It's wild how much better the offense looked with just a little bit of deception/creativity. The play that stuck out the most to me was the play action to Arroyo, where it was obvious that the defense was completely caught off guard by a simple playfake (they likely had been watching the tape from last week where there was none of that and were crashing hard on every run.) A good game overall, especially from the defense, hope that it is just a small glimpse of the potential of this team to be really good.
The offense was much better playing play action passing schemes and getting Ouzts lead blocking. I think the Oline and the D will get progressively better the more they play together. Darnold will be fine, no red zone picks so far.
Darnold is fine...he knows how to manage the game and he's got a big arm. Defensive mvp so far is probably big cat. Glad we got the win, but we gotta clean up the play and prove it against good teams. Up next, last ranked saints...we better take them behind the wood shed. Begaw!
Thought DK had two "episodes" where he could have been flagged. Still the same old DK. Makes one or two spectacular plays and then lets his team down the rest of the time. JSN is SO much better its unbelievable
Yeah he was close, with a big two handed shove of Woolen, of all people.....after the whistle. Probably not enough for a flag, but if Reek was a better trash talker, he probably could have gotten him to cross the line. Same 'ol DK indeed.
I certainly hope all the teams did NOT learn a lesson about the new kickoff rules today, because that rule has been around since before I learned what football was back in 1980. Kickoffs have always been live balls, whether touched by the returning team or not. Nothing has changed about that with the new rules.
Right! What do people think onside kicks are?! Punts are deferring possession, surrendering the ball and hence need a touch to become live. Kickoffs are completely different and this is not new or revelatory.
I thought and think Sam Darnold is fine. He made some really bad plays. His first pick is very bad and should never happen. His second pick was also bad in that it gave the Steelers free yards on the pick and I’m not sure what he was trying to do.
Conversely, the 3rd and 9 with the stadium rocking and a free blitzed coming at him was an incredible play. Remained poised, spun out of a sack, and threw a perfect touch throw with accuracy to pick up the first and more. Just an awesome play at an important point in the game.
I think the first two weeks have been as expected from Darnold. Fine. Room to improve but you see the arm talent.
Without rewatching the game yet, just very happy the offense checked the boxes I really wanted to see coming out of the week 1 game. Don’t lock in on JSN and at least target Horton deep.
They did both of those on the first drive. Kupp received the first pass and Horton a deep crosser for the TD. JSN is the best player and will get his … which is great. Just need to keep spreading the ball.
2 receptions for Horton, Barner, Arroyo
7 for Kupp
And 8 for JSN
THAT is what I wanted to see. Huge bounce back for the offense in my opinion.
Does it change my outlook? No. Steelers might be really bad. The Jets should’ve beat them in week 1 and were completely inept against a bad Bills D today. But still, a road win in the NFL should always be cherished. A sneaky important game as you just don’t want to go down 0-2 to start the season. Nice work fellas! Onward and upward!
Seahawks fans have been very upset when I let them know Darnold and Jones are close to identical QBs from an advanced stats perspective coming into the year.
Apparently, Daniel Jones is not thought highly of. I actually like DJ. He would’ve been my second choice behind Darnold this offseason (after Geno got booted out of town).
In my opinion, these guys like Darnold and DJ are heavily influenced by the team around them. So when you move these guys to better teams, their performances will surprise people.
But I still think Darnold and DJ will struggle if the team around them isn’t as good, as opposed to higher ranked QBs.
They haven't punted yet, after 2 games. First time in NFL history. As in EVER.
I think it's true for any QB (or any other player for that matter) that circumstances matter. Coaches, systems, supporting cast.....all of it. We're so quick to form opinions on relatively modest data sets, and all we have is some level of correlation, not causation.
I expect many capable QB's have failed at the NFL level when they could just have easily succeeded. Rich Gannon was a journeyman, until he met Jon Gruden in Oakland. Circumstances. Many guys probably never find the right ones.
You look at a guy like Sam Darnold. And his arm strength/accuracy should pop off the screen. So why has it taken this long? Maybe just development (as Tom Brady has repeatedly talked about). Coaching, O-line, receivers, RBs/running game.
I think there is also this thing in football where people attribute wins and losses to QBs. As if the QB is the sole determinant of a win or a loss. It's like baseball with pitchers. Far too heavily rated as opposed to trying to isolate solely for QB play within the context of the talent around the QB.
