Hawk Talk - Loss to the Pack = Rebuilding Time?
October 13, 2008 by Terry Shilton
Filed under NFL Football, Seahawks
“This game is do or die, lose and the season’s lost, you heard it here first” I said this as part of preview and I stick by it we are too bad on both sides of the ball right now to believe we are going to be able to right are wrongs in time. With games left like Arizona twice, Philly, New England, Tampa Bay, Washington and Dallas it’s not like the schedule is forgiving in the coming weeks.
REVISTED KEYS TO VICTORY
Offense
1) Sustain and Maintain, drives this proved to be a big factor it was NFL.com’s Key Stat The Packers defense clamped down in the second half. The unit held the Seahawks to minus-8 yards on three drives in the third quarter and then ended Seattle’s first two drives of the fourth with interceptions.
2) Run Downhill, we failed miserably here Julius Jones gets 44 yards on 12 carries at a respecatble average of 3.7 a rush can anyone tell me why he didn’t get more carries?
3) Big Play, throw the ball downfield we just didn’t Charlie Frye Avg 3.6 yards per pass slightly less than we were averaging having Julius rush the ball. I understand the need to throw underneath with a backup QB but you can’t just do that, are recievers struggled to get open against a Packers secondary known to jam the line, it’s tough to get to far open if you are expecting to complete throws within the first 5 yards the area in which recievers a re allowed to be jammed.
Defense
1) Get off the field, really not the defenses fault this week they did a reasonable job of getting off the field and getting our offense the ball back but the offense repaid them with turnovers and three and outs.
2) Pressure Aaron, Qb’s have killed our secondary and I’m sick of every week making them a key to victory and them letting me down let’s give them some help, I hate it when I’m right we were able to sack Aaron twice but he still went 210f 30, for a 70% completion percentage, tough to allow a QB those kind of numbers and expect to win.
3) No Fighting, on defense last week against the Giants, there was in-fighting , this week there was none on the surface whihc is a good thing.
REVISED KEY MATCHUPS
Aaron Rodgers vs Brett Favre, Sorry Aaron but I was never a fan of letting Favre go, your team was a play away from a Super Bowl appearance last season losing to the Giants in overtime, now your a game away from possibly being right out of the Playoff picture in one of the toughest stadiums to take a win away from; you’ll have to be good or the ghost of Favre will be haunting you again. Is the question answered, I don’t know but he came through injured with all the pressure on him and delivered a key win.
Charlie Frye vs Trying to do to Much, call it the Seth Rosenfaul disease as a backup if Charlie just protects the ball takes what is there and times his shots we’ll be ok but too often backups try to make plays or play outside themselves to early, if Charlie does this well we lose if he can resist we have a shot. Can’t help but feel he didn’t do enough, hard to tell if offensively he was hampered by bad play calling but we never threw down field and our recievers never looked open.
Mike Holmgren vs Jim Mora, Meltdown watch, I could feel the tension on the sidelines watching the game at the Giants, and this one could be the straw that broke the back especially if one unit either offense or defense has succeess while the other faltures as Mora is tje secondary Coach at present and more of a defensive specialist where the “Big Show” has always been known for his offensive coaching ability. Are the players less accountable to Mike because they know he’s leaving are there mixed messages in the dressing room? really it’s impossible to tell but these questions wouldn’t exist if Mike Holmgren didn’t announce his sabbatical a year too early and we didn’t have his replacement already in the dressing room; this is proving to be the dumbest of decisions.
THE LINE
Just a terrible line to bet The Seahawks -1, essentially just pick the winner, in a battle of desperation I’d take experience and to me the Hawks have the edge, the 12th man is the difference Hawks roll at home win by 7.
In fairness I made my pick before the word came that Matt Hasselbeck wasn’t going to start would it have made much difference? for some reason I think not, so I’ll take the lump.
THE SHORT AND LONG OF IT
To be honest I go into this game with nerves not excitement, this is the turning point or breaking point which it will be is hidden behind a teams struggle to find itself, for both teams this game could very well define the rest of the season. To rebuild or not rebuild that is the question? we will answer it Sunday and one team will be on the outside of the playoffs looking into a rebuilding process that will start with a high draft pick. My whole paragraph from my preview still seems to fit…
In short, Possesion is nine tenths of the law or something like that my key stat is possesion the team that keeps the ball the longest wins keep away and Sunday, the other team is left with hard questions and the reality that the playoffs are likely out of reach. My in short stat is right for the fifth time and still 100% , Green Bay held the ball 15 minutes longer than us.
