Seahawks quarterback Matt Hasselbeck talked to reporters this afternoon after head coach Jim Mora’s press conference.
He seemed in good spirits for someone who just suffered a fractured rib, and said he actually feels okay.
“I have definitely felt worse,” he said. “What I have is a painful injury, but I definitely have woken up on a Monday feeling worse. I don’t feel that bad, and that’s very encouraging.”
Hasselbeck then stated his intention on playing against Chicago on Sunday, and also said he’s played with a similar injury before during his time with the team.
“I’m absolutely hoping to play, absolutely,” Hasselbeck said. “I don’t know. That was the question I asked our medical staff, that I asked our doctors, and we didn’t have a whole lot of information last night when I talked to them. And there’s more information this week, so we’re focused on just trying to get better as quick as possible. So I’m hopeful.”
Hasselbeck said on the play he injured his rib, he couldn’t breathe, and was trying to get off the field in order to get Seneca Wallace in the game so the Seahawks could complete the drive with a score.
Hasselbeck said that’s why his face was red — he wasn’t getting any air.
“I was trying to get off the field because I didn’t want us to have to waste a timeout,” he said. “And our trainers like three of them, tackled me.”
On the scramble to get into the end zone, this is what Hasselbeck had to say.
“I was trying to score a touchdown, trying to get close,” Hasselbeck said. “I think we had a minute to go. It’s a situation we’ve worked on. We don’t want to leave any time on the clock. The play was designed to go to John (Carlson) or T.J. (Houshmandzadeh), and you know, it just didn’t happen. Those guys were covered.
“There was a crease, and I thought maybe I could get in. And Patrick Willis came in from the backside, and had he not touched me I maybe would have scored.”
Hasselbeck said he’ll treat and rehab his injury this week, but is approaching this Sunday like he will play.
“Especially with the amount of guys we have banged up, I think that’s just an important part of any football team, is guys to realize the difference between pain and injury, and just give the team everything you got,” he said. “And put it in the coaches hands to decide who gives us our best chance to win this week, or what’s the best thing to do. But as a player, that’s not your call. Your job is to just go out there and give them what you got.”
Listen to a snippet of the conversation with Hasselbeck here.
MP3:
Matt is a warrior and one of my favorite Hawks of all time!
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I know there has been some hate on these boards for the way Matt plays, but I love this guy. He plays with a warrior’s mentality and is not afraid to sacrifice his body (for better or worse). There is no doubt that he is our leader.
Praying for a speedy recovery, Matt!
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Here’s the deal with rib injuries… If it is a lower rib injury you can play without it impeding the deep breaths that you take. It will hurt like a son of a bitch if he gets hit. Typically you can play with a flak jacket which I think hasselbeck did either in 04 or 06. If it is an upper rib injury that’s when people cannot function as well as every breathe you take stresses the muscles that sit between the upper ribs.
Hasselbeck is a warrior but I wonder of the severity of his fracture and the placement. I say keep the marriage of hass and jones. Hasselbeck plays when big walt is there to protect.
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Bobby & Lefty – I am in total agreement. Over the course of his time in Seattle he has played with abandon and without fear. I would have it no other way. I admire and respect the hell out of him. “Especially with the amount of guys we have banged up…” He is going to give this team everything he has in order to help them win. Good luck, Matt.
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One other thing; I’m sure some / most of us have had the wind knocked out of us at one time or another. Can any of you imagine getting up and running, directly afterward? It’s happened to me, playing football too and I can tell you this; I did not pop up to run off the field in an attempt to get my replacement in. The more I think about that, the more impressed I am.
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I totally agree with and echo the sentiments above, Matt is a warrior. Anybody who disagrees or thinks the Hawks are better off without him are just flat wrong. I’ll leave it at that. On another subject, it sure would be nice to have a Gore or Portis or something along that line to take some real pressure off of Matt. There were seams there yesterday that I think could be exploited by a Stud RB. Well here’s to a quick recovery for Matt.
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Go Hawks
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If Mathew takes another hit to anywhere near the region of the fracture it will cause greater and longer lasting pain than before. He should sit out 2-3 games atleast. Even then we have a chance if Wallace can squeek out one win out of three, which i think he could(he’s no matt though)! The #@$% niners seemed like the were playing dirty ball!
What was up with the no calls by BillyXL??? I saw plenty of holding by niners Oline and when matt slid feet first he drew contact that should have been called as roughing!!! Bill is a pathetic Ref, definitely why we lost XL.
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“Bobby & Lefty – I am in total agreement. Over the course of his time in Seattle he has played with abandon and without fear. I would have it no other way. I admire and respect the hell out of him. “Especially with the amount of guys we have banged up…” He is going to give this team everything he has in order to help them win. Good luck, Matt. ”
Same here. He’s still the heart of this team.
You know, I wonder if Matt would rather that the rest of the world (i.e. the Bears, the Colts) not know that he actually brok his rib – I guess in the days of Twitter and guys like Adam Shefter (do you figure he called the hospital directly?) , there’s not much news about the NFL that doesn’t go public in a hurry.
