the 2 missed plays the Hawks needed.

[Screamin12th]

The Hawks had a huge hole to dig themselves out of. Down 31-0 is never easy but there was two plays or two chances for them to make plays that would have took points off the board or added them.

Ted Ginn Jr's dropped fair catch. Had the Hawks got that ball they score points ( 3rd Quarter ) and those are points they ended up needing at the end

Cameron Artist-Payne's fumble that the Panthers covered up. Had the Hawks recovered that ball it takes 7 points off the board. They once again had all the people around the ball but some how they kick it right to a panthers.

On a side note on that play. When a player fumbles the ball forward the ball is supposed to go back to the point of the fumble UNLESS the player who fumbled it, recovers it. They did not move the ball back to the point of the fumble.

Crazy game and to be down 31-0 at half was painful, I also did not like them going for it on 4th down when they had a shot at a short FG. In my Eyes at that point you take the sure points and then head into the half knowing you get the ball first, you needed 3 anyway with the Panthers up 31. It's to bad they did not take that 3 point's.

When their was 7 minutes left in the game i knew they were going to have to try a onside kick and i never like our chances their ( even though we go one last year ).

Sucks knowing that a coach's choice on not taking the points once again Haunts the Hawks this season, what is that like the 3rd or 4th loss because Pete passed up on points? Yes i know Hind sight is 20/20 but i was screaming "KICK THE FG" when they were going for it at the end of the first half.

 

[dkmightyhammer]

Crazy game and to be down 31-0 at half was painful, I also did not like them going for it on 4th down when they had a shot at a short FG. In my Eyes at that point you take the sure points and then head into the half knowing you get the ball first, you needed 3 anyway with the Panthers up 31. It's to bad they did not take that 3 point's.
.

That was huge actually. I agree with you that they should have kicked the FG. I thought so at the time too. In the end we needed a FG and TD to tie so they opted to kick the FG on fourth down and hope for the onside kick. If we'd kicked the FG before halftime they would have only need the TD to tie and there's no doubt they'd have gone for it on 4th down at the end of the game. Much better odds in my opinion of converting that compared to pulling off the onside kick. Oh well, hindsight is 20/20.

 

[Logicallylethal]

Just ONE thing had to bounce our way in that first half and we would have had that extra drive to try to tie it

OR

If any of those third down measurement that were literally inches would have swung our way then we'd save another minute or two on the clock and have time for another drive

I played the what if game in my mind while watching Broncos-Steelers yesterday it drove me crazy. I turned it off in the 2nd quarter and went to drink some whiskey.

And that onside kick was executed perfectly. How did Thomas Davis hang on to that after being catapulted in the air by Coleman. It was just the Panthers game to win.

 

[Uhsplit]

I thought the 2 1st downs Carolina got by a total of 3 inches killed our opportunity. Yet, they were accurate placements by the refs who called a pretty good game and let the guys play.

 

[Anointed One]

I thought the 2 1st downs Carolina got by a total of 3 inches killed our opportunity. Yet, they were accurate placements by the refs who called a pretty good game and let the guys play.

I agree... I know the ref's tend to get bashed but I thought they ref'd a very good game as well...

 

[Judge Fudge]

I Think a HUGE play was Russell overshooting Douggie. Perfect Throw and we might be talking about facing Zona now

 

[Podunkparte]

Lots of specific plays talked about here, and lots of specific plays could have gone either way Sunday.

My opinion is that the main reason we were down so badly so early is because we were outplayed, starting at both lines. First off the defensive line gave up a 70 yard run 1st play of the game. CAR went all 80+ yards running against the #1 running D in the league.

My bigger gripe though is on the offensive side. Our O line got absolutely embarrassed Sunday. It's like Okung, Britt, Lewis, and Sweezy stepped aside and asked the Panthers Dline to come on through. In a playoff game, against a Dline we know is talented,and agaisnt one we've already played, to me that falls squarely on the shoulders of Mr. Tom Cable. How you allow your unit to play so badly for an entire half of football, letting the team fall to a 0-31 hole, is beyond me.

