Not being overly negative here... I think we've had a fantastic season. I think we'll come back even stronger next year and if we avoid injuries, could well have a rematch against the Falcons only this time we have the home field advantage. The Seahawks are going in absolutely the right direction, I just think we'll come up short against a #1 seed, 13-3 team on the road. The reason...?

LACK OF PRESSURE ON MATT RYAN

I think we'll struggle, once again, to get pressure in base defense. I watched the Cardinals @ Falcons game and the one thing (only thing?) Arizona does well is pass rush. It amazes me that Ray Horton hasn't got the Cards' Head Coach gig simply to keep him as part of that franchise. They got at Ryan and forced mistakes. He's not too mobile, he likes to have time. Give him that time and he'll kill you - especially with the options he has at WR/TE. He threw FIVE interceptions against Arizona and scored no touchdowns. They scraped to victory 23-19 despite Arizona having 70 total passing yards in that game. The reason? Pass rush, pass rush, pass rush.

Unfortunately, we are nowhere near as effective rushing the passer. Our base defense generates almost no pressure at all and we don't blitz. Carroll and Bradley have barely blitzed all year and they aren't going to start now against a QB like Ryan. They'll be scared of getting burned - any coaching staff would have that fear blitzing Ryan with those receivers. I suspect it might be a case of 'which way are we least likely to get beat?' and they'll try and play bend but don't break. We've played some of the worst offensive lines in the NFL this year and dominated only once (vs Green Bay). Now we're going to try and dominate a decent enough line without our best pass rusher. That'll be very difficult.

Chris Clemons is a huge miss and although I like Bruce Irvin and believe he will grow into the NFL, I don't think is the game for him. Atlanta is really going to test his ability to defend the run early I fear, and if he struggles I think we'll see Scruggs playing more and more snaps as the game goes on. If we end up fielding a four man line of Bryant, Mebane, Branch and Scruggs more often than not - I don't like our chances of getting pressure on Ryan. Our best chance to do so might be to maybe lean to that side and put more pressure on Bryant to hold up his side of the bargain. We need to be in a position to keep Irvin on the field and he has to make the most of his chances.

I trust Russell Wilson and our offense to score points too and I don't think it's impossible for us to win a shoot-out. But that's the type of game I think it'll be, and it's not the type that suits us the best. Ryan is going to get time back there and however good Sherman/Browner and the other DB's are, they can't cover Julio Jones, Roddy White and Tony Gonzalez forever while Ryan sits in a clean pocket. I expect all three of their key playmakers, plus Ryan, to have a big day.

When Atlanta's lost playoff games in the past - Ryan has been pressured. New York last year, he had no time. Green Bay before that, the same. Against us I'm worried that won't be the case. So it'll be up to our offense to answer every call. It'll be up to the defense to see if they can bend but not break (tough vs Gonzalez in the red zone). But ultimately I think there's going to come a time in the second half where they edge ahead and pull away - something like 34-20 in the end.

Maybe the pressure on Ryan/Smith takes its toll? I just think this Falcons team is too good to keep bottling it. 0-4 in the playoffs? That would be some accomplishment given how talented they are. They'll be right on this one and if we're going to beat them, we'll have to do it with equally brilliant offense. I'd love Wilson to do it but I'm not expecting even he to do that.

Hope I'm completely wrong. I will happily eat crow if I am. I won't boast if I'm right. I want us desperately to win this game. But our biggest off-season priority has to be finding a better pass rush in base defense. If we get that in 2014, we have a shot at going 13-3 ourselves.

Cool story bro.


Why I think we will win this game

We are the better team.

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Team Hansen

I am worried about the pressure too. I hope Bradley and Carroll are cooking up some creative blitzes so we can knock Ryan off his feet a few times.

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Irvin and the Seattle D will prove you naysayers wrong. The kid is ready as he'll ever be for this game especially playing in front of family and friends. He's not gonna let us down.

Completely agree. Without Clemons on the otherside, Irvin will become more of a focus for their protection. Everyone likes to use the GB game as a precident but we are just a pretty poor pass rushing team. However, if we can somehow make it happen and give constant pressure, game over.

We looked fantastic at the end of the game sending blitzes on Kirk Cousins even if he is a rookie. Now I doubt we send that type of heat every single down, but having Clemons out must make our coaches realize we need to get creative to get pressure, especially if we as fans can see it. Bruce and Scruggs really started coming hard in their base packages as well after Clem went down, directly at the QB not dancing outside, so maybe the light finally went on for Bruce?

If we don't get pressure I can see this game ending in 14+ point loss.... their passing game is full of allstars. But like you said, the Cards got pressure on Matty Ice and he isn't the same QB when that happens. He likes to force throws when his pocket is collapsing and that bodes very well for our ballhawking secondary if we can jump it. I imagine we will see Earl covering over the top on Browner's side for most of the game and hoping Sherm can do his thing 1 on 1.

I bet we are going to see a whole lot of Marshawn to help keep them off the field a la Giants versus Brady in both superbowls.

A great post, English. I think it's an extremely valid concern. I have a question -

You thought we would beat Washington, correct? How did you think we would fare against their run game?

I ask because I was EXTREMELY worried about how we would handle the Redskin running attack. We did have trouble, especially at first but in the end - the better TEAM won (despite the Hawks not playing their best game).

I HOPE a similar situation will arise on Sunday. I fear the Falcons passing attack, and our ability to get to Matt Ryan will go a long way to dictating the outcome of the game BUT the rest of the match-ups across the board favor the Seahawks, and my hope is that our own offensive will present enough problems that the better overall team (at this point in the year) wins.

