I promised myself I wouldn't get overly invested in any outcomes during this season. I just wanted to observe and enjoy the process of this team forming, and learning how MacDonald wants the to play. But, this weeks game against the Cardinals is enormous, so I'm going to have a hard time not getting amped up on Sunday. If they can beat the Cardinals again, they are decidedly in the drivers seat in the NFCW, after being all but dead and buried a few weeks ago.
In the big picture it won't really matter, as 2024 will still be a formative year, and they can easily be one-and-done if they get into the playoffs. But, winning is always more enjoyable than losing. Certainly, it's easier to read about the Seahawks after wins, as after loses, oh my, it's torture sometimes to read comments from fans.
Yes to all of this. Ideally they make a remarkable recovery on offense and show the kind of growth Seattle had in their 2011-13 run. Back then, however, they had the meat of their offensive line, and that talent was also more prevalent. I believe JS's ill-understood philosophy of not overpaying for talent on the O-line stems from that era—and we all know what happened when they began trading away those chess pieces, somehow believing they could draft late and still get Steve Hutchinson-level lineman from the retread bin. See: Laken Tomlinson.
Again, look at teams that ARE NOT doing this. Philly, for instance.
If you only watched the line and nothing else, the Jets consistently moved Seattle off the ball before their backs were touched. If the Jets weren't such a dumpster fire and didn't consistently go backward every other play with penalties, they probably rush for 150 yards.
And that's not an indictment of Seattle's defense, which is definitely improving. It has everything to do with how to attack it, though, and I think AZ will be more creative this next game, and that's going to put even more pressure on the defense that has been great, but cannot carry the team all by itself.
And that all rolls back around to the offense. One final thing there, that's only been touched upon a wee bit. K-9's been bouncing way too much. Charbonnet doesn't have near the talent, but if you look at a few of his runs lately he's following blocks consistently and K9 isn't. K9's first read is always to bounce, and that's a hazard because teams know that and rally to whichever way he goes. I realize his talent is his shiftiness, but in going sideways he's not helping a shaky run game or the pass game, because he creates a lot of negative plays, too. Get one yard vs. minus 3. This is happening more lately, and I bet this undermines the confidence of the guys in front of him, too.
One negative from this game is Riq Woolen continuing to either be scared or just a P**** when it comes to sticking his nose in there and make a good tackle (most of the time).
I don't see any shyness in the man, but can see the concern is justified. With his unique speed and one good arm, he can do what others can't physically get done, like stay with speedsters. The job becomes protecting the damaged arm while batting down passes. Reminds me of Jamal Adams trying to remain effective with a bad shoulder. It's a long season to play kick-ass at 100%.
Julian Love was getting on Riq in The Jets game for not tackling- Not aware of any significant arm issue with him? Thought that was over that from last year?
I read it was due to him leaving his zone coverage open. But yeah, we do see him idling around on a McD team meant to fly at all times. I'm trying to assign a reason why McD hasn't sat him.
Great article. Somebody, anybody please tell me they also cut Dee Williams before he costs us some wins. And while they are at it, dump ST coach Harbaugh. We have the worst STs in the NFL. Besides all the fumbles, the coverage teams are giving up huge returns. They need to fix this asap.
The D is beginning to become a top 5 unit. The Oline is suffering from years of bad drafts and Geno won't be extended because of his failures in the red zone. We are getting closer and closer to being a SB contender.
Defense leading the turnaround coming out of the bye was a best case storyline. It seems clear that Mike Macdonald is the best Defensive Coordinator in the NFL - a dominant one, as you say, Joe - and that validates JS’s decision to hire him.
That said, with both the offense and special teams regressing, it remains to be seen just how good a Head Coach he can become.
Were it not for points added by Defense, these last 2 games would be losses. MM is showing us his discernment when he fires "good" LBs and we see immediate elevation in results by players he replaces them with, along with an upsurge in points added, leading to Wins. I submit the difference between all these DC guys is not the system so much as the man, specifically his ability to discern what should have happened from what did happen, and why. It is a very rare talent. The Man is not guessing. He KNOWS. Considering this, can anyone explain why he elevated a 3rd QB to the roster a few days ago? We've been harping about Geno needing more time, but yesterday I saw him gain more time to throw to someone (or scramble) with no results. I will be looking to see if anyone broke into the open and he continually missed it or if he actually had nobody to throw to. Is Mike discerning Geno or Grubb responsible for putting the OFF in our offense? Seems our offense this year is less productive than last, which was less than the year prior to that. Why?
