Wednesday, January 12, 2005
i've been running from it all week, but everywhere i turn today i see the seahawks losing.
i keep thinking it over and over, just like i was during the game. why the hell were all those defensive backs on the field so much trying to play zone defense against a vertical offense designed to stretch upfield to kill zone defenses. it took marcus trufant and ken lucas out of the picture because their recievers would just run away from their zones and slip in between manuel and richard and those other dudes who should have been on the bench. that stupid deep zone stunt screwed us all year. i don't think it ever worked, but every game in the 4th quarter we'd get down and you'd see 6 or 7 guys out there spread out over 30 or 40 yards, with 4 guys on the line trying to rush the passer. all the qbs had to do was sit there until they saw their dudes streaking towards the back pockets in the zone in the middle of the field away from our two best defenders who were covering the deep outside lanes, then unload towards the endzone and let their dude prance underneath while our backup dbs are diligently covering the short and middle inside slant zones like they've been told to do. it is like playing with 7 or 8 defenders on the field instead of 11. it just didn't stop anyone, at all.
when the rams ran 5 recievers onto the field, you kind of need those guys out there, but they were misused. i'd put trufant and lucas on holt and bruce, knowing they are the deep speed threat. then put hamlin cheating up a little for the quick slant/last ditch run stop guy, with two guys behind him, all with coverage assignments for the other 3 recievers. that leaves another lone safety deep in the middle of the field, ready to break towards the ball, or cheat over if he sees someone with the chance to get open on a deep inside slant.
would it have kill us to have 5 linemen on the field during these 5 reciever sets instead of having 7 dbs or an extra linebacker in, especially with all the injuries we had? no one gets double teamed, so you can get a legitimate pass rush. we have chad brown who could move from olb in as an end when winstrom is injured, and antonio cochran waiting as our third down guy fresh just waiting for these chances to get in the game. the 4 man rush wasn't working, at all. having that one linebacker sitting back there waiting for the running back who's not on the field wasting a spot. if they are going to put up a flimsy line up there to overplay towards the pass, lets throw some serious beef at them and collapse the pocket.
don't even get me started on how we over played the pass and still got beat on their 3 and 4 receiver sets with our crazy zones. the rams destroyed zones twice this season. oh wait, we need to stick within the system. the system will prevail. the system that ranked 26th in the freaking league or whatever we dropped too! we are so scared to death of that damn deep pass that we take our best players away from what they do best, and it beats us every time. but what do i know.
so in the offseason, who do we keep? we should resign chike and lucas on defense, hasselbeck and walter jones on offense. after that, i don't really care. it would be nice to see towbeck and porkchop womack come back too. alexander can go get his rushing title for a last place team in miami, then slowly decline into oblivion. mili is a good guy to have around, especially since our receivers are balls. that would give us 3 good tight ends. the offense really needs koren robinson to step up as a deep thread, and jerramy stevens to step up as a the inside short threat. they should be our future, not bobby engram. none of them can catch balls anyways, i'd rather have our young guys dropping them.
koren robinson is the key to next season unless we get another #1 reciever, which is unlikely. darrel jackson is not a number one. he makes an awesome #2, but he doesn't have #1 potential in him. if koren robinson doesn't really step it up this offseason and get into shape, our passing game is still shaky, and our offense will always revolve around the passing game as long as holmgren is here. as much as i love alexander, he is wasted on this team, and won't be worth as much as we would have to pay him. i just wish he fit into the offense a little better. imagine how scary it would be if he would block every once in a while, then roll out into the flat and get the ball in open field off a screen. of course, hasselback would have to see him, throw the ball to him instead of behind him or over him, then he would have to catch the ball. all of these things seem to be beyond our capabilities
anyways, now that i have that all out, injuries killed us on defense this season. having winstrom and chad brown on the field at the same time is a nice prospect for next season :D and hey, despite all of our suckage, we still won the nfc west championship! that was awesome. i have faith in our teams' ability to not suck as much, and if we can do that we have a good shot at another division championship next season. and if we do that, we make it to the playoffs again, and have another shot at fame and glory and uncountable riches. i still love the seahawks, and at least this year was entertaining. so, as we say in seattle sports land, next season will be different!
