Remember This is a Pete Carroll Team

See a lot of negativity today, which I know.................welcome to .Net.

Just wanted to remind everyone that when hasn't a Pete Carroll let Hawks team looked mortal during the first part of seasons?

Pete has said over and over, that's how he builds his teams, to peak at the right time, and that time ain't pre-season game #2. It's down the stretch and into the playoffs.

This is the time to evaluate talent, get personnel situated, depth charts finalized, stay healthy, work on cleaning up mental mistakes. It's not to run 100% of our offense and defense and hang 50 on a Vikings team with their backup QB in a game that doesn't matter.

Six years ago I would have shuddered at your thread title. My oh my, how my perspective has changed.

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And we looked far worse at this point last year.

So your way to assure us that this is no problem is to point out that last year we had problems in preseason too?

Because that is the same last year that we squeaked into a wildcard, only won by a fluke and then immediately lost the next week. Basically doing nothing in the playoffs except for a lucky win.

That kind of no problem?

I dont get why everyone has their panties in a bunch, its just preaseason coaches are calling passive plays on offense and defense and some guys like Kam and rawls arent even playing, theres actually some really good things to actually take away from 2 games though.

1.O line looks serviceable, 100% better than last year
2.Michael has looked like hes turned over a new leaf and finally playing to his full potential and could give rawls a run for his money come the regular season

TwistedHusky":1d6mjsbb said:

So your way to assure us that this is no problem is to point out that last year we had problems in preseason too?

Because that is the same last year that we squeaked into a wildcard, only won by a fluke and then immediately lost the next week. Basically doing nothing in the playoffs except for a lucky win.

That kind of no problem?

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We didn't squeak into a wild card...we had it completely locked up in week 16 and essentially had it locked up in week 14.

We also had a horrible schedule to start the season , the Kam holdout, several flukey come from ahead losses, and most of our team leaders recovering or suffering from injuries.
Forgive me if I am not ready to panic yet. Preseason is practice. You don't scheme for the other team (although the Vikings seemed to throw some pretty exotic stuff at us) and nobody gives a crap if you win or lose. In the regular season do you think Russell would hand a ball off on 3rd and one read option when the defensive end completely sells out against the running back?

It's fine to play the "it's just pre-season" card.

It's also fine to be concerned.

Not sure why people on this board are so hell bent on trying to force people into one side or the other. We all are never going to agree on things, and that's what makes it fun.

You are blind if you don't see some things that are concerning. Putting a pretty bow on it by saying, "it's just pre-season" is fine, but we had issues last pre-season that directly translated into the regular season.

We are in a tough division and conference and we can't afford to start 0-2 again. It is imperative that we win the division and get at least one home game, IMO.

Everything ia fine but I just have a hard time being really comfortable at this point. Most of it is becuse of Russ being pretty bad so far. It's only pre-season, he hasn't had much snaps and he's not going all out but I'd just like to see him being more like his old self next game.

HawKnPeppa":35redjiu said:

Six years ago I would have shuddered at your thread title. My oh my, how my perspective has changed.

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I retain a kind of twisted pride at how I called Pete a "chest-thumping baboon" (do baboons even thump their chests?) when he got rid of Josh Wilson. My, how wrong I was.

Its all going to hell in a hand basket....riding a unicorn across a rainbow.

I'm not too worried about things overall just yet.

We can say "no worries, it's just preseason" as many times we are messing with personnel groupings and trying different things that players may not be totally comfortable with. We go with a vanilla game plan; Pete Carroll is one of the coaches that subscribe to "never let them see your good stuff in preseason". We're also playing players more to see what they have. Some of these guys won't even make the squad and their performance shows that.

That said, there are certain trends that do mean a lot in preseason. Last year's OL is a great example. We ended up switching everything out in the 3rd week, and destroyed continuity. This was pretty bad because it actually needed to happen, so the OL was THAT bad.

