Whew!

[AROS]

As ever, unless it’s 4 TDS and 300 + yds passing Wilson sucks and is a game manager. More post game hyperbole. C’mon fellas these Divisional games are always tough.

Um, not so fast, respectfully.

It's no stretch for any of us to see Russell isn't playing at 100% efficiency. This isn't about 400 yards passing or 5 TDs. It's an honest assessment (eye test) that he just doesn't look comfortable, at least fully comfortable yet in this system.

It's not an indictment on Russ in terms of degrading skill set. It's about a new OC and scheme that seemingly wants to fit a circular object into a square-shaped hole. It's noticeable that he looks hesitant in the pocket, and no, I don't mean what else is new, I mean it looks like he is being forced to be something he's not and it shows in his body language and execution.

This is his what, 7th season? He is in the PRIME of his career and yet he looks like a rookie.

Why is that?

The first person who says a scheme that is not fitting his strengths wins the gold star.

 

[HomerJHawk]

We just need to get our mojo back.
[youtube]gEuw2mgLRuQ[/youtube]

Perhaps we need some motivation...
[youtube]1LyqPdZjQTY[/youtube]

 

[AROS]

Indeed.

 

[THE TABS]

It's no stretch for any of us to see Russell isn't playing at 100% efficiency. This isn't about 400 yards passing or 5 TDs. It's an honest assessment (eye test) that he just doesn't look comfortable, at least fully comfortable yet in this system.

It's not an indictment on Russ in terms of degrading skill set. It's about a new OC and scheme that seemingly wants to fit a circular object into a square-shaped hole. It's noticeable that he looks hesitant in the pocket, and no, I don't mean what else is new, I mean it looks like he is being forced to be something he's not and it shows in his body language and execution.

This is his what, 7th season? He is in the PRIME of his career and yet he looks like a rookie.

Why is that?

The first person who says a scheme that is not fitting his strengths wins the gold star.

New scheme? No, don’t think so, for this reason; Remember, in his rookie year, he was playing in his 3rd different offense in three seasons (NC State, Wisconsin, and here), and had no issues picking up the offense on the fly. He was way ahead of the curve, and quite frankly, he could have done a lot more than he was given during the first half of that season.

We all know the offensive line gets a lot of blame, and rightfully so, but over the same period of time, the lack of playmakers around him have been just as big of a reason for the offensive struggles. We don’t have that Antonio Brown/Julio Jones type beast on the outside that can take over a game at will, which gives defenses even more reason to pin their ears back and chase Russ.

Finally, when you see what is trending around the league offensively, incorporating more college type/ spread schemes, our team is so far behind the curve, and next week is going to be a classic example of that. It feels like an “adapt or die” situation, and we’re dying.

We have an elite quarterback in his physical prime, and we’re WASTING him by not protecting him and not giving him the necessary tools. These past five years, we’ve completely wasted our drafts by not focusing on changing our offensive philosophy and it’s coming back to haunt us.

 

[sutz]

I think Russ is still nursing that hamstring.

He did have that one good run on the zone read keeper.

 

[Fade]

New scheme? No, don’t think so, for this reason; Remember, in his rookie year, he was playing in his 3rd different offense in three seasons (NC State, Wisconsin, and here), and had no issues picking up the offense on the fly. He was way ahead of the curve, and quite frankly, he could have done a lot more than he was given during the first half of that season.

We all know the offensive line gets a lot of blame, and rightfully so, but over the same period of time, the lack of playmakers around him have been just as big of a reason for the offensive struggles. We don’t have that Antonio Brown/Julio Jones type beast on the outside that can take over a game at will, which gives defenses even more reason to pin their ears back and chase Russ.

Finally, when you see what is trending around the league offensively, incorporating more college type/ spread schemes, our team is so far behind the curve, and next week is going to be a classic example of that. It feels like an “adapt or die” situation, and we’re dying.

We have an elite quarterback in his physical prime, and we’re WASTING him by not protecting him and not giving him the necessary tools. These past five years, we’ve completely wasted our drafts by not focusing on changing our offensive philosophy and it’s coming back to haunt us.

You're right. Great post.

The new scheme is a copout on 2 levels.

