Game Thread: Week 2: Seattle Seahawks @ New England Patriots

[Dr. Strangelove]

It's a long season and a process. Obviously things to clean up as we go along and plenty of questions to be answered but I'm not going to over-react to the early season and make a bunch of proclamations about what the team should or shouldn't do. Obviously nice to get off to a winning start but vs. a couple of also ran teams. I did think NE would give us trouble with their run game and they did. But we managed to win and that is really all that matters. Grubb going up tempo and putting the Pats D in basic sets really smart and Geno played great. Give him his due because he did it without a bunch of help in the run game and the Oline is still a mess at times. At any rate, just continue to get better and get the wins we should and let's see how it plays out. The culture looks good and the team is picking each other up. Last week, the defense kept us close while the offense struggled and then got going. This week, the defense struggled and the offense found a way. Acting like it should be perfect all the time is stupid. The NFL doesn't work that way. Let's see how things play out throughout the season. I still think 11 ish wins is realistic depending on how thinks shake out. But we have rookie coaches all over and it will take some time to gel. Not going to get too high or freak out when we have a bad game. And certainly not gonna second guess every little decision.

 

[flyerhawk]

Most importantly to me, I think that both Macdonald and Grubb have shown, so far, that they are up to the job.

Grubb, in particular, deserves a lot of credit for his play calling in this 1st two games. Team was struggling mightily in the 1st half of the Broncos game. He makes some adjustments at half time and the offense looks completely different. In this game, he went uptempo to prevent the defense from adjusting their personnel.

Honestly, if not for the drops and dumb penalties, they would have scored 35.

 

[JMR]

Good to gut that one out after it looked like they were losing their grip on the game. A few of my thoughts:

• Geno played a very good game. He like not less than 3 but maybe 5 passes dropped, and his numbers were still excellent. Plus no turnovers and very few sacks. And he did it w/o much threat of a run game.
• Run game.... yeah. Charbs played hard and did make a couple good plays down the stretch that were critical, but there was just nothing happening there on the ground. But we struggled a lot there last year as well when Walker was healthy.
• The D had a tougher day than last week, but they made key stops late. Good pressure on the QB, who just seemed to be able to wiggle out of sacks or get rid of the ball just in time. They finally got a penalty (PI on Spoon), and it was a complete trash call. Tackling was not as good as we saw game 1, but it was still better than the previous couple seasons. All in all, I think it was an acceptable performance but must clean up the run D.
• Not a good day for the TE room. Fant with a really bad drop and Barner's penalty hurt. Poor blocking. They didn't seem to contribute anything positive.
• JSN just has to catch that. He had a big day, but you have to make every catch on well thrown balls when you don't have elite size or speed. His value to the team is precision route running to get open and then being a reliable pass catcher. He's dropped more passes so far in the NFL than what I remember of his reputation at OSU. DK doesn't have great hands, but he can make up for it by blowing the doors off any secondary in the league and taking it to the house. JSN doesn't really have that in his bag, so he needs to be catching everything.
• The O wasn't prolific and struggled to run the ball all day, but they avoided the catastrophic start that we saw in week 1. It probably was a main reason they stayed close and were able to squeeze out the win. Didn't dig a huge hole that they couldn't climb out of.

Next up is Miami, and the complexion of that matchup sure looks different with Tua's injury. They get a couple extra days to prepare since they played Thursday, but they are nowhere the team they are with Tua.

 

[HaroldSeattle]

The schedule been kind to the Seahawks to start the season giving them two opponents who are in the rebuild stage and lacking top tier QBs. That's a blessing that allows the team to work out the kinks while getting 2 wins. Seahawks catch another break with the Dolphins losing their QB and LT. Dolphins likely try running the ball a lot and they have a different running game then the Pats because their run game is about speed and one cut and go. So this can be another learning experience for the D. Anyone hear if Walker will play next game? Might be OK without him but he would help.

 

[Sharkonabicycle]

Nice to see this grade on PFF:

 

[MrS]

Might be OK without him but he would help.

If walker is out again i want to see mcintosh

 

[Sharkonabicycle]

The schedule been kind to the Seahawks to start the season giving them two opponents who are in the rebuild stage and lacking top tier QBs. That's a blessing that allows the team to work out the kinks while getting 2 wins. Seahawks catch another break with the Dolphins losing their QB and LT. Dolphins likely try running the ball a lot and they have a different running game then the Pats because their run game is about speed and one cut and go. So this can be another learning experience for the D. Anyone hear if Walker will play next game? Might be OK without him but he would help.

Word on various sites is the Seahawks are taking extreme caution with him which means he is probably already questionable for Miami and may sit more than just the one week.

Sucks because like the Broncos and Pats, the Dolphins defensive pass rush attack is better than their rush attack. But Geno was able to deal with them both... Jalen will prob. completely shut down DK though, DK has struggled with him in the past and I'd expect a PFOUL from DK in the game because Jalen will trash talk him non-stop.

 

[Dr. Strangelove]

Nice to see this grade on PFF:

View attachment 374271

Cross is off to a fantastic start. 90+ grade both weeks.

