We lost because

[RCATES]

Most alarming thing for me is how unprepared the Defense was after having 2 weeks to prepare. Maybe Pete could have spent a little less time playing Political Advisor and actually doing his job.

 

[AgentDib]

The Cardinals led for 0:00 in this game. The list of the Seahawks "what ifs" is enormous, and we had a dozen different chances to win the game that we didn't capitalize on. It's a frustrating loss precisely because we should have won.

The Cardinals defense at the end there was mainly employing a "fire zone blitz", where they showed a lot of people at the line, sent a different five every time on the pass rush, and then dropped the rest into underneath coverage. It's a pretty common tactic for 3-4 defenses and something that we've seen a lot and should be able to handle. It still fooled us pretty well there in the 4th quarter, which I think was partly because Russ hasn't seen it in a while, and largely because Homer is our only decent pass protecting back and he was out of the game. We also didn't keep them honest against the run in the 4th quarter without Carson/Homer, and that let them tee up off the line like that.

I don't think much has to be said about the offense beyond that. We need for people to get healthy and for Russ to play at the high level that he normally does. People will make more plays in the future and the offense should be fine in the long run.

The downside of bringing in Dunbar appears to be that Flowers now has zero confidence. It was funny to see people bagging on him for playing 10 yards off the line of scrimmage, when the inevitable result of him playing closer would have been an easy Hopkins touchdown on any given play. Health and depth are so important in the NFL and any game where your 3rd string CB is guarding DeAndre Hopkins for a full game is going to be extremely rough. That said, I imagine we're going to give Stephens a pretty good look in practice this week and maybe even trade for another CB before our rematch in 4 weeks.

I do expect our defense to look better against the 49ers, Bills and Rams who present a different sort of challenge. They don't have a #1 WR anywhere near Hopkins level or a QB that requires a defender tied up spying him. Our strength against the run especially as Brooks gets more playing time and we add Snacks and Kendricks should be more effective there.

 

[Sgt. Largent]

I do expect our defense to look better against the 49ers, Bills and Rams who present a different sort of challenge. They don't have a #1 WR anywhere near Hopkins level or a QB that requires a defender tied up spying him. Our strength against the run especially as Brooks gets more playing time and we add Snacks and Kendricks should be more effective there.

I wish I shared your optimism about the defense.

IF Adams is back, yes that should help the pass rush a little, as he was blitzing and getting pressures. But the rest of the defense is like wet paper that somehow gets worse as the game goes on.

That's not a good recipe for beating division opponents that will do to Russell what the Cards did to him in the 2nd half, blitz, confuse and hurry him into sacks and bad throws.

Waiting for our defense to improve as it becomes more tired, more injured with no significant additions is a fruitless endeavor.

 

[LTH]

The Hawks had the ball with just over two minutes and all they had to do is run the clock out... all they had to do is get one first down... they didn't get it done...This game wasn't on the D... those three INT's took 14 points off the board... the D and Metcalf saved wilson...

No this team lost this game on multiple different levels... Give credit where credit is due... AZ played well there D scheme was really good...

Now we will see how this team swallows adversity... Time to refocus and get back to work .. I guarantee Wilson has already forgot about this game hopefully the whole team has forgotten about this one...



LTH

 

[Seahawk_Dan]

The other thing that was frustrating was the playcalling. We've abandoned a lot of the short passes, and dink and dunk that we were doing earlier. This tendency of Pete's drives me MAD. I don't see us making much of an attempt to get our players into space on short routes. For example, DK Metcalf in particular is very good in space -- he also is adept at running slant routes. We made a lot of head scratching situational calls, and at the end of the game we mailed it in. Three straight runs and punt. Slowly but surely we've been reverted back to the old offensive schema that we had last season. I noticed a lot more running on first down, and more long developing plays over the last few weeks. We're slowly, but surely sinking back into old habits.

This also puzzled me. The first three games Seattle seemed to have transcend their offense style and become creative, active, and really kept opposing defenses guessing. For those first three games I was actually always giddy seeing the offense because I knew they were going to score, there was never a doubt.

Last three games the team reverted back to 2019 form on offense. Now moving the ball or scoring seems like blink luck than legitimate scheming. That excitement and giddiness I had for the offense vanished and became, "Just please score. Any score." only to be greeted by a run, run, run, punt.

Every player on offense had a role and was being utilized. What happened? Why did they revert to their awful play style? Where did that creativity go?

 

[olyfan63]

Maybe they could have gone with a different play but based on how Hyde was running and what he got on first and second down, I was ok with running the ball on 3rd and 2.

Two of AZ's three D-Line starters were out of the game at the end, If I understood correctly. I'd think we would look to attack one of those spots where we might now have a matchup advantage.