1st- They didn't change the offense. Pete wanted to keep it the same so the players could easily transition (And secretly, or maybe not so secretly he could still have a hand in it.) Brian is really just adding his flavor over the top of it. A terrible flavor at that. Brian had to spend the off-season learning Pete's scheme, and language.

2nd - See McVay and his first year with Goff contrasted with his first year with Fisher. See Mahomes in his first year starting. Where is their time to gel? Either you have a guy who can coach and run an offense, or you don't. The gelling factor is there, but it is very minimal.

Adding on to what you've already stated.

Pete is going back to what he knows. He knows defense. He knows running the football protects his defense. He doesn't know how to scheme and build an offense around a stud QB. So Wilson is going to have to be TJack with 4th Qtr magic, because that is what Pete knows. He isn't Andy Reed, Sean Payton, or Sean McVay. Pete is doing what he knows --> "Pete" ball. No matter the OC or QB, it will always be "Pete" ball. Regardless of personnel on offense "Pete" ball. Until the keys are taken away from grandpa. "Pete" ball.

"Pete" ball defined -

adj-
1. An antiquated offense that ignores the opponent, and personnel of either team.

2. Leaning heavily towards the run, except when you should, then you throw it (short yardage situations).

3. Simple route concepts so the players can play fast. (In reality it just makes them easier to cover.) Mostly vertical routes to try to get big gains, but usually turns into the QB holding the ball and getting killed.

4. Lethargic, and slow breaking the huddle cannot give the QB time to adjust and change the play, also leads to unnecessary usage of timeouts. Sloppy play, heavy on on pre-snap penalties. Disorganization is routine.

"Pete" ball is applicable to all these situations. It has nothing to do with just running or passing, but applies to the entire offense regardless of what they are doing on a particular play. This is "Pete" ball.

 

[JGreen79]

Good points Aros. Here are my takeaways:

- Our first three out of four games were on the road. When we take a step back and think about it, that's pretty freaking insane. Is there another team with a similar schedule and if so, I bet they're struggling.

- When we looked our best, we were at home. The Seahawks have always struggled on the road under Pete, especially in September. I am perfectly okay with this ugly win. Look for us to struggle in London, and then again in Detroit.

- As the season goes on, I wouldn't be shocked if we went 6-2 at home and 4-4 on the road. Personally, I'd take that. Also, some of our toughest opponents we have to face at home. The Chiefs, Vikings, Packers, Chargers. Yep, all coming to our house

- I think Russell is under a new system but also, I don't think we can underestimate the road factor. So many new players, new shifts on the O-line. We have a much easier time communicating at home

- I thought Russell mostly did what we have to. Pete's way is not a blowout for the sake of a blowout. The way I saw this game, we made plays when we had to and played the field position game as best we can. I also think losing Dissly was huge in terms of protection and looks we like to give the opposing team. The only other TE that can approximate Dissly is Dickson


I know many won't be happy with this win, or how we won. But I'm okay with ugly wins, especially against division opponents. The teams who win it all don't always blow teams away during the regular season. Not that I expect us to win it all of course

I'd like to add Seattle typically doesnt play well on grass, and Russell over his career has a passer rating 10 full points under his rating on turf. Three games so far were on grass, with three more to go and one on what're you call that hybrid at Wembley.

 

[AROS]

Still haven't heard anyone's comments on Penny not getting the majority of touches. Is it simply a "still recovering from finger surgery" thing or something else? Just legitimately curious.

 

[chris98251]

Still haven't heard anyone's comments on Penny not getting the majority of touches. Is it simply a "still recovering from finger surgery" thing or something else? Just legitimately curious.

Heard nothing, but the fact that Baldwin was helping him with a pep talk about confidence may be a part of it, Davis has a complete game and Carson a year under him as well, Both pass block well. This may be a bit of seasoning going on for a Kid that neve has had to realy be in the back seat for a while.

He did look like he was playing with a bit less thinking today however, I hope that trend continues.

 

[SoulfishHawk]

Almost always ugly wins down there, but yet again, another win in their house. I'll take it and won't apologize for it.

 

[sutz]

Still haven't heard anyone's comments on Penny not getting the majority of touches. Is it simply a "still recovering from finger surgery" thing or something else? Just legitimately curious.

Well, from what I heard from the pre-game shows, they were planning on switching off and then going with the hot hand.