I haven't seen much this preseason, maybe 15 minutes of the 1st game. But reading here from respected posters, I'm gathering that the OL is trending pretty well, and building on good performances. The Vikings have a very good DL, and we ran well on them. Our RB's are playing well, and we'll have good depth this year which is great for continuity in the run game. Our starting WRs are looking really good, and Lockett is taking the step forward many of us hoped he would. Richardson is looking to pick up where he left off.

Most teams play it vanilla in the preseason. I've rarely seen many teams blitz a lot, especially in week 2. Most of them will do a bit in week 3. So this tells me that the Vikings had some extra motivation to prove something to themselves, as well as possibly trying new blitz packages or getting blitz reps (historically unlikely, but possible). Like Chris said, it actually helps us more that they did this than just played vanilla.

I've seen posters say that they're worried about our 4 man pass rush, then read that Bennett didn't even play. Really ? How can we complain about our base pass rush when we're minus our best pass rusher, not to mention one of the very best pass rushers in the league ?

I'll wait until after next week to be worried. Since it's the middle of salmon season, I'll likely miss next week's game as well, since I'd rather have a few fresh 30 lb chinooks in the fridge than watch a preseason game ( I know, bad fan right ?!)

TwistedHusky":39eyefiw said:

So your way to assure us that this is no problem is to point out that last year we had problems in preseason too?

Because that is the same last year that we squeaked into a wildcard, only won by a fluke and then immediately lost the next week. Basically doing nothing in the playoffs except for a lucky win.

That kind of no problem?

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No, it's to remind you that we've never really looked good in the pre-season, and for that matter the first part of any Pete Carroll seasons. When hasn't Russell and the offense looked average in the first part of the year?

Also last year our problems were different, they were Kam's holdout, Marshawn crying for more money again, Bennett crying for more money, and Russell's new contract distractions.

We have none of that this year, which tells me the team is again recommitted and focused on what matters. So sorry, I don't care about a pedestrian looking loss in pre-season...........because I don't question Pete anymore, he's earned my respect and trust when it comes to getting his teams ready to play.

I guess I am old school. It does not matter to me if we lose every preseason game, because player evaluation is the most important thing. Doing things in a way that in the regular season you wouldn't to evaluate young players will cost you games but that is what the preseason is for. I do look for progress by week 3 but not necessarily a win.

Overseasfan":235l1ix9 said:

Everything ia fine but I just have a hard time being really comfortable at this point. Most of it is becuse of Russ being pretty bad so far. It's only pre-season, he hasn't had much snaps and he's not going all out but I'd just like to see him being more like his old self next game.

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Russell is a confidence momentum type of QB, he has rarely looked amazing in the pre-season.......other than the first year when he was lights out with the 2nd unit behind Flynn which won him the starting job.

As good as the O-line has looked, it's still 5 new guys that Russell's trying to get a feel for.

I'm not making excuses, Russell's one of the top 5 QB's in the league, and also top 5 hardest workers. So why should I worry and get worked up when all he's ever done is be clutch and figure it out when it matters most?

Barring major injuries this is a 13-3 or 12-4 type of team with our schedule, and Thursday certainly didn't dampen that feeling for me.

btw, the Eagles beat the Steelers 17-0, should the Steelers fans be worried about that score? Does anyone really think the Eagles are a better team than the Steelers? Perspective, what it do.

Sgt. Largent":x79p2k3f said:

TwistedHusky":x79p2k3f said:

So your way to assure us that this is no problem is to point out that last year we had problems in preseason too?

Because that is the same last year that we squeaked into a wildcard, only won by a fluke and then immediately lost the next week. Basically doing nothing in the playoffs except for a lucky win.

That kind of no problem?

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No, it's to remind you that we've never really looked good in the pre-season, and for that matter the first part of any Pete Carroll seasons. When hasn't Russell and the offense looked average in the first part of the year?

Also last year our problems were different, they were Kam's holdout, Marshawn crying for more money again, Bennett crying for more money, and Russell's new contract distractions.