Great write up ... The defense is looking good. Exactly why JS waited all that time to bring in Mike Mac. I would add that his game management and poise has been excellent IMO. Last game was so awesome how he and the team took setbacks in stride and just kept moving forward. From the special teams to a random injury to the punter. He kept making, IMO, good decisions and kept the focus forward.
And he has been doing that all year it seems like.
Now ... let's get the offense back in gear. Although, last game was actually not bad from an EPA standpoint. They finished the week 7th in EPA/play. It certainly, did not seem that way, but EPA doesn't care whether a 20-yard gain or a 4th down conversion is by catch or penalty.
But the regression from last years highs is undeniable. It is almost comical that the Seahawks have had a good offense for the last couple years carrying the team, and now that they finally appear to have a pretty good defense the offense has fallen off a bit.
But hope is not lost.
Last year, from week 13 on the Seahawks had the 3rd best offense in the NFL by EPA/play.
If history repeats itself (with basically the same players + a significantly better JSN), then we will be cooking heading into the playoffs.
Football is a game of like, 3-5 plays that make a difference. So those 8 plays from the goal line without any points, it's like, that alone would have seemingly given the offense 2 touchdowns on the road against a pretty good defense. Need to fix those issues in the red zone.
I re-watched the final drive and if not for the Jets bailing out Seattle about five times, Seattle loses and we’re having a really different discussion. Seattle’s D also looked shaky on plays where Rogers failed to connect to receivers, meaning Jets were open and that’s disconcerting given how often on offense Geno couldn’t seem to buy a reception even with time. Sure, Seattle won against a team that’s more mismanaged than lacking talent, but I expect the Cards to be angry and to take it out on Seattle. That’s a team that should have won on Sunday and arguably, Seattle’s errors should have tanked them. If we got exactly the same defensive output of their first encounter but Seattle’s offense cannot level up they’ll lose, possibly handily. The margin of error for Seattle is tiny. And they’ve skated really close to disaster far too often. That’s the thing; if you have more talent and more polish, you can be the Bills. Seattle isn’t that. Special teams were atrocious and the offense was all over the map. They can’t run, Geno’s crisp one play and throwing wide the next. It’s great to win, but it masks a lot of what this team still cannot do. Look beyond the defensive stats to what a better team can and will do against Seattle. Getting to the playoffs is a big maybe. You have to beat the Cards and the Rams — and at least either Minnesota or Green Bay. If you get to 10 wins, you’ve got a shot. But play a game like yesterday’s anywhere again along the way and you’re getting smoked. Even the Bears barely lost to Detroit. So the competition is about to get way tougher just when you’re making a ton of unforced errors.
No team is perfect, especially in the NFCW. The Cards, dare I say it, have a QB that panics and makes bad plays when under pressure. They are going to be so focused on neutralizing Big Cat that I expect others are going to jump up and make plays on D. It is hard to beat a team twice in a season but the Seahawks have the edge going into Sunday.
Great D gives the Seahawks a “puncher’s chance” in any game.
We overcame a rested group of A+ Alpha-male Athletes which the crowd had playing at a fever pitch. It gets no tougher than that. We are in the 4th quarter of the Season and I think back to Pete Carroll's belief that games are won in the 4th quarter. His love for Geno may very well exist because he's a damn good 4th quarter QB: he is unaffected mentally by any prior play and performs in the moment at the highest levels. Keep it close and we can undo anyone. This defense will deliver those situations, even adding points.
Absolutely. I wonder what the perception of the offense would be had one of those plays converted.
Think it would feel much different.
But, I'm glad it happened in a win. Those goal line play calls and execution need to be much better. It is a problem. That is who they are right now. Struggle to get a yard or less. I would really like to see the play calling flipped from 5 passes / 3 runs to 5 runs and 3 passes. Even if it doesn't work, Mike Mac has said he wants to keep trying and improving the run game.
For me the acid test remains results vs the NFCW. The Seahawks are now 2-2 with games remaining vs the Rams and Cards. MM hasn’t beaten McVay yet… finishing 4-2 in the division will be a big positive indicator of future success!
It starts with beating the Cards again this week.
Special teams hopefully got all their yips out in one game and the offence has to get better… right?