Yes, DJ Dallas almost got Russell killed. Was Homer injured or something? Homer has been so good at blitz pickups. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if Arizona's DC targeted rookie Dallas with his blitz packages, to test the rookie, and the rookie failed the test. I still think Dallas will be a good player for us, just not ready for primetime yet. It's like a car engine when a $3.99 oil seal fails, causing a $4,000 part (Russell) to be destroyed as a result.

 

[TypeSly]

Maybe they could have gone with a different play but based on how Hyde was running and what he got on first and second down, I was ok with running the ball on 3rd and 2.

Two of AZ's three D-Line starters were out of the game at the end, If I understood correctly. I'd think we would look to attack one of those spots where we might now have a matchup advantage.

Yes, DJ Dallas almost got Russell killed. Was Homer injured or something? Homer has been so good at that stuff.

Yup Homer was hurt on a blatant helmet-to-helmet that wasn't called. Everyone is ragging on Dallas, but besides that one play his blocking was really good this game. I was actually quite impressed. Hyde can't block for peanuts, though.

 

[HawkRiderFan]

Yes Homer was hurt or else he would have been in there. Going forward, Schotti and Russ better figure out a way to solve that zone blitz the Cardinal threw at them or else being a copy cat league look for lots of defensive coordinators to use it.

 

[AubHawk71]

Pete Ball.

'Why is Flowers playing 10 yards off of his man?'

Soft zone 4ever!

 

[RCATES]

Pete Ball.

'Why is Flowers playing 10 yards off of his man?'

Soft zone 4ever!

Haven't you heard. It's ok to give up 7 pts. if it takes 5 min's off the game clock to do it.

How about not letting them drive down the field at all Pete?

We were up 10 with 5min left in the game. We lost. Take that however you want.

 

[Sgt. Largent]

Pete Ball.

'Why is Flowers playing 10 yards off of his man?'

Soft zone 4ever!

Flowers is like a bad penny, we're never going to be rid of him. I would have rather he press covered Hopkins and the other Cardinal receivers and pray Murray overthrows deep balls, then give up 10 yards when we had no yards to allow for game winning FG's.

Makes ZERO sense to play off when even 4-5 yard catches loses you the game.

 

[LTH]

Pete Ball.

'Why is Flowers playing 10 yards off of his man?'

Soft zone 4ever!

Flowers is like a bad penny, we're never going to be rid of him. I would have rather he press covered Hopkins and the other Cardinal receivers and pray Murray overthrows deep balls, then give up 10 yards when we had no yards to allow for game winning FG's.

Makes ZERO sense to play off when even 4-5 yard catches loses you the game.

I think your right about Flowers he can't man up... but he is the best they have right now so what do you do? play a deep zone and hope you dont give up the big play...


LTH

 

[AgentDib]

I wish I shared your optimism about the defense. IF Adams is back, yes that should help the pass rush a little, as he was blitzing and getting pressures. But the rest of the defense is like wet paper that somehow gets worse as the game goes on. That's not a good recipe for beating division opponents that will do to Russell what the Cards did to him in the 2nd half, blitz, confuse and hurry him into sacks and bad throws. Waiting for our defense to improve as it becomes more tired, more injured with no significant additions is a fruitless endeavor.

It's fairly mild optimism in that I don't think we are going to be good on defense, just not as completely awful as we were against Arizona.

The 49ers have been tearing it up the last two weeks with the ground game and a ton of short passing behind the line of scrimmage. Our defensive struggles have mainly been against the pass and we look to be improving further against the ground game as Brooks gets healthy and we mix in Snacks and Kendricks. If we do have to play Flowers again then I expect we'll see him a lot closer to the line of scrimmage vs. JimmyG and a banged up Deebo Samuels then he was able to play against DeAndre Hopkins.

Likewise, on offense we will be facing the most familiar defensive scheme in the NFL. It's disappointing that the offense struggled so much against the fire zone blitz but it's not unexpected - we've seen that exact same thing a number of times over the years, including that bad loss to Arizona after the bye a few years ago where everybody blamed Russ for spending the bye in Mexico. The 49ers defense presents an entirely different sort of challenge and it's one that I feel we are far more prepared to handle.

 

[Sgt. Largent]

Pete Ball.

'Why is Flowers playing 10 yards off of his man?'

Soft zone 4ever!

Flowers is like a bad penny, we're never going to be rid of him. I would have rather he press covered Hopkins and the other Cardinal receivers and pray Murray overthrows deep balls, then give up 10 yards when we had no yards to allow for game winning FG's.

Makes ZERO sense to play off when even 4-5 yard catches loses you the game.

I think your right about Flowers he can't man up... but he is the best they have right now so what do you do? play a deep zone and hope you dont give up the big play...


