SoulfishHawk":3jf5l7e2 said:
?? They gave up ONE YARD in the 3rd quarter. The Niners had around 130 yards total offense late in the 3rd quarter. Hawks were up 30-7 with less than 10 minutes left. Why dwell on some garbage time yards??? Even WITH the garbage time yards and scores, they had 351 yards of total offense.
Pretty damn good performance, just my opinion.
It's worth highlighting this as well. We've seen it multiple times this year:
Atlanta - 20 point lead late in the 4th (3:48)
New England - 12 point lead late in the 4th (4:38)
Miami - 16 point lead late in the 4th (4:05)
San Fransisco - 17 point lead late in the 4th (3:36)
The reality is, if we are in position to sacrifice statistical defensive ranking in garbage time -- that's not even a real problem. In fact, it *should* be expected. We just aren't accustomed to that in the Carroll era because we've never fielded an offense that could reliably jump on teams to this degree. If one looks at other teams historically around the league that featured an incredibly potent offense -- their defenses suffered similarly.
We will have a poor yardage ranking this year. Period. It's a function of the offense and the flow of the game. Don't despair because of it. It's not a great defense. But it's definitely good enough. And the proof of that, is how the defense helps to keep us in games and give us strong chances to win in the second half (points allowed in 3rd and up to 5:00 remaining in 4th)
Atlanta: 6
New England: 6
Dallas: 13
Miami: 6
Minnesota: 13
Arizona: 7
San Fran: 7
Seattle's D has handled business by and large in the second half where the game is still widely in doubt. The defense's job is to protect leads and to give the offense opportunities to put the game away late. Seattle's yardage that is surrendered late is rather immaterial when protecting leads. When we don't have a big lead to protect, the defense has come through on it's own to contribute to victories.
I'm more encouraged to see how our Achilles' heel performs in instances where the game it tight. They've been holding up extremely well. And if it takes a 3 INT Wilson game where we literally have to have 10 or more plays go wrong to 'barely' lose to our strongest division rival -- then I think we're not giving the defense the credit that maybe we really should.
They'll be tarred with a bottom 3 yardage ranking all year. And it will be fueled by circumstance and mostly design. It's a good problem to have *if* the defense can play stout when it's not protecting leads. Which they are doing.
