On to Week 2 and better things

[flyerhawk]

So Week 1 is over. We lost. It was always going to be one of our toughest games of the year. Let's not dwell on it.

Time to look forward. So let's look at how the team actually played.

QB - RW played as best as could be expected given the porous OL play. The Lockett miss was bad and the fumble was unfortunate although I think that when you are harassed as much as Russ was, fumbles are always a real risk. If OL can be marginally competent then RW will be just fine.

RB - Lacy looks done. Or maybe he's just not suited to a team with a OL that can get him 3 yards before contact. He's a momentum runner and you can't get momentum when hit in the backfield. Carson looked lively and quick. Who knows what Rawls will bring but Carson looks like the real deal.

TE - Pretty bad game here. Missed blocking assignments and a terrible drop by Graham. I can't imagine that a pretty good group of TEs all forgot how to play so I'm chalking that up to rust.

OL - So obviously that was terrible performance by the team. But let's put things into perspective a bit. New LT. New LG. Newish RT. While I think we all expected better than that, I do think there is reason to be confident that the OL will be considerably better than that if not good. Poor OL play was pretty much the standard for Sunday.

DL - If this squad stays healthy, this could be the best DL the Seahawks have ever had. Richardson did pretty well for his first game and the pass rush was in Rodgers shorts for most of the game until they got nicked up and gassed.

LB - Solid performance by Garvin I thought. Wright and Wagner were their usual selves. The Packer running game didn't do a lot so the LBs weren't super tested but I liked what I saw.

DB - The brightest part of the game. The Hawks lose Lane. No problem. Shaq moves up to RCB. Justin Coleman goes to nickel and they contain the best QB in football. Earl looks better than ever and Sherm was his usual invisible cover man because they don't throw to him.

PC was pretty upbeat, for a loss, on Brock and Salk and I think there is good reason to be. There aren't many games where you can blame a loss almost solely on one positional group like that. And even if the talent there is lacking, they can certainly get dramatically better. If they can drop the pressure rate for RW from 44% to the high 20s this team is going to win a LOT of games.

 

[JMR]

Yeah, it seems pretty much everyone outside of the usual panic button pushers are holding this in reasonable perspective. To me the entire team outside of the OL looked the part in a tough matchup. Not sure another team had a more difficult week 1, and on paper it was probably the most difficult game of the entire year. The OL clearly wasn't ready, but that doesn't doom the rest of the season. It doesn't even doom the OL with no chance to improve over the next 15 games.

Just on the strength of how this D is going to chew up teams who have QBs who aren't as good as Rodgers, these next 3 games are all very winnable. If we can take care of business with 2 home games against bad teams and on the road @ TEN, that gets us to 3-1 going in to face the Rams. Rams did great week 1 but the Colts are really, really bad. Browns bad or maybe worse, especially w/o Luck. The Redskins should give them a better game, and they also have to play @ DAL.

This season will get back on track.

 

[Sharkonabicycle]

Richardson was a beast. Best DT we've had since Kennedy and Tubbs.

Offense will be a huge pain point. Lacy IMO needs to be cut. Carson was FAR superior and more explosive.

Expect a lot of low scoring games this year.

 

[flyerhawk]

Richardson was a beast. Best DT we've had since Kennedy and Tubbs.

Offense will be a huge pain point. Lacy IMO needs to be cut. Carson was FAR superior and more explosive.

Expect a lot of low scoring games this year.

I really don't think the offense will be nearly as bad as some here think.

The OL will get better. It won't be great but it will be better. Heck Jimmy Graham will be much better. He was clearly rusty.

 

[pittpnthrs]

Well, the line cant get any worse so of course there will improvement there. I'm not one to usually do this, but i'm looking past the Niners. If we lose that game then the seasons pretty much done. We would never recover. As it is though, it should be a fun game to watch and one where maybe the Oline can grab some confidence and build on it.

 

[Mariners_44]

Richardson was a beast. Best DT we've had since Kennedy and Tubbs.

Offense will be a huge pain point. Lacy IMO needs to be cut. Carson was FAR superior and more explosive.

Expect a lot of low scoring games this year.

He didn't show much if anything in preseason against inferior opponents, and continued the trend last Sunday against GB. Lacy has Trent Richardson written all over him and I hope Pete cuts the dead weight sooner rather than later. That being said, I really enjoyed Mike Davis' preseason and similarities to Rawls. I don't necessarily think he is as good as Rawls, but they are both down hill runners that don't mind contact. I think a combo of Carson/Davis would be more productive than Lacy/Carson. I thought it would be better, but Lacy has really unimpressed me.

 

[Screamin12th]

If they can drop the pressure rate for RW from 44% to the high 20s this team is going to win a LOT of games.

now that's the problem isn't it? They have averaged 37% over the past 5 season so dropping into the 20's ( 27% is the league average ) is they key but they have yet to come close to that. I would be happy with 30%, that would be the best a Tom Cable Oline has done for the Hawks in over 5 seasons! But it would still be close to bottoms in the league thats a all telling sign people.