LTH

Put in Stephens, go get another CB off of someone else's practice squad, bring Deion Sanders out of retirement. I don't care, do something. Flower's is terrible, he's a liability.

 

[LTH]

Pete Ball.

'Why is Flowers playing 10 yards off of his man?'

Soft zone 4ever!

Flowers is like a bad penny, we're never going to be rid of him. I would have rather he press covered Hopkins and the other Cardinal receivers and pray Murray overthrows deep balls, then give up 10 yards when we had no yards to allow for game winning FG's.

Makes ZERO sense to play off when even 4-5 yard catches loses you the game.

I think your right about Flowers he can't man up... but he is the best they have right now so what do you do? play a deep zone and hope you dont give up the big play...


LTH

Put in Stephens, go get another CB off of someone else's practice squad, bring Deion Sanders out of retirement. I don't care, do something. Flower's is terrible, he's a liability.

LMAO!!!! Deion LOVES you!!! LOL


LTH

 

[LTH]

Flowers is like a bad penny, we're never going to be rid of him. I would have rather he press covered Hopkins and the other Cardinal receivers and pray Murray overthrows deep balls, then give up 10 yards when we had no yards to allow for game winning FG's.

Makes ZERO sense to play off when even 4-5 yard catches loses you the game.

I think your right about Flowers he can't man up... but he is the best they have right now so what do you do? play a deep zone and hope you dont give up the big play...


LTH

Put in Stephens, go get another CB off of someone else's practice squad, bring Deion Sanders out of retirement. I don't care, do something. Flower's is terrible, he's a liability.

LMAO!!!! Deion LOVES you!!! LOL

I think we should put Pete in for flowers ! oh crap he just got his knee scoped ... were screwed LMAO!!!!
LTH

 

[Chapow]

Last three games the team reverted back to 2019 form on offense. Now moving the ball or scoring seems like blink luck than legitimate scheming. That excitement and giddiness I had for the offense vanished and became, "Just please score. Any score." only to be greeted by a run, run, run, punt.

Every player on offense had a role and was being utilized. What happened? Why did they revert to their awful play style? Where did that creativity go?

The last 3 games? You really felt that way watching our offense put up 27 points and 377 yards in the first half last night?

I mean, the offense overall certainly seems to have taken a step or two back over the last 3 games compared to the first 3, but I don't think averaging 37 points per game was realistically sustainable. It probably helped that we played the Cowboys and Falcons in 2 of the first 3 games as well. Those 2 defenses are arguably worse than ours, or to put it another way, they are heinously bad.

I dunno, I just don't think the offense is doing all that poorly over the last 3 games. They've scored 31, 27, and 34. That is, at the very least, very respectable output by the offense IMO. Of course, there's always for improvement, but we should be winning a lot more often than not if our offense averages 30 points per game like they have over the past 3 games. Unfortunately, our defense is so ridiculously awful that 30 points probably isn't going to win us as many games as it should.

 

[Spin Doctor]

Last three games the team reverted back to 2019 form on offense. Now moving the ball or scoring seems like blink luck than legitimate scheming. That excitement and giddiness I had for the offense vanished and became, "Just please score. Any score." only to be greeted by a run, run, run, punt.

Every player on offense had a role and was being utilized. What happened? Why did they revert to their awful play style? Where did that creativity go?

The last 3 games? You really felt that way watching our offense put up 27 points and 377 yards in the first half last night?

I mean, the offense overall certainly seems to have taken a step or two back over the last 3 games compared to the first 3, but I don't think averaging 37 points per game was realistically sustainable. It probably helped that we played the Cowboys and Falcons in 2 of the first 3 games as well. Those 2 defenses are arguably worse than ours, or to put it another way, they are heinously bad.

I dunno, I just don't think the offense is doing all that poorly over the last 3 games. They've scored 31, 27, and 34. That is, at the very least, very respectable output by the offense IMO. Of course, there's always for improvement, but we should be winning a lot more often than not if our offense averages 30 points per game like they have over the past 3 games. Unfortunately, our defense is so ridiculously awful that 30 points probably isn't going to win us as many games as it should.

It's not that the Seahawks are doing poorly, it's that I'm seeing us slowly shift back to the same tired old offense. The issue with this style of offense is it leads to situations like last night. Against good teams it gets punished hard. When Russ was getting 4-5 TDs a game we were integrating an offense that looked much more like something Holmgren would've ran. With the defense we're running, we can't run the same old Pete ball and expect to win, and that is the way I'm seeing things go.

 

[The Breh]

The 3rd and 12 unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on Bobby gave them life.
Scoring 7 whole points after halftime attributed to it.
Them blitzing from their unsuspecting dbacks late in the game.
Short pass to Hyde on 2nd down that went nowhere.

This game had no shortage of blame to go around.

 

[devilhawk88]

Russ and the defense cost us.

+1