Missing the Beast

I miss the Beast. Imagine if we had a healthy and in shape Beast out there right now. I think I underestimated his impact. We are definitely missing it now especially with RW3 all banged up. I miss Rawls too. But the Beast was a generational talent imo. Having him Beast made our whole team better week in and week out. We could always depend on him wearing the opposition down. Eating up some clock to rest the D. Start earthquakes... miss you Beast.

Why in spite of his drawbacks I was hoping we would get Blount when he was available. People may not like his personality but he is much in the mold of Lynch play wise.

I wont underestimate the run games ability to effect all phases of the game again. For sure.

I'm
surprised more people arent chiming in here. I know he is not on the team anymore. We have a great team still and we will be fine. I'm still confident we can have a great year. Even with all these injuries piling up. Yikes! But damn these past few games with anemic offense and especially run game... damn. Nostalgic for 24.

suspect we draft high at the rb position this year. Rawls is just gonna be one of those brittle types...not his fault but likely not the long term answer.

Yeah, I missed him last year too.

English wrote a great piece on Seahawksdraftblog today about options at RB in the draft, everyone should check it out.

I completely understand and support Lynch's decision to retire and at the time it appeared mutually beneficial with the team, but man oh man it would've been nice to have had him just 1 more year.

Even with his setbacks last year and declining production, I miss his simple handshakes to everyone after a TD. And I know his teammates miss him too.

Ring of Honor is next though.

I miss the Young ML not last years version..He is gone now and done,the kind of RB he was just does not grow on trees.I mean look at A Collins- ha ha ..We might be wise to see what it takes to get Karl Williams from the Bills to have a Beast type again

First off, I'll just say that Marshawn may have been my all time favorite Seahawk behind Largent. I absolutely loved to watch him run. That being said, please remember that we had many stretches where the offense struggled to score even when Beast was well. But what we were was committed to the run. We rarely rolled teams in the first half. We ran, and committed to it. Even when the results weren't stellar, we stuck to it. End of the third / fourth quarter is when he would wear folks down. The offense was very conservative for the most part. The O line was never much beyond average (if that) in those years either. But Beast turned losses into 3 or 4 yd gains regularly. Avoiding 3rd and 9 and instead having 3rd and 6 leads to many more third down conversions (see AZ and NO's offense the past two games).

I feel like with the current O line play and a lack of commitment to running the ball, even a healthy Beast might be struggling right now. But if we want to get back to that brand of football, we'd need to commit to the run early and often, and not panic at the early lack of success in a game. I'm not sure this current version of the team - with it supposedly now in Russell's hands and everyone melting down if Graham doesn't get touches - can work in that fashion. It's really just a much different group now.

We definitely miss a RB who can break tackles and runs with an attitude. I still think Rawls can be that guy. CMike is not that type of player, the turf tackles him just as often as other players do.

I miss Thomas Rawls too.

Good article on this over @ Field Gulls
http://www.fieldgulls.com/2016/10/31/13 ... he-offense

It Has Happened Before

On October 14th 2007, following a 28-17 loss to the New Orleans Saints on Sunday Night Football, it became clear the Seattle Seahawks were in a transition offensively. Shaun Alexander, who’d been the team’s big playmaker and mismatch touchdown machine in the red zone, had suddenly disappeared. While the offense was productive, red zone touchdowns were down.

Everyone talked after that Saints game how then-head coach Mike Holmgren had become predictable, his offense outdated. Seattle’s offense was used to insane efficiency in the red zone, thanks in large part to the offensive line and the combination of Mack Strong and Alexander.


It Must Happen Again

Nine years later following a confrontation with these same Saints, the Seahawks have once again found themselves without an identity. One that they have known for about four and a half seasons. Marshawn Lynch was replaced with Thomas Rawls and Seattle found that it had the ability to run and make big plays without him.

Why? Because defenses still feared Russell Wilson’s running ability. The one thing missing from this last game with New Orleans? A spy on Wilson. Defenses aren’t afraid of him running, at least for right now. This means that the thing that often unsettled defenses and opened things up. especially in the red zone, no longer exists. So who do they turn to?

Rawls is hurt and Christine Michael can’t really push the pile. They don’t have another guy they can just put the offense onto. There’s no Hasselbeck, because in this scenario, Wilson is Alexander. His running and stretching the field sideline to sideline with zone read is no longer part of this system especially inside the 20-yard line.

NJSeaHawk":3r7u2f31 said:

Rawls is hurt and Christine Michael can’t really push the pile. They don’t have another guy they can just put the offense onto. There’s no Hasselbeck, because in this scenario, Wilson is Alexander. His running and stretching the field sideline to sideline with zone read is no longer part of this system especially inside the 20-yard line.

Click to expand...

Is it possible Russ immobility is exposing our WR's inability to separate? Is our WR corp maybe more pedestrian than we thought?