Vision Board: Seahawks-49ers

Welcome to the next version of the Legion of B00m: Seaside Joe 1381

The Seaside Joe vision boards are having a rough go of it lately, none worse than Week 14’s loss to the Carolina Panthers.

Seahawks rush for 206 yards (Vision: BAD) Seattle rushed for 46 yards

Seahawks only allow 33 rushing yards to D’Onta Foreman (Vision: FALSE) Foreman and Chuba Hubbard BOTH ran for 74 yards, Raheem Blackshear had 32, and even Sam Darnold, Laviska Shenault, and D.J. Moore combined for 43 yards—almost as many as Seattle as a team!

Nick Bellore does something good (Vision: WHAT?) To be fair, Nick Bellore and Travis Homer combined for a tackle on a first quarter punt return and Bellore played two offensive snaps… I hate to brag about how good my visions are but wow, what a day for Nick Bellore.

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Several weeks ago, I made a change to the vision boards by utilizing YouTube clips I had watched that week instead of Googling for images and GIFs; that may be mucking up the works in the universal order and the reason for my poor visions lately. But I don’t want to change course just yet because I believe that YouTube clips are the way to go, it’s just a matter of asking for patience from you while the Vision Board series organically gets better on its own.

Perhaps the same can be said for the Seattle Seahawks defense.

Richard Sherman, veteran of both the Seahawks and 49ers, talked to Kevin Clark of The Ringer this week and made a compelling case for the root cause of defensive issues being scheme instead of personnel. Then again, that’s exactly what you would expect a former player to say.

Kevin Clark @bykevinclark

Kyle Shanahan knew the holes in Dan Quinn's Seahawks defense so well and broke its defensive rules so thoroughly that they had to change the rules. Richard Sherman on Kyle Shanahan is such good stuff. Watch:

I do think that Sherman is right in terms of not laying the blame on any one individual for a “busted coverage” or “missing his guy” etc. But this can also be attributed to not having players like Bobby Wagner, Kam Chancellor, and Sherman anymore, players who can close the gap between being out-coached and being out-played.

Wagner is rarely out-played. Seattle’s current linebackers are out-played far more often than they were in the early half of the 2010s.

The Seahawks enter Thursday night’s game against the 49ers with only one goal: When the game is over, Seattle has more points than San Francisco.

That’s it. That’s the goal.

Fail and the 49ers will be winners of the NFC West division. Succeed and the Seahawks are probably just delaying the inevitable with regards to the division, but per FiveThirtyEight, they will have better playoff odds than the Commanders, Buccaneers, and Giants.

Playoff odds with a win: 77%

Playoff odds with a loss: 34%

Bruce Irvin has only been on the team for half of the regular season, but he knows that the Seahawks haven’t played like a deserving playoff team recently. His words that needed to be said—”Until all 11 of us get on that same mentality, it’s going to be long for us”—emphasize how badly Seattle is missing that veteran leadership that they once had in the locker room.

Jake García @Jake_M_Garcia

The Seahawks were bossed around today by the Panthers. Bruce Irvin wasn't happy about it. "I got three kids at home so I'm not going to let another man put his hands on me... Until all 11 of us get that same mentality, it's going to be long for us." @KING5Sports

Can they find new voices of leadership this week against the 49ers? If not, the only visions I’ll have in a few weeks will be those of free agency, the draft, and how to right the ship before next season.

The return of “Loud Booms” as Seahawks hold Christian McCaffrey under 50 total yards

First of all, I have to say that the above video probably falls under the category of “Conspiratorial Weather Analysis” and that this is NOT an endorsement of the Suspicious0bservers YouTube channel for anything other than entertainment purposes. You know something is suspicious when they use ‘0’s in place of ‘o’s and you can take it from me… Seaside J0e.

But as a fan of disaster movies like Greenland, I do find end-of-times YouTubers to be entertaining and that’s all I ask out of life and football: Entertain me while the world collapses!

Have you been hearing “loud booms” at night lately? Probably not. But apparently some people have been hearing them and coming up with explanations that have root causes that could be the basis for a The Rock movie is 100% what I am here for.

The 2022 Seattle Seahawks could use some loud booms. It’s been too long.

I first knew that the Seahawks would be Super Bowl contenders under Pete Carroll on December 1, 2011. It was also a Thursday.

Seattle entered the game with a 4-7 record, potentially spelling doom for Pete’s career if the Seahawks didn’t turn around their season, and they played host to a 4-7 Eagles team coached by Andy Reid, unaware that this would be his second-to-last season in Philadelphia.

With Michael Vick out for his third straight game, the Eagles would start Vince Young at quarterback against Seattle. Young didn’t know it, but he would never throw another pass in the NFL after this night. He was escorted into retirement by a young group of players that would soon come to be known as the “Legion of Boom”.

