow opponents out, so he obliged, and let ATL back into the ball game.

Ken Norton's defense continues to get gashed by TE & RB screens. Maybe one day they will figure it out, maybe.
Opponents are not going to stop doing it until they show they can stop it. The more I watch the more disgusted I become. I think Seattle's defense has gotten worse game by game with him as the DC. 24 games worth of a downward trend is plenty for me to know he isn't the answer. Matt Schaub picked apart the easy to decipher zone coverage the whole game, of course I'm ignoring the garbage time throws late in the 4th qtr. Fortunately for Norton, ATL were robbed on a bad fumble call down by the goaline that would've made it a ball game.

Seattle offensively, had a concerted effort to not play offense once they got up in the first half. So there wasn't much to evaluate in the 2nd half. 1st half wise the Seahawks WRs did not consistently win 1-on-1. Every throw is tight window, with very little separation, outside of a couple of coverage busts for DK. It sure would be nice to have Wilson throw to an open receiver for a change. It is very uncomfortable to watch unless Wilson is targeting Lockett. They need another weapon if they would like to make a playoff run. If they are only concerned with just making the playoffs, then by all means, carry on. But they will struggle against the NFC elite in the playoffs if they choose to ignore the issue. Austin Hooper would be a nice fit, and is exactly what they need.

Seattle continues to not really game plan specifically against individual players. Julio Jones was 1-on-1 most of the game. Or running underneath the soft zone in the middle, unchallenged. Stupefying. I would brackett Julio every 3rd down if given the choice.

Random Player Notes:

Shaquille Griffin has developed into a top 5 corner.

Britt got hurt, but I don't think it will matter much. Hunt will fill in fine, and Pocic should be back from IR in a few weeks. I think they are both better players going forward.

David "One Foot" Moore.

Akeem King with the gift interception drop. He was thinking house call, but forgot to catch it first. Did Flowers get hurt? I missed that.

Penny looking like a cheeseburger shy of 240. He still can move pretty well in spite of that, but hard to evaluate in toatl against the bad defensive unit he was going against.

Clowney records a sack at the end of the 1st half, breaking their long as hell streak of 3.5 games, or something like that. ATL broke their even longer streak as well.

Kendricks made an interception in his zone drop, I wonder if it was shaded that way to roll coverage towards Julio, or coincidence? Probably a coincidence.

DK Metcalf on the 1st TD for whatever reason, ATL, was not ready for the snap & DK Metcalf caught the easiest TD pass he will ever have in his life. But then... He gets another on a busted coverage. LOL. Still not as easy as his first TD though.

Where was Jamarco Jones? He was their best O-Lineman for two weeks, so they bench him. Always compete.

Wagner became the all-time Seahawks leading tackle in this game.

Carson looked hurt at the end there, and should've been pulled.


Final Thoughts:

I had a ho-hum kind of feeling watching the game. It looked like the players did at times while playing in it as well.

Ultimately though the Seahawks won the game and handled their business. 4-0 on the road this year. The NFC is a loaded conference, they cannot afford any slip ups against the supposed gimmes like ATL, and TB upcoming.

Jamarco jones was rated worst player last week per PFF.

 

[SNDavidson]

Here's my silver lining;

How often do we want to shoot ourselves watching Pete let crappy teams hang around? What did we do this time? 24-0, fast.

Some of this is then letting off the gas, which I'm actually OK with on a game to game basis. Why? We're saving it for the stretch run. We're not putting it all on tape, Pete aint gonna kick a guy when he's down.

We're holding a lot close to the vest, I can almost guarantee it. Where's Ursua been by the way? Unless I missed an injury, there's just no way he's bad enough to get 0 snaps over brown/moore, I think Pete has stashed him, think he's going to be the next Baldwin, chain moving mr. automatic, that's all we're missing, imagine Baldwin on this team.

As for the defense, I also get the impression Pete is holding things back. I think we trade for a pass rusher and Barton, Ugo, Blair become at least pseudo starters with newly aqcuired Diggs playing top cover. We start blitzing and getting sacks and turnovers. Sky is the limit from there after the bye.

 

[Northwest Seahawk]

Were 6-2 and that's great. This coaching staff has got to start changing course when it's obvious it's not working. Todays soft zone in the second half case and point. I agree completely with Fade about Jones no priority given to stopping him just the same vanilla coverage over and over that's a failure on the coaching staff.

 

[WestcoastSteve]

Pete isn't holding things back the defense is not very good. Blair missed a bunch of tackles today although people will focus on the forced fumble and big hits.

They are blitzing a lot more than they ever have but without the guys in the secondary it's easy dump offs for the QB

 

[Shanegotyou11]

Jones was bad last week. Worst rated offensive player by PFF. He had a good game and then a trash game vs balty. Balty confused him with different stunts.

 

[calinator]

The schedule after the bye week is going to be pretty difficult but getting to that bye week to get healthy is going to be big for getting players back. Many key players inactive like Flowers and Diggs to shore up our secondary.

