Crizilla wrote:

Hawkfan77 wrote:Cool story bro.

Seriously. Nobody cares why you think the seahawks will lose

Don't read the thread then.

Eight pages of discussion suggests people did want to talk about this.

Paranoid thread makes me paranoid

I worry about what this game will do to our draft position

A couple of points that I'd like to make in regards to several posts in this thread.

The first is about Bruce Irvin and some peoples worries about him and run defense. He was actually a 3-4 end in college. He has a lot more experience holding the line of scrimmage and allowing the linebackers to make the play on the running back then he had rushing the passer in college. He straight up said that he wasn't coached how to rush the passer when he was in college. The reason is he was taught to maintain his gap.

The second is about film. A lot of what makes teams successful is studying their opponents, but with our primary pass rusher going down, there is going to be very little film of how we attack an offense with Irvin playing Leo and Scruggs playing DE (remember he has been playing 3-tech with McDonald at the 1-tech throughout the season). The Falcons have no way to prepare for the pressure packages that we will bring. One of the things we don't do much of is twists and stunts, and I can see us bringing those to bear this game.

The third is regarding the Falcons fan that popped in about how all we did was beat a one legged QB, yadda yadda. The way we actually turned their offensive success around was exactly what I said before the game. The way to slow down or stop that running game is all on your defensive tackles. After the second drive the coaching staff switched responsibilities, Mebane was charged with attacking the guard and center (he had been getting to the MLB and taking him out of the plays). Branch was charged with taking on the tackle and pushing him into the backfield (he had been turning Bryant away from the play). Bryant was charged with taking on the TE) he had been taking out our SAM and thus creating the gap for Morris to get the 7 and 8 yard gains. This strategy worked perfectly. We were able to string the runs out wide and minimize the damage on their runs. That put Griffin in the pocket and their receivers could not get open.

English, the OP was very well thought out and presented, however I can't agree with your conclusion.