Let The Rams Game Be A Reminder That The O Line Is Not Fixed

We witnessed Russell explode over a 5 game stretch when he had acceptable pass protection. It showcased the MASSIVE importance of pass protection. There was lots of talk about how the O line had come together. I agree they played great in that stretch. However, we faced teams with D lines that were either depleted by injury or just not very good. I felt the Rams game would actually be the first test in a while against a solid D line unit. And, it was back to the same junk we saw at the beginning of the year.

Front office - Please let that 5 game stretch serve as a glimpse of how Russell could always play if you strongly address the O line in free agency and the draft. In my eyes, our first, second, third, fourth priorities should be O line, O line, Oline, etc.

Control the O line, improve your scoring, keep your D fresh, and keep your stud QB from getting destroyed.

timmat":3t31j6cc said:

We witnessed Russell explode over a 5 game stretch when he had acceptable pass protection. It showcased the MASSIVE importance of pass protection. There was lots of talk about how the O line had come together. I agree they played great in that stretch. However, we faced teams with D lines that were either depleted by injury or just not very good. I felt the Rams game would actually be the first test in a while against a solid D line unit. And, it was back to the same junk we saw at the beginning of the year.

Front office - Please let that 5 game stretch serve as a glimpse of how Russell could always play if you strongly address the O line in free agency and the draft. In my eyes, our first, second, third, fourth priorities should be O line, O line, Oline, etc.

Control the O line, improve your scoring, keep your D fresh, and keep your stud QB from getting destroyed.

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I agree oline is important, however:

All Pro offensive lines struggle against the Rams. They have multiple 1st round picks hanging out there.

Oh, and our starting left tackle was in street clothes, while our starting tight end suffered a concussion.

Think that made a difference?

Offensive line and CB are definitely the two top needs on the team heading into the offseason.

I doubt they address CB via FA, but they should absolutely invest in the OL in FA.

A motivated Rams DL versus a Seahawks OL that basically would have rather been playing Xbox in a warm, dry living room instead?

Yeah that's a win for the Rams.

The Seahawk OL has been slapped around by the Rams plenty of other games where motivation wasn't a factor. In fact as far as that mismatch goes I saw nothing different from our other games against them.
Maybe the motivation thing explains a play here or there but the story of the game was the mismatch in the trenches and that has been the case for years.

hawk45":387ql5y3 said:

The Seahawk OL has been slapped around by the Rams plenty of other games where motivation wasn't a factor. In fact as far as that mismatch goes I saw nothing different from our other games against them.
Maybe the motivation thing explains a play here or there but the story of the game was the mismatch in the trenches and that has been the case for years.

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This. Fix this crap Pete and John!! If you don't, and the Rams finally get a coach that is more interested in winning than hurting other teams players, they will be scary (assuming said HC finds a decent QB).

If the first two draft picks are used on anything other than two o-lineman, something is terribly wrong. But, I am sure we will draft another 5''9 165 lb WR in the first round.

"If the first two draft picks are used on anything other than two o-lineman, something is terribly wrong. But, I am sure we will draft another 5''9 165 lb WR in the first round."

LOL... do we have any picks left after Graham...and PS do we need him?

We faced one of the top D lines in the league without our best Lineman. Ya they got pushed around a bit, but without the 2 errant snaps, fumbles and drive killing penalties, and our top two TE's down. Our offense was moving the ball just fine. They didn't stop us, we stopped ourselves (repeatedly). We definitely need marsawn back, and a healthy Okung, bailey is garbage.....

hawker84":2xyq5xmm said:

We faced one of the top D lines in the league without our best Lineman. Ya they got pushed around a bit, but without the 2 errant snaps, fumbles and drive killing penalties, and our top two TE's down. Our offense was moving the ball just fine. They didn't stop us, we stopped ourselves (repeatedly). We definitely need marsawn back, and a healthy Okung, bailey is garbage.....

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Our offense moved the ball just fine on the shoulders of Russell's scrambling ability. I believe the stat was he took 17 QB hits. He is human, and will get hurt eventually if subjected to that pounding. We need to empower the O to be successful from scheme and the pocket, not consistent scramble drills. We saw the power of that in the previous 5 game stretch. It could be the norm for us if the eyes stay focused on improving the O line.

The Rams brought it that day, and yes our banged-up OLine struggled, but they actually gave Russell quite a bit more time than they have in the past against the Rams. About 5 or 6 separate times the ball had to bounce just right for the Rams for them to get the W, and all 10 of those things went right. Congratulations to them

IMO, The key play in the game was Tukuafu's fumble on 3rd-and-1 being taken to the house. If that's even just a recovery near the spot, as opposed to a TD return, the Hawks win this game. That contributed to us being down two scores, and once down two, we were pressing and scrambling and largely went away from the run.

