– Josh Brown leads the NFC (3rd in the NFL) with 11 touchbacks. Last season he had a career-high 12.
– Ryan Plackemeier now has 17 total (2nd NFL) punts inside the 20 to two touchbacks.
– Nate Burleson joined Charlie Rogers as the only players to return a punt and kickoff for touchdowns in their Seattle careers.
– The Seahawks rank fourth in the NFL with 23 sacks. Seattle has two players in the top 11 in sacks with Julian Peterson (seven sacks) tied for sixth and Darryl Tapp (5.5) tied for 11th. Since the beginning of 2005, only San Diego (124) and Baltimore (117) have registered more sacks than Seattle (114).
– In two career games against Cleveland, Shaun Alexander has averaged 65 yards a game.
– In two career games against Clevland, Matt Hasselbeck has thrown for 506 yards, three touchdowns and possesses an 84.7 passer rating.
I think half those sacks came in two games, SF and St. Louis.
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Re: Brown & Plack – As far as touchbacks…I’d prefer he put it at the 1 and forced the opponent to think about it rather than just give them 20 yards. So, I’d say Plack is doing better than Josh on that front…of course, Josh has more points, so…
Does Nate win a date with Gretchen? (Inside joke
Half of the Giants’ sacks came in 1 game, Philly.
I’m not looking for stellar production from SA this week. I’ll be happy with 80-100 yards rushing total…and a ton of passing yards. With Branch and Hackett back, the emphasis should be on the air-game.
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Three years ago, I considered it a bonus if Josh Brown could get it to the five-yard line. Sure has come a long way.
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Atleast Burleson is cashing in on something…he isnt catching on to Mikes scheme in the offense.
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Regis, what are you talking about? Why wouldn’t you want a touchback on a kick-off? They still think about it even when he kicks it into the endzone, but our kick-return coverage is not great and I, for one, enjoy seeing them limited to the 20 yard line.
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We are also tied for 3rd with the Vikings in number of punts at 42… Behind San Francisco who has 48 and KC who has 44.
Cleveland has 27 punt attempts.
We are 28th in 3rd down percentage = 32.6%. Holmgren said 40% is really good. Well, more than half (21) of the NFL are at or above 40%.
The Browns are 7th = 46.6%
Obviously if you are converting 3rd downs you are punting less. The Browns have had 87 3rd downs and the Hawks 92.
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Brown’s leg strength has increased each season as a Hawk. His first season, a log kickoff for him came down between the 10 and the 5 yard line. How he’s hitting the end zone with regularity.
If only all the Hawks were improving to the degree he is…
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I’d take a touchback every time.
It’s interesting to me that we are 3rd in sacks since 2005. I’m betting most NFL fans don’t know this, and I’m betting most Seahawk fans don’t know it. It’s not the impression you get watching the Seahawks play. A lot of the time they leave the impression that they can’t get to the passer at all (NO, Pittsburgh, Arizona, Cincinnati) while other times (Tampa, San Fran, St. Louis) we are all over the QB.
It seems to be an all-or-nothing proposition with this team.
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pokey… leave this FREE blog and go pay $$$ to enjoy the insider at ESPN and take your interuptions with you
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Toy94x4:
People like that aren’t even worth the crud underneath their cave dweller fingernails.
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If anybody cared,
Bryce Fisher finally got on the field for the Tennessee Titans this weekend for a few snaps, he had been on the inactive list since the trade.
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The touchmack stadnings have a lot to do with scoring. Other than
the game start or half-time the kicker only gets kick-off after his
team has scored. More scoring – more chances for touchbacks.
A percentage of touchbacks on the number of kickoffs might be a more
revealing stat.
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I agree Sharpclaw–when are you going to get that stat for us?