The Hawks were 2.5 point underdogs and it moved all the way to 3.5 prior to kick. Which is a big move through the 3.
It’s hard to know what to make of teams this early in the season. Oddsmakers and the markets are still figuring it out.
I know the markets may have shifted a bit towards the Hawks. They were 6.5 point favs against the saints and now are 7.5.
I think you could start to make an argument with Pitts big name players that are older that they are bit overrated and actually not a very good team. I think Rodgers is well below average at this stage.
Anyways, a win on the road should always be cherished and that was an important game.
Man, happy DK finally got a Red Zone jump ball. Also glad he had 2 drops plus some complaining to a ref WHILE HIS QB WAS SCRAMBLING TOWARDS HIM and we stopped them on 3rd down. Kupp won the day.
According to what I read in Mike Dugar’s new book about the LOB, a receiver coming off the line isolated against a safety is pretty much uncoverable. Anyway, DK’s TD was a nice play design by Pittsburgh and good recognition by Rogers: Send #81 in motion wide forcing Riq to his left away from Metcalf leaving DK isolated on Bryant. The nice thing is that when the Steelers tried that again later in the game, the Seahawks were prepared with a different formation. Rogers wound up throwing the other way and the ball was picked off in the end zone.
That play Darnold made to spin around under pressure and convert a third and 9 to Barner while deep in his own end was next level. He was also accurate on crossing routes over the middle into tight windows. Overall, I like what he showed today a lot, definitely more than last week.
As a card carrying recliner QB, all I can say is "WHEW!" Well, not ALL I can say...DEFENSE!! I ran low on expletives in the first half but thanks to an awsome D I didn't need as many in the second half. When we can shoot ourselves in the foot twice (turn overs) with unerring accuracy and STILL win, it's mostly thanks to a 'Sea-Wall' D. Don't get me wrong (well, ok, you can if you want) Offense finally got their Seaducks in a row but it's the big guys up front on D that kept us in it. If Offense can continue to look like they did in the second half...I can cut way down on my expletive count (I like to save some for the playoffs).
Wait! What!? Someone told NFL.COM Seattle has an NFL team? Love it when the national media is FORCED by great play to spend 10-20 seconds acknowedging our existence. Got a feeling any teams thinking Seahawks are a piece of cake are going to experience D-Zilla pop'n out of that cake and eating their QB. GO HAWKS!
Super frustrating first half. Felt like we dominated, other than a handful of catastrophic plays. Second half the bad plays mostly disappeared, and the touchdown on the kickoff really turned the tide. A few initial thoughts;
- Abe Lucas did not have a great day. I'm not sure what he'll grade out, but Watt was beating him to the outside repeatedly. There were a number of jail breaks inside too. But Sam hung in there, and limited additional mistakes in the second half. Abe had Bosa last week, and Watt this week, so he's in tough for sure. I can't be too critical of him.
- Tyrice Knight looked like he's back today. Made a bunch of key tackles.
- Josh Jobe is real. He played great, and had an awesome tackle late in the game to put a WR on his head.
- The defence generally played really well. I have to give Aaron Rogers credit. Not for playing well, but for getting up repeatedly. Murphy, Hall, Leo, J-Reed and others got his ass on the ground, and he kept getting up. D-Law roughed him up too.
- I don't think Sam Darnold would say he had a great game. But he bounced back from two mistakes to play tough. Stayed in the fight and made key plays. The pass to Barner on the fire drill to his left, and the deep ball to JSN were two huge 4th quarter clutch plays.
- K9 looked way more decisive today, mostly. A few dancing in the backfield moments, but he was better at getting in a lane and exploding. Hope he keeps it up. Charbs looked out of sync this week.
- When we came out in the 4th quarter in 'I' formation, and Robbie Smash squared up a LB and K9 ran to daylight, that was awesome. That's what I want to see.
- Tory Horton with his first catches and touchdown, Arroyo getting in the mix, Kupp looking like Kupp, and JSN with 100+ again. That's what it should look like. And Barner as well with a TD and another key play.
Other thing that appeared to me, although I don't do drive charts, was that running inside left tackle (so Cross+Zabel) was almost always positive yardage and almost always no contact till past the line of scrimmage. Perhaps not Jones/Hutch, but is this the beginning of something good?
