3 Facts
1. Defensive performance was the best in recent memory.
Heading into the game against Arizona, the Seahawks were a mediocre 5-6 in their last 11 road games. While there were a myriad of reasons for the road struggles, one of the major contributing factors was the defense’s inability to take its home dominance on the road with them. Far too frequently, we would see two big things happen when Seattle was away from Century Link Field: (1) they would generate little to no pressure on the opposing quarterback and (2) they would be unable to consistently get off the field on third down. Fortunately, the Seahawks were able to shake both bugaboos on Thursday night, which allowed them to deliver a performance that I would characterize as the best road defensive performance of the Peter Carroll era. The highlight of the night was the seven sacks and 13 quarterback pressures administered by the ferocious and multi-talented front seven of Seattle. Personally, I cannot remember another example of the Seattle defense buzzing around and hitting an opposing quarterback on the road as much as they did against Arizona. As a comparison, they didn’t even have 13 QB hits during their eight sack performance versus the Packers last season. As a result of their intense pressure, the Seahawks were able to hold the Cardinals to a mere five third down conversions in 15 attempts. This final stat is even more impressive when you consider that Arizona converted three out of their first four third down situations. Unless the Seahawks were handing them prime field position, the Cardinals were completely dominated the entire game. They only had 118 yards of total offense until two meaningless fourth quarter drives nearly doubled their final total. This type of defensive performance is what every Seahawk fan had in mind when the team added Cliff Avril and Michael Bennett in the offseason. However, Seattle cannot afford to sit on its laurels. The team has to find a way to bring the same level of intensity on a week-to-week basis starting next Monday night in St. Louis.
2. The Seattle roster is full of tough cookies.
The Seahawks certainly have their flaws, but one characteristic that they have in spades is toughness. It starts at the top with Russell Wilson and permeates the entire roster. Wilson not only has the physical toughness to endure big hit after big hit, but he also has the mental fortitude to overcome two lost fumbles. His brand of football is not always pretty, but it is the definition of finding a way to win. On the offense, there are other tough guys like Brenno Giacomini, Max Unger, Golden Tate, Marshawn Lynch, and the list goes on. Again, the results aren’t always taken from a textbook, but you can never knock their effort. Not to be outdone by the prima donnas on offense, the toughness on defense starts with the Legion of Boom, who is a mix of bold and brash and quiet grinders. For goodness sake, the Seattle placekicker is even a tough guy. Last week, Steven Hauschka took a vicious hit while covering a kickoff and came back in the second half to make several big kicks to lead Seattle to victory. Seattle’s toughness is what will carry them to victory when their offense struggles like it did in Carolina or when their defense is not executing like they didn’t in Houston.
3. The Seattle offense looks a lot better when Zach Miller is active.
It is no accident that the Seahawks’ offense plays more efficiently when Miller is in the line-up. Although he lacks the productivity and athleticism of the top tier of tight ends, Miller still provides a security blanket for Russell Wilson. On Thursday night, he made a tremendous touchdown reception in the first half and the play of the game, in my opinion, when he caught a dump off pass as Wilson was being dragged down by Daryl Washington. The latter reception was so big because the Cardinals had closed the deficit to four points and an incompletion would have forced the Seahawks to punt the ball. Instead, the Hawks continued the drive, which ultimately ended in a one-yard touchdown reception for Kellen Davis and a 24-13 lead for Seattle. If Miller had not played, I just don’t think Luke Willson or Davis would have been able to make the same play. Let’s not forget about the impact that Miller has on the running game due to his above average blocking skills. His value was stretched even further in this game because he was forced into emergency fullback duty after Derrick Coleman left the game with a hamstring injury. Hopefully, Seattle can keep him healthy for the remainder of the season because he provides value in obvious and more obscure ways.
3 Questions
1. Do you have faith in Peter Carroll’s decision-making?
This question is probably a little unfair because Carroll hasn’t really made a ton of poor decisions, but I thought I would ask in light of the curious decision to go for a fourth-and-short instead of punting the ball back to Arizona with a 14-point lead. Normally, I’m supportive of coaches eschewing convention and going for the aggressive play, but I thought the decision was negligent based on the game situation and the fact that the Seahawks were playing with two back-up tackles. Up to that point, the Cardinals had mustered just 42 total yards. The Seattle defense was playing outstanding, so the more prudent decision would have been to punt the ball and force Arizona to go the length of the field to score points. Instead, Arizona started with the ball at their own 43-yard line and needed only 26 yards to set-up a Jay Feely field goal. We all know what happened next. Instead of possibly shutting out the Cardinals in the first half, Seattle found itself in a dogfight after Wilson’s fumble inside the five-yard line on the next possession and a one-play scoring drive by Arizona. I’m still supportive of Carroll overall, but its decisions like this one that make you scratch your head.