Davis definitely had a hot hand, essentially from the get-go. Penny got some chances, but never performed like Davis.

That's all that I would read into it. Maybe next week, Penny will go first and get a chance to show what he has better than this week. We'll see.

Funny, I don't see any posts from the 3.3YPC club this week.

 

[mistaowen]

Mike Davis was just running well. Penny looked okay but no reason to go away from Davis. Also, still not terribly impressed by Penny. He doesn't look to have elite quickness or burst, his runs need a hole and he goes down to the initial defender. It's eerily similar to Turbin.

Not meant to bash Penny as a full year of offseason workouts will help and I'm sure a lot of it is him focusing on doing the 'correct' thing every play, it just reminds me of his college tape where he'd take a pitch 80 yards without a defender near him and he was relatively quiet outside of those 1 or 2 huge gains. Superior athlete compared to his opponents then, not so much here.

 

[TwistedHusky]

We beat what is arguably the worst team in the NFL because they missed a makeable kick.

We did this by barely beating a team starting their QB in his first NFL game.

This is not a good sign for the rest of the year but our team always has problems on that garbage playing field.

The Rams should boatrace us next week so that won't count to evaluate this team. It will be the games against the Lions and Raiders that helps us understand if we are average or just not very good.

 

[SoulfishHawk]

Did they win? Sure doesn't seem like it. drama dot net

 

[Cyrus12]

Seattle has a had a lot of issues with Arizona the last few years, with some issues on that shitty field. I'll take the win. If Seabass doesn't miss those 2 FG's I suspect Arizona would of been out of the game quickly but its amazing what a bad kicker can do to swing momentum. The passing game was concerning but the D was pretty good in containing David Johnson in the 2nd half.

 

[Sgt. Largent]

Did they win? Sure doesn't seem like it. drama dot net

We did win, just barely.

That's good, cause these are the kinds of games we will have to win if this team wants any shot of sniffing a Wild Card or winning season this year.

I'm happy we won, some positives to take from the game for sure (run game looked good, redemption kick for Seabass, Doug came through healthy).............but if I'm being honest, those were two pretty bad teams we watched yesterday, combine that with both Earl and Uncle Will out for the year, and I'm pretty bummed out this morning.

 

[SoulfishHawk]

Fair enough. Still a head scratcher that they were dominating the line of scrimmage the entire 3rd quarter, then when came down to 3rd and 1 or 4th and 1, they called pass plays. Gave me some real bad Bevell memories :?

 

[Sgt. Largent]

Fair enough. Still a head scratcher that they were dominating the line of scrimmage the entire 3rd quarter, then when came down to 3rd and 1 or 4th and 1, they called pass plays. Gave me some real bad Bevell memories :?

Makes no sense, our O-line was the same as it was against Dallas, pushing the pile forward almost every run play.

Pete might be the worst situational playcalling coach in NFL history, and challenge coach, and clock manager. We've now had less than two timeouts with 5 minutes in the game three of our four games.

That should never happen with a veteran QB like Russell.

 

[SoulfishHawk]

We were all screaming at the screen RUN THE BALL! And when they didn't, it was WHHHHYYYYYYY???
The Cards were very tired after that 3rd quarter, and the Hawks allowed them to stay in the game. It's just plain bad coaching imo. It's working, stop trying to get cute.

 

[TwistedHusky]

Except the coaches are not learning from these mistakes Soulfish.

It is one thing to see the problem and say 'well we just need to fix this'.

But we never fix it.

Carroll is a terrible gameday coach. But he has always been that way.

Before we had a bad OC (he was bad with the Vikings, so it isn't just Pete) and now we hired another OC known for fielding crappy offenses. Not surprisingly we have a crappy offense.

So faced with 3rd and shorts, (which are the objective in many offenses - to maximize those), we run plays that have low levels of success. We as fans see it and hope it can be fixed.

But it won't. Because our coaches don't fix problems. They stick with things because of some weird philosophy or belief, regardless of whether it is successful or not. We are the kings of forcing square pegs into round holes.

Later this year, we will see teams we can run on. And we will continue to try to throw on 3rd and short because we have some belief this works. Expecting this staff to adapt when it rarely does just ignores the track records.