Preseason Game 2 Observations

Just a few quick thoughts. Feel free to add your own.

McCray had a really bad game. We miss Kam a lot when he's not there. I'd like to see Powell get a shot at that backup position.

The 2nd CB spot seems to be sorting out. Simon isn't it. Shead is. Shead is just an underrated, solid, all around player who doesn't screw up and plays with LOB physicality.

Tye Smith played really well. Really well.

On the line Reed and Jefferson looked really good. Marsh and Clark were active as well. But it was Tony McDaniel who stole the show with quite a few really good plays. Good job, old man.

The starting linebacker looked in midseason form, and in reserve I really liked to see aggression from Longa. Of all the reserves he's the one that continues to play like a Seahawks linebacker.

On offense, we were really good running the ball. Really good. But Sowell was abused, and Gilliam didn't fair much better. If last week was encouraging, this week was a sober dose of reality.

Christine Michael continues to be a revelation.

Drops. Way too many drops. And penalties. Those two things alone were drive killers. Lawler is so hit and miss.

Boykin throws a great deep ball.

Jon Ryan is a stud. That is all. Just a stud and a great guy to have on the team.

Oh, and Alex Collins? Ugh. Needs more fire in his pants. Too much hesitation. He doesn't go down easy, but he doesn't get anywhere hard either. Very disappointing.

Looking forward to sing Procise next week.

I also like what I saw from Fant. A lot of growth from week 1 to week 2. Sure, we still whiffed a few times, but overall there were a lot less whiffs.

Nice post. Collins had a rough night for sure. Still excited for his future though. I'm with you on the rest of this though.

The funny thing about Christine Michael is, as good as we actually hoped he would be initially, he might actually be better.

I am stoked that the dreaded 3rd and 1, 3rd and 2 may no longer be an issue. We had trouble with those even back in the days of Lynch. (Mainly because we decided short yardage was great for Turbin and it wasn't..but I digress)

The line looks horrible and that is great news. Now we can stop pretending we have a great pass blocking line and start actually designing our plays to get the ball out quick.

The defense just isn't Seahawk. Again, for those who wanted to say Kam wasn't worth it, if Kam comes back and this defense comes back to life - eat your crow. But damn if I think it might be the line simply is terrible, and that is crazy considering we have both Avril AND Bennett who are outright studs. So I'm just going to disagree with you on Reed, he can get better but he is basically worthless* on 2/3 of the downs he is going to face.

Not good.

Russ is just not there yet, still have confidence he will get there. If the separation is in the preparation, one asks with all he had going on this summer how would he have had time to prepare? So hopefully he gets focused and this offense turns around.






* Not saying he is worthless period, just saying that he is not at all adding any value as a starter on the line. Stopping the run isn't near as pressing a need as stopping the pass. He can get better. But he isn't ready to be an every down guy or even a many down guy yet.

TwistedHusky":13c7s602 said:

The funny thing about Christine Michael is, as good as we actually hoped he would be initially, he might actually be better.

I am stoked that the dreaded 3rd and 1, 3rd and 2 may no longer be an issue. We had trouble with those even back in the days of Lynch. (Mainly because we decided short yardage was great for Turbin and it wasn't..but I digress)

The line looks horrible and that is great news. Now we can stop pretending we have a great pass blocking line and start actually designing our plays to get the ball out quick.

The defense just isn't Seahawk. Again, for those who wanted to say Kam wasn't worth it, if Kam comes back and this defense comes back to life - eat your crow. But damn if I think it might be the line simply is terrible, and that is crazy considering we have both Avril AND Bennett who are outright studs. So I'm just going to disagree with you on Reed, he can get better but he is basically worthless* on 2/3 of the downs he is going to face.

Not good.

Russ is just not there yet, still have confidence he will get there. If the separation is in the preparation, one asks with all he had going on this summer how would he have had time to prepare? So hopefully he gets focused and this offense turns around.






* Not saying he is worthless period, just saying that he is not at all adding any value as a starter on the line. Stopping the run isn't near as pressing a need as stopping the pass. He can get better. But he isn't ready to be an every down guy or even a many down guy yet.

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I agree with your 1st two paragraphs, that is about it. The line wasn't nearly as bad as it is being portrayed in pass pro. 2 of those sacks were straight up on Russ, one was a missed blitz pickup. Russ had a pretty clean pocket for the most part.

I can see criticizing Reed after pre-season game 1. He played way too high and was actually being moved. Was a non factor game 1. This game he was a difference maker. Two gapping, getting off blocks, shooting gaps. He was very disruptive in the run game. And to say that stopping the run is not as big of a deal as stopping the pass is just incorrect. If you cannot stop the run, you cannot win. If a team can run on you, it can stem an entire offense off of cramming the ball down your throat and killing you in the play action game. It starts with stopping the run.