i keep thinking it over and over, just like i was during the game. why the hell were all those defensive backs on the field so much trying to play zone defense against a vertical offense designed to stretch upfield to kill zone defenses. it took marcus trufant and ken lucas out of the picture because their recievers would just run away from their zones and slip in between manuel and richard and those other dudes who should have been on the bench. that stupid deep zone stunt screwed us all year. i don't think it ever worked, but every game in the 4th quarter we'd get down and you'd see 6 or 7 guys out there spread out over 30 or 40 yards, with 4 guys on the line trying to rush the passer. all the qbs had to do was sit there until they saw their dudes streaking towards the back pockets in the zone in the middle of the field away from our two best defenders who were covering the deep outside lanes, then unload towards the endzone and let their dude prance underneath while our backup dbs are diligently covering the short and middle inside slant zones like they've been told to do. it is like playing with 7 or 8 defenders on the field instead of 11. it just didn't stop anyone, at all.
when the rams ran 5 recievers onto the field, you kind of need those guys out there, but they were misused. i'd put trufant and lucas on holt and bruce, knowing they are the deep speed threat. then put hamlin cheating up a little for the quick slant/last ditch run stop guy, with two guys behind him, all with coverage assignments for the other 3 recievers. that leaves another lone safety deep in the middle of the field, ready to break towards the ball, or cheat over if he sees someone with the chance to get open on a deep inside slant.
would it have kill us to have 5 linemen on the field during these 5 reciever sets instead of having 7 dbs or an extra linebacker in, especially with all the injuries we had? no one gets double teamed, so you can get a legitimate pass rush. we have chad brown who could move from olb in as an end when winstrom is injured, and antonio cochran waiting as our third down guy fresh just waiting for these chances to get in the game. the 4 man rush wasn't working, at all. having that one linebacker sitting back there waiting for the running back who's not on the field wasting a spot. if they are going to put up a flimsy line up there to overplay towards the pass, lets throw some serious beef at them and collapse the pocket.
don't even get me started on how we over played the pass and still got beat on their 3 and 4 receiver sets with our crazy zones. the rams destroyed zones twice this season. oh wait, we need to stick within the system. the system will prevail. the system that ranked 26th in the freaking league or whatever we dropped too! we are so scared to death of that damn deep pass that we take our best players away from what they do best, and it beats us every time. but what do i know.
so in the offseason, who do we keep? we should resign chike and lucas on defense, hasselbeck and walter jones on offense. after that, i don't really care. it would be nice to see towbeck and porkchop womack come back too. alexander can go get his rushing title for a last place team in miami, then slowly decline into oblivion. mili is a good guy to have around, especially since our receivers are balls. that would give us 3 good tight ends. the offense really needs koren robinson to step up as a deep thread, and jerramy stevens to step up as a the inside short threat. they should be our future, not bobby engram. none of them can catch balls anyways, i'd rather have our young guys dropping them.
koren robinson is the key to next season unless we get another #1 reciever, which is unlikely. darrel jackson is not a number one. he makes an awesome #2, but he doesn't have #1 potential in him. if koren robinson doesn't really step it up this offseason and get into shape, our passing game is still shaky, and our offense will always revolve around the passing game as long as holmgren is here. as much as i love alexander, he is wasted on this team, and won't be worth as much as we would have to pay him. i just wish he fit into the offense a little better. imagine how scary it would be if he would block every once in a while, then roll out into the flat and get the ball in open field off a screen. of course, hasselback would have to see him, throw the ball to him instead of behind him or over him, then he would have to catch the ball. all of these things seem to be beyond our capabilities
anyways, now that i have that all out, injuries killed us on defense this season. having winstrom and chad brown on the field at the same time is a nice prospect for next season :D and hey, despite all of our suckage, we still won the nfc west championship! that was awesome. i have faith in our teams' ability to not suck as much, and if we can do that we have a good shot at another division championship next season. and if we do that, we make it to the playoffs again, and have another shot at fame and glory and uncountable riches. i still love the seahawks, and at least this year was entertaining. so, as we say in seattle sports land, next season will be different!