 

[seedhawk]

Ruminate on this. We have beaten 1 team with a winning record this year. Our 2 losses came from teams 12-3. Our 6 wins came from teams with a combined record of 13-30-1. Will same old hawks continue to win? Or does something need to be altered? The rest of our season we face teams with a current record of 36-20-1, and only 3 of them are at even or worse.

 

[KiwiHawk]

Just a small point: DK's 2nd TD wasn't busted coverage; it was an all-out blitz and Wilson threw to where the blitzers came from, as you're supposed to.

 

[Hockey Guy]

Don't think Kendricks Int was coincidence. I think he baited Shaub into throwing it there.

 

[jammerhawk]

It was a road W and any road W is thing of exceptional beauty. It should be remembered the team is at 6-2 half way through the season and of the 2 L's the team has only lost 1 conference game. The team is now a perfect 4-0 (EDITED) on the road and several of those games were early starts.

That said it certainly was a game of two halves. As good as the team was in the first half, they sucked as badly except on one long possession in the 4th Q during the second half. The pass D was shredded by a back-up QB, the pass rush was non-existent and the D line (esp. Clowney) kept on taking neutral zone & offside penalties that allowed drives to continue. The pass rush is simply awful and there is no pressure being placed on the opposing QB. I'm now totally concerned about this.

Carson ran well, the connection between RW and Lockett was as ever simply brilliant, and RW was finding Metcalf often and effectively. RW played brilliantly. Penny ran OK but I could still see him being moved over the next few days.The O was not the problem though a few points were left on the field by them with drops or a failure to concentrate to complete the catch. I thought the scheme became overly conservative far too early and downfield shots were abandoned for running the clock too soon.

On D for the most part Seattle shut down ATL's running game but were savaged by their passing game in the 2nd half. Akeem King was owned by Julio Jones and their short throws underneath to the right flat and undernearth edge were open the whole game. This has been the case for some while and it needs rot be fixed by a defensive adjustment. On the back end there were no huge mistakes made by the S's today and I though Blair played well for a rookie though he certainly wasn't perfect. He was laying the lumber at times and that was getting Atlanta's attention. The inside DLine was adequate but wasn't a presence, that isn't helping the edge rush, and we have yet to see much if anything from Reed in his 2 games back from suspension. I'd like to see more.

It's easy to be critical but once again do not forget this was a another road W.

6-2 and now Tampa at home.

It was a game that could have been an offensive statement but it didn't turn out that way, the team sure played less effectively in 2nd half.

Here's a gamebook summary which I should have read before my Prosise comment.

https://nflcdns.nfl.com/liveupdate/game ... mebook.pdf


NOTE: all commentary about Prosise have been edited out of the above post. Thanks to Seahawk for correcting me.

 

[Seanhawk]

Couple of corrections...we're 4-0 on the road and Procise did not look as good as Penny. He didn't have any touches because he wasn't even active.

I've also read here and other places where we left points on the board because of drops. I remember two on offense, one by Carson and one by DK. We weren't in scoring position on Carson's. A holding penalty on 3rd and 1 cost us more on that drive. And on DK's, we ended up scoring a TD on that drive anyway.

 

[xray]

This Hawk defense and offensive play calls ; usually give our opponents a chance to win . No killer attitude . IMO

 

[Fade]

Here's my silver lining;

How often do we want to shoot ourselves watching Pete let crappy teams hang around? What did we do this time? 24-0, fast.

Some of this is then letting off the gas, which I'm actually OK with on a game to game basis. Why? We're saving it for the stretch run. We're not putting it all on tape, Pete aint gonna kick a guy when he's down.

We're holding a lot close to the vest, I can almost guarantee it. Where's Ursua been by the way? Unless I missed an injury, there's just no way he's bad enough to get 0 snaps over brown/moore, I think Pete has stashed him, think he's going to be the next Baldwin, chain moving mr. automatic, that's all we're missing, imagine Baldwin on this team.

As for the defense, I also get the impression Pete is holding things back. I think we trade for a pass rusher and Barton, Ugo, Blair become at least pseudo starters with newly aqcuired Diggs playing top cover. We start blitzing and getting sacks and turnovers. Sky is the limit from there after the bye.

They are definitely holding things back on offense, Pete does it all the time, if he feels the game is going a certain way.

Defensively, they are what they are. Diggs will be inserted, the young guys that are playing should improve, and am looking forward to that aspect. But they aren't holding anything back on defense. A unit that is seemingly getting worse, no matter how many draft picks, or resources they put into it. They have been fairly healthy as well on that side of the ball. No catastrophic injuries to point to. Something is definitely wrong though.

My expectation was somewhere between 12-16. 17-19 at worst. Instead they are going the opposite direction as a unit and looking like a bottom 10 defense, maybe bottom 5, if the trend continues.