I said at the start of the year I wanted McVay and Shannahan to have to work for wins against us at least, instead of coasting to wins because they knew exactly what we were going to do, and knew they could beat us. Other than the first 49'er game when we were still getting our shit together, we have played everyone tough, or won. I'll take that for year 1 of MacDonald. The NFC West now knows, there's a new sheriff in town. Nothings going to be easy anymore.
Best wishes to Mike and Stephanie on the new arrival. Hopefully the little one arrives soon! At least he knows better than to be born on a Sunday.
The current defense makes me think the Seahawks have a real chance to win every remaining game. The offense is going to have to pick it up, but the defense is there….and still getting better.
I'd be very interested to see the year-end stats before and after we cut our losses with the LB's. Please do a similar comparison in the off-season with our rankings from the Rams game through the end of season. Thanks in advance!
Remember Schneider tried to get him when he was with the Rams, but TEN traded for him. This is a good listen from after the 9ers game if y'all haven't seen it yet:
Jamal abused his body and it eventually got to him. Earnest plays with a fluidity and minimal arm tackles, respecting the importance of longevity. I agree: lock him in.
Tough to argue against that line of thinking, but boy oh boy, has the d-line in general been on point lately. And Leonard Williams has been other-worldly. But Murphy and Reed and the rest of them have been rock solid as well. The LB's have been kept way cleaner than they were earlier in the year.
Very striking to see those numbers laid out like that. They're making progress. And I think that's all we can ask from this team. Continuous improvement.
At the end there, it's supposed to say that 9 teams scored 23+ against Seattle last year, not 4.
I promised myself I wouldn't get overly invested in any outcomes during this season. I just wanted to observe and enjoy the process of this team forming, and learning how MacDonald wants the to play. But, this weeks game against the Cardinals is enormous, so I'm going to have a hard time not getting amped up on Sunday. If they can beat the Cardinals again, they are decidedly in the drivers seat in the NFCW, after being all but dead and buried a few weeks ago.
In the big picture it won't really matter, as 2024 will still be a formative year, and they can easily be one-and-done if they get into the playoffs. But, winning is always more enjoyable than losing. Certainly, it's easier to read about the Seahawks after wins, as after loses, oh my, it's torture sometimes to read comments from fans.
Yes to all of this. Ideally they make a remarkable recovery on offense and show the kind of growth Seattle had in their 2011-13 run. Back then, however, they had the meat of their offensive line, and that talent was also more prevalent. I believe JS's ill-understood philosophy of not overpaying for talent on the O-line stems from that era—and we all know what happened when they began trading away those chess pieces, somehow believing they could draft late and still get Steve Hutchinson-level lineman from the retread bin. See: Laken Tomlinson.
Again, look at teams that ARE NOT doing this. Philly, for instance.
If you only watched the line and nothing else, the Jets consistently moved Seattle off the ball before their backs were touched. If the Jets weren't such a dumpster fire and didn't consistently go backward every other play with penalties, they probably rush for 150 yards.
And that's not an indictment of Seattle's defense, which is definitely improving. It has everything to do with how to attack it, though, and I think AZ will be more creative this next game, and that's going to put even more pressure on the defense that has been great, but cannot carry the team all by itself.
And that all rolls back around to the offense. One final thing there, that's only been touched upon a wee bit. K-9's been bouncing way too much. Charbonnet doesn't have near the talent, but if you look at a few of his runs lately he's following blocks consistently and K9 isn't. K9's first read is always to bounce, and that's a hazard because teams know that and rally to whichever way he goes. I realize his talent is his shiftiness, but in going sideways he's not helping a shaky run game or the pass game, because he creates a lot of negative plays, too. Get one yard vs. minus 3. This is happening more lately, and I bet this undermines the confidence of the guys in front of him, too.
Interesting note from Balzar. “Combined opponents records of NFC West teams: Seahawks 35-25, 49ers 32-28, Rams 30-30, Cardinals 24-37”
One negative from this game is Riq Woolen continuing to either be scared or just a P**** when it comes to sticking his nose in there and make a good tackle (most of the time).
I don't see any shyness in the man, but can see the concern is justified. With his unique speed and one good arm, he can do what others can't physically get done, like stay with speedsters. The job becomes protecting the damaged arm while batting down passes. Reminds me of Jamal Adams trying to remain effective with a bad shoulder. It's a long season to play kick-ass at 100%.
Julian Love was getting on Riq in The Jets game for not tackling- Not aware of any significant arm issue with him? Thought that was over that from last year?
I read it was due to him leaving his zone coverage open. But yeah, we do see him idling around on a McD team meant to fly at all times. I'm trying to assign a reason why McD hasn't sat him.