We cheer for our Oline coach to get sup par performance from the oline. WTF lol

 

[MrS]

Isnt that pathetic? All we want is an AVWRAGE OL and we cant even have that after 6 years.

Anybody else keep their job for 6 years of subpar results? Anybody IN SPORTS ever do that?

Oh right i forgot, we have 2 straight years with wildcard wins so we are supposed to ignore the absolute incompetence of the offensive coaches.

My bad

 

[Mariners_44]

Isnt that pathetic? All we want is an AVWRAGE OL and we cant even have that after 6 years.

Anybody else keep their job for 6 years of subpar results? Anybody IN SPORTS ever do that?

Oh right i forgot, we have 2 straight years with wildcard wins so we are supposed to ignore the absolute incompetence of the offensive coaches.

My bad

Dude, you really should start a thread on this subject cause the same things are getting posted/said over and over.

The O-line sucks, got it. Can we talk about something else already?

 

[Screamin12th]

love this write-up on the Oline and the fact Mudd was commenting.

This is basically a championship team ... if the line is even average. The starting five is a younger group with new faces in new places, so any realistic assessment says this line needs weeks -- not days -- to hit stride. But who has weeks when the offense can't crack double digits on the scoreboard during a 17-9 loss at Green Bay?

"Their entire team rides or dies with that line, in terms of how far they go," an evaluator from another team said.

That was already a somewhat scary proposition before left tackle George Fantsuffered a season-ending injury during preseason. Fant himself was a project, but his improvement and athleticism were promising, at least.

The Packers pressured Russell Wilson 14 times on 32 pass plays. The 44 percent pressure rate exceeded Wilson's league-high 36.5 percent rate from 2016, when he limped through portions of the season with ankle and knee injuries.

Poor pass protection is a bigger problem on the road than at home, which at least partly explains why Seattle finished 2016 with a losing record away from CenturyLink Field -- a first since Wilson was a rookie in 2012. If Seattle's loss to the Packers winds up costing them home-field advantage in the playoffs, they'll have even more riding on their line's improvement.

Germain Ifedi has the talent to elevate into the top 20 percent among the NFL's 64 starting tackles once he gains experience. He thinks center Justin Brittis already among the top six or seven centers, and he thinks Rees Odhiambo, the emergency starter at left tackle, is already better than Fant was last season.

"Get them at home for a couple games where they can get some continuity and it will help," Mudd said. "You go on the road, you're using a silent count, you haven't been together but a couple weeks, it's tough."

On the other hand, the Week 1 results were worse than coach Pete Carroll said he anticipated, continuing a trend from 2016.

"They lost the one guy they really liked in Fant," an evaluator said. "So you are playing a left tackle who never started at left tackle. Green Bay has a good defensive line, but this started last year. Even when they had the guys they thought they liked, they were not playing well up front. Thank God for the quarterback being able to make plays with his feet, but that is only going to last so long."

 

[JMR]

My #1 hope for next week is that we come out of this game with something to talk about other than the OL. Hopefully it's the emergence of the running game, red zone success, RW precision passing, suffocating defense, or some combo of all. Anything but another week of crying about the line, please.

 

[flyerhawk]

Isnt that pathetic? All we want is an AVWRAGE OL and we cant even have that after 6 years.

Anybody else keep their job for 6 years of subpar results? Anybody IN SPORTS ever do that?

Oh right i forgot, we have 2 straight years with wildcard wins so we are supposed to ignore the absolute incompetence of the offensive coaches.

My bad

Do you need to ruin every thread with the same whining?

We get it. You are always unhappy. No one cares anymore because it is always the same bullshit.

 

[JMR]

Sherm missed practiced both yesterday and Wed, sounding very iffy at best for this next game. Not that we'll need him -- or shouldn't anyway -- against SF, but this would be the first time in his career he's missed a game. Hopefully we get some better news later today, but there's also no reason to push the envelope with an important player in this particular matchup.

 

[MrS]

Bengals fires their OC after 8 quarters with no TDs...

 

[jerseyhawksfan79]

Sherm missed practiced both yesterday and Wed, sounding very iffy at best for this next game. Not that we'll need him -- or shouldn't anyway -- against SF, but this would be the first time in his career he's missed a game. Hopefully we get some better news later today, but there's also no reason to push the envelope with an important player in this particular matchup.

What kind of injury does Sherm have?

 

[Tech_God]

What kind of injury does Sherm have?

Hamstring, I think....

 

[chf]

Bengals fires their OC after 8 quarters with no TDs...

Huh, what's that I've been saying about bad franchises?

 

[jerseyhawksfan79]

Hamstring, I think....

Damn, hope it's not too bad.

 

[MrS]

Huh, what's that I've been saying about bad franchises?

Its never too late to fire unproductive coaches

 

[chf]

Its never too late to fire unproductive coaches

Sure, if you want to be the Cinci Bungles, never too early. Or late, or something you're going with.