Things that must change this season...

[hawksfansinceday1]

Coaching staff must be willing to move on from Britt at C if his performance is subpar much sooner than they did with Nowak last year.

 

[RussB]

Also there is no cary williams this season, thats aready a huge plus.

 

[Jerhawk]

You guys pretty much hit the nail on the head with your points. Good post flying Greg.

Starting out faster in games and the season definitely needs to improve. We can't keep digging ourselves out of these holes. It makes for a great story, but as my boss says "Work smarter not harder." If we didn't go down by 31 to Carolina we could've beat those guys.

Also, not really an X's and O's type improvement, but I miss that fire and hunger we used to see the guys playing with a few seasons ago. We need to see that come back. Bring back the bully on the block mentality

 

[NewJerseyHawk]

3 things that need to change.....

A) Justin Britt, Tharold Simon and Paul Richardson.......

OR

Veteran OL off street, Deshawn Shead and Kasen Williams/Kenny Lawler

The strength of this team is that it has actual options to backfill spaces on the roster.....it is at times tough to imagine what this past draft would have looked like if we didn't have Rawls, Jeremy Lane and Kasen Williams or others at WR....

The best aspect of the roster is it provides chances to make the most out of the roster without burying the confidence of the player publically.....other coaches around the country really have thrown players under the bus publically, the strength of PC and JS is the blatantly add pieces to the positions and then talk up the existing guys. The competition item is very REAL.

The September starters will not be the November guys at these key spots. I don't see Britt evolving into a quality starter, Simon maturing and playing smarter and Richardson being healthy and able to contribute on special teams and WR.

B) Interior DT/DL and allowing Michael Bennett to be used properly.

We have slid Bennett inside more because the fragile nature of Jordan Hill and the avoidance of over use of Brandon Mebane made Bennett more important vs less important.

Again, instead of addressing the issue in the media, the staff went against the grain and drafted TWO players at a position to reduce snaps of Bennett inside. Rubin, Hill, Jefferson and Reed makes a rotation that is also supported by Bennett as a situational DT, not playing as many snaps as he needed to last year.

If you reduce Bennett's usage, you extend his shelf life and you can argue that any extension he ultimately gets, winds up lengthening his career. If Seattle plans to use him as much as they did last year inside, then I'd argue that he's more likely to hold out. The roster make up is almost a patchwork rotation that could actually sustain itself, if Bennett weren't on the field, either via holdout or injury. You can argue and put together a fairly effective rotation that can play well, without Bennett.....Bennett is the player that takes Seattle from very good to great, but that can only happen if he's fresher and used less, not more like last year.

C) It's not the safety play or CB play that's missing or different. It's called "boredom".....what we saw last year or for the better part of 2014 as well, was an LOB that played in spurts.....Bridgewaters' drive that resulted in a missed Walsh FG would have been essentially embarrassing to lose to a Vikings team. The Carolina game didn't exactly redeem the LOB in my opinion.

This is not a time to ride the horse or media about a subpar OLine, that has always been subpar in my opinion. Different pieces, same lack of talent and skill. Carpenter vs Webb, Okung limping around vs Gilliam........Sweezy vs Glowinski......same kids/different years....

The key is whether a veteran "been there/done that" LOB can raise their level of play again to elite status. Can they set the tone for the entire city OR, will they do what a lot of established veteran great players do......coast and then attempt to turn up the intensity when we visit Lambeau, Foxboro or host and visit Arizona or Carolina in the regular season and playoffs.

This is a confidence league more than talent league. Right now a team like Carolina or to a lesser extent Arizona are not any less afraid of Seattle than at any point in the last 4 years. The LOB is the only unit on the Seahawks that can bring out the elite status of the entire Seahawks roster. As much as Russell Wilson improves and Rawls and others compliment the defense, it comes down to eliminating the mistakes for all 16 games and shutting down passing games and getting deflections/picks and avoiding the "confused look" of "I thought you had him"??

I think the faster PC and JS cut bait on Tharold Simon or do the coaching job of a lifetime and can get Simon on track, will determine whether Seattle wins 2 of the next 3 Super Bowls or comes up empty. The game plan is out and clear....throw to the opposite CB of Sherman and stretch the seams with a mobile TE. You don't get much else to survive on by running the ball or doing anything else consistently against this defense. BOTH of these gaps lie in the secondary and with the LOB.

