San Diego Chargers offer blueprint for beating Seahawks

[kobebryant]

Win time of possession 3-1 in 120 heat.

 

[CANHawk]

This game is the same as last time we played in Miami. So the PNW team doesn't play well in conditions resembling Da Nang in the summertime. If THAT Is the blueprint, I'll sleep easy...

 

[NINEster]

Didn't Houston with Schaub and Owen Daniels light up the Seahawk D in similar fashion last year?

BTW, if we're going to use the heat as an excuse, can we adjust the 49ers not blowing out the Packers in the wildcard round as a Cailfornia team playing in Siberia?

Weather I think is an overrated factor in predicting football games to the home team's advantage.

 

[strohmin]

Who would have thought playing near flawless football while getting lucky bounces on fumbles at home would give a team a chance to beat a championship team?

 

[scutterhawk]

How cool is it that we are the team that everyone is trying to find the blueprint for?

The only problem with this blueprint is it requires an elite QB with a ten year connection with an elite TE

AND it will also require a lot of prayers to the SUN GOD to bring on the stifling heat, because the Chargers wouldn't have been able to do it without help from the exhausting heat of the SUN.

 

[Jville]

San Diego did exactly what every other elite QB does against Seattle. Dink and Dunk. It just so happens that Rivers is the very best at it, and he got a ton of help from the freakish field conditions.

And even then, his results weren't actually all that different from Rodgers, Brees, Manning etc. when you exclude his targets to Antonio Gates. Antonio Gates is what made the whole thing work.

Three touchdowns lead to player of the week honors for Antonio Gates >>> [urltargetblank]http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2014/09/17/three-touchdowns-lead-to-player-of-the-week-honors-for-antonio-gates/[/urltargetblank]

 

[tom sawyer]

Super Seahawk Kryptonite? I like it!!

 

[gowazzu02]

And

Despite all of that we had 2 drives to win the game even though the defense did almost nothing and Lynch and Harvin were barely involved. Cant forget the 3 fumbles that bounced right back to the Chargers either.

They didnt crack anything IMO. Lets see Denver try that on Sunday and see what happens when our D is able to play on a faster field, and not completely drained from the heat and having a lot more energy to play. My one big takeaway is that alot of our D didnt even seem to want to be there...no enthusiasm like usual

Try that dink and dunk Denver....please..

Yup, I agree, and I feel much better about things now with those points noted then I did right after the game.

 

[StoneCold]

SD and Denver are very similar teams. Main difference between the 2 games were that our Dline caused a lot of early passes from Manning and made him really uncomfortable in the pocket. For whatever reason, we were unable to do that against Rivers. He hung in there and made clutch throws and ran at key times.

+1 to this. Rivers too often had way too much time to throw. Credit SD Oline for keeping us away and credit Rivers for being able to slip out and throw some amazing off balance passes that looked ugly, but worked beautifully...for them.

I think any team that can give their QB that much time will have some success against us...Except Romo.

SC

 

[Laloosh]

Not sure what's groundbreaking about controlling TOP and converting on 3rd down. Last year people were saying Arizona provided a blueprint. How did that work out for the next few teams that played us?

 

[Popeyejones]

"Blueprints" for beating teams don't exist.

That said, I think both the Packers and Chargers have given other teams some things to play with when trying to figure out how to attack the Hawks' defense. They took really different approaches too, and despite losing I didn't think the Packers' approach is by definition without merit.

The big issue IMO is that these last two games raise two questions about the Hawks' ability to continue dominating by running what is ultimately a stubbornly predictable defense:

1) Do the Hawks have the D-Line depth to effectively rotate as they have in the past, and if they do, does the use of the hurry up mitigate against that and mitigate against the 12th Man effect at the Clink.

2) If the Hawks continue to insist on lining up straight and not trying to mask what they do, 1) are Maxwell and whoever the third CB is these days not talented enough for that to be as effective as it was with Browner and Thurmond, or 2) if it only takes one pre-snap shift to figure out if the Hawks are in Cover 3 Zone or Cover 1 Man is that enough information to sustain drives provided your offense is playing well?

Neither of these things are remotely "blueprints", but I think they're definitely questions about the Hawks' D that other teams are more curious about than they were three weeks ago.

As a point of comparison, it's really no different than it taking teams about a year (basically from the bye week two years ago to the bye week last year) to realize that Wilson doesn't step into the pocket and does most of his damage when defensive ends get too high up field and let him break containment. It was that insight that caused Wilson to have a pretty disasterous five game stretch last year through the last three games of the regular season and first two playoff games. It's not a "blueprint" for beating the Hawks passing game by a long-shot (the team now leans even more heavily on three step drops to mitigate agaisnt the strategy, as it opens up short passing lanes), but it did give teams something to think about.

While the Hawks responded to that, it remains to be seen if they'll transistion away from what has both been the NFL's most effective and most vanilla defense in response to teams starting to chip away at some strategies to to go after it. That could mean more disguised coverages, or it could mean moving Sherman around the field. It's not a "blueprint", but it could end up demanding a counter-move by Dan Quinn that Gus Bradley wasn't forced to make.

 

[Hawkfan77]

Hmm I think he missed the parts where it also requires 120 degree temperature (humidity included) and half of our players getting dehydrated...other than that, yeah, throw to the TE a bunch because that worked so well last year...oh wait!

 

[Evil_Shenanigans]

Holy fecal remnants, someone talk me down. They have a Blueprint! :mrgreen:

 

[olyfan63]

I felt the biggest problem was that our pass rush wasn't getting home in time to disrupt anything. Heat was a huge contributing factor, along with SD game plan to prevent d-line subbing.

Bucky Brooks had a nice analysis of how Rivers got the 'Hawks defense to show their hand prior to the snap by formation shifts. If we get a better pass rush, that point is moot. Chris Clemons, we miss you! Interesting that Irvin, Mayowa, and other Leo's haven't done much. O'Brien Schofield has looked decent at times, but I'm not sure if he's playing any Leo or not; just notice him getting pressure frequently.

This actually was a terrific game for us to have at this point in the year, to get "exposed" in a couple areas. Now the coaches can figure out how to counter.

1) Adjust pass rush to get better pressure? Quinn would be the man to figure that out.
2) Figure out how to get subs in and foil the no-huddle
3) Work more on disguising defenses, pre-snap
4) Figure out how to cover elite receiving TE's like Antonio Gates, Tony Gonzalez (get him to retire!), Gronkowski (throw him in jail!0 with the personnel Seattle has. Who knows, maybe Bruce Irvin could develop into the LB "cover guy" for TE's like that. Or maybe just KJ on a full tank and not 120 degree heat would suffice.