Not only did Horton get his first TD on his first reception but I believe it was also his first target in the NFL. He was so wide open and I was so impressed. Keep it up, young man and go off against the Saints. Go Hawks.
Abe did pretty well, all in all, against Watt pretty much on his own. He had a bad 4th quarter against him, but for the most part you didn't hear Watt's name much during the first 3 quarters.
I have to admit to having doubts after the first half. The offense seemed shaky and the play calling felt haphazard. Our run game, particularly on the perimeter was just stuffed. Then that disastrous 4th down pass went down.
That said, the defense was solid (aside from that crazy run after catch). Our pass rush had Aaron a little spooked. Our interior line was impressive. We can rush 4 really badass big men. Seattle's defense seems destined for greatness, showing just the seeds of what they could become. Even without 2 important pieces, they were dominant.
Sam Darnold had such a strong second half that now I feel guilty about doubting him. I also think K.K started to dial it in. Gotta love the tight end direct snap TD and also Robbie Ouzts just being out there.
Don't know if anyone watched the Raiders game but it was the first time I can remember where Pete looked old.
And I sure don't miss tonight's version of Geno "Deer In The Headlights" Smith
Amazing to have a weekend that makes you not regret Geno or DK, at all.
It's wild how much better the offense looked with just a little bit of deception/creativity. The play that stuck out the most to me was the play action to Arroyo, where it was obvious that the defense was completely caught off guard by a simple playfake (they likely had been watching the tape from last week where there was none of that and were crashing hard on every run.) A good game overall, especially from the defense, hope that it is just a small glimpse of the potential of this team to be really good.
The offense was much better playing play action passing schemes and getting Ouzts lead blocking. I think the Oline and the D will get progressively better the more they play together. Darnold will be fine, no red zone picks so far.
The NFC West is undefeated against every other division.
Which is why there is three undefeated teams so far.
Defensive MVP's? Man there were at least 7 guys that stood out to me:
Byron Murphy
Ernest Jones
Jobe
Hall
Leonard Williams
Love (as always, this guy is ridiculous)
Kendrick
Extra credit for Jobe and Kendrick who had to fill in and did an exceptional job
Darnold is fine...he knows how to manage the game and he's got a big arm. Defensive mvp so far is probably big cat. Glad we got the win, but we gotta clean up the play and prove it against good teams. Up next, last ranked saints...we better take them behind the wood shed. Begaw!
Thought DK had two "episodes" where he could have been flagged. Still the same old DK. Makes one or two spectacular plays and then lets his team down the rest of the time. JSN is SO much better its unbelievable
I agree. It’s like they’ve come to the conclusion to just expect it, so shrug the shoulders and not call it.
Yeah he was close, with a big two handed shove of Woolen, of all people.....after the whistle. Probably not enough for a flag, but if Reek was a better trash talker, he probably could have gotten him to cross the line. Same 'ol DK indeed.
Note to Riq: more trash talking reps in practice this week.
Spoon can help him evolve there.
Plus he also had two drops. That should make his QB unhappy.
I certainly hope all the teams did NOT learn a lesson about the new kickoff rules today, because that rule has been around since before I learned what football was back in 1980. Kickoffs have always been live balls, whether touched by the returning team or not. Nothing has changed about that with the new rules.
Rookie coming from college might see it different...in college ball that's a touch back I believe.
Right! What do people think onside kicks are?! Punts are deferring possession, surrendering the ball and hence need a touch to become live. Kickoffs are completely different and this is not new or revelatory.
Noice one, Shamus. Yeah, the announcers made it seem like this was due to the New kick-off rules.
I thought and think Sam Darnold is fine. He made some really bad plays. His first pick is very bad and should never happen. His second pick was also bad in that it gave the Steelers free yards on the pick and I’m not sure what he was trying to do.
Conversely, the 3rd and 9 with the stadium rocking and a free blitzed coming at him was an incredible play. Remained poised, spun out of a sack, and threw a perfect touch throw with accuracy to pick up the first and more. Just an awesome play at an important point in the game.
I think the first two weeks have been as expected from Darnold. Fine. Room to improve but you see the arm talent.
Without rewatching the game yet, just very happy the offense checked the boxes I really wanted to see coming out of the week 1 game. Don’t lock in on JSN and at least target Horton deep.