After that debacle I am absolutely done with the "college D linemen to NFL O linemen" experiment. That was an embarrassing performance and IMO it cost us that game. What adjustments were made at the time to give anyone confidence that Tom Cable could fix what was killing the Seahawks Sunday?

 

[JMR]

The Hawks had a huge hole to dig themselves out of. Down 31-0 is never easy but there was two plays or two chances for them to make plays that would have took points off the board or added them.

Ted Ginn Jr's dropped fair catch. Had the Hawks got that ball they score points ( 3rd Quarter ) and those are points they ended up needing at the end

Cameron Artist-Payne's fumble that the Panthers covered up. Had the Hawks recovered that ball it takes 7 points off the board. They once again had all the people around the ball but some how they kick it right to a panthers.

On a side note on that play. When a player fumbles the ball forward the ball is supposed to go back to the point of the fumble UNLESS the player who fumbled it, recovers it. They did not move the ball back to the point of the fumble.

Crazy game and to be down 31-0 at half was painful, I also did not like them going for it on 4th down when they had a shot at a short FG. In my Eyes at that point you take the sure points and then head into the half knowing you get the ball first, you needed 3 anyway with the Panthers up 31. It's to bad they did not take that 3 point's.

When their was 7 minutes left in the game i knew they were going to have to try a onside kick and i never like our chances their ( even though we go one last year ).

Sucks knowing that a coach's choice on not taking the points once again Haunts the Hawks this season, what is that like the 3rd or 4th loss because Pete passed up on points? Yes i know Hind sight is 20/20 but i was screaming "KICK THE FG" when they were going for it at the end of the first half.

I think the forward fumble rule only comes into play in the last 2 minutes. Somewhat arbitrary, but I'm pretty sure that's the rule.

Tons of plays that were out there not made...first half was just a complete disaster all the way around. Unfortunate, but that's sports. Very tough coming away from those 2 late half possessions with 0 points. Just wasn't our day.

 

[dkmightyhammer]

I Think a HUGE play was Russell overshooting Douggie. Perfect Throw and we might be talking about facing Zona now

That was a big play to miss, but didn't we end up scoring on that drive anyway? So probably that miss wasn't as bad as some of the other plays that were botched.

 

[Banned 10x]

looking back, I feel the one of the bigger plays was the sack Russ took to make it 3rd and 23, he had plenty of time to throw that away. That sack was followed up with a TO because the play clock was running down as well, just a killer.

 

[Uhsplit]

Lots of specific plays talked about here, and lots of specific plays could have gone either way Sunday.

My opinion is that the main reason we were down so badly so early is because we were outplayed, starting at both lines. First off the defensive line gave up a 70 yard run 1st play of the game. CAR went all 80+ yards running against the #1 running D in the league.

My bigger gripe though is on the offensive side. Our O line got absolutely embarrassed Sunday. It's like Okung, Britt, Lewis, and Sweezy stepped aside and asked the Panthers Dline to come on through. In a playoff game, against a Dline we know is talented,and agaisnt one we've already played, to me that falls squarely on the shoulders of Mr. Tom Cable. How you allow your unit to play so badly for an entire half of football, letting the team fall to a 0-31 hole, is beyond me.

After that debacle I am absolutely done with the "college D linemen to NFL O linemen" experiment. That was an embarrassing performance and IMO it cost us that game. What adjustments were made at the time to give anyone confidence that Tom Cable could fix what was killing the Seahawks Sunday?

No argument there, but our OL is built primarily to run. We all know that. It is by design. We never got a chance to establish the run. If we had maybe the OL looks great like they did in the 2nd half of the season.That is why Marshawn was neutralized. It wasn't because Carolina bottled up our run game.
Once the run game was tossed, it made us one dimensional and the D could pin their ears back.
The difference in the Minny games is Seattle's run D shut down AP. The score shut down our strength, the run game.

 

[Sharkonabicycle]

TWO HUGE plays.

1) Not recovering the Stewart fumble. Potentially changes the entire game with momentum shift after a long run like that.
2) Missing Baldwin. The extra time it took off the clock and again momentum shift it missed creating was huge.

