1. The red zone defense saved the Seahawks on Monday
Night.
The Seahawks defense was far from stellar against
the Rams, but one area where they excelled was in the red zone. St. Louis got inside the Seattle 20-yard line
on four different occasions on Monday Night and settled for three field goals
and a turnover on downs. We can critique
the Seahawks for taking the bend but don’t break defensive philosophy to the
extreme, but the bottom line is that the Rams were unable to punch the ball
into the end zone. If they had been able
to score a touchdown on any one of their forays into the scoring zone, the
outcome of this game could have been a lot different for Seattle. It is no surprise that Seattle kept the Rams
from scoring touchdowns because they have been stingy in the red zone all
season long.
2. Seattle played their most undisciplined game of
the season.
Naively, I thought the Seahawks were past the
point in their development to deliver a performance that was as undisciplined
as the way they played last night. They
made mistakes that were out of character for them as well as errors that a
Super Bowl contender has no business making.
One particular galling example was the penalties they were flagged for
at seemingly the most inopportune moments.
There were the two J.R. Sweezy penalties that wiped out first downs in
the first quarter. Obviously, the
Seahawks couldn’t afford to give back first downs when they only converted six
for the entire game. There were several
defensive penalties that gave the Rams first downs or more favorable down and
distance situations, including two personal fouls for hitting defenseless
receivers and a Brandon Browner holding call that gave St. Louis new life on a
third-and-16. Overall, the Hawks
committed 10 penalties for the third time this season and it goes without
saying that eventually their propensity for committing penalties is going to
come back to bite them in the ass. In
addition, Seattle missed a season-high eight tackles and generally played the
entire game with very little concern for maintaining gap integrity. The missed tackles and inconsistent gap
control were the two biggest reasons that the Rams churned out 200 yards
rushing.
3. The passing game was completely wrecked by the St.
Louis defense.
The Rams defense challenged the Seattle offense to
beat them with the passing game. Outside
of Golden Tate’s 80-yard TD reception, I would say that the Seattle offense
failed miserably to meet the challenge. Led
by Chris Long and Robert Quinn, the Rams sacked Russell Wilson seven times,
which is the most times he has been sacked in his career, and didn’t give
Seattle’s receiver room to breathe.
Surprisingly, the Seahawks didn’t do anything to help out their besieged
tackles. Instead, they continued to
allow Paul McQuiston and Michael Bowie to go one-on-one with two of the better
pass rushers in the NFL and the two tackles lost repeatedly. It is my opinion that the tremendous pressure
limited the routes that Seattle could run because there wasn’t confidence that
the offensive line could hold up until the intermediate and longer routes could
be completed. When the wide receivers
were able to get open, they had some trouble holding on to the football with
Tate and Jermaine Kearse dropping passes that would have sustained drives. This is not the first time that the St. Louis
defense has made the Seattle offense look bad.
Including Monday Night, Seattle is 9-32 on third down, has allowed 15
sacks, and has thrown for an average of just 183 yards in its last three
match-ups with the Rams. Between now and
December 29th when Seattle faces St. Louis again, the coaching staff
has to figure out a way to move the football against their defense.
Three
Questions
1. Are Paul McQuiston and Michael Bowie going to get
Russell Wilson killed?
The word on the street is that Brenno Giacomini is
expected back in the lineup for the November 10th clash with Atlanta
and that Russell Okung will play again the following week against the Minnesota
Vikings. With the calvary seemingly on
the way, the big question is whether Wilson will still be standing when his
offensive line is once again intact.
According to Pro Football Focus (PFF), Seattle leads the league in the
percentage of pass snaps that their quarterback is under pressure (hurries, QB
hits, and sacks). Wilson has taken a
beating all year long, but it reached its apex with wave of pressure unleashed
by the St. Louis defense that resulted in seven sacks. While the entire offensive line deserves
blame for the protection issues, the white-hot spotlight is on Bowie and
McQuiston because they have been beat repeatedly over the last few weeks. I’m willing to give Bowie somewhat of a pass
because he is a rookie from a small college that shouldn’t really be playing
anyhow. No such pass for McQuiston. According to PFF, he is the lowest rated
offensive tackle in Pass Blocking Efficiency for tackles that have played at
least 200 pass snaps. In addition, he is
on pace to allow over 18 sacks from the left tackle position. Hopefully, Okung will return on schedule, so
we won’t have to endure the McQuiston horror show at tackle. However, I’m starting to wonder if McQuiston
isn’t just a terrible tackle but also a terrible offensive lineman in
general. PFF grades every play of every
game and they graded him overall as a below average offensive guard for the 2012
season. Seattle probably doesn’t have
much of a choice to keep him as part of their plans for 2013, but you have to
wonder if his days as a Seahawk are numbered.