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I pulled these from the NFL.com boxscores for each game. By the look of it, they don’t do stats on the defensive side of a kickoff. They’ll tell you which teams is the best at returning kickoffs, but they don’t track where teams stand against a kickoff return statistically. Maybe I’m just looking on the wrong sites…maybe Frank would like a project
TB: 4/22
AZ: 1/19
CIN: 6/36
SF: 4/23
PIT: 0/0
NO: 0/0
STL: 7/24
—
TOT: 22/124 –> 5.64 ypc
Judging by the PIT & NO play-by-plays, they do not include touchbacks in those numbers (we only had one kickoff in PIT and it was a touchback; we had two kickoffs for touchback against NO plus one onsides which they recovered and didn’t advance). So, these numbers reflect yards gained on actual return attempts. As you can see, we do a pretty good job. In addition, if the opponent attempts a return, you have a chance to knock it loose and get it back.
I don’t have time to check on average starting position for these, so if someone else would like to dig, thanx in advance.
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“I’m not looking for stellar production from SA this week. I’ll be happy with 80-100 yards rushing total…and a ton of passing yards. With Branch and Hackett back, the emphasis should be on the air-game.”
Ummm that WOULD BE a steller game for $haunie at this point! Actually for just about every RB in the NFL 100 yards is considered steller (in this season of split RBs).
I’d totally expect Matt to get 500 yards passing (ok more like 400) and at least 3 TD’s! Clev’s passing D is a crappy 28th. There’s a reason why $haunie is only averaging 65 yards per game against CLEV… however… what’s his TD average vs CLEV? I’d expect… no …. DEMAND he gets at least 1 TD against CLEV’s 31st rush D.
That’s not so much to ask is it?
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“Obviously if you are converting 3rd downs you are punting less. The Browns have had 87 3rd downs and the Hawks 92.”
Wonder how many punts the browns had vs PITS and NE two teams they have lost to.
I also wonder what CLEV would do if they lost their #1 WR like we did.
Bet the punts would go up.
Not an excuse, just reality.
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“It’s interesting to me that we are 3rd in sacks since 2005. I’m betting most NFL fans don’t know this, and I’m betting most Seahawk fans don’t know it. It’s not the impression you get watching the Seahawks play. A lot of the time they leave the impression that they can’t get to the passer at all (NO, Pittsburgh, Arizona, Cincinnati) while other times (Tampa, San Fran, St. Louis) we are all over the QB.”
D man wakes up in the morning and says *cough* i dont feel like going to work today.
Next week
D man wakes up and says… i feel like a sack or two for breakfast.
Yeah… it’s like that.
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btw here’s the stats i pulled from the “hawks mail” email i receive.
The Seahawks Offense Ranks:
16th in total offense – 324.9 yds/game
12th in passing yards – 232.3 yds/game
22nd in rushing yards – 92.6 yds/game
19th in scoring – 137 points scored
5th in turnover margin – +7 turnovers
The Seahawks Defense Ranks:
13th in total defense – 320.1 yds/game
16th in passing yards – 212.7 yds/game
13th in rushing yards – 107.4 yds/game
4th in scoring – 108 points against
4th in sacks – 23 total sacks
ANd here is D Anderson’s stats on the season… notice the 8 sacks…. go ahead and add 5 more to that for this week’s game
G GS Comp Att Pct Yds Avg TD Int Sck SckY Rate
2007 Cleveland Browns 7 6 119 209 56.9 1,744 8.3 17 8 8 75 95.5
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Um…I said rushing total, not Shaun alone.
Game – SA – Team
TB(W) – 105 – 139
AZ(L) – 70 – 84
CIN(W) – 100 – 102
SF(W) – 78 – 93
PIT(L) – 25 – 38
NO(L) – 35 – 92
STL(W) – 47 – 100
Our 3 lowest rushing total games (as a team) have been losses. The trend follows the team, not Shaun, who is 1-2 on his 3 lowest. However 2 of the team’s 3 lowest were in the low 90s, so maybe I should up my expectations…if we get 95+ rushing as a team, I’ll be happy.
Your expectations for Matt are in fantasy world. High 300s would be great. TDs will be split between SA & Weaver on the short yardage plays and Branch/Hackett/Engram, so 3 passing TDs may be possible, but pounding the ball in from 1st and goal is just as likely.