Though it was not their first game together as starters, there was something in the air that night against the Eagles that made it obvious; even if Seattle would not make the playoffs in 2011 (they came closer than expected), the Seahawks were to be feared. It wasn’t just that Seattle intercepted Young four times (two by Brandon Browner, one each by Kam Chancellor and David Hawthorne, plus a strip-sack by K.J. Wright) en route to a 31-14 pasting, it was the primetime swagger on display led by Kam Chancellor and Richard Sherman.

Offensively, it was the brutality of Marshawn Lynch as a punishing runner, finishing the night with 148 rushing yards (the second-most of his career and his most as a member of the Seahawks) and two touchdowns.

These offensive and defensive themes would carry the team for the next four seasons and I could feel it as soon as December 1’s victory over the Eagles on Thursday Night Football. If the Seahawks are to be feared in 2023 and beyond, then I believe we should at least see signs of that terror and swagger against the 49ers this week.

Now here we are, 11 years and two weeks later, and Seattle finds itself pitted against another unlikely starting quarterback on Thursday Night Football, needing to prove that they aren’t push overs in spite of their disappointing performances of late. It’s Brock Purdy instead of Vince Young, Christian McCaffrey instead of LeSean McCoy, and Brandon Aiyuk instead of DeSean Jackson.

The names are different. The mission is the same: Prove Pete Carroll knows what he’s doing.

Brian Baldinger @BaldyNFL

.@49ers @CycloneFB @brockpurdy13 makes his @NFL debut and here are a few “checklists” of some things he did well. Definitely helps that he started 47 games in Aimes. Iowa for the Cyclones #BaldysBreakdowns

There will be so much emphasis on “Mr. Irrelevant” this week, but never could that nickname be more relevant with Brock Purdy against the Seahawks: He’s NOT the story. He’s not quite as relevant as most quarterbacks on most days.

As I wrote earlier this week, you don’t judge a Seahawks opponent by who is starting at quarterback. Until Seattle proves they can stop the run, who cares who is throwing the ball?

Anyone who tells you that they know if Purdy is good or bad is lying to your face. His draft status (262nd overall) strongly suggests that these last two games (71%, 395 yards, 4 TD, 1 INT, 1 rush TD) are being heavily influenced by situation and not sustainable. And yet, the NFL has proven time and time again that they’re just “OK” at evaluating football talent, even after 100 years of trying.

Brock Purdy? We’ll see! But Thursday’s showdown is against Kyle Shanahan and Christian McCaffrey because the Seahawks rank 31st in rushing yards allowed and 28th in yards per carry allowed, with nearly 1,000 rushing yards allowed in their last five games. With that information at hand, teams have run the ball against Seattle’s defense 424 times—second-most in the NFL.

Only the 1-11-1 Houston Texans (447 attempts) have seen more runs.

The 49ers defense has seen 290 rushing attempts (a difference of 10 rushing attempts per game compared to Seattle), second-fewest in the league.

Since making it to San Francisco seven games ago, McCaffrey has been on a pace of 1,035 rushing yards and 85 catches for 767 receiving yards over a 17-game season. It’s not quite the 2,392-yard, 19-TD season he had for the Panthers in 2019, but it’s close and at 26, McCaffrey is far from finished.

In his two most-recent games, McCaffrey has 185 rushing yards and 114 receiving yards with three touchdowns. That’s coming against two defenses (Dolphins, Bucs) that are much better than Seattle against the run.

The Seahawks won the Super Bowl about nine years ago, but it was 11 years ago that I started to get the feeling that they would. We’ve long since retired the original Seattle defense that led the team to their first championship.

However, Thursday is the perfect stage to welcome in the next iteration of something special. We don’t need to see the completed results, but a lot more confidence and at least a little swagger would be nice.

That’s the recipe for finding the next Legion of B00m.

*Seaside Joe is not responsible for any readers who fall for conspiracies, or for anyone who failed to heed the warnings

Mistake-free Seahawks upset 49ers

I don’t know how this got into my algorithm because I don’t even like the Olympics. Nothing against the event or your personal adoration for Summer or Winter versions, it’s just that I have dedicated my entire life to covering the NFL. But every so often I’ll catch wind that another sport exists and really isn’t all the same?

Lasagna, spaghetti, Karen’s ziti? It’s always pasta and sauce and cheese, just mixed in different ways.

In the case of this meal, as I’m sure some of you Apolo Ohno fans remember, a collision at the final seconds caused four of the five skaters to fall down and the seemingly impossible result proved possible as Australian Steven Bradbury emerged from last place to become the first person from the Southern hemisphere to ever win gold at the Winter Olympics.

Sometimes all it takes to win is to be the one person who didn’t make a mistake. The 2022 Seattle Seahawks have too often been the FIRST to make the mistakes.