So we can micromanage the OL shuffle or RB's, but neither unit is a concern in my book. It's the LOB and Bennett's usage/contract that get solved in camp and the next 3-4 weeks that will determine how hungry Seattle is to get back to the top. Wilson/Baldwin/Lockett and even Jimmy Graham can all perform, but at crunch time, we need stops against teams and that means the LOB has to return to being the true LOB.

 

[MizzouHawkGal]

We might think about scoring more so that all the above that you list would be less of a concern. There's more than one way to skin a cat as they say.

 

[MontanaHawk05]

To predictable and not creative has us as the top 5 defenses yet that's not good enough, you after really remember the handicapped secondary last year with Williams and Kam out early on, that limits your creativity yet we still were in the top in many categories, not having to deal with the hold out and Williams along with fatigue and hangover I think we would have been fine.

Only way some people will be happy is a turnover every possession and a TD return I guess. At least you wouldn't need to see bad clock management and Britt then.

We played some really second-rate offenses. That helped.

That defense got slapped by the Panthers.

They were also in a crummy position because of Russell Wilson's turnovers.

It's still taboo to talk about it here, but Russell Wilson really does not perform all that well in the postseason. Until the fourth quarter.

 

[King Dog]

Shouldn't Browner be an instant upgrade over whoever was covering TE's last year? He may be an over-the-hill CB, but he's still gotta have the speed that most TE's do. As a bonus, he loves destroying people. Can't wait to see him in the run game - he brings nasty back to our D.

Heyoo!

Oh, hi Wes!

Oh, and my favorite - and I don't care that it was dirty.

 

[Largent80]

Hard to compare a team season to season with the constant revolving door that is the NFL.

Obvious is O-Line. Obvious is getting scores faster. It could go on and on.

 

[IndyHawk]

To predictable and not creative has us as the top 5 defenses yet that's not good enough, you after really remember the handicapped secondary last year with Williams and Kam out early on, that limits your creativity yet we still were in the top in many categories, not having to deal with the hold out and Williams along with fatigue and hangover I think we would have been fine.

Only way some people will be happy is a turnover every possession and a TD return I guess. At least you wouldn't need to see bad clock management and Britt then.

We played some really second-rate offenses. That helped.

That defense got slapped by the Panthers.

I am not sure why stating we need to be better against TEs and have a killer instinct would make anyone get butt hurt. Our D needs to evolve. Simple.

Some people are happy with stats and rankings I guess.

That defense got slapped?The offense had no part in TO's on our side of field including a pick 6?What did our D do in 2nd half?It was our offense using a rusty Beast and no spread with silly TO's that killed us

 

[dogorama]

To predictable and not creative has us as the top 5 defenses yet that's not good enough, you after really remember the handicapped secondary last year with Williams and Kam out early on, that limits your creativity yet we still were in the top in many categories, not having to deal with the hold out and Williams along with fatigue and hangover I think we would have been fine.Only way some people will be happy is a turnover every possession and a TD return I guess. At least you wouldn't need to see bad clock management and Britt then.

We played some really second-rate offenses. That helped.

That defense got slapped by the Panthers.

I am not sure why stating we need to be better against TEs and have a killer instinct would make anyone get butt hurt. Our D needs to evolve. Simple.

Some people are happy with stats and rankings I guess.

That defense got slapped?The offense had no part in TO's on our side of field including a pick 6?What did our D do in 2nd half?It was our offense using a rusty Beast and no spread with silly TO's that killed us

I don't think that the implication of this thread is to lie it all on the defense as much as it is to simply discuss areas that could use improvement on both the D and the O. In either case you take away the 4th qtr collapses and we win 13-14 games and have home field advantage through the playoffs. What I saw was an O that played too vanilla protecting the ball and a D seemingly confused at times. Is that far off the mark?

 

[FlyingGreg]

I don't think that the implication of this thread is to lie it all on the defense as much as it is to simply discuss areas that could use improvement on both the D and the O. In either case you take away the 4th qtr collapses and we win 13-14 games and have home field advantage through the playoffs. What I saw was an O that played too vanilla protecting the ball and a D seemingly confused at times. Is that far off the mark?

You get it. It's ok, some people on here can't handle ANY constructive criticism of their team. They are stuck in the fan boy world. No worries.

Those with critical eyes saw the defense give up a 59-yard on the first play from scrimmage, Cam Newton complete 16 of 22 passes, Greg Olsen running free all over the field, the inability to force a turnover, only recording one sack, and not coming up with any big plays.