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your right that’s what i meant to say
300 total passing yards from Matt would be great.
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No updates concerning the Seahawks practice yesterday? Thanks for nothing Frank!
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Um Irshprde24, the team DOESN’T practice on Tuesdays during the regular season. Try getting a clue before you go ripping on someone.
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Surprising Seattle 3rd in sacks in that time. You don’t really think of Hawks as a big sack team, not simce Jacob Green retired anyway. They always seem to get Matt dropped more than they get opponent. Vision can be narrow it seems. Maybe the Alexander whiners will take another look at how they view the best rb the Hawks have ever had.
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Chuck, they don’t practice on Tuesday after a whole week off during a bye? OK…sounds retarded, but I stand corrected.
Any updates on Shauns cast? Shaun did practice Monday, right?
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navy — I agree with your point.
Regis — Interesting numbers. After looking at them, I still would like a touchback. I would rather avoid injuries, dumb penalties, and a run back for a TD. It appears to me that with the numbers you collected, a touchback is not too dissimilar anyway. I doubt we will see many balls knocked out anymore this season, but maybe it could happen. Thanks for working on that.
Irishguy — Why are you so concerned about Shaun’s cast? Why is anyone so concerned? I do not place the running problems only on Shaun, and therefore the removal of the cast is going to only serve as a reminder that our running game stinks for more than one reason. I would love to see him bust out a great game sans cast, for the sake of all of our sanity who love watching the Hawks,but in reality I do not see this happening because of the multitude of issues causing the running problems.
Wouldn’t it be hilarious if this game on Sunday, which everyone sees as this airborne assault for a thousand yards and 200 points, turned into a field goal game?
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Lots of poison today. Why?
At nfl.com you can pull kicking stats and it will tell you the statistics for percentages of touchbacks. Here is that link:
http://www.nfl.com/stats/categorystats;jsessionid=82EACBBAC4188AF4CEFD2ADBD33DB821?season=2007&seasonType=REG&d-447263-o=2&tabSeq=0&statisticCategory=KICKING&d-447263-p=1&d-447263-s=KICKOFF_TOUCHBACKS_PERCENTAGE&d-447263-n=1
Josh Brown is 4th in the league in TB percentage, behind the greatness that is: Matt Prater (ATL) who is a kickoff specialist, Sebastian Janikowski (OAK) who doesn’t have to dress up on Halloween, and Olindo Mare (NO), who kicks in a dome. So I’d say we’ve got off to a great start in this area.
Another factor to consider- as the weather cools down throughout the US, the dome kickers get more TB’s, and the outdoor kickers get fewer, as the ball doesn’t carry as far. So I’d expect Josh to fall in the rankings due to his climate for home games. Golfers understand this one very well. He isn’t allowed to use an extra club… Either way, its nice to have a kicker as well-rounded as Josh.
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anyone know what the hawks record is coming out of the bye week?
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stumptownhawk
http://www.nfl.com
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About the Hawks defense–if its surprising that they have a ton of sacks the last three years, that may be because they get sacks on first or second down a lot, then give up huge yards on third down. Thier third down defense is really terrible this year, so the sacks dont mean much… a great third down percentage is worth more than a ton of sacks. Who cares about Petersons 7 sacks when he got several only to see the team give up first downs and points?
On Josh Brown–it always amazed me that he could boot a 55 yard field goal most of the time, and yet kick it only to the 5 yard line. Its great to see his kickoffs improving so much. MVP thus far–either him or Plack, but Plack has some ugly punts this year too…
A side note–aint it great to EXPECT 100 yard rushing games and the playoffs??! It wasnt too long ago we prayed the Hawks would have a couple 100 yard games a year and maybe make the playoffs at 9-7. As bad as things have looked this year, we have legitimate hope for a playoff win and a solid base to build from next year through the draft and free agency if this season ends in disappointment. It sure could be worse! Look at the raiders, bungles, and dolphins…no playoff wins in sight…
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