REMAINING GAMES
| Oct 19 | SEA @ TB | 8:15 PM | Tickets | NBC | ||||||
| Oct 26 | SEA @ SF | 4:15 PM | Tickets | FOX | ||||||
| Nov 02 | PHI @ SEA | 4:15 PM | Tickets | FOX | ||||||
| Nov 09 | SEA @ MIA | 1:00 PM | Tickets | FOX | ||||||
| Nov 16 | ARI @ SEA | 4:05 PM | Tickets | FOX | ||||||
| Nov 23 | WAS @ SEA | 4:15 PM | Tickets | FOX | ||||||
| Nov 27 | SEA @ DAL | 4:15 PM | Tickets | FOX | ||||||
| Dec 07 | NE @ SEA | 8:15 PM | Tickets | NBC | ||||||
| Dec 14 | SEA @ STL | 1:00 PM | Tickets | FOX | ||||||
| Dec 21 | NYJ @ SEA | 4:05 PM | Tickets | CBS | ||||||
| Dec 28 | SEA @ ARI | 4:15 PM | Tickets |
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Last post (s) by Terry Shilton
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October 13th, 2008 at 11:12 am
2 tough road games coming up, 3 of their next 4 on the road will make or break this team. Twice on the road to Florida, TB and then Miami, tough travel for sure.
I was never sold on Frye in Cleveland and this guy is overrated in my books. Sorry Terry.
October 13th, 2008 at 11:12 am
I think next Sunday night will be ugly, but who knows….
What do you think this means for Holmgrem? Will he stay for the entire season if this team continues to struggle? It must be hard for him to stay with his team not even showing up most weeks.
October 13th, 2008 at 11:19 am
Tough season for you out there Terry. Something positive has to happen soon I would think. If not it could be focusing on where the hawks will be drafting and who may be in the draft.
October 13th, 2008 at 8:45 pm
This team has no identity, they used to win at home and even now that is in question when they play at home.
As Zach said, they are facing a tough stretch the next 4 games, it will make or break their season.
I see Alexander is looking at signing in Washington!
October 14th, 2008 at 5:58 am
ah…might just be a blip on the radar type season..they were even steven until 2nd half right? they didnt have #1 QB who was obviously and visibly frustrated..Packers are no different despite win…rodgers is a good hit away from being out too..but is playing with pain…but here, he sorta has to eh?
October 14th, 2008 at 8:53 am
myself I like Frye as are third option little risk for possible reward but it didn’t pan out Hasselbeck will be back next week, but your outlook holds he have not been a good road team in years
October 14th, 2008 at 8:55 am
I think holmgren stay the entire season just out of history, do I think it’s the best thing for the team? probably not it’s becoming clear the team in not responding to Coach Holmgren for whatever reason…
October 14th, 2008 at 8:56 am
I think that time is now, we are rebuilding we should relish the spoiler role as we have some games against conference teams that if we could steal would make it tough for them moving forward
October 14th, 2008 at 9:00 am
Honestly to me the season is broken, you mentioned Identity we are still searching for ours and are inability to adapt ruins us, quesions like are we a passing team? or running team? are unavoidable as we have no clear direction and how on earth can Julius Jones only get 12 carries when he avg nearly 4 yards per against Green Bay and that if I can indentitfy that Green Bay had struggled against the run certainly our coachs should build a gameplay to do that. Instead we repeatedly and clumsly throw short over and over again.
October 14th, 2008 at 9:02 am
What has impressed me about Rodgers season is the completion percentage, currently hovering around 65% which leads me to believe it’s no fluke, hard to beat with those type of numbers I feel like you should have won against Atlanta but the D let you down
October 14th, 2008 at 9:03 am
After the first handful of games what is the teams biggest need that you can see to this point that they should address. I ask this knowing the answer can or may change but I am just curious.
October 14th, 2008 at 9:05 am
Very true, you think they would establish the run.
Is Hasselbeck on his last legs? Or does he have alot left in the tank?
October 14th, 2008 at 10:14 am
The biggest need to me is commitment to a plan, we try to run early than all but abandon if we ar 7 points down, I just don’t understand Julius is avg 4 yards per carry and had looked good every game. We seem to still want to utilize the spread formation to comlete passes but lack the depth to do it, yet we won’t change in short if you wanted to make one move to shake things up let coach Holmgren go…
October 14th, 2008 at 10:19 am
This is the toughest question for me to answer the chicken and egg question of our team is Matt playing bad because the lack of reciever depth and timing or is he just playing bad? Myself I worry what he has left, he hasn’t really been pressured so as a probowler years iver I expect more from him.