 

[truehawksfan]

As someone already mentioned, JJones had a difficult game against the Ravens. He got trucked by their DTs. He’s listed under 300lbs so he’s gotta gain weight if he’s going to be OG in Solari’s system. But...he lined on at LG on a couple of series, to open the 2nd half.

3rd option.
We desperately need a 3rd option for Russ. Shotty designed several plays for Moore but couldn’t connect. He also targeted Hollister and Willson, I think one time. I don’t even remember if Jeron Brown was even targeted.

Penny
I know many here have been extremely critical of Penny. But, let’s face it. Carson is our primary runner and Penny or Prosise will only play to give Carson rest. That’s it. PC stayed with Carson during his fumbling issues...some here questioned that decision...so, that’s his role. And, while there’s rumors about a Penny trade, it’s gotta be a great offer because as we experienced with Dissly, you shouldn’t trade...Vannett...because you think this is an asset you will never use.

 

[Fade]

As someone already mentioned, JJones had a difficult game against the Ravens. He got trucked by their DTs. He’s listed under 300lbs so he’s gotta gain weight if he’s going to be OG in Solari’s system. But...he lined on at LG on a couple of series, to open the 2nd half.

3rd option.
We desperately need a 3rd option for Russ. Shotty designed several plays for Moore but couldn’t connect. He also targeted Hollister and Willson, I think one time. I don’t even remember if Jeron Brown was even targeted.

Penny
I know many here have been extremely critical of Penny. But, let’s face it. Carson is our primary runner and Penny or Prosise will only play to give Carson rest. That’s it. PC stayed with Carson during his fumbling issues...some here questioned that decision...so, that’s his role. And, while there’s rumors about a Penny trade, it’s gotta be a great offer because as we experienced with Dissly, you shouldn’t trade...Vannett...because you think this is an asset you will never use.

Good stuff here. I am thinking Jamarco long term is a OT.

Penny looked good today for sure. You can't trade him because the drop off is too steep if Carson missed an extended period of time.

 

[Sports Hernia]

As someone already mentioned, JJones had a difficult game against the Ravens. He got trucked by their DTs. He’s listed under 300lbs so he’s gotta gain weight if he’s going to be OG in Solari’s system. But...he lined on at LG on a couple of series, to open the 2nd half.

3rd option.
We desperately need a 3rd option for Russ. Shotty designed several plays for Moore but couldn’t connect. He also targeted Hollister and Willson, I think one time. I don’t even remember if Jeron Brown was even targeted.

Penny
I know many here have been extremely critical of Penny. But, let’s face it. Carson is our primary runner and Penny or Prosise will only play to give Carson rest. That’s it. PC stayed with Carson during his fumbling issues...some here questioned that decision...so, that’s his role. And, while there’s rumors about a Penny trade, it’s gotta be a great offer because as we experienced with Dissly, you shouldn’t trade...Vannett...because you think this is an asset you will never use.

You have that guy in Ursua. He has to be active and on the field to be the third option.

 

[seahawkfreak]

Tre Flowers was ruled out before the game.

The hawks went ultra conservative in the 2nd half. The defense will be our downfall and possibly not having a solid 3rd wr. The defense is getting gashed all over and per EPA, this is the worst defense for the hawks since 1995. It is just this bad. They need to figure it out but i just think the hawks will have to outscore teams so we better have perfect weather.

Shaq has looked very good this year. I still wish our corners would look back more. Blair was flying all around. The 2nd half made this game feel gross but 6 and 2 is 6 and 2.

Do you not take in account for the good plays that they make. Yes consistency would be nice but they are still making plays.

It might be coaching calls, I don't know but to be so down on these guys without some relevance is stupid. We cant really add any more players on defense and if the D is as bad as you think they are,,,, it will take more than one player to make them what you want them to be.

My advice to all the D haters is to be patient. There is a lot of talent on the D. Let the team develop and stop the end of the world prophecies.

Oh hey we are 6-2 go figure.

 

[Shanegotyou11]

Tre Flowers was ruled out before the game.

The hawks went ultra conservative in the 2nd half. The defense will be our downfall and possibly not having a solid 3rd wr. The defense is getting gashed all over and per EPA, this is the worst defense for the hawks since 1995. It is just this bad. They need to figure it out but i just think the hawks will have to outscore teams so we better have perfect weather.

Shaq has looked very good this year. I still wish our corners would look back more. Blair was flying all around. The 2nd half made this game feel gross but 6 and 2 is 6 and 2.

Do you not take in account for the good plays that they make. Yes consistency would be nice but they are still making plays.

It might be coaching calls, I don't know but to be so down on these guys without some relevance is stupid. We cant really add any more players on defense and if the D is as bad as you think they are,,,, it will take more than one player to make them what you want them to be.

My advice to all the D haters is to be patient. There is a lot of talent on the D. Let the team develop and stop the end of the world prophecies.

Oh hey we are 6-2 go figure.

Im providing stats. Not opinion but facts. I think our dbs will get better as youthful.