They did both of those on the first drive. Kupp received the first pass and Horton a deep crosser for the TD. JSN is the best player and will get his … which is great. Just need to keep spreading the ball.
2 receptions for Horton, Barner, Arroyo
7 for Kupp
And 8 for JSN
THAT is what I wanted to see. Huge bounce back for the offense in my opinion.
Does it change my outlook? No. Steelers might be really bad. The Jets should’ve beat them in week 1 and were completely inept against a bad Bills D today. But still, a road win in the NFL should always be cherished. A sneaky important game as you just don’t want to go down 0-2 to start the season. Nice work fellas! Onward and upward!
There are a lot of meh stat lines for very good QB's for the first couple of weeks. I think the defenses are ahead to start the season.
Yeah.
Have you seen my guy Daniel Jones?
Seahawks fans have been very upset when I let them know Darnold and Jones are close to identical QBs from an advanced stats perspective coming into the year.
Apparently, Daniel Jones is not thought highly of. I actually like DJ. He would’ve been my second choice behind Darnold this offseason (after Geno got booted out of town).
In my opinion, these guys like Darnold and DJ are heavily influenced by the team around them. So when you move these guys to better teams, their performances will surprise people.
But I still think Darnold and DJ will struggle if the team around them isn’t as good, as opposed to higher ranked QBs.
They haven't punted yet, after 2 games. First time in NFL history. As in EVER.
I think it's true for any QB (or any other player for that matter) that circumstances matter. Coaches, systems, supporting cast.....all of it. We're so quick to form opinions on relatively modest data sets, and all we have is some level of correlation, not causation.
I expect many capable QB's have failed at the NFL level when they could just have easily succeeded. Rich Gannon was a journeyman, until he met Jon Gruden in Oakland. Circumstances. Many guys probably never find the right ones.
I couldn't agree more.
You look at a guy like Sam Darnold. And his arm strength/accuracy should pop off the screen. So why has it taken this long? Maybe just development (as Tom Brady has repeatedly talked about). Coaching, O-line, receivers, RBs/running game.
I think there is also this thing in football where people attribute wins and losses to QBs. As if the QB is the sole determinant of a win or a loss. It's like baseball with pitchers. Far too heavily rated as opposed to trying to isolate solely for QB play within the context of the talent around the QB.
FWIW, most power rankings had the Steelers around 15-16, all higher than the Seahawks, and the Steelers were favored to win the game.
Yes.
The Hawks were 2.5 point underdogs and it moved all the way to 3.5 prior to kick. Which is a big move through the 3.
It’s hard to know what to make of teams this early in the season. Oddsmakers and the markets are still figuring it out.
I know the markets may have shifted a bit towards the Hawks. They were 6.5 point favs against the saints and now are 7.5.
I think you could start to make an argument with Pitts big name players that are older that they are bit overrated and actually not a very good team. I think Rodgers is well below average at this stage.
Anyways, a win on the road should always be cherished and that was an important game.
Man, happy DK finally got a Red Zone jump ball. Also glad he had 2 drops plus some complaining to a ref WHILE HIS QB WAS SCRAMBLING TOWARDS HIM and we stopped them on 3rd down. Kupp won the day.
According to what I read in Mike Dugar’s new book about the LOB, a receiver coming off the line isolated against a safety is pretty much uncoverable. Anyway, DK’s TD was a nice play design by Pittsburgh and good recognition by Rogers: Send #81 in motion wide forcing Riq to his left away from Metcalf leaving DK isolated on Bryant. The nice thing is that when the Steelers tried that again later in the game, the Seahawks were prepared with a different formation. Rogers wound up throwing the other way and the ball was picked off in the end zone.
And Coby still almost punched it out
I loved how Jobe appeared to be baiting DK several times. Once I thought DK was going to be penalized, but…. oh well.
That play Darnold made to spin around under pressure and convert a third and 9 to Barner while deep in his own end was next level. He was also accurate on crossing routes over the middle into tight windows. Overall, I like what he showed today a lot, definitely more than last week.
Vikings also liked what Darnold showed today over their "choice". Yikes.
As a card carrying recliner QB, all I can say is "WHEW!" Well, not ALL I can say...DEFENSE!! I ran low on expletives in the first half but thanks to an awsome D I didn't need as many in the second half. When we can shoot ourselves in the foot twice (turn overs) with unerring accuracy and STILL win, it's mostly thanks to a 'Sea-Wall' D. Don't get me wrong (well, ok, you can if you want) Offense finally got their Seaducks in a row but it's the big guys up front on D that kept us in it. If Offense can continue to look like they did in the second half...I can cut way down on my expletive count (I like to save some for the playoffs).
