kearly
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There's so much to say, I just hope I'll remember half of it.
My prediction for this game was 37-27 Hawks, and it would have been pretty damn close if Aaron Rodgers had been as sharp on 1st and 2nd down as he was on 3rd and long.
Seattle's offense kicked the crap out of the Packers in the first half, to me it was actually kind of amazing that they only scored 17 points before halftime. IIRC, Wilson started 10-12 with 120 yards in the first half, Lynch had almost 8 yards a carry, and Harvin looked unstoppable. Lynch and Wilson cooled off in the second half, but the Hawks still managed 17 points on offense in the second half anyway.
Green Bay had several months to prepare for this game, and Mike McCarthy is one of the NFL's better coaches. I thought he did a pretty good job preparing his secondary and his game plan on offense would have probably worked decently well if not for the Seahawks erasing Eddie Lacy.
Regarding the Packers pass defense, I was impressed. They pressured Wilson to the point where attempting the deep ball was almost impossible, and they jumped short routes about as frequently as I've ever seen a Seahawks opponent do. One of those jumped routes very nearly led to a tip drill interception, only to be saved by a heady play from Zach Miller. In the second half the Packers D seemed to commit to playing the short field and it's telling that Seattle's best passing plays seemed to come out of play action or that awesome new fake read option pass. Speaking of which, am I crazy or did Seattle use play action far less in this game than they usually do?
Yet, despite being about as prepared for Seattle as they could possibly be, it's really hard to prepare for speed. You know that scene in Twister where Bill Paxton runs into a barn to escape a tornado and it's nothing but knives and sharp objects everywhere? That's probably what the Packers defense felt like when Wilson, Lynch, and Harvin were convening on a fly sweep. There's three things that can happen, all of them terrifying for a defense. When Harvin got the ball, it was an automatic 13 yards. When Lynch got the ball, it was seemingly always a big run. And at least in the first half, when Wilson wasn't handing the ball off, he was completing over 80% of his passes for a 10 YPA.
Even with all those months to prepare, the Packers couldn't do a thing to stop the Harvin/Lynch/Wilson fly sweep trio of terror. I would say that bodes well for us.
...
-I thought the officiating was surprisingly permissive, this crew let both these teams play for the most part. They basically called this game like it was the playoffs. There were a few ticky tack fouls, including a phantom hold call on Miller that wiped out Harvin's biggest run of the game. They also had a phantom hold call in our favor that erased a huge gain for Green Bay on 3rd and long. So even their bad calls evened out. I would say I was more than happy with how this game was officiated. The last thing the NFL wanted was for this game to remind people of the Fail Mary game, so credit to this crew for doing a solid, professional job.
-Derrick Coleman has been a whipping boy for me and deservedly so, but he had a couple of awesome blocks in this game and also caught a TD. It was easily his best game in the NFL to date.
-I didn't watch the offensive line that closely but they seemed to be getting the job done in the running game. Our pass pro had issues at the tackle spots, although Wilson did a pretty good job avoiding sacks despite that.
-Lynch is a freak of nature. I know that RBs tend to decline very suddenly and unexpectedly, but Lynch looks like he's five years away from being over the hill. He's never been in better shape than he is now. I don't think the usual shelf-life of NFL RBs applies to a guy like Lynch, who's so unique in every way. I'm at the point now where I actually want Seattle to pay Lynch all that money in 2015 for his age 29-30 season. Because I think he will probably still be special for quite a while still.
-Seattle's pass rush was cause for concern in the first half, but looked much better in the second half. It was nice to see Cassius Marsh getting some looks in a real NFL game.
-Byron Maxwell is going to get targeted a lot this season. Which means he's probably going to lead the NFL in interceptions.
-Eddie Lacy finished with just 34 rushing yards on 12 carries. After a good start with a pair of productive rushes to lead off, Lacy only managed 1.3 yards per carry on his last 10 attempts, and even those yards came purely from second effort lunges and dives. Seattle's run D was living in the backfield. Starks actually had a pretty respectable game and out-rushed Lacy.
-Percy Harvin finished with 100 yards rushing + receiving. That's 10 points for those keeping tabs in fantasy. And it would have been 20 or so yards more than that if not for a phantom hold on Zach Miller. Seattle is keeping good on their promise to get Harvin touches. And so far it's really paying off.
-Earl Thomas learned a valuable lesson on special teams tonight. So did Richard Sherman.
-The Seahawks now officially have the longest streak in NFL history for consecutive games played without a multi-score loss.
-The game ball for me has to go to Lynch. With respect to Harvin and Wilson, Lynch's performance was beautiful to watch and it's hard to overstate his value in the red zone. I thought it was interesting that during the postgame show they gave the game ball award to Wilson/Harvin/Wagner and then said that they excluded Lynch because he's got a reputation as a terrible interview. I don't blame NBC for thinking this at all, though I did think it was interesting that they would say it out loud. Ultimately, I think it was a wise decision that I agreed with to exclude Marshawn from the post-game. He seems genuinely uncomfortable with that kind of attention and I for one am glad that they respected that and gave him some distance while still acknowledging that he played a fantastic game.