Not to argue- But according to Danny O'Niel (sp) it was told to him that JL was barking at RiQ for not being physical and making the tackle-
That's what he was doing last year. He's been better this year, but he'll never get confused with Spoon.
Very good read! It is amazing what happens when guys buy in, start to understand the concepts and you get a very good MLB!
Great article. Somebody, anybody please tell me they also cut Dee Williams before he costs us some wins. And while they are at it, dump ST coach Harbaugh. We have the worst STs in the NFL. Besides all the fumbles, the coverage teams are giving up huge returns. They need to fix this asap.
The D is beginning to become a top 5 unit. The Oline is suffering from years of bad drafts and Geno won't be extended because of his failures in the red zone. We are getting closer and closer to being a SB contender.
Defense leading the turnaround coming out of the bye was a best case storyline. It seems clear that Mike Macdonald is the best Defensive Coordinator in the NFL - a dominant one, as you say, Joe - and that validates JS’s decision to hire him.
That said, with both the offense and special teams regressing, it remains to be seen just how good a Head Coach he can become.
That is at the feet of JS, IMHO!
Could well be.
Were it not for points added by Defense, these last 2 games would be losses. MM is showing us his discernment when he fires "good" LBs and we see immediate elevation in results by players he replaces them with, along with an upsurge in points added, leading to Wins. I submit the difference between all these DC guys is not the system so much as the man, specifically his ability to discern what should have happened from what did happen, and why. It is a very rare talent. The Man is not guessing. He KNOWS. Considering this, can anyone explain why he elevated a 3rd QB to the roster a few days ago? We've been harping about Geno needing more time, but yesterday I saw him gain more time to throw to someone (or scramble) with no results. I will be looking to see if anyone broke into the open and he continually missed it or if he actually had nobody to throw to. Is Mike discerning Geno or Grubb responsible for putting the OFF in our offense? Seems our offense this year is less productive than last, which was less than the year prior to that. Why?
About the QB elevation… I noticed the Bills did the same thing. It could be just about getting a guy a game cheque when they want to keep him around.
Not going to make its own post, but Laviska Shenault has been released.
Probably for the best
Hrmph. Williams is the guy who scared me more handling returns….
Crap. I liked him. Olah.
Yes sir.
Great write up ... The defense is looking good. Exactly why JS waited all that time to bring in Mike Mac. I would add that his game management and poise has been excellent IMO. Last game was so awesome how he and the team took setbacks in stride and just kept moving forward. From the special teams to a random injury to the punter. He kept making, IMO, good decisions and kept the focus forward.
And he has been doing that all year it seems like.
Now ... let's get the offense back in gear. Although, last game was actually not bad from an EPA standpoint. They finished the week 7th in EPA/play. It certainly, did not seem that way, but EPA doesn't care whether a 20-yard gain or a 4th down conversion is by catch or penalty.
But the regression from last years highs is undeniable. It is almost comical that the Seahawks have had a good offense for the last couple years carrying the team, and now that they finally appear to have a pretty good defense the offense has fallen off a bit.
But hope is not lost.
Last year, from week 13 on the Seahawks had the 3rd best offense in the NFL by EPA/play.
If history repeats itself (with basically the same players + a significantly better JSN), then we will be cooking heading into the playoffs.
Looking forward to Sunday.
Football is a game of like, 3-5 plays that make a difference. So those 8 plays from the goal line without any points, it's like, that alone would have seemingly given the offense 2 touchdowns on the road against a pretty good defense. Need to fix those issues in the red zone.
I re-watched the final drive and if not for the Jets bailing out Seattle about five times, Seattle loses and we’re having a really different discussion. Seattle’s D also looked shaky on plays where Rogers failed to connect to receivers, meaning Jets were open and that’s disconcerting given how often on offense Geno couldn’t seem to buy a reception even with time. Sure, Seattle won against a team that’s more mismanaged than lacking talent, but I expect the Cards to be angry and to take it out on Seattle. That’s a team that should have won on Sunday and arguably, Seattle’s errors should have tanked them. If we got exactly the same defensive output of their first encounter but Seattle’s offense cannot level up they’ll lose, possibly handily. The margin of error for Seattle is tiny. And they’ve skated really close to disaster far too often. That’s the thing; if you have more talent and more polish, you can be the Bills. Seattle isn’t that. Special teams were atrocious and the offense was all over the map. They can’t run, Geno’s crisp one play and throwing wide the next. It’s great to win, but it masks a lot of what this team still cannot do. Look beyond the defensive stats to what a better team can and will do against Seattle. Getting to the playoffs is a big maybe. You have to beat the Cards and the Rams — and at least either Minnesota or Green Bay. If you get to 10 wins, you’ve got a shot. But play a game like yesterday’s anywhere again along the way and you’re getting smoked. Even the Bears barely lost to Detroit. So the competition is about to get way tougher just when you’re making a ton of unforced errors.
