I’m busy as hell this week so here’s the gist of what happened in Sunday’s Seahawk game against the Falcons, why we lost, and why it was the Offensive Coordinator’s fault (yes I just said FAULT, suck it up, cupcake, and deal with it)
Title: Geno shines but Seahawks lose in reckless and unnecessary shootout with Atlanta, and why the Seahawks defense isn’t as bad as it looked
A simple glance in looking at the box score stats (ESPN) shows that there were twice as many Pass plays called as Run plays. It also shows that this was completely unnecessary because our Run game was actually working fine at a 5 yard per carry avg. (that’s REALLY good, folks!). Therefore, the argument that we were passing the ball a lot to come from behind doesn’t hold, and, in any case, we were basically neck and neck, score-wise, throughout the whole game, right up until the end.
The whole reason why this is a problem is because the Run game controls both the field (yardage or “space”) and the clock (or “time) better than any other facet of the game of football, on either defense, offense, or special teams. IF you can effectively run the ball in a game, then you can dictate to the opponent YOUR GAME, and keep them on their heals and scratching to keep up.
Up tempo, unbalanced passing games/offenses are absolute hell on anyone in any phase of the game who is not a skill (QB/WR and sometimes RB) player, and even those guys get tired by the end of the game. The worst affected by up tempo passing games are the Olinemen, who are, by and large, the biggest, slowest, and less mobile guys on the field. It is also FAR MORE DIFFICULT for an Olineman to block in the passing game than it is in the run game, ESPECIALLY mentally, because in the passing game the Olinemen have to adjust in split seconds both PHYSICALLY AND MENTALLY to the oncoming rush of the Defenders, and in the Run game they basically already know what man they’re going to block, and in which direction, and a host of things before the ball is even snapped…i.e. they can control the variables in the Run game better than they can in the Pass game, and over-thinking causes laps in judgements, penalties, general mistakes like missed assignments, getting easily faked out, and, in the worst case scenario, injuries.
The next to suffer are the big uglies on the other side of the ball directly in front of the Olinemen. If these guys get tired, then the QB rush is significantly slowed down, and there will be less QB hurries, less QB hits, and obviously less QB sacks. AND the reason why this is important, as most wouldn’t think of, is because of the MENTAL GAME, that always going on. If you can EMOTIONALLY AND PHYSICALLY rattle the QB, then it destroys his MENTAL game, and if it’s not there, he makes a lot smarter decisions than he otherwise would have if the D-Rush were playing fast and smart.
If you can’t get pressure on the QB, then he can sit back in the pocket and pick the Secondary apart, which then makes THEM tired and looking awful, and that goes for even the best Secondaries out there. The LOB with Sherman, Kam, Thomas, and Browner then Maxwell, were truly great because of pass rushers like Michael Bennet and Cliff Avril, along with Bruce Irvin. And THOSE guys were only great because of the BALANCED OFFENSE we had in the Offense, with (mostly) Marshawn Lynch bullying and tiring out the defense right up until the 4th quarter.
If the RBs can run, AND bully down the defenders over and over, then there’s no real need to pass the ball much at all, and this destruction of a defense in the first 3+ quarters, allows for QBs to win miraculous plays at the end of the game and, if needed, on game winning drives, hence what we all saw Russell Wilson do so much over the years.
Wow…I’m already writing far more than I wanted to. *sigh*
Next, I just watched Pete Carroll’s Monday morning presser, and he brought up the up tempo style of the offense and said the defense needs the work better blah blah blah but I’ve never seen a better press guy in all of sports than Pete Carroll lol (okay, maybe Peyton Manning)…he’s just giving them what they want to hear. But in leading up to this game, he also mentioned multiple times that they wanted to play up tempo in the pass games and, dare I say, “let Geno cook”…okay, that’s exactly what happened and, well, it didn’t work…OR, it actually didn’t win the game, but whether it worked in terms of what HE really wanted from it, I have no idea.
I’ve never seen Pete Carroll literally tell the press the whole game plan before a game before (which would be perfectly stupid in every way obviously possible) so I’m led to believe that it was a deliberately set up ruse by him for some reason.
Given that there are many new parts in the offense that are learning and trying to form a well oiled machine together, I think he deliberately put the whole offense, including Shane Waldren, into a kind of “drop-test” (a drop-test is generic term for any deliberate test that is designed to force a system to its limits to see if/when it breaks), and to me it looks like that’s why he took the reigns off of Shane to see how he would react to the freedom of having a full game plan to himself. Whether this is true or not, this game was NOT even remotely similar to any Pete Carroll coached Seahawk game that I’ve ever seen before (or noticed when/if it happened)…therefore, clearly, it wasn’t normal, and to me that screams out “test” if I’ve ever seen one.