Seaside Joe: Daily Seahawks Newsletter @seasidejoenews

Seahawks are the only team in the NFL to turn the ball over in all 13 games.

Seattle, 26th in turnovers, is the only team in the NFL to turn the ball over at least once in all 13 contests this season. The Colts and Bears have done it 12 times. The 49ers have turned the ball over in eight of 13 games. The Eagles have the NFL’s best record in large thanks to one stat: Philadelphia has the fewest turnovers and the most takeaways.

In fact, the Eagles turned the ball over four times against the Commanders and that is their only loss of the season. Philadelphia only has six turnovers in their other 12 games combined.

Meanwhile, the 49ers have turned the ball over multiple times in four of their 13 games: San Francisco is 0-4 in those contests, but 7-0 in their other seven.

The Seahawks have turned the ball over multiple times in five games (2-3 record) and the one time they turned it over three times was in Week 2’s loss to the 49ers: An interception by Geno Smith in the second quarter, an interception by DeeJay Dallas on the next drive, and a muffed punt by Tyler Lockett as he was interfered with by the since-forgotten Xavier Crawford.

Bob Condotta @bcondotta

Tyler Lockett says he should have said something to alert Xavier Crawford he was there on the fumbled punt.

The Seahawks can’t be falling over themselves again and hope to have any chance of beating the 49ers on Thursday. Mistake-free football on offense and perfection on special teams is Seattle’s only chance of staying in the race to win the NFC West and to keep pace with the NFC East for a wild card berth.

Anything less will have Seahawks fans shouting “Oh no!” like it’s 2002 all over again.

Tyler Lockett takes his rightful place among the greats

The Godfather. Goodfellas. Once Upon a Time in America. Boyz n the Hood.

There have been many legendary movies about young men surviving through a life of crime, which is probably the most rudimentary way to describe this genre of films. The character Alby from season two of The White Lotus would call them something different for sure. But what would he have to say about Blood In Bloud Out, arguably the most underrated and realistic of them all.

Which I did not nearly appreciate enough until watching the Behind the Scenes clip that explains how real Blood In Blood Out actually is: They spent weeks filming inside of San Quentin State Prison and most of the extras were actual prisoners serving out their sentences.

That’s pretty real!

Take that, Alby. The movie did not get critical acclaim upon its 1993 release, but almost 30 years later, Blood In Blood Out’s cult following is clear in their adoration for the film: a 7.9 score on IMDb is about as good as any movie can hope for.

And 99% of NFL wide receivers wish they had as high of a score this season as the perennially underrated Tyler Lockett. Per ESPN’s Seth Walder’s system of scoring, Lockett is the NFL’s BEST wide receiver in 2022.

Seth Walder @SethWalder

Open Score (x) by Catch Score (y) for WRs, updated through Week 14!

Since 2018, a total of 53 wide receivers have been targeted at least 300 times. Of those 53, Lockett has played in the most games (77), caught the fourth-most touchdowns (44, behind only Davante Adams, Tyreek Hill, and Mike Evans), is third in yards per target (9.9, behind only Justin Jefferson and A.J. Brown), is seventh in yards, and fourth in catch rate (74%, behind only Michael Thomas, Hunter Renfrow, and Cooper Kupp).

Lockett’s name appears next to “greats” over and over again but he stands alone: Tyler Lockett is the only guy out of 53 to rank in the top-five of both yards per target AND catch rate. Hell, he’s almost the only guy to rank in the top-10 of those, if not for Michael Thomas hanging on by a threat in yards per target.

Kupp won Offensive Player of the Year. Thomas won Offensive Player of the Year. A.J. Brown and Jefferson are being touted like the greatest at their position right now. Adams is paid like a quarterback. Hill is called kind of this “1 of 1 phenom” for the Dolphins.

What the hell does Tyler Lockett need to do to get the same respect? Because he might be a Hall of Fame receiver and yet nobody talks about him like he’s even a Pro Bowl receiver. Because Tyler Lockett—explain this one to me, suspicious0bservers—has NEVER been a Pro Bowl wide receiver.

Never!

The heaviest weight pulling down Tyler Lockett is simply volume. He is only 13th in targets (518) since 2018, but if somehow he had been thrown to 100 more times (which would rank him fifth), then Lockett might have another 1,200 receiving yards. If that was the case, only Adams would have more yards in the last five years.

I know, I know, it’s a big if. But Lockett’s been “that guy” and similar to Doug Baldwin before him, it seems that only Seattle fans know it. A couple of “Oh my God, did he just do that?” receptions against the 49ers, which Lockett is more than capable of, could get him trending in all the right directions.

B00m In, B00m Out, maybe the Seahawks have more surprises in store for us than anyone’s predicting. What are your visions this week?

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