Not saying I disagree with you that there are OL problems to be fixed, but if earlier in the season the OL was a "2" on a scale of 1-10 in Sept/Oct, recently the OL's been performing at "7" level overall. However, with Okung and all blocking TE's out, and facing the Rams, OL looked like a "4", Some of it is still Russell needing to throw on time and/or better sense how his protection is holding up. Russell had a nice pocket to step up into on one sack, but bailed out the back, out of habit, and scrambled right into a sack.

Cooper Helfet is not an NFL caliber player. If you're physically outmatched, at least chip the guy. Don't just get stood up and pushed back in to the QB's lap. 200lb RBs can slow down an end more than Helfet can.

hawker84":1fyw8cke said:

We faced one of the top D lines in the league without our best Lineman. Ya they got pushed around a bit, but without the 2 errant snaps, fumbles and drive killing penalties, and our top two TE's down. Our offense was moving the ball just fine. They didn't stop us, we stopped ourselves (repeatedly). We definitely need marsawn back, and a healthy Okung, bailey is garbage.....

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Those would be because Lewis was terrified of Aaron Donald. Can't say I blame him.

Aaron Donald pretty much blew up our offensive gameplan. The Rams wanted the Seahawks bad yesterday and it's why I feel the ball bounced in their direction. With that said there was a couple times RW held the ball to long. Also despite everything that went against us we still almost won the game.

OL is fine. We Are good enough to get back to the Super Bowl.

seahawkfreak":3huavkel said:

Aaron Donald pretty much blew up our offensive gameplan. The Rams wanted the Seahawks bad yesterday and it's why I feel the ball bounced in their direction. With that said there was a couple times RW held the ball to long. Also despite everything that went against us we still almost won the game.

OL is fine. We Are good enough to get back to the Super Bowl.

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I disagree that the O line is fine. The O line is fine if we play sub standard D lines. The point is to be able to hold up against the good D line units as well. Even in the past two Super Bowl seasons, there's been lots of problems with O line play. With the transition away from Marshawn, Russell cannot get pounded every time we play a good D line.

seahawkfreak":3mjsqkzh said:

OL is fine. We Are good enough to get back to the Super Bowl.

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I'm not sure what you were watching yesterday, but it was clear to me that this OL is not mentally tough to stop a Top 10 NFL Defensive Line.....without Russell Okung. If the team is mentally tough, those turnovers do not happen. Depending on how this team plays against AZ this coming Sunday will give us an indication of what will happen in that first Playoff game.
Now if we want to talk about the psychology of the game, AZ might be playing "soft" this Sunday because they know that it is very hard to beat the same team three times in a year. It will be very interesting to see which Hawk team shows up this Sunday.

With both Carolina and AZ out there this could be the year our OL isn't quite good enough.
Hate to see Wilson close the year on 3 straight beatings also.

I'd feel better about our line if there were a Baltimore or San Fran in our playoff future but alas.
Also Bevell the Rams murder your play action with long routes knock that ish off.
Bevell can bat opposing DCs around like a ball of yarn when it's all working but damn it if the guy can recognize when our OL is about to run into a buzz saw.

Something to think about, Doug's quote from his presser.

"Gotta give a lot of credit to the Rams defense, they game planned us really well doing a lot of stuff we didn't see on tape."

The Rams did everything to win this game, they had 10 days to put in new wrinkles and disrupt our offense. I hope Carroll looks at the tape and uses some of the things that the Rams did and use it against AZ.

theincrediblesok":2kuiozrj said:

.........they had 10 days to put in new wrinkles and disrupt our offense......

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Screw you NFL. How many teams this year had 10 days to 2 weeks to prepare for the Seahawks? Like 5? 6? Oh but there's no conspiracy to chip away at the excellence of the Seahawks. Nope, no "emphasis" on physical CB play, no having the Hawks travel 4 straight years on Thursday nights, no making Seattle play at 10 AM when they're flexed out of the Sunday night game vs. Baltimore instead of 1:00 PM, no huge discrepency in DPI calls even though Seattle's only had 2 go their way this year, no ignoring cheap shots by the Rams on Wilson,.....................etc., etc., etc. Screw you NFL.

Bigpumpkin":2gpn1nh6 said:

seahawkfreak":2gpn1nh6 said:

OL is fine. We Are good enough to get back to the Super Bowl.

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I'm not sure what you were watching yesterday, but it was clear to me that this OL is not mentally tough to stop a Top 10 NFL Defensive Line.....without Russell Okung. If the team is mentally tough, those turnovers do not happen. Depending on how this team plays against AZ this coming Sunday will give us an indication of what will happen in that first Playoff game.
Now if we want to talk about the psychology of the game, AZ might be playing "soft" this Sunday because they know that it is very hard to beat the same team three times in a year. It will be very interesting to see which Hawk team shows up this Sunday.

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I'm just gonna be patient with them. They have played well at times and hope they keep improving.