Thoughts on Christine Michael??

[Happypuppy]

I heard someone compare him with Adrian Peterson or Shaun Alexander ( stylistically not saying skill ) the type of runner that will get stopped for no gain a few times and then break one for 20+. Having a tandem of Rawls and CMike would be nice to see

 

[theincrediblesok]

Forced 5 missed tackles and 5.82 yards after contact. He gained 1.57 more yards after contact per attempt than the next running back this week according to PFF.

 

[rideaducati]

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CMike also has 1 fumble in about 90 carries as a Seahawk.
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Michael has a lot more than one fumble in his ninety carries. He has recovered his own fumbles on multiple occasions and only had ninety carries because of his fumbling in preseason games where fumbles don't count.

As far as not playing on special teams, my bet is the fumbling issue combined with the right hand carrying. Add in that running backs take enough hits during the game and there might be enough evidence to come to a very reasonable reasoning.

Really? CMike has a bunch of fumbles that weren't recorded?
All I could find was this ESPN stats site that says Michael has 1 fumble in 90 NFL carries.
Exactly when did all these "fumbles" by CMike occur that you're talking about? What games?
I'll be happy to email ESPN and help them correct their stats with your more accurate info if you've got the goods.
Hell, maybe some game statisticians should be disciplined for not properly recording his fumbles.

http://espn.go.com/nfl/player/stats/_/i ... ne-michael

He didn't fumble today, so it would be about 1 fumble in 100+ carries.
He averaged 6 YPC today so that should push his average up to the high 4-almost-5 YPC for the season.

For special teams, I didn't mean as a returner necessarily; I meant as a cover guy. Maybe he can't tackle. Or maybe he takes bad angles to the ball, has trouble doing his job, etc. It's hard for bottom-of-the-roster guys to stick on a Pete Carroll team without being an asset on special teams.

Watch EVERY preseason game he played in, you'll see lots of fumbles. Espn doesn't keep those records because it's preseason...and I mentioned earlier it was preseason... Did I mention it was preseason? I think I did. That is why he has only 90 carries in four years...the preseason fumbles. Have fun rewatching those PRESEASON games...they're fun to rewatch.

 

[Ad Hawk]

Watch EVERY preseason game he played in, you'll see lots of fumbles. Espn doesn't keep those records because it's preseason...and I mentioned earlier it was preseason... Did I mention it was preseason? I think I did. That is why he has only 90 carries in four years...the preseason fumbles. Have fun rewatching those PRESEASON games...they're fun to rewatch.

Wait now... wut are you sayin' exactly?

 

[olyfan63]

Watch EVERY preseason game he played in, you'll see lots of fumbles. Espn doesn't keep those records because it's preseason...and I mentioned earlier it was preseason... Did I mention it was preseason? I think I did. That is why he has only 90 carries in four years...the preseason fumbles. Have fun rewatching those PRESEASON games...they're fun to rewatch.

Wait now... wut are you sayin' exactly?

I think he's saying... to paraphrase Allen Iverson... "We talkin about PRESEASON, man. Not even a REAL game. We talkin about PRESEASON, man. We talkin about PRESEASON."

I have watched EVERY Hawks preseason game since 2011, and lots before. (My favorite moment was that airborne KC safety pic from Russell's rookie year, (Eric Berry) and just watching him play and work his way up the depth chart) I don't recall Michael having an inordinate number of fumbles. Not going to try to find them all... If you really had the goods, you could list the games, date and opponent. The preseason box scores are probably out there. If you can't list the games, you don't have the goods.

When it COUNTS, CMike has 1 fumble in 100+ regular season carries. We talking about REAL GAMES, man. That's REAL GAMES. 1 fumble in 100+ carries in REAL GAMES.

I think we all agree he doesn't carry the ball in the "normal" hand away from pressure.
It's clear RB coach Sherman Smith has chosen not to focus on changing that, at least not yet. The team has decided to live with it and he's starting. That tells me Smith thinks his ball security right now is about as good as if CMike was doing things the normal RB way, e.g, , carrying ball in hand away from pressure.