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I agree that we will lose this game if Matt Ryan isn't pressured and can pick and choose his targets at will. That said, we've still managed a way to keep close all year against some very good teams. If we solve this, we win.

I have a TON of faith in our defensive backfield though to make the passes that do get thrown as difficult as possible and the YAC attempts as painful as possible.

We have hardly blitzed all year, they've been saving till now
With clem out we almost certainly see some new d wrinkles
All year we just rush four the majority of the time so tats what an opposing team plans for
It should be simple to disguise with some of the formations we run

I totally agree with you. However, I think that this is where we find out how good Carroll and Bradley are at developing a specific game plan for an oponent, and addressing our weaknesses due to injury. Carroll has a rep for not being the best game coach; he's good, but it seems like we make decent halftime adjustments but sometimes we're caught off guard in the 1st quarter. Now, this could be due to youth, or it could be schematic. I'm not sure.

Thing is, you're right. If Ryan has all day back there, the best CBs aren't going to match up well against those WRs on the outside. We're not really a very good zone coverage team, as evidenced by Chicago. We played a zone on Marshall and he crushed us. Carroll has to trust his matchup on the outside with his CBs, and throw the kitchen sink up the A gaps at Ryan, then deal with Gonzalez and Douglas in the slot. This could work, like you said English, we haven't blitzed much all year. If we come out looking like the Cardinals, it's going to take them by surprise. If we can get up by a couple of TD's, then it's going to be fine if they burn us a couple of times and try to catch up, we can withstand the storm.

If we can't gameplan without Clemons, then we wouldn't have won the SB anyways. Losing one guy is big, but he's not Sherman, Thomas, or Browner. Hell, we made it without Browner.

I say we bring the house on blitzes until the Falcons prove they can beat it. If it works keep doing it. If not bring out the Bandit!

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"Make good teams look bad and make bad teams look terrible!" -Michael Robinson

My gut feeling says exactly what you think, English. Very well put.

However, I will be cheering my ass off, hoping that Bruce Irvin stepping up to Clemons' role, and Patrick Championship stepping up in Irvin's, will be enough to get that pressure we need to win the game.

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I blog, I tweet. When I'm not writing or goofing around on Seahawks.NET.

I think we need to score 28+ points. If we do, we have a strong likelihood for a W. Note that no other team has scored more than 28 on us.

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Go 'Hawks!

Here's the thing though - we as fans see a heavy blitz against a rookie backup who enters the game in the fourth quarter trailing by ten points. We then see the blitz having success. If we tried that tactic against Matt Ryan, you're essentially saying - get to the QB or we're going to get burned. No grey area there. Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, Matt Ryan - these guys WANT you to blitz. Kirk Cousins doesn't know what he wants as a rookie backup.

We as fans can say, 'well that worked'. But there's a reason why the coaches are sticking with the four man rush. We're not leaving ourselves open to the big play and if we do create pressure we have a lot of opportunistic players in position to capitalise. I have no doubt that we'll continue doing this against Atlanta, hoping that we get the occasional stop and keep them to three points on drives rather than seven. And we want to play our offensive scheme and score more points than them. That's how we'll look at it. That absolutely has to be the game plan. If they go this way and we lose I won't complain because I don't think the alternative of blitz, blitz, blitz will work any better. I think we'll be destroyed doing that.

Maybe they do get creative on some select plays? The thing is, who do you blitz? I think our LB's need to sit in coverage. Earl needs to stay deep and help out the corners. Kam needs to watch Gonzalez. I'm not sure they have many options here.

And one other thing I think may be our downfall - the corner/safety blitz from their defense. They use it a LOT. Washington had success with it last week. Could be an issue.



It'll be a long day if we do this IMO.

I am not underestimating the importance of pressuring the passer, but we've won a lot of games this year with crap pressure put on the opposing QB. Just sayin'.

Sure. But then we haven't played the #1 seed on the road. The best quarterback we've beaten with this situation on the road is Jay Cutler.

Yep. Pressure is going to be a big part of it. I hope Pete and Gus get really super creative with trying to bring the pressure and that we see Jeron Johnson on the field more. I'm amazed at how fast he got into the backfield on that blitz against Washington. We might be thin on pass rushing DE's, but we're super deep when it comes to speedy DB's. Perhaps we revisit the bandit look from seasons past as a means to generate some pass rush. You remember, the scheme that gave a 37y/o Lawyer Milloy a 4 sack season in 2010? I'd like that.

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Hodor Hodor Hodor. HODOR HODOR!! Hodor? Hodor...? HODOR HODOR!? Hodor.....

Road, schmoad. Matt Ryan was a much better QB on the road this year than at home. Bottom line, we beat Brady without much pressure.

I actually thought we would lose against Washington (I sound really negative today!!!). I too shared fears about the Skins run game. I thought they'd do a lot of what they did in the first quarter and I was very surprised they seemed to go away from the run despite leading well into the fourth quarter. They basically put the game on a very injured RGIII. I also underestimated just how injured Griffin was.

On the other hand, I thought we played some superb balanced football after a bad start and left a lot of points on the field. If our offense plays with the same level of efficiency and converts more, we have a chance to win a shoot-out vs Atlanta. But I do think it'll be a shoot out.

well... pressure won't be as necessary when we possess the ball 35 minutes of the game by running it effectively.. that is the key to beating ATL, not pressure, but our running game..

we run the ball like we have most of the season, we win... simple..

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