No team is perfect, especially in the NFCW. The Cards, dare I say it, have a QB that panics and makes bad plays when under pressure. They are going to be so focused on neutralizing Big Cat that I expect others are going to jump up and make plays on D. It is hard to beat a team twice in a season but the Seahawks have the edge going into Sunday.
Great D gives the Seahawks a “puncher’s chance” in any game.
Just gotta get Geno to be “good Geno”.
We overcame a rested group of A+ Alpha-male Athletes which the crowd had playing at a fever pitch. It gets no tougher than that. We are in the 4th quarter of the Season and I think back to Pete Carroll's belief that games are won in the 4th quarter. His love for Geno may very well exist because he's a damn good 4th quarter QB: he is unaffected mentally by any prior play and performs in the moment at the highest levels. Keep it close and we can undo anyone. This defense will deliver those situations, even adding points.
Absolutely. I wonder what the perception of the offense would be had one of those plays converted.
Think it would feel much different.
But, I'm glad it happened in a win. Those goal line play calls and execution need to be much better. It is a problem. That is who they are right now. Struggle to get a yard or less. I would really like to see the play calling flipped from 5 passes / 3 runs to 5 runs and 3 passes. Even if it doesn't work, Mike Mac has said he wants to keep trying and improving the run game.
For me the acid test remains results vs the NFCW. The Seahawks are now 2-2 with games remaining vs the Rams and Cards. MM hasn’t beaten McVay yet… finishing 4-2 in the division will be a big positive indicator of future success!
It starts with beating the Cards again this week.
Special teams hopefully got all their yips out in one game and the offence has to get better… right?
I said at the start of the year I wanted McVay and Shannahan to have to work for wins against us at least, instead of coasting to wins because they knew exactly what we were going to do, and knew they could beat us. Other than the first 49'er game when we were still getting our shit together, we have played everyone tough, or won. I'll take that for year 1 of MacDonald. The NFC West now knows, there's a new sheriff in town. Nothings going to be easy anymore.
Best wishes to Mike and Stephanie on the new arrival. Hopefully the little one arrives soon! At least he knows better than to be born on a Sunday.
The current defense makes me think the Seahawks have a real chance to win every remaining game. The offense is going to have to pick it up, but the defense is there….and still getting better.
Haven’t seen special team play like that since I watched a high school game awhile back.
God I love defense.
May the 12s be with you and Go Seahawks!
I welcome any good news re the Seahawks, in this case re defense. The offense clearly needs help. Ironically the Mariners face the same challenge.
I'd be very interested to see the year-end stats before and after we cut our losses with the LB's. Please do a similar comparison in the off-season with our rankings from the Rams game through the end of season. Thanks in advance!
I hate to be so simplistic as to draw a line to Ernest Jones, but boy oh boy something seemed to change around that exact same time.
Remember Schneider tried to get him when he was with the Rams, but TEN traded for him. This is a good listen from after the 9ers game if y'all haven't seen it yet:
https://youtu.be/uJwFVeSExM4?feature=shared
Great listen, Thanks, Shaymus.
The Rams Did Not want to trade Ernest Jones IV to any team in their same division. This move needed to go through the Titans. We B Good, Now.
I did a double-take when I read he is 25yrs old... seems like a vet who's 30+ yrs old. Lock that dude up, JS!
Jamal abused his body and it eventually got to him. Earnest plays with a fluidity and minimal arm tackles, respecting the importance of longevity. I agree: lock him in.
Tough to argue against that line of thinking, but boy oh boy, has the d-line in general been on point lately. And Leonard Williams has been other-worldly. But Murphy and Reed and the rest of them have been rock solid as well. The LB's have been kept way cleaner than they were earlier in the year.
It was Murphy's assist that freed him for the blocked extra point.
I saw that Julian Love pointed him out as the key for the defensive turnaround.
Very striking to see those numbers laid out like that. They're making progress. And I think that's all we can ask from this team. Continuous improvement.