-Darrell Bevell seems like a new man. Not only did he graft some very interesting pass concepts into the read option, but his playcalling was much more pass heavy than we've been accustomed to. Seattle had 37 rushes compared to 29 pass attempts, but when you move Wilson's seven scrambles into the pass column, Seattle actually passed more than they ran despite leading most of the game and despite Lynch and Harvin killing it on the ground. This is definitely NOT your typical Bevell vanilla offense anymore. It's dynamic, it's much more pass oriented, and it looks hard as hell to defend.
-Whatever your opinion of Pharrell Williams is, how cool was that pregame celebration? There was an air to the buildup of this game that was not present for any of the previous season opening games in recent years. It was not a celebration of a new NFL season, but a celebration of just how amazing this Seahawks team has become. The vibe of the ceremonies felt like an outright admission that Seattle has become the capital city of the New NFL.
-The pregame opened with a montage of several different NFL teams all having players shout "WHY NOT US!?" with the team icon displayed with each voice. Of course, this phrase was used extensively by Wilson last season and this is just the latest example of the rest of the league playing copy-cat.
Of course, it was more than a little annoying hearing teams with just a smidgen of Seattle's DVOA standing making "why not us" claims, and it got to the point where I am thinking in my head "because you ain't the Seahawks, dipshit!" Pretty much the instant that thought crosses my mind, Russell Wilson walks on screen and says:
"BECAUSE YOU GOTTA GO THROUGH US... go hawks."
...
The thing that impressed me the most about this game was how unfair it felt for GB. We've seen plenty of games before where Seattle crushed their opponents bodies and spirits, but this game was a bit unique in that there seemed to be a tactical element that the opponent had absolutely no answer for.
Green Bay's defense was terrible last season and probably won't be good in 2014. It's unlikely that every team will get clowned by Harvin and Lynch this badly every single week. But, if they do, look out.
The Packers are one of the premiere offenses in all of the NFL, they had months to prepare for this game, and they managed just 255 total yards on offense.
Big wins are nothing new to the Seahawks, but this win was a little extra special, enough to make me think that a focused, consistent Seahawks team has a realistic shot at making NFL history. Not "23-0" history, but I'll take what I can get.
My prediction for this game was 37-27 Hawks, and it would have been pretty damn close if Aaron Rodgers had been as sharp on 1st and 2nd down as he was on 3rd and long.
Seattle's offense kicked the crap out of the Packers in the first half, to me it was actually kind of amazing that they only scored 17 points before halftime. IIRC, Wilson started 10-12 with 120 yards in the first half, Lynch had almost 8 yards a carry, and Harvin looked unstoppable. Lynch and Wilson cooled off in the second half, but the Hawks still managed 17 points on offense in the second half anyway.
Green Bay had several months to prepare for this game, and Mike McCarthy is one of the NFL's better coaches. I thought he did a pretty good job preparing his secondary and his game plan on offense would have probably worked decently well if not for the Seahawks erasing Eddie Lacy.
Regarding the Packers pass defense, I was impressed. They pressured Wilson to the point where attempting the deep ball was almost impossible, and they jumped short routes about as frequently as I've ever seen a Seahawks opponent do. One of those jumped routes very nearly led to a tip drill interception, only to be saved by a heady play from Zach Miller. In the second half the Packers D seemed to commit to playing the short field and it's telling that Seattle's best passing plays seemed to come out of play action or that awesome new fake read option pass. Speaking of which, am I crazy or did Seattle use play action far less in this game than they usually do?
Yet, despite being about as prepared for Seattle as they could possibly be, it's really hard to prepare for speed. You know that scene in Twister where Bill Paxton runs into a barn to escape a tornado and it's nothing but knives and sharp objects everywhere? That's probably what the Packers defense felt like when Wilson, Lynch, and Harvin were convening on a fly sweep. There's three things that can happen, all of them terrifying for a defense. When Harvin got the ball, it was an automatic 13 yards. When Lynch got the ball, it was seemingly always a big run. And at least in the first half, when Wilson wasn't handing the ball off, he was completing over 80% of his passes for a 10 YPA.
Even with all those months to prepare, the Packers couldn't do a thing to stop the Harvin/Lynch/Wilson fly sweep trio of terror. I would say that bodes well for us.
...
-I thought the officiating was surprisingly permissive, this crew let both these teams play for the most part. They basically called this game like it was the playoffs. There were a few ticky tack fouls, including a phantom hold call on Miller that wiped out Harvin's biggest run of the game. They also had a phantom hold call in our favor that erased a huge gain for Green Bay on 3rd and long. So even their bad calls evened out. I would say I was more than happy with how this game was officiated. The last thing the NFL wanted was for this game to remind people of the Fail Mary game, so credit to this crew for doing a solid, professional job.