 

[uwdawgfan]

Word on various sites is the Seahawks are taking extreme caution with him which means he is probably already questionable for Miami and may sit more than just the one week.

Sucks because like the Broncos and Pats, the Dolphins defensive pass rush attack is better than their rush attack. But Geno was able to deal with them both... Jalen will prob. completely shut down DK though, DK has struggled with him in the past and I'd expect a PFOUL from DK in the game because Jalen will trash talk him non-stop.

Bring it...Jalen getting old, fuck him!!!

 

[blstoker]

. Jalen will prob. completely shut down DK though, DK has struggled with him in the past and I'd expect a PFOUL from DK in the game because Jalen will trash talk him non-stop.

That's a weird take. Since Jalen went to the Rams in 2019, DK has played 8 games against him. He's got 41 catches, 578 yards and 5 touchdowns. DK had 5 or more catches 6 out of the 8. This doesn't mean Ramsey was on Metcalf for every play, but Seattle found a way to get him involved even before we got an OC who appears to be able to scheme some things. Not to mention that Ramsey's in his Sherman as a 9er stage of his career.

 

[Sharkonabicycle]

That's a weird take. Since Jalen went to the Rams in 2019, DK has played 8 games against him. He's got 41 catches, 578 yards and 5 touchdowns. DK had 5 or more catches 6 out of the 8. This doesn't mean Ramsey was on Metcalf for every play, but Seattle found a way to get him involved even before we got an OC who appears to be able to scheme some things. Not to mention that Ramsey's in his Sherman as a 9er stage of his career.

Hmm, well maybe I'm mistaken then. I'd be interested to know the stats when Ramsey was matched up on him with man. I'm not sure if that's something easy to find but it seems when the Rams stuck Ramsey on DK he didn't do as hot and there was a lot of frustration by DK (just remembering some of the games). Good point on Ramsey getting older....

 

[Anointed One]

Hmm, well maybe I'm mistaken then. I'd be interested to know the stats when Ramsey was matched up on him with man. I'm not sure if that's something easy to find but it seems when the Rams stuck Ramsey on DK he didn't do as hot and there was a lot of frustration by DK (just remembering some of the games). Good point on Ramsey getting older....

Are you thinking of, Ward with the 49ers?

 

[Sharkonabicycle]

Are you thinking of, Ward with the 49ers?

Well I know he had problems with Ward, but I swore he had problems when Ramsey was matched up on him.

Eh could be a true lie lol.. maybe I'm thinking of ONE game where Ramsey got in his head. Looking through the game logs I think the game I am thinking of was the first matchup in 2020 (so DKs 3rd game) where he was limited to pretty much nothing after having a pretty amazing rookie year and the Rams stuck Ramsey on him... Maybe that's what I'm stuck on (but it was one game).

 

[Tapey]

Most pressures through two weeks

Aidan Hutchinson 17
Boye Mafe 15
Micah Parsons 14
Zach Allen 13
Chris Jones 13
Yaya Diaby 12
Jonathan Greenard 12
Trey Hendrickson 12

 

[Anointed One]

Well I know he had problems with Ward, but I swore he had problems when Ramsey was matched up on him.

Eh could be a true lie lol.. maybe I'm thinking of ONE game where Ramsey got in his head. Looking through the game logs I think the game I am thinking of was the first matchup in 2020 (so DKs 3rd game) where he was limited to pretty much nothing after having a pretty amazing rookie year and the Rams stuck Ramsey on him... Maybe that's what I'm stuck on (but it was one game).

I think there were moments when Ramsey definitely got the best of him... Definitely got in his head and caused a few 15 yard penalties

 

[WizardHawk]

 

[blstoker]

Here's a nice breakdown of Geno against the Pats. I've felt that Geno has been playing really well thus far, so let's hope he keeps it up.

 

[Screamin12th]

The Jets sure beat the Pats up, makes our win look very sub par.

 

[flyerhawk]

The Jets sure beat the Pats up, makes our win look very sub par.

You can't really compare week to week performances by teams. Rodgers played his best game in years on Thursday. If we didn't have 5 drops by our receivers, that game looks a lot different.

The Hawks are still defining themselves. As are the Pats, to be honest. New coaches and new systems.
I think the schedule this year is very favorable to us to start the season. 3 straight AFC matchups against beatable teams.

 

[Dr. Strangelove]

The Jets sure beat the Pats up, makes our win look very sub par.

Don't read too much into margin of victory and how pretty wins look week to week. It's virtually meaningless. Yes, we shouldn't have let NE hang around maybe but our game probably also took a lot out of the Pats physically and mentally and on the road, short week, no surprise they had very little in the tank for the Jets. The Pats were always going to be a tougher match-up for us just by the nature of their physical play but we also carved them up in the passing game and the Jets saw what Geno did and Rodgers was able to do the same. Let's not forget the Jets basically fluked out a win at Tennessee the week before because Levis gifted it to them. Can't ever apologize for a win and never act like it's an indictment on the team. Too early in the year anyway.