Earl

I was thinking he was off a bit this year. Then he grabbed some picks. Still, I wondered if he was really 100% in the game on his usual All Pro level.

Then I witnessed this and said "Oh hell yes, Earl is back."

I think it's possible that this is the best game of his career. Particularly because he was without Kam and stepped up over any previous level of understanding of things. He played deep well, but he also played at the mid and short levels a lot more where the ball takes less time to arrive and so you have less time to adjust compacted by playing a cover 3 that has the largest zones on the short areas. He was in the right positions without that heady coverage call being given to him. Many folks forget that Kam sat maybe 70% of his rookie year specifically so he could learn from Lawyer Milloy. Earl has always had that layer ahead of him where he could just play and not have to worry about making the calls and adjustments on the back end.

Today he did it without that aspect and even did it with some seriously blown assignments from amidst said back end. Huge, huge game from him, IMO.

Aros":my6c7oir said:

I was thinking he was off a bit this year. Then he grabbed some picks. Still, I wondered if he was really 100% in the game on his usual All Pro level.

Then I witnessed this and said "Oh hell yes, Earl is back."

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That's some scary Earl right there. :shock:

Earl has been a bit off this year so far. But he was his old self today. :2thumbs:

His Hot Potato was the best. Great concentration on that pick.

There were some inconsequential plays where he looked very athletic. I was sitting on the 300 side near South end zone and there were two back to back plays where Earl went from sideline to sideline to help support the right cornerback on deep throws at blazing speed. Both times the passes were out of bounds, but it seemed like the old Earl covering tons of ground.

Zybot":3jvn7lb1 said:

There were some inconsequential plays where he looked very athletic. I was sitting on the 300 side near South end zone and there were two back to back plays where Earl went from sideline to sideline to help support the right cornerback on deep throws at blazing speed. Both times the passes were out of bounds, but it seemed like the old Earl covering tons of ground.

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Well out of bounds because they were probably throwaways due to no one being open...therefore not inconsequential.

I wasn't sure what to make of this play.. Several thoughts came to mind.
1, I'm glad he missed the helmet, he would have all in likely gotten a broken hand.
2, I'm happy he didn't get a penalty for taking a swing.
3, damn, he missed.
http://giphy.com/gifs/3o7TKPgSHZZFq0E1bi

http://giphy.com/gifs/3o7TKPgSHZZFq0E1bi


Sorry, still don't know how to embed.

Did Earl knock that receiver out with a body blow? Not sure I have seen that happen before

He's like a smaller, crazier Mike Singletary.

“I’m very confident,” Thomas said after the game. “It’s crazy over the years, the more and more I play football—especially how the season started off, I was missing open-field tackles—you kind of take stuff for granted. I’m used to, if something breaks, I’m going to stop the bleeding. But when they’re breaking and I’m wobbling and it’s not going my way, you’ve got to take a deep look at yourself in the mirror, you’ve got to keep pushing, you can’t be complacent. When you work hard, you always pray and hope and believe in yourself that it’s going to turn out the way it did today.

“I know what I’m capable of. It’s so hard to show your skills week in and week out, because we have so many great players, but when you get a chance to stand up, you definitely want to do it.”

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Link >>> [urltargetblank]http://www.seahawks.com/news/2016/10/18/seahawks%E2%80%99-impressive-run-defense-celebrating-blitz-earl-thomas%E2%80%99-intensity-and-more[/urltargetblank]

Bobblehead":1sua04kn said:

I wasn't sure what to make of this play.. Several thoughts came to mind.
1, I'm glad he missed the helmet, he would have all in likely gotten a broken hand.
2, I'm happy he didn't get a penalty for taking a swing.
3, damn, he missed.
http://giphy.com/gifs/3o7TKPgSHZZFq0E1bi

http://giphy.com/gifs/3o7TKPgSHZZFq0E1bi


Sorry, still don't know how to embed.

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non-prophet.org":38rqa8xn said:

Did Earl knock that receiver out with a body blow? Not sure I have seen that happen before

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He's trying to punch out the ball.

He'd be better served to do that with his left hand and keep his right hand to corral the runner. Plus, like Bobblehead said, you hit that helmet, you're breaking fingers at least.

Still gotta love that instensity and awareness to go for the ball.