2. Where the heck were the adjustments against the
Rams?
The Seahawks had zero answers for what the Rams
were doing to them on defense. In the
first half, they amassed only 38 yards of total offense and scored their only
touchdown as a result of great field position set up by a Richard Sherman
interception. As fans, we have been
under the impression that halftime provides an opportunity for both teams to
make adjustments that they can implement in the second half. Admittedly, I’m not the biggest football
expert in the world, but I couldn’t discern if the Hawks made any adjustments
whatsoever because the results in the second half were pretty much identical to
the first half. The one major difference
was the 80-yard touchdown from Wilson to Tate, but I’m not sure we can
attribute the success of this one play to a particular halftime adjustment. Outside of the big play to Tate, the Hawks
generated 17 yards on 14 plays in the second half. I’m guess I’m wondering what the heck the
Seahawks did at halftime because they played just as poorly after the
break.
3.Was the long layoff partly to blame for the
lethargic performance?
The Seahawks played their worst game of the season
following a 12 day layoff from their previous game against Arizona. Perhaps Seattle lost its edge a little bit
due to the long break and played sluggishly as a result. While teams coming back from their official
bye weeks have only won 50% of their games, teams are 10-4 following an
appearance on Thursday Night football, which includes Seattle’s victory over
St. Louis. The time off should have been
beneficial to the Seahawks, but the opposite occurred as they seemed to get
worn down as the game progressed especially on the final St. Louis drive. While I think it is fair to attribute a small
part of the blame to the layoff, the bigger reasons that Seattle struggled were
due to a fabulous defensive game plan executed by the Rams and the complete
lack of effective adjustments by Seattle.
Three
Worries
1. Impact on passing game from Sidney Rice’s injury
I will be the first to admit that Rice has not made much of an impact on the Seattle offense this season. At the time of his injury, he only had 15 receptions and was averaging just over four targets per game. According to ESPN Stats & Info, Russell Wilson had only completed 45.5% of his attempts to Rice this season, which was the third worst percentage for any QB-WR duo with at least 30 attempts. Even when you factor in that Seattle is a run-first football team, Rice's productivity was woeful especially for how well compensated he is. However, Rice's absence is going to mean that Seattle lacks the big wide receiver that Pete Carroll has coveted since his time at USC. Percy Harvin is obviously going to impact the offense in a positive way when he returns, but he brings an entirely different skill set than Rice. Currently, Jermaine Kearse is the next biggest receiver on the roster, but he has yet to prove that he is ready to assume a larger role in the offense. My fear is that the available plays are going to shrink because Darrell Bevell and Carroll don't feel confident running certain plays with Rice out of the line-up. Maybe the addition of Harvin will increase the playbook in certain areas so the impact of Rice's injury will be negligible. If Percy is not ready to return this Sunday, it is going to be very interesting to see how the passing game works with Tate, Doug Baldwin, and Kearse as Seattle's top three receivers.
2. Run defense
Seattle played poorly against the run. Part of the issue was their gap integrity and part of the issue was the poor tackling, but you also have to give St. Louis its due because they physically whipped the Seahawks on more than one occasion Thursday night. Seattle has had its moments this year when they have been very sound in their run defense, most notably against Carolina and Houston. However, when you play the Panthers and the Texans, there is a certain expectation that they are going to have some success running the football because of their personnel and scheme. The same cannot be said for the St. Louis Rams, which is what made their tremendous production in the run game even more shocking. The Rams came into the game averaging just over 70 yards rushing per game and only 3.2 yards per carry. The only time they ran the ball successfully was against the lowly Jacksonville Jaguars. Somehow, the horrific Rams running game gashed the number nine ranked run defense for 200 yards rushing and 5.4 yards per carry. I'm sure that offensive coordinators will be taking an extra close look at this tape to see how they can expose the Seattle run defense in a similar way. Let's hope Seattle finds some answers before they have to face the two toughest teams remaining on their schedule.
3. Offensive playcalling
The basic concern here is if the Seattle offense has the full playbook at its disposal. Are the protection issues limiting the types of plays that Darrell Bevell is willing to run? My gut feeling from watching the games is that Seattle is not playing with the full complement of plays. Another concern related to the playcalling is it doesn't seem like Bevell has been able to out-scheme the defense as much as he did last year. Are the offensive line problems having an impact here as well? Or is Bevell kind of in a playcalling slump? Either way, Seattle has to find ways to string together some first downs to sustain drives kind of like when baseball teams start playing small ball to manufacture a run or two. It all starts with Bevell coming up with game plans and in-game adjustments that puts his offense in the best position to succeed.
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