2. What’s up with the end of half fiascos the last two weeks?
Two weeks in a row, Seattle has failed miserably at the end of the half. In week six, Seattle got the ball at the Tennessee 38-yard line with 54 seconds left and holding just one timeout. More importantly, the offense knew that their kicker had gone to the locker room, so they were either going to have to score a touchdown or risk having the punter kick a field goal. The first mistake occurred when James Carpenter was whistled for a false start, which cost Seattle its third timeout to avoid the mandatory 10-second run-off. After a Wilson-to-Baldwin completion and a personal foul penalty against the Titans, Seattle found itself at the 8-yard line with a first-and-goal. Even though he had no timeouts to work with, Wilson made the poor decision to throw the underneath to Robert Turbin instead of throwing the ball into the end zone. In the rush to line up the team and spike the ball prior to the clock showing zeroes, Wilson had cost Seattle another opportunity to try to score a touchdown. Normally, Wilson is one of the headiest quarterbacks in the NFL, but this wasn’t one of his better decisions. As a result, Seattle sent in a ragtag field goal attempt team, who muffed the attempt and allowed the Titans to return the ball for a 77-yard touchdown.
On Thursday, Seattle once again found itself in the opponent’s red zone at the end of the first half. After two consecutive incomplete passes from the 18-yard line, Seattle called its third and final timeout with 19 seconds remaining in the half. Inconceivably, Michael Bowie was whistled for a false start penalty coming out of the timeout and then Max Unger was called for a holding penalty on the subsequent snap, which pushed the ball all the way back to the 33-yard line. Actually, the hold was blessing in disguise because Wilson had made the decision to scramble from the pocket and I’m not sure if Seattle would have been able to spike the ball before the call ran out without the hold being called. The silver lining is that Hauschka made the 51-yard field goal. I might be picking nits, but it is these kinds of mistakes that will come back to haunt the team in a critical game if they are not cleaned up. Don’t forget that Seattle failed to score at the end of the first half of the Divisional Playoff game last season because of similar issues.
3. Should we worry about Russell Wilson’s ball security?
Overall, Wilson has improved as a quarterback in his second year as a starter. One area of improvement has been that he has thrown fewer interceptions this year. Through the first seven games, Wilson is averaging one interception every 47 pass attempts, while last year he threw an interception every 25 attempts during the same period. However, he is doing a lot worse in the area of holding onto the football. In 2012, he only had five fumbles lost the entire year. He already has eight fumbles lost, including two critical fumbles on Thursday, through seven games of 2013. Are the fumble issues a function of the poor pass protection? Or is due to the fact that he is running more this year? Either way, Wilson would be the first person to tell you that he needs to do a better job protecting the ball. Against the Cardinals, two of the fumbles were the result of Wilson holding the ball way to long in the pocket. He either needs to get rid of the ball quicker or he needs to make the decision to scramble. The other fumble occurred when Michael Bowie was beat like a red-headed stepchild by John Abraham. My hope is that this issue gets better when the offensive line gets healthy, but I have to admit that my concern level is rising.
3 Worries
1. The number of hits taken by Wilson.
According to the MMQB’s Pressure Rate metric, Seattle has faced pressure on a league-worst 43.8% of its pass snaps through six weeks. After another pressure-filled evening in Arizona, this number is not going to get much better. In addition, Wilson has been sacked 20 times and has been hit 40 times (officially) in the first seven games. These figures don’t even take into account the times that Wilson has been hit while scrambling from the pocket or on designed runs. Wilson is averaging over eight carries per game after averaging just under six carries per game in 2012. With starting quarterbacks being injured all over the NFL, including Sam Bradford and Jay Cutler this past weekend, it has to give the Seattle coaching staff pause to see the number of hits that Wilson has incurred this season. There is no doubt that Wilson is a tough son of a gun, but at some point he is going to sustain an injury or the cumulative effect of all the hits is going to start impacting his performance.
2. Robert Turbin’s lack of involvement.
For all of the punishment that Wilson and Marshawn Lynch are sustaining, I’m puzzled that Turbin has seen his role in the offense diminished. As a rookie last year, Turbo averaged 6.2 touches per game and produced 5.4 yards per touch. It is only logical to expect that his role would expand in his second season. However, Turbo is only touching the ball 3.8 times per game in 2013 even though his productivity hasn’t declined significantly (5 yards per touch). The decline in Turbo’s touches can possibly be explained by changes to the focus of the Seattle offense. In 2012, Seattle was a heavily run-first offense (ran the ball 57% of the time). This year, the Hawks are officially running the ball on 55% of their plays. However, the run ratio is being propped up by Russell Wilson’s 58 carries, which are largely called pass plays that result in Wilson scrambling for yardage. As a result, the Seahawks are probably much closer to being a 50-50 team in their run-pass balance and that is probably a conservative estimate. The result of fewer running plays being called is that Turbin is getting fewer opportunities to touch the football. Even Lynch has seen his carries decrease slightly from last season (21 carries/game down to 19.7 carries/game). Nevertheless, I think it is imperative for the Seahawks to find more ways to use Turbin in order to keep Beast Mode fresh for the entire season and keep Wilson from being killed.
3. Don’t worry, be happy.
After Seattle’s most complete victory of the season, I couldn’t come up with a third thing to legitimately worry about. Instead, allow the great Bobby McFerrin remind you that worrying is a waste of time anyway.
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