Those with critical eyes also recognize being up 31-0 at the half set Carolina up to completely go conservative and let their foot ff the pedal, which has a lot to do with the second half outcome.

So yeah, plain and simple...the defense got slapped around in that game. It wasn't the first time...anyone that watched last season knows the defense did not have it's animal instinct. Not sure why that would be contested. Yes, the offense (more accurately, Mr. Wilson) didn't help vs. Carolina. At all. But the defense doesn't get a free pass. Perhaps the expectations were too lofty?

But back on point, covering tight ends and a few other areas definitely needs to be improved this season.

 

[FlyingGreg]

To predictable and not creative has us as the top 5 defenses yet that's not good enough, you after really remember the handicapped secondary last year with Williams and Kam out early on, that limits your creativity yet we still were in the top in many categories, not having to deal with the hold out and Williams along with fatigue and hangover I think we would have been fine.

Only way some people will be happy is a turnover every possession and a TD return I guess. At least you wouldn't need to see bad clock management and Britt then.

We played some really second-rate offenses. That helped.

That defense got slapped by the Panthers.

They were also in a crummy position because of Russell Wilson's turnovers.

It's still taboo to talk about it here, but Russell Wilson really does not perform all that well in the postseason. Until the fourth quarter.

He hasn't been really good in the post-season lately. Truth.

 

[Hawks46]

The slow starts to games don't really bother me too much. I know what we're doing, and it's pounding the rock and setting teams up for the 2nd and 4th quarters (last year it seemed to be 2nd and 3rd quarters). It's effective, especially when you're running the ball and not having great results, but still stay with it. It's almost impossible for defensive players to not cheat up when they know you'll go run heavy and stay that way. Then, BANG ! Hit em over the top. We also have a lot more speed on offense which complements this very well.

The slow start to the season is going to boil down to our OL, which it seems to every year. It takes time for a constantly new OL to gel, but this year they seem to have addressed that with keeping the same OL through TC (at least that's what they've said).

 

[Tical21]

Clean-up crew pass rush. Bennett and Avril are going to get as much early pressure as any 2 D-linemen in the game. However, good quarterbacks were able to slide up in the pocket last year and wait for options to develop against our cover-3, and weren't harassed a whole lot after the initial rush. Clinton McDonald was a huge player for us for this reason, and we basically got an F last year in replacing him. Jordan Hill, Jefferson, and Frank Clark are going to have to show a knack for sliding off blocks in the right direction and close in a heartbeat, and have a feel for where the QB is going to step to. I expect Hill to get first crack at this, and he was fantastic at it in 2014, but he's going to have to produce or he won't last long.

Run when everyone in the stadium knows we're going to run. A big part of the reasons we lost some leads late where we wouldn't have done so in the past is because we weren't able to run effectively on 1st and 2nd downs against stacked boxes. We need to find a way to get 3-4 yards when the other team knows for certain that we are going to run. That's how you put games away. That's how you have those 8-minute drives to start the 4th quarter that suck the life out of the other team. If you want to be the best running team in the league, this is where you earn it, not on read-option plays on 2nd and 10.

Our reliance on the cover-3. We know we need to evolve. We came out last season showing a lot more man and cover-2 than we had played in the previous few years. It didn't go well. We weren't ready to play man, we aren't built well for cover-2, and there was a clear dropoff in the level of execution going from a defense in the cover-3 that we know like the back of our hands, to defenses that we just haven't had as much experience with. This lead to miscommunication, blown coverages, and a bit of a tentativeness. Our lack of interior pass rush didn't help.

After the game where gave up a huge late TD with half our team playing cover-2 and half our team playing cover-3, we went back to our roots. We decided that we were going to play our cover-3, and teams were just going to have to execute against us to beat us. Luckily, this coincided with us playing about 8 subpar QB's in a row, and we dominated. Then, in the playoffs, Cam had a gameplan against us and just ripped our cover-3 to shreds.

This is a copycat league. Over the past couple of years, more teams have adopted our cover-3 defense. Offenses are now used to planning for it and are comfortable facing the cover-3. Good quarterbacks are going to pick us apart. Not always, because we're damn good, but on big 3rd downs and big drives, they're going to have a good handful of plays in their pocket that they are really confident will work against us. That's when we need to disguise a cover-2 zone blitz, make the quarterback think twice, and get that rush home.

