Vision Board: Seahawks-Browns

Boye Mafe, Ken Walker say, 'It's the 90's': Seaside Joe 1700

In the last edition of the Vision Board for Seahawks-Cardinals, I envisioned:

3 touchdowns for Geno Smith

Special teams trick play

2 interceptions, 1 fumble recovery off Josh Dobbs

Geno had two first half touchdowns then really just gave away further opportunities to score. Dobbs had no interceptions (unofficially, Devon Witherspoon had one) but was sacked four times and fumbled once but it wasn’t recovered by the defense.

My best vision here is the special teams trick play…It wasn’t by the Seahawks but it certainly did help the Seahawks.

Down 17-10 in the fourth quarter (damn, I forgot that this was still a 7-point game with under 3 minutes left), the Cardinals ran an abysmal attempt at a fake punt/pass by backup QB Clayton Tune, which all but sealed Arizona’s fate.

I’m just going to take partial credit for all three visions and calculate a final score of 1 out of 3 correct. For the season that puts the Seaside Joe Vision Board at:

9 out of 18

I think 50% sounds good! How are your visions going this season?

It seems like the only way to do visions this week is to call back some of the best movie scenes from the ‘90s…

Ken Walker becomes the sole breadwinner

Awards have always seemed silly to me but I can’t help to not think about Oscars for acting when watching this scene by Annette Benning in American Beauty.

“Oh-Oh-Oh-Oh and I want to THANK YOU for putting me under the added pressure of being the sole breadwinner now. No, no don’t give a second thought as to who’s going to pay the mortgage! We’ll just leave it all up to Carolyn…’You’re going to take care of everything now, Carolyn?’ ‘Yes, I don’t mind, I really don’t!’ ‘You mean everything, you don’t mind having the sole responsibility? Your husband feels he can just QUIT HIS JOB?’”

In this matchup against the Cleveland Browns, just substitute Benning with Ken Walker and Kevin Spacey with Geno Smith…and I guess the daughter would be…Shane Waldron?

A stat noted by Warren Sharp this week on Twitter points out that Geno Smith is ranked 36th out of 36 qualified QBs in yards per attempt against man coverage. If you prefer EPA per attempt, Geno ranks 35th out of 36.

And as I noted earlier this week, as is well documented by others too, the Browns play the most man coverage defense in the NFL because they have the personnel to pull it off.

If the Seahawks offense is struggling in the red zone against the Bengals and Cardinals, what are they going to do against the Cleveland Browns? Ranked first in all important defensive categories prior to last week’s mini-collapse against the Colts (and still the defense basically won the game because of Myles Garrett), the Browns are the toughest defense that Geno Smith has faced all season.

That’s why I’ve had this game circled on my calendar for weeks.

Cleveland is slightly more vulnerable against the run than the pass, ranking 7th in run defense DVOA as compared to first against the pass. They’ve allowed just as many rushing touchdowns (6) as they have passing touchdowns. They gave up 168 rushing yards to Jonathan Taylor, Zack Moss, and Gardner Minshew last week, with Minshew scoring twice on the ground.

Ken Walker, the NFL leader in broken/missed tackles forced, had 105 rushing yards last week.

That was without Zach Charbonnet, who will be available this week. So it could and probably should be a committee against the Browns (Kenny McIntosh is back on the roster but won’t make his NFL debut this time) and that could eat into Walker’s final tally. However, it won’t diminish the impact that Seattle’s running back duo needs to have against Cleveland.

The Vision: Walker gets 80 yards, 1 TD, 2 runs of 15+ yards

I’m being fairly conservative but expect this to be a low-scoring game. I’ll add in that Zach Charbonnet sets a new career-high for rushing yards, with his current best being 46 yards against the Panthers. As long as the Seahawks have more offense than the Browns, that’ll be…the most beautiful thing ever put on film:

Seahawks take Browns to Club Skunk

Fun Fact: 10 Things I Hate About You was filmed at Stadium High School in Tacoma.

Fun Fact: The Seahawks are facing a quarterback who has been held without a touchdown in 13 of his 17 career appearances

P.J. Walker is making his ninth career start on Sunday, his second with the Browns and his third prolonged appearance of the season: Walker went 18-of-34 with 192 yards and two interceptions against the 49ers, and went 15-of-32 for 178 yards and one interception against the Colts.

Both wins.

In his 13 career games with at least 10 pass attempts, Walker has a combined four touchdowns and 14 interceptions. HALF of his scoring production, out of 294 pass attempts, came in a 21-3 win over the Bucs when he was on the Panthers last season.

The Vision: The Seahawks hold the Browns to 0 offensive touchdowns

I want to go as far as to say that Seattle completely shuts out the Browns, but there are so many things that need to go right for that to happen. Cleveland’s defense could score. Their special teams could score. And kicker Dustin Hopkins is already 7-of-7 on field goal attempts of 50+ yards.

To put a shutout in perspective: The Browns had a 1-31 stretch over two seasons under Hue Jackson and they were never shutout during that time.

The Browns were last shutout December 14, 2014.

So I see the Seahawks taking the Browns to Club Skunk…but maybe through the backdoor.

Boye Mafe continues his throwback BLUE streak

I want to personally thank Martin Lawrence for making the movie Blue Streak in 1999 so I could officially use it as the vision for Boye Mafe today. If it had come out in 2000, I don’t know what I would have done.

The franchise record for most games in a row with a sack is held by Michael Sinclair, who had six straight between 1997 and 1998. But the record within a single season is five in a row, which has been done by Cliff Avril (2016), Chad Brown (2002), Rufus Porter (1989), Fredd Young (1987), and Jeff Bryant (1983).

Boye Mafe has had a sack in four straight games.

The Vision: Boye Mafe continues sack streak

The Browns have given up a sack on 8.7% of pass plays, sixth-highest in the NFL.

For what it’s worth, of the seven teams with the worst EPA on passing plays in the NFL this season, Seattle will have already played five of those teams by the end of Week 8: Browns (32nd), Giants (30th), Panthers (28th), Bengals (27th), and Cardinals (26th).

All the Seahawks defense can do is take advantage of their opportunities. This is certainly another one of those.

Mafe…he’s the man.

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