Two challenges against the Rams

1. Pass Pro - The Rams racked up a season-high 17 pressures in their win over the Seahawks in Oct. Aaron Donald and Robert Quinn had a field day against our beat up offensive line. They need to do a better job getting Lynch involved with the running game, so as to take some of the pressure off Wilson and the offensive line. Carpenter needs to have a MUCH better game against Donald.




2. Stopping Tre Mason - The rookie running back had a breakout game against us in the last meeting. Without Brandon Mebane in the lineup, it will be even more imperative for the defense to maintain gap integrity and tackle well. Mason can be explosive through the hole and has good balance to run through tackles. Kevin Williams needs to have a solid game at NT, as does Jordan Hill. Bennett and Avril must keep containment against a big, strong offensive line.

If I recall, that was one of our worse tackling games all around

I pointed this out in a Shack thread where I guess I wasn't supposed to, but that game against Mason had no film on him going into it. He had only 5 carries before that game, so we really had no preparation for him at all. Remember that Zac Stacy had pretty much run over us the season before in St. Louis and I think we were probably focusing most of our film study on stopping him, so having Mason come out as the starter and get all but two of the carries caught us off guard.

There's plenty of film on Mason now and I expect us to not only be ready for him, but have a chip on our shoulder about stopping him. Besides Shaun Hill will be our opponent at QB, and we know him much more than we knew Davis when they faced us before.

Did you see that field goal block? Special teams.

brimsalabim":13ddz65k said:

Did you see that field goal block? Special teams.

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The one from last Sunday? Yeah, they have to be prepared for all the Rams' tricks. Fake FGs, decoy punt returners, flea flickers, etc.

Are we not factoring in how well they just played????

AZ had 7 sacks IN Seattle.
We allowed 1 on the road this game.

I'm not worried about it at all honestly. Bailey played outstanding!

That FG block was awesome. If he'd deflected that back further it would have been a TD. HOpefully Seattle can fool them on a double count and get a first down on it this week.

Lets take a look at what needed to transpire in order for St Louis to win by a few digits last time out:

1. Hawks in the middle of a bit of a tailspin/controversy/etc

2. Two trick plays by douchefisher

3. A weird, potentially botched fumble call at the end of the game.

4. on the road.


With ALL of that, the Hawks still should have won that game.

Lets not forget we had a silly 6 page thread venting all of our "concerns" going into the AZ game too.

hawknation2014":22saabjw said:

1. Pass Pro - The Rams racked up a season-high 17 pressures in their win over the Seahawks in Oct. Aaron Donald and Robert Quinn had a field day against our beat up offensive line. They need to do a better job getting Lynch involved with the running game, so as to take some of the pressure off Wilson and the offensive line. Carpenter needs to have a MUCH better game against Donald.

2. Stopping Tre Mason - The rookie running back had a breakout game against us in the last meeting. Without Brandon Mebane in the lineup, it will be even more imperative for the defense to maintain gap integrity and tackle well. Mason can be explosive through the hole and has good balance to run through tackles. Kevin Williams needs to have a solid game at NT, as does Jordan Hill. Bennett and Avril must keep containment against a big, strong offensive line.

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Very good points. However, Bobby Wagner was out. Kam Chancellor was not 100%, Derrick Coleman broke his foot before the game, Turbin had to play FB on short notice, and ST was a mess. With all that said, they only lost by 2 points and could have won the game, if not for the ST mistakes. I'm confident that the Seahawks will have a better showing on Sunday. Healthier team and they will be focused on winning the game to get HFA.

Iwant to treat the thread title like Jeopardy.

What won't Pete have left after he wastes all his timeouts?

I want the hawks to make the Fisher pay for his duplicitous trickery and pound the horned Goats into mincemeat. On the other hand getting out to a good enough lead so that we can rest the starters is also a way to go.

hawks are a different team know playing with so much more confidence and also having a couple of players back .

That first clip wasn't on Carp, it was on the center, but i get the point. Along with the 2 fake punts there was also a 80 yard kickoff return that turned into 7 points for the Rams. This might have been KJ's worst game as a pro.

Scottemojo":32sj93va said:

Iwant to treat the thread title like Jeopardy.

What won't Pete have left after he wastes all his timeouts?

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Damn... You blew it Scotte. It should have been " Pete Carroll won't have any of these after he wastes his time outs"

"What are challenges?"

I hope we run a lot of screens early to keep them off RW's back a little.

Hawkpower":l8sf1nxp said:

Lets not forget we had a silly 6 page thread venting all of our "concerns" going into the AZ game too.

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Why do you need to call that thread "silly"? Football is an emotional sport.
On the surface, there was no way a 3rd string QB was going to beat the Seahawks. It's just that past versions of the Seahawks have at times made scrub fill-ins look like all-pros. Past versions have snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.
Are you asserting a smug, self-superior rationality that you're not like those other emotional fools and that you alone see things clearly, you are the wizard? OK, I didn't really think so, just a questionable word choice. Many of the emotional fools here on .NET are extremely football smart, and sometimes it just helps to talk it out.

That aside, your analysis for this game seems spot-on.

The Rams do always seem to find a way to play us tough.

That said, we are on such a roll on both sides of the ball, reasonably healthy, and playing together as a team, an unstoppable force. The Rams would have to muster a superhuman effort just to make a game of it. I can't see it being closer than 2 TD's.

I also think Russell, Bevell, Cable are finally all getting on the same wavelength in the passing game. They will have to scheme on how to neutralize Robert Quinn, one of the few D-linemen who can run Russell Wilson down. I think they will. I think our TE's make some big plays again this game, especially if Moeaki can go.

Like you point out, there's no way StL is +17 on Special Teams/Trick Plays this game.

The only scenario where the Rams win involves extremely unlikely occurrences. I really don't see how their offense will score on us. It should be another 24-3 or 31-13 type of game.

Decent analyses.
Watched the rewind last night; can't think of anything to add without being Cap'n Obvious.

Maybe this:

Q: "What are the main challenges against the Rams?"
A: "Yeah"

BTW, Merry Christmas!

Grahamhawker":2d528988 said:

Decent analyses.
Watched the rewind last night; can't think of anything to add without being Cap'n Obvious.

Maybe this:

Q: "What are the main challenges against the Rams?"
A: "Yeah"

BTW, Merry Christmas!

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Thank you for asking.

We have had a few weeks where our usually solid special teams have struggled. Against Fisher we have to be solid there.

hawknation2014":1x6243ju said:

brimsalabim":1x6243ju said:

Did you see that field goal block? Special teams.

Click to expand...

The one from last Sunday? Yeah, they have to be prepared for all the Rams' tricks. Fake FGs, decoy punt returners, flea flickers, etc.

Click to expand...

Yes it was beautiful. Shuld have been the second time it worked this season but the first was negated by a BS offsides call.