From Waldren’s perspective, it must have felt good to have that control. So, imagine him on the sideline while calling these plays in that game….seriously, be him for a minute. The passing game is clearly working and so is the run game, however, the passing game seems to be better productively, and gets the most energy….energy feeds on energy, and before you know it, he starts feeling the “in the zone” magic of an invincibility and starts calling more and more pass plays ….and he doesn’t even know he’s doing it…in other words, he got “pass drunk”. This is basically why people who casino gamble always lose their money (don’t believe the movies, they’re not real) and why video games are so popular and addicting…it’s all about the dopamine. (hmmmm, do I even bother going there right now???)…….nah, I’ll just leave it at “pass drunk”.
Pete Carroll, being the mastery level teacher, coach, and leader that he is, didn’t bother to stop him because he wanted Waldren to sort of “fall on his own sword”, as that makes the lesson stick better.
Bottom line is that the up tempo offense got a lot of people tired by the 4th quarter and was completely unnecessary as the Run game was actually extremely effective and should have been used more to control the game, and deliberately slow it down. Both the defense, as a whole, and the Olinemen got tired fast, leading to bad mental decisions (brain cells guzzle 20 times more energy than muscle cells do), and that’s what caused all those ridiculous, game changing, penalties near the end of the game, along with the obviously poor defensive play as well. By the 4th quarter, after baiting Waldren into this up tempo passing game, the Falcons coaches unleashed their bruiser RB/WR, Cordarrelle Patterson, and because our D was so exhausted, he ran all of them, on to the win.
Okay, that’s it with that bit of stuff.
Some other details about this game:
– There were also a lot of important Defensive players out, so that contributed to the defensive exhaustion in the 4th quarter, as depth was decreased by it. In his press conference, Pete Carroll literally said this was to give the young guys more reps, which, again, he’s a great teacher, he knows that repetition in practice makes for far more impactful and more entrenched learned lessons, AND in a shorter amount of time as well.
– The TE play was insanely great, and I’ve been waiting for that kind of broad and mixed deliberate TE play since Pete Carroll took over the team. We haven’t really had that as a Seahawk fan, since Holmgren with Jeremy Stevens, so I’m super excited about that.
– Lots of penalties went the Falcons way in this game and I’m not a “blame the refs” kind of guy, and I’m also not going to cite any one penalty specifically here, but just wanted to make a point of it.
– Woolen got his first NFL INT, so he’s broke the ice on that one, and pretty early in his career yet too, so this is going to become a game standard for this guy going forward. He’s already looking like one of the greats…oops, did I just say that?
– KW3’s runs were a wake up call to the rest of the NFL…this kid’s going to run all over this league and I can’t effing wait (if only his coach would give him the rock more now *sigh*).
– Josh Jones is no Jamal Adams, still, he’s playing a lot better than a lot of backups would…just gotta kinda see how this one develops, but apparently PC doesn’t want to play Neal much at that position, so I think it’s just a matter of him (Jones) getting the game time reps, and then seeing how he develops over time.
– BIG UPS to the OLINE!!! WOW, these guys are playing already like full time, LONG-IN-THE-TOOTH starters in this league and THAT is REALLY EXCITING TO SEE!!!
– Okay, one last point here and it’s about the defense. It’s been now 3 games and it’s become obvious to me that the defense doesn’t seem to have a singular “rah rah” guy anywhere in that lineup to help amp and charge the guys up when they need it. Every team needs that guys to help focus their thoughts, actions, and anxieties, etc. On the offense, it’s usually the QB, and Geno’s obviously set in good in that role, but the defense doesn’t have that guy. I don’t think the loss of Wags (many people are going to say that) has anything to do with it because it’s not like he was just recently lost to injury, HOWEVER, another great defender, and prominent yip-yapper did…and that’s Jamal Adams.
So…that Defense needs to find its team leader and cheerleader and it really needs to happen over the next few weeks. Carroll, again, being the great leader he is himself, is clearly allowing that to naturally happen, so let’s see how that goes, but in any case, it’s sorely lacking and that could be a part of the defensive woes as well.
Okay, that’s it, if you managed to make it this far, then feel free to scream at me now, and if you start screaming at me BEFORE you’ve read this, I’m going to know it, and probably just redirect you back to the point in this whole article that I discussed your screeched point to me. lol