Relief. I'd worried over him since the overtime win against the packers. That injury set him back a long way.

sutz":psm8xy3f said:

Bobblehead":psm8xy3f said:

I wasn't sure what to make of this play.. Several thoughts came to mind.
1, I'm glad he missed the helmet, he would have all in likely gotten a broken hand.
2, I'm happy he didn't get a penalty for taking a swing.
3, damn, he missed.
http://giphy.com/gifs/3o7TKPgSHZZFq0E1bi

http://giphy.com/gifs/3o7TKPgSHZZFq0E1bi


Sorry, still don't know how to embed.

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Crap, for people to say that Earl was trying to punch the player is totally crazy, I'm not sure he wouldn't if it were legal but in this film clip what he was doing was classic Seahawk defense, knocking the ball loose anyway you can, and if you go back and watch game footage of our defensive players you will see them all doing it time and again. They punch at the ball directly, the go at it with chopping blows, uppercuts, helmet to the hands and yanking and pulling it loose, anything and everything goes so long as it's within the rules.
Earl is very good at what he does . It's been a little frustrating for all of our defensive players starting out this year, they have always been major game changers with our team and a lot of the numbers we have put up in our most successful seasons have come from the defense, either directly because of fumble recoveries and interceptions being run in for TDs, or indirectly by giving our offense the ball back because of the same, and them scoring as a result.
The teams all know what they face when they play the Legion of Boom, and in response have called plays that allow the least opportunities for turn overs, thus the reducing the number of turn overs or total lack of turnovers early on in the season.
Those teams have also learned they can't beat us by trying to play that conservative and have since started to loosen up in an effort to score against us, and Wallah we start getting our turn over rate numbers back up again.
The Legion of Boom is starting to look like the fine oiled defensive line that we all love to watch play. Sherman needs to be credited as well as Earl for that interception of that pass intended for Julio. Sherman got his hand on it and put it up in the air for grabs, had he not, it would have hit the ground and gone back to the Falcon's, instead of going into our Offenses hands and in for a score.
I'm glad to see the Legion turning the ball over again this year, we need their help to get back to a Super Bowl, as talented as our Offensive line is becoming, we can't make it without the Legion do that thing they do so well. Go Hawks!

[tweet]https://twitter.com/gbellseattle/status/788829273071063040[/tweet]

It would appear that he is certainly back up to speed as of last Sunday. :2thumbs:

When Earl gets "The Look" You know he's good to go!

Hawks46":3bflqfw9 said:

non-prophet.org":3bflqfw9 said:

Did Earl knock that receiver out with a body blow? Not sure I have seen that happen before

Click to expand...

He's trying to punch out the ball.

He'd be better served to do that with his left hand and keep his right hand to corral the runner. Plus, like Bobblehead said, you hit that helmet, you're breaking fingers at least.

Still gotta love that instensity and awareness to go for the ball.

Click to expand...

sorry, I should have been a little more descriptive about the play. I can't remember which receiver he hit, but it was a cross route. Earl hit him in the ribs, and looked like he knocked him out.

non-prophet.org":4qm8y608 said:

Hawks46":4qm8y608 said:

non-prophet.org":4qm8y608 said:

Did Earl knock that receiver out with a body blow? Not sure I have seen that happen before

Click to expand...

He's trying to punch out the ball.

He'd be better served to do that with his left hand and keep his right hand to corral the runner. Plus, like Bobblehead said, you hit that helmet, you're breaking fingers at least.

Still gotta love that instensity and awareness to go for the ball.

Click to expand...

sorry, I should have been a little more descriptive about the play. I can't remember which receiver he hit, but it was a cross route. Earl hit him in the ribs, and looked like he knocked him out.

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Yep.. I figured he had broken ribs after that hit.

Bobblehead":3cdxtf61 said:

non-prophet.org":3cdxtf61 said:

Hawks46":3cdxtf61 said:

non-prophet.org":3cdxtf61 said:

Did Earl knock that receiver out with a body blow? Not sure I have seen that happen before

Click to expand...

He's trying to punch out the ball.

He'd be better served to do that with his left hand and keep his right hand to corral the runner. Plus, like Bobblehead said, you hit that helmet, you're breaking fingers at least.

Still gotta love that instensity and awareness to go for the ball.

Click to expand...

sorry, I should have been a little more descriptive about the play. I can't remember which receiver he hit, but it was a cross route. Earl hit him in the ribs, and looked like he knocked him out.

Click to expand...

Yep.. I figured he had broken ribs after that hit.

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I don't like to see people get hurt, but a hit like that puts a smile on my face.