-Derrick Coleman has been a whipping boy for me and deservedly so, but he had a couple of awesome blocks in this game and also caught a TD. It was easily his best game in the NFL to date.
-I didn't watch the offensive line that closely but they seemed to be getting the job done in the running game. Our pass pro had issues at the tackle spots, although Wilson did a pretty good job avoiding sacks despite that.
-Lynch is a freak of nature. I know that RBs tend to decline very suddenly and unexpectedly, but Lynch looks like he's five years away from being over the hill. He's never been in better shape than he is now. I don't think the usual shelf-life of NFL RBs applies to a guy like Lynch, who's so unique in every way. I'm at the point now where I actually want Seattle to pay Lynch all that money in 2015 for his age 29-30 season. Because I think he will probably still be special for quite a while still.
-Seattle's pass rush was cause for concern in the first half, but looked much better in the second half. It was nice to see Cassius Marsh getting some looks in a real NFL game.
-Byron Maxwell is going to get targeted a lot this season. Which means he's probably going to lead the NFL in interceptions.
-Eddie Lacy finished with just 34 rushing yards on 12 carries. After a good start with a pair of productive rushes to lead off, Lacy only managed 1.3 yards per carry on his last 10 attempts, and even those yards came purely from second effort lunges and dives. Seattle's run D was living in the backfield. Starks actually had a pretty respectable game and out-rushed Lacy.
-Percy Harvin finished with 100 yards rushing + receiving. That's 10 points for those keeping tabs in fantasy. And it would have been 20 or so yards more than that if not for a phantom hold on Zach Miller. Seattle is keeping good on their promise to get Harvin touches. And so far it's really paying off.
-Earl Thomas learned a valuable lesson on special teams tonight. So did Richard Sherman.
-The Seahawks now officially have the longest streak in NFL history for consecutive games played without a multi-score loss.
-The game ball for me has to go to Lynch. With respect to Harvin and Wilson, Lynch's performance was beautiful to watch and it's hard to overstate his value in the red zone. I thought it was interesting that during the postgame show they gave the game ball award to Wilson/Harvin/Wagner and then said that they excluded Lynch because he's got a reputation as a terrible interview. I don't blame NBC for thinking this at all, though I did think it was interesting that they would say it out loud. Ultimately, I think it was a wise decision that I agreed with to exclude Marshawn from the post-game. He seems genuinely uncomfortable with that kind of attention and I for one am glad that they respected that and gave him some distance while still acknowledging that he played a fantastic game.
-Darrell Bevell seems like a new man. Not only did he graft some very interesting pass concepts into the read option, but his playcalling was much more pass heavy than we've been accustomed to. Seattle had 37 rushes compared to 29 pass attempts, but when you move Wilson's seven scrambles into the pass column, Seattle actually passed more than they ran despite leading most of the game and despite Lynch and Harvin killing it on the ground. This is definitely NOT your typical Bevell vanilla offense anymore. It's dynamic, it's much more pass oriented, and it looks hard as hell to defend.
-Whatever your opinion of Pharrell Williams is, how cool was that pregame celebration? There was an air to the buildup of this game that was not present for any of the previous season opening games in recent years. It was not a celebration of a new NFL season, but a celebration of just how amazing this Seahawks team has become. The vibe of the ceremonies felt like an outright admission that Seattle has become the capital city of the New NFL.
-The pregame opened with a montage of several different NFL teams all having players shout "WHY NOT US!?" with the team icon displayed with each voice. Of course, this phrase was used extensively by Wilson last season and this is just the latest example of the rest of the league playing copy-cat.
Of course, it was more than a little annoying hearing teams with just a smidgen of Seattle's DVOA standing making "why not us" claims, and it got to the point where I am thinking in my head "because you ain't the Seahawks, dipshit!" Pretty much the instant that thought crosses my mind, Russell Wilson walks on screen and says:
"BECAUSE YOU GOTTA GO THROUGH US... go hawks."
...
The thing that impressed me the most about this game was how unfair it felt for GB. We've seen plenty of games before where Seattle crushed their opponents bodies and spirits, but this game was a bit unique in that there seemed to be a tactical element that the opponent had absolutely no answer for.
Green Bay's defense was terrible last season and probably won't be good in 2014. It's unlikely that every team will get clowned by Harvin and Lynch this badly every single week. But, if they do, look out.
The Packers are one of the premiere offenses in all of the NFL, they had months to prepare for this game, and they managed just 255 total yards on offense.
Big wins are nothing new to the Seahawks, but this win was a little extra special, enough to make me think that a focused, consistent Seahawks team has a realistic shot at making NFL history. Not "23-0" history, but I'll take what I can get.
