Can Russell Wilson handle the pressure this weekend?

[Uhsplit]

If the game's on his shoulders the Seahawks are playing bad football.

Not necessarily true. Sometimes your opponent plays great or just matches up well.

 

[Uhsplit]

Russell will be great under this pressure. He stays calm in the moment and he has been groomed for this. That doesn't mean his team will win, it just means I don't see pressure getting to him. He has been big in big games before.

 

[WizardHawk]

The bottom line is Wilson has been very average as of late. I think teams have figured out that keeping him in the pocket is the key. He needs to be out in space in order to be effective. Keep him in the pocket and he is very pedestrian.

Being able to do that is a different story. I think he is mentally strong enough and won't succumb to the pressure but I'm not so sure he's good enough to win this game on his own. I think Lynch needs to have a good game and keep the pressure off of Wilson.

Wlson didn't have his best game against the Saints. He missed on more than one slant route and went to the wrong target several times. He didn't make his best decisions and of course it didn't prevent them from winning.

Recently? You can say the overall offense has been average at best, but you can't say it is because of Wilson. Against Arizona the line was simply terrible and I don't think any of the receivers had a great day. Against the Saints the line was much better and so were the receivers.

I'm far more confident they can have a much better game this week knowing the offensive line is coming off one of their best games of the season and the receivers were finding some space than if Wilson had been outstanding and those other things were still bad. All of these young QB's have had less than great games here and there and they all bounce back and have great games right after average ones.

This idea he isn't good in the pocket isn't true. He does pass well out of the pocket, but his lingering problem this year is his timing clock. You don't see him drop back and stay in the pocket for 4-5 seconds. He does leave the pocket too soon even without a rusher getting through and a lot of that is probably because he hasn't had any real protection all year and he hasn't been able to stay comfortable in that pocket. He passes fine from it and does go through his progressions when there, but the trick is for him to not look to run too quickely. I will say he is more dangerous on the run because of his creativity, but he isn't terrible in the pocket.

 

[R.J. MacReady]

Wilson has 3 TD and a combined 589 yards the last 4 games.

What happened to the Firepower?

 

[WizardHawk]

In many of these kinds of games the pressure is more on the home game than the road. Road teams aren't traditionally expected to win anyway and often said to be able to play more loose. They are playing with 'house money' they say.

I don't think that is the case in either game this weekend. NE expects to win and there is no doubt the pressure is on them to do so. Sure, the whole question of Denver/Manning choking in the playoffs will be there and they could be a bit more tight because of it, but pressure is there for both.

The NFC game is between two teams that are always up to play each other. Both feel they have a real chance and neither wants to see their rival go to the SB having laid their season to rest to get there. There will be as much pressure on Kaepernick as Wilson and at least Wilson gets to work through that at home.

I've been saying this all week and I'm standing by it, but the story of this game will be the defenses more than either QB or the offenses. These are two teams that live and die by their defense. If the hawks fail to stop Kaepernick on a key 3rd and 7 play down the stretch and they go on to take the lead then Seattle will have failed to come through on the phase of the game they key on. This game will be much more on Thomas, Sherman, and the rest of the defense than Wilson or the receivers. The only part of the offense that is key for the game is the run blocking and Lynch doing his thing while protecting the ball.

Talking about Kaepernick or Wilson in this game is not the same as Brady or Manning to theirs. It just isn't.

 

[SonnyCID]

Wilson is like the anti-Romo, or the anti-Stafford. Those guys light up the stat box all day then blow it late. Wilson doesn't take chances all day, then does what he needs to do to WIN when it's put on him. And if

 

[Uhsplit]

Wilson has 3 TD and a combined 589 yards the last 4 games.

What happened to the Firepower?

If you knew the Seahawks better, you would know our power is in our D.

 

[SonnyCID]

Wilson is the anti-Romo, or the anti-Stafford. Those guys light up the stat box all day, then blow it when it comes to actually winning the game. Wilson wont take chances all day, then come through when they need him to. This even happened last week, and some of you may have noticed if you weren't so enamored by statistics: The Saints went down and score a TD, closing the gap to 8 points. Wilson made some nice clutch throws and they went down and scored a TD themselves. Wilson has been doing this very thing and winning games for 2 years now.

 

[WizardHawk]

Wilson has 3 TD and a combined 589 yards the last 4 games.

What happened to the Firepower?

Combination of things. They built up a lead for home field advantage and played a very conservative offense down the stretch. They simply weren't throwing it nearly as much even when they were behind. They didn't have to play from behind much over that stretch despite having two losses. Both of those losses came with them having late leads and the defense not able to prevent the other team from taking it back.

Last game Wilson probably had one of his worst game of the season, but again they didn't ask him to do that much as they made another big lead early and the passing game was shut down mostly over the second half. If you look at his first half stats when the game was in contention and project that out over the second he could have still had over 200y passing easily with still not having his best day.