The Russ thing, come on man. Everything points to this being his best offseason yet. He got married, big freaking deal. That did not take up his entire summer. The guy is a model of consistency, how anyone could doubt him (or his focus) of all people going into this year blows my mind.

What about Browner? I had high hopes but have barely heard his name called.

SpokaneHawks":2p2u6d7s said:

What about Browner? I had high hopes but have barely heard his name called.

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I saw him laughing on the sidelines with Sherman. That was about it. I am already considering that to be a failed experiment, and Browner will be cut. He's not a top 5 CB on this team, and he's not a top 4 safety.

I though Reed had an outstanding game. 3 Tackles from the nose in less than a full game snaps is impressive, and he got at least one pressure. Once the blitzing come is when we'll really see the benefit of Reed being capable of tying up two bodies by himself.

Just for comparison, Mebane the last three years has about 25 tackles per season. If Reed just does what he did last night, in limited snaps, he'd hit 48 per season.

My observations (haven't seen the game on tape yet),

This defense had trouble last year allowing 3rd and medium conversions. Specifically, in the middle of the field. This year we are not demonstrating this to be a fluke. It's like getting an opponent on the ropes and then backing off and letting him get back into the fight. Feels like our philosophy of keeping everything in front of us really does us a disservice in this particular instance. Which is strange because our secondary is supposed to be a point of strength but by scheme we seem to seek to protect the secondary instead of relying on them to allow us to cheat coverage where conversions are the most reliable.

Tight ends look like they may be the death of us again this year. I don't see improvement in this area yet. If we can't solve this issue, that's probably 2-3 losses that would otherwise have been wins. The difference between 11-5 and a wild card team and 13-3 and a first round bye.

Reed is a difference maker on the line. He's better than I thought he was and I thought he was pretty good.

Wagner seems a bit off. Coverage and see him miss two tackles last night that were similar to issues seen last season. His bar is pretty high and I think he's having trouble meeting it consistently.

Luke Willson is going to likely make this team. But for a receiving TE, he doesn't have the greatest set of hands. We can chide Graham all we want but he makes the kinds of catches that Willson drops. I do think Vannett is capable of pushing Willson for that receiving TE role. Vannett and Williams really look solid. Could be the best inline blocking options we've ever had in the Carroll era and could see 2 TE heavy sets with those guys in the regular season.

O line to me seemed to hold up well. This was a quality opponent and outside of what appeared to be a blown assignment call -- gave Wilson as much time as should have been expected. There are going to be instances where we get 3.0 seconds to throw the ball. That has to be assumed with this group. Outside of the one rush, we looked like Wilson was able to hit his drop cleanly -- at which point the ball should be out by play design. When the QB hits his drop and doesn't deliver the ball -- those sacks are by and large on the QB.

Liked the ability to get explosive plays. Seems like we had quite a number of them between the 30s. And seemed to get them on rhythm and quickly. Several mistakes (sacks and penalties) were nullified by making explosive play conversions in the same set of downs.

I'm concerned about the defense. Specifically two points:

1. Turnovers. We aren't getting them. We weren't getting them last year either. This has me the most concerned and is the single biggest difference in my mind between these Hawks at the 2012/13 Hawks. This has been a long trend going back almost all year last season.

2. Pass rush. Less concerned because we're running vanilla out there and missing talents. And we didn't have trouble with getting QB hurries last year. But it's worth watching. We didn't address interior pressure effectively again this draft. And it doesn't appear that any inhouse candidates have grown to produce this for us going forward.

Positives:

The 1st string OLine looked to be adequate or even slightly better than adequate. Except for the false start was pleasantly surprised by the capable play of Sowell, he wasn't abused as expected by Everson Griffin a very good DE.. Thought Britt played surprisingly well and generally was pleased with the play of the rest of the OLine. Liked the development seen from Fant over the week.

Michael continues to impress with solid running and good play, he's learned (ing) to be a pro improving himself and has now got a very enhanced sense of ball protection absent in the past. I watched as he fluidly changed hands on the ball and used two arms at times to protect the rock. The rest of the running game was generally solid but disappointing from each of the RBs drafted this season.

The DLine and all the depth played well as did all the LBs save Pierre-Louis who made some dumb mental errors and tackled weakly. I liked what I saw from Longa.

Felt the pass D looked to be in regular season form and except for a few coverage mistakes on 3rd down plays looked good. Tye Smith looked good as did Marcus Burley.

Thought Boykin showed potential although he looked like a rookie at the end, he does have a strong arm but his accuracy needs work. He did play like a pro QB showed command and poise except on his INTs, he still needs work on managing the huddle but showed solid progress. He's capable enough but still pretty raw.

Negatives:

Russell played poorly and took sacks unnecessarliy by holding the ball too long, his usual accuracy was off last night although that was a beautiful pass to Lockett. Jake Heaps looked like a deer in the headlights and was simply awful and horribly inaccurate.