We have none of that this year, which tells me the team is again recommitted and focused on what matters. So sorry, I don't care about a pedestrian looking loss in pre-season...........because I don't question Pete anymore, he's earned my respect and trust when it comes to getting his teams ready to play.

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Not true. Since Pete took over we have a .700 winning percentage in the preaseason. in '13 we were blowing people out the door and went 4-0 in preseason because our depth was starter quality talent. I guarantee you the players are pissed they lost. That being said, yea it's silly to panic about preseason games.

Not sure why people on this board are so hell bent on trying to force people into one side or the other. We all are never going to agree on things, and that's what makes it fun.

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This.

Sgt. Largent":1skaczil said:

Overseasfan":1skaczil said:

Everything ia fine but I just have a hard time being really comfortable at this point. Most of it is becuse of Russ being pretty bad so far. It's only pre-season, he hasn't had much snaps and he's not going all out but I'd just like to see him being more like his old self next game.

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Russell is a confidence momentum type of QB, he has rarely looked amazing in the pre-season.......other than the first year when he was lights out with the 2nd unit behind Flynn which won him the starting job.

As good as the O-line has looked, it's still 5 new guys that Russell's trying to get a feel for.

I'm not making excuses, Russell's one of the top 5 QB's in the league, and also top 5 hardest workers. So why should I worry and get worked up when all he's ever done is be clutch and figure it out when it matters most?

Barring major injuries this is a 13-3 or 12-4 type of team with our schedule, and Thursday certainly didn't dampen that feeling for me.

btw, the Eagles beat the Steelers 17-0, should the Steelers fans be worried about that score? Does anyone really think the Eagles are a better team than the Steelers? Perspective, what it do.

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49ers are 2- 0, NFC west has gotten tougher.

A big part of me is completely on board with this OP, and agrees 100%. A very small part of me simply hates to see the other team's score end up larger than ours at the end of the game; any of the games, real or not.

Concern is a healthy emotion as the Master Chief has pointed out. If we didn't have at least a smidgeon of concern over things we see in the preseason we may not be fully invested in the big picture, if I may so bold as to say. The comments many of you have regarding certain players and how they are performing at this point means that you are paying attention to the details and that is critical to our enjoyment here as a group. You share those thoughts, I read them, and find myself delving into those thoughts with you. It blows me away how some of you see things at such a detailed level that I don't, and I thank you for that. That's what makes our little slice of the internet so addictive for me.

All we can do is sit back and hope that what we see from afar is being addressed inside those meeting rooms and on the practice field. From where I am sitting right now, and from taking a peek at how things have shaken-out over the course of the last 4 seasons, I'm confident, with a small piece of concerned on the side.

And there's nothing wrong with that. 8)

I've been watching pro football for some 60yrs and I've seen SB teams start with preseason records of 0-4 to 4-0.

IIRC: We have been to 3 SBs, twice we had 2-2 preseason records and once 4-0. What I'm saying is that preseason records have little to do with how a team will perform during the year. You'll also see teams have a great preseason record and not even make the playoffs.

IMHO: Preseason is about evaluating players, trying out new ideas, plays, schemes, etc. And of course to give your rooks and vets some hitting experience.

While I do watch and enjoy preseason games, I'm never concerned much about the outcome. Player safety is more important to me than final scores.

Now, if folks want to worry and bite their fingernails, kick their dog, refuse to have sex with their significant other (or someone else's), that's their business...have at it. Me, I'll not so much.

Go' Hawks!!

TwistedHusky":yi9mrogr said:

So your way to assure us that this is no problem is to point out that last year we had problems in preseason too?

Because that is the same last year that we squeaked into a wildcard, only won by a fluke and then immediately lost the next week. Basically doing nothing in the playoffs except for a lucky win.

That kind of no problem?

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It's also very similar to 2014 where we also had a dire preseason and we were one yard away from a second superbowl win