 

[bigskydoc]

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It's clear RB coach Sherman Smith has chosen not to focus on changing that, at least not yet. The team has decided to live with it and he's starting. That tells me Smith thinks his ball security right now is about as good as if CMike was doing things the normal RB way, e.g, , carrying ball in hand away from pressure.

No, that tells us that, after 2 plus years of trying, the Seahawks have given up hope that this significant issue is fixable. They likely feel that his ball security is as good as it is likely to ever be. They will live with it this year because they have to. Doesn't mean he gets a free pass on it next year.


-bsd

 

[olyfan63]

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It's clear RB coach Sherman Smith has chosen not to focus on changing that, at least not yet. The team has decided to live with it and he's starting. That tells me Smith thinks his ball security right now is about as good as if CMike was doing things the normal RB way, e.g, , carrying ball in hand away from pressure.

No, that tells us that, after 2 plus years of trying, the Seahawks have given up hope that this significant issue is fixable. They likely feel that his ball security is as good as it is likely to ever be. They will live with it this year because they have to. Doesn't mean he gets a free pass on it next year.


-bsd

Yeah, I kind of wonder if CMike has some little nerve or wrist issue with his other hand that's a factor in this. Have you ever heard or read of Pete or Sherman Smith ever saying anything about why they haven't made CMike fix this?
It's mind-blowing to me also, I just can't imagine it could be that hard to fix, but since we keep seeing it, there has to be a plausible explanation. I watched CMike's college highlights video and it was exactly the same--ball in the right hand 100% of the time, no matter which side he's running to and where the impact would be coming from. I did notice a tendency in college that when he gets through the initial hole he likes to break runs back to the right side, where the ball is in a more protected position relative to pressure.

He's the same player in the NFL he was in college in these areas. He always carries the ball in the right hand, and he likes to break to that right side once he's through the hole. His big run vs. AZ was to the right side, and the other one where he reversed field, he brought it back to the right side. So his running preferences about where to take the run cause him to have the ball in the "correct" hand over 50% of the time. I could see opponents scheming to adjust to force him to the left then attack the ball; we shall see. Before, he never saw the field, so it was never a real factor.

If you see any other tidbits, share. I always enjoy your analysis. I sense a playing and coaching background and some legit coaching geekiness at times. I always love to hear what coaches think, right, wrong, or indifferent, how they break it down. To me, Pete is kind of the ultimate coaching geek; love watching him work and do his thing. He got to follow Bill Walsh around and pester him for knowledge for a couple years in SF and it doesn't get any better than that for football coaches. Then lately I realized Pete had been a coach on Bud Grant's Vikings staff; and of course I knew how passionate Pete was about adopting and adapting the best of John Wooden. It was cool to see Steve Kerr borrow a few things from Pete this last year in the NBA.

 

[Hawks46]

If you know he is never going to hold the ball in his left hand, then why call a pitch out to the left to him? It's an extremely rare play for us to run, although it is more of a CM type of play than a Lynch/Rawls type of play.

This is a game where the coaching staff came right out and said they were evaluating our "new" crop of running backs. I don't see why they wouldn't have said, "let's see if this kid has done anything about his bad habit of carrying exclusively in the right arm" while planning their evaluation. It's the perfect play to test that as he gets the ball well before any risk of contact in a situation where he clearly should be carrying the ball in his left hand.

-bsd

Michael is so explosive, that pitch to the left is actually a good play for him. When he's exploding out of the backfield, he's really hard to catch for a DE or OLB. So, if they actually try to strip the ball he's going to make them miss the tackle and get really good yards out of it. You're just not going to catch enough of a guy that explosive coming from an inside angle and pursuing outside.

I remember thinking on that pitch "CMike is the only RB on our roster that can make that play and get 9 yards out of it." Rawls is more exposive than I thought he would be, and he still only gets 5 yards ot of that.

The only way Lynch makes positive yardage on that play (at this point of his career) is if he trucks a guy so quickly that he can keep momentum and stay ahead of the OLB. He's just not fast enough to catch that edge consistently.