I expect the first portion of the season to be a lot of experimenting, just as it was last season. We're going to have to try to find some other things that we do well. Maybe we end up settling back into our cover-3. However, I believe doing so would be playoff suicide.

 

[dogorama]

Run when everyone in the stadium knows we're going to run[/b]. A big part of the reasons we lost some leads late where we wouldn't have done so in the past is because we weren't able to run effectively on 1st and 2nd downs against stacked boxes. We need to find a way to get 3-4 yards when the other team knows for certain that we are going to run. That's how you put games away. That's how you have those 8-minute drives to start the 4th quarter that suck the life out of the other team. If you want to be the best running team in the league, this is where you earn it, not on read-option plays on 2nd and 10.

How many times do you have to get stuck depending on a third-down conversion before you realize that you have to get first downs on 1st and 2nd downs too? Later in the season when we began rolling that was the difference and then we go back to the same old thing in the playoffs.

 

[NINEster]

A thought on covering TEs....

Is it possible that the Carroll scheme overcompensates to shut down WRs and maybe TEs benefit from it?

I know it's hard to fathom that there's any sort of chink in the armor with the Seahawk defense, but it's impossible to shut everything down all the time. You'll need '85 Bears level talent to do so, and modern NFL free agency & salary cap won't allow that unless you luck out drafting all of those guys.

Don't forget that out of your starting 11, you've only got special players at FS/SS/LCB/MLB who are going to contribute in any way to pass coverage. Bennett & Avril getting to the QB affects the pass coverage equally unless TEs get open faster than WRs. Maybe Browner returning helps.

I can't speak to the rest of your DBs but the outsider perception is that they are good but not great.

I think you guys need another top shelf LB like Carolina has and what the 49ers used to have. That way you can go 1 on 1 without pulling Robert out of run stopping/general MLB duty.

 

[HawkGA]

Oh, and my favorite - and I don't care that it was dirty.

Just for the record, there was nothing dirty about Browner's play. When the QB is out of the pocket, WRs can be hit. Since Rodgers is so good at finding receivers when we is on the move, the strategy was to knock them on their asses once Rodgers left the pocket. Reminds me of what I used to do when I played video game football. But it was totally within the rules and a good strategy.

 

[dogorama]

Oh, and my favorite - and I don't care that it was dirty.

Just for the record, there was nothing dirty about Browner's play. When the QB is out of the pocket, WRs can be hit. Since Rodgers is so good at finding receivers when we is on the move, the strategy was to knock them on their asses once Rodgers left the pocket. Reminds me of what I used to do when I played video game football. But it was totally within the rules and a good strategy.

Jennings got punked on that play and then made the bad decision to go after BB only to get really punked. Anyone who doubts BB's physicality has only to look at this play, LOL.

 

[Tical21]

A thought on covering TEs....

Is it possible that the Carroll scheme overcompensates to shut down WRs and maybe TEs benefit from it?

I know it's hard to fathom that there's any sort of chink in the armor with the Seahawk defense, but it's impossible to shut everything down all the time. You'll need '85 Bears level talent to do so, and modern NFL free agency & salary cap won't allow that unless you luck out drafting all of those guys.

Don't forget that out of your starting 11, you've only got special players at FS/SS/LCB/MLB who are going to contribute in any way to pass coverage. Bennett & Avril getting to the QB affects the pass coverage equally unless TEs get open faster than WRs. Maybe Browner returning helps.

I can't speak to the rest of your DBs but the outsider perception is that they are good but not great.

I think you guys need another top shelf LB like Carolina has and what the 49ers used to have. That way you can go 1 on 1 without pulling Robert out of run stopping/general MLB duty.

I think you're forgetting that KJ Wright is considered one of the very best zone cover LB's in the league.

The problem we run into is that our two LB's need to carry the seam and deeper post routes, but opposing coordinators love to stretch that zone with a TE and then run an angle or crossing route underneath it. Our LB's sometimes get sick of giving up those 5 yard passes at-will, so they anticipate and don't carry the TE all the way to the FS. Opposing coordinators are really making our LB's make decisions and trying to mess with their pride. I think you'll see us go back to giving up the underneath stuff more often.

 

[Laloosh]

Great post Greg. I guess I've resigned myself to the idea that we will see a lot of the ground game in wk 1 with this OL being so inexperienced. Hopefully not a ton of PA though; I think defenses played every down like it was PA in the first half last year.