Too many penalties that took away field position allowed drives to continue or stalled drives. Early season form and Pete needs to work on the mental mistakes and a few of the penalties were dumb penalties. Some however were pretty ticky tack fouls.

The 3rd string WRs looked like 3rd string WRs with positives only provided by McEvoy and Goodley. Generally there were far too many drops by all the receivers and the TEs.

Alex Collins showed little ability to avoid contact and little elusiveness or burst, he seemed to run to contact, but this game stayed on his feet instead of falling down on initial contact. Zac Brooks was very disappointing and showed little. Of course we know very little about Prosisse but he's really behind now having missed almost all of the preseason.

Sadly disappointed in the play of Tharold Simon and thought he would have shown more by now. I suspect he's on the bubble.

Thought the game was very sloppily played by the team, lots of room for improvement.

Nothing on Pope?-----Nothing?

Considering whom he was blocking, Sowell wasn't bad. He wasn't that good either; it was just kind of expected. He had a couple decent blocks in the run game that sprang Christine Michael off tackle. He had a few nice pass blocks that kept Griffen in check for long enough. And he had a few expected bad plays with Griffen bench pressing Sowell off of him or beating Sowell off the line. Not good, not bad, just expected.

I was remiss in not mentioning Pope by name as he was exceptional and a huge positive. He has by far outplayed each of the RBs drafted this year through the 2 pre-season games. I thought he showed burst, solid decision making with the ball, he was elusive and didn't run from contact. Like most rookie RBs he needs to work on his pass protection a bit but had another good solid outing. I have him as #3 on my own personal DC above all but Rawls and Michael. It'd be nice to see how he plays against the #1 D of the next opponent.

The Vikings had 43 sacks last year. That is 2.6 a game. They abuse offensive lines, on a weekly basis. And not all of those sacks are the lines fault. On the one blitz, you know, the one that looked like our QB got killed. Anyway, he had to check the play to a quick throw, or hell, call a time out. In my mind they stalemated with a top 5 d line in the nfl. They gave up yds, but blew them out in the run. We have to expect them to be abused a little, but still an improvement over last year. And the defense will work itself out. Don't hit the panic button yet.

McGruff":10pe637c said:

SpokaneHawks":10pe637c said:

What about Browner? I had high hopes but have barely heard his name called.

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I saw him laughing on the sidelines with Sherman. That was about it. I am already considering that to be a failed experiment, and Browner will be cut. He's not a top 5 CB on this team, and he's not a top 4 safety.

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Yeah it kinda seems Pete is just giving Browner a chance to play some safety to see if he can do well enough to maybe catch on with another team once we release him...........cause right now he's not playing enough nor leapfrogging anyone on our depth chart at safety.

Jimjones0384":qkzf0fgc said:

The Vikings had 43 sacks last year. That is 2.6 a game. They abuse offensive lines, on a weekly basis. And not all of those sacks are the lines fault. On the one blitz, you know, the one that looked like our QB got killed. Anyway, he had to check the play to a quick throw, or hell, call a time out. In my mind they stalemated with a top 5 d line in the nfl. They gave up yds, but blew them out in the run. We have to expect them to be abused a little, but still an improvement over last year. And the defense will work itself out. Don't hit the panic button yet.

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This.

Only one of those sacks was solely on the offensive line, and even that one should have been picked up by Russ pre-snap and he should have called a time out. It was a great outing for our offensive line

TwistedHusky":6liyro3r said:

The defense just isn't Seahawk..

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If they play like they did last night week one then I might lean towards this. But for now, RELAX.

We need to find what kind of depth we have, that's what these PRACTICE games are for.

As for the offense, it really looked like the game plan was for Russell not to scramble. There were a few plays where he would have normally scrambled out of the pocket, or kept the ball on a read option.

Attyla the Hawk":2an46sce said:

Tight ends look like they may be the death of us again this year. I don't see improvement in this area yet. If we can't solve this issue, that's probably 2-3 losses that would otherwise have been wins. The difference between 11-5 and a wild card team and 13-3 and a first round bye.

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I'm sure this has been pretty much beaten to death, but our D is basically designed to give up short passes in favor of protecting deep. Basically it is saying you aren't going to beat us on one play and we will simply wait for you to make a mistake. Also, our D plays a lot of single deep safety and our LB's don't typically take deep drops. This works really well against intermediate routes and the run but leaves that seam route vulnerable that TE's have been burning us with. It is a weakness in the scheme but not every team has a TE good enough to exploit it well. So, what to do w/o negatively altering a very successful scheme becomes the challenge. I know they are working on it, but like you, I am not sure that BB is the answer.

scutterhawk":2cwvcgwq said:

Nothing on Pope?-----Nothing?

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That's what I'm talking about. Regardless of playing against 3rd string guys he was playing with anger and burst. He's a lot smaller than I thought but fires out of the hole nicely. Wonder if there is a roster spot for him though?