On NFL.Com's website this morning, there's a piece called "Six early-season surprises".
#1 surprise on their list: SEATTLE'S DEFENSE!
Made my little heart go pitter pat
Wait! What!? Someone told NFL.COM Seattle has an NFL team? Love it when the national media is FORCED by great play to spend 10-20 seconds acknowedging our existence. Got a feeling any teams thinking Seahawks are a piece of cake are going to experience D-Zilla pop'n out of that cake and eating their QB. GO HAWKS!
Interesting metric......Advanced Expletive Ratio. Ratio of snaps to swear words.
Yeah, when things go south, it's next expletive up.
Does anybody know what the time of possession was between the two teams?
SEA 31:17 PIT 28:43
Seattle TOP was the final score.
Good catch. That's funny.
Thank you.
Read my post about how to download the Game Book. The TOP is in there.
“A.J. Barner caught the first touchdown of the game.”
Horton, wasn’t it?
Super frustrating first half. Felt like we dominated, other than a handful of catastrophic plays. Second half the bad plays mostly disappeared, and the touchdown on the kickoff really turned the tide. A few initial thoughts;
- Abe Lucas did not have a great day. I'm not sure what he'll grade out, but Watt was beating him to the outside repeatedly. There were a number of jail breaks inside too. But Sam hung in there, and limited additional mistakes in the second half. Abe had Bosa last week, and Watt this week, so he's in tough for sure. I can't be too critical of him.
- Tyrice Knight looked like he's back today. Made a bunch of key tackles.
- Josh Jobe is real. He played great, and had an awesome tackle late in the game to put a WR on his head.
- The defence generally played really well. I have to give Aaron Rogers credit. Not for playing well, but for getting up repeatedly. Murphy, Hall, Leo, J-Reed and others got his ass on the ground, and he kept getting up. D-Law roughed him up too.
- I don't think Sam Darnold would say he had a great game. But he bounced back from two mistakes to play tough. Stayed in the fight and made key plays. The pass to Barner on the fire drill to his left, and the deep ball to JSN were two huge 4th quarter clutch plays.
- K9 looked way more decisive today, mostly. A few dancing in the backfield moments, but he was better at getting in a lane and exploding. Hope he keeps it up. Charbs looked out of sync this week.
- When we came out in the 4th quarter in 'I' formation, and Robbie Smash squared up a LB and K9 ran to daylight, that was awesome. That's what I want to see.
- Tory Horton with his first catches and touchdown, Arroyo getting in the mix, Kupp looking like Kupp, and JSN with 100+ again. That's what it should look like. And Barner as well with a TD and another key play.
Solid win on the road. Just keep getting better.
Other thing that appeared to me, although I don't do drive charts, was that running inside left tackle (so Cross+Zabel) was almost always positive yardage and almost always no contact till past the line of scrimmage. Perhaps not Jones/Hutch, but is this the beginning of something good?
Zabel is the real deal. No question in my mind.
Not only did Horton get his first TD on his first reception but I believe it was also his first target in the NFL. He was so wide open and I was so impressed. Keep it up, young man and go off against the Saints. Go Hawks.
Abe did pretty well, all in all, against Watt pretty much on his own. He had a bad 4th quarter against him, but for the most part you didn't hear Watt's name much during the first 3 quarters.
Yeah … good notes. Saw it pretty much the same way.
I have to admit to having doubts after the first half. The offense seemed shaky and the play calling felt haphazard. Our run game, particularly on the perimeter was just stuffed. Then that disastrous 4th down pass went down.
That said, the defense was solid (aside from that crazy run after catch). Our pass rush had Aaron a little spooked. Our interior line was impressive. We can rush 4 really badass big men. Seattle's defense seems destined for greatness, showing just the seeds of what they could become. Even without 2 important pieces, they were dominant.
Sam Darnold had such a strong second half that now I feel guilty about doubting him. I also think K.K started to dial it in. Gotta love the tight end direct snap TD and also Robbie Ouzts just being out there.
Just for the sake of accuracy, the direct snap was a 4th down, not a TD.