1 and 2 go our way and Seattle probably wins that game hands down.

 

[blstoker]

There wasn't much in that first half that Carolina did that put them up 31 at half time. It was Seattle's own mistakes that put them in that hole.

1) Not being prepared for the field cost them 59 yards on the first play. After that, Carolina gained only 5 yards on 40 carries. Thomas doesn't slip on that and it's most likely 5 yards at most.

2) Interceptions cost the Hawks 10 points. Lynch being rusty could have contributed to Russell throwing the first one - as Lynch seemed to be slow coming out of his break - but Russell still shouldn't have thrown that pass. The second one was just as bad, and Carolina was handed 10 points without their offense doing anything. Should have been 21-0 or something closer to that at half (though down 21, I think Pete kicks the field goal).

3) Defense started out slow. Almost half of Carolina's total yards came in their first 2 series. Carolina only gained 75 yards in the second half. The defense dominated them, but the hole was too big for it to make too much a difference.

4) I had no problem with going for it on 4th and 5, as a field goal wouldn't really shift the momentum. But, when you complete the pass on 4th and 5 and only get 4 yards, then you did something wrong. There is no reason to throw into double coverage short of the yard to gain (Luke Willson was wide open for a TD right behind him since everyone on that side only cared about Baldwin). If that play is run correctly, then it's 31-7 at half.

 

[jerseyhawksfan79]

That was a big play to miss, but didn't we end up scoring on that drive anyway? So probably that miss wasn't as bad as some of the other plays that were botched.

The only thing to take away from that series of plays was T.O.P . If he hit DB, that's a couple of extra mins added on the clock.

 

[Anointed One]

After that debacle I am absolutely done with the "college D linemen to NFL O linemen" experiment. That was an embarrassing performance and IMO it cost us that game. What adjustments were made at the time to give anyone confidence that Tom Cable could fix what was killing the Seahawks Sunday?

I was listening to Carroll yesterday and he was discussing how he does not want to go into the new season with, "a OL that has to go through a learning curve"... He said that the OL is one of their priorities moving into the offseason... He also didn't seem like Lewis would be our starting center... He kept saying, "He did a solid job considering our situation"... "He wasn't great but he did a solid job while stepping into that role"...

 

[HaroldSeattle]

I was listening to Carroll yesterday and he was discussing how he does not want to go into the new season with, "a OL that has to go through a learning curve"... He said that the OL is one of their priorities moving into the offseason... He also didn't seem like Lewis would be our starting center... He kept saying, "He did a solid job considering our situation"... "He wasn't great but he did a solid job while stepping into that role"...

Makes you wonder what he has in mind, doesn't sound like he has rookies in mind for the OL.

 

[Anointed One]

Makes you wonder what he has in mind, doesn't sound like he has rookies in mind for the OL.

I sure hope not... He seemed tired while discussing this... Like he was frustrated with how the OL played overall for the season...

 

[blstoker]

There wasn't much in that first half that Carolina did that put them up 31 at half time. It was Seattle's own mistakes that put them in that hole.

1) Not being prepared for the field cost them 59 yards on the first play. After that, Carolina gained only 5 yards on 40 carries. Thomas doesn't slip on that and it's most likely 5 yards at most.

That's supposed to say 85 yards.

 

[jerseyhawksfan79]

Makes you wonder what he has in mind, doesn't sound like he has rookies in mind for the OL.

Sound like PC is eyeing up FA's for o-line help. Not sure who's out there.

 

[boogiewithstu2007]

I'm standing by kicking the field goal on the 4th and 5 play in the 1st half... WE needed those 3 points not just because it made it a 4 touchdown game, but we also desperatley needed some momentum .... And wouldn't you know, those 3 points could a changed EVERYTHING at the end of that game... I"m a big fan of taking the points when it's there... Now if it was 4th and 5 from the 40 yard line or something sure take the chance, but that was a chip shot where we were at, and we didn't need to give Carolina more to cheer about ...