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That’s a great question. I think that’s why teams are so secretive about injuries. Not letting your opponent know what you weaknesses or frailties are.
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You know those long TD runs wouldn’t have been ripped off by Gore if Lofa was in. I thought hawthorne was dependable–oops.
Someone else mentioned the safety play and I recently saw the highlight of one of gores td runs, give up a “big-play’ babs did take some horrible angles and I’m curious if the blogger was right, that Babs was playing safety in 06 when gore torched us. GO HAWKS…….DOWN WITH DENVER.
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Did you see the Redskins barely hand it to the Rams!?!?!? Either we really are that good on offense and can run the rock(and our last game was a fluke), or poor jimmy zorn has his team tumbling down hill faster than Danny O’neil working at getting himself fired from the PI. Does he actually get paid by the PI or is he just a volunteer!?!?!? Maybe his uncle owns the business.
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I’d like to think that with Lofa in it wouldn’t have happened, but I can’t say that. Plenty of teams have run ruffshod over them when he’s been in. He and Mebane together? That certainly cuts the chances down.
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Remember, Seattle did install a new defensive scheme. Usually, it takes at least a few games, if not an entire season, for the team to pick it up. I am not really surprised at defensive lapses – disappointed perhaps, but not really surprised. Essentially, it’s an all new staff, it’s just we don’t think of it that way since Mora was here last year.
Quick defensive turnarounds usually only happen when someone brings in a much simplified system, which can temporarily get more out of a defense until teams learn how to attack it.
The 49ers are a good example. They didn’t really do that well with the Nolan defense, Singletary makes some changes and by the end of the year their defense looks pretty solid. And it built upwards from there. Seattle’s about 7 games behind San Francisco based on that measuring stick.
The QWest noise covered up a lot of sins last week. I think we can expect Seattle’s defense to be somewhat inconsistent the next few weeks (especially with the injuries) but hopefully it will improve as players get used to it in game conditions, and (cross my fingers) people come back from injuries.
The same can be said for the offense, though with a veteran QB it ought to go a bit faster than the defense would be expected to.
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Well, we did have two backups and a rookie as our LB corp. I thought I saw two guys go to the same gap and Gore ran thru the empty gap….both times.
Matt is right up there as one of my favorite Seahawks of all time. He may not be “the” top QB in the NFL, but he’s head and shoulders above most of the league. He is the best we’ve had, and I appreciate everything he’s given, esp ’05. I also wonder what Matt’s stats would be if his receivers had not led the league in drops almost every year.
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In actuality, as bad as we played, and we were terrible, statistically speaking the 9ers only dominated in time of posession and rushing yds. As much crap as I took from all my homies back in the bay area the 9ers aren’t that good. We just played horribly. Catch any of the 6 dropped passes and drives continued. I’m not as despondent as I was following the game. The reality is we are probably a year or two away from being a premiere team in the NFL. Sorry to say. All is not lost and we still have time this year. I do want revenge on the 9ers though.
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I agree YeeHawks…
If Burleson makes that tough catch in traffic, I think there’s better than a 50/50 chance that we win that game. As poorly as we played, and we played poorly, we had plenty of chances and I’m confident we can get this train rolling if we can get relatively healthy.
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11 injured first teamers …..what is this bad luck?
Hasselbeck, Grifith, Branch, Jones, Spencer, Locklear, Mebane, Hill, Tatupu, Wilson, and Trufant …….. none of those 11 were on the field in the 4th quarter of the 49ers game.
I hope they are getting the injuries out of the way early in the season, and will be healthy when it matters most.
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My concern with blaming Burleson for the loss, and that’s essentially what’s happening here, is that they lost by 13. Perhaps that changes the how the game is played from that point on. But considering how poorly they played in so many different areas, I don’t think one can hang the loss on that dropped pass.
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From that moment… I think momentum changed a lot… We still may have lost and you lose as a team, but I just think that play really stands out in my mind.
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I think Kerney trying to pick up the LoJack caused fumble and not falling on it was a big mistake that cost us the ball and good field position.
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Nate tried to run before he caught the pass. He saw a 5 to 10 yard run staring him in the face.
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Did TE Owens drop two passes right over the middle that would have given us first downs possibly? Is that why everyone on the Hawks was so surprised when he made that great TD catch in the pre-season??
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Matt is a warrior? Are you people kidding me? How many warriors fell to the ground like bags of rocks on a regular basis? He is a baby and excuse maker, get ready for another season of him being mediocre, making a mistake and then wincing and grabbing a body part to indicate that he was hurt and had a bad play because he was hurt. He will kill the team with his fake bravery, taking snaps fromnoodle-armed Wallace in the process and drag this sorry season out. He isn’t a warrior, he is a liability, a liability that should have been dealt with this offseason.
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I’m afraid that like in the years since we’ve lost Hutch and Tubbs we were beaten at the LOS. Until we can restore dominence in the trenches and get a RB who will consistently get positive yardage and break off the big gain, we will continue to be roughed up by even the most mediocre teams. I believe in Matt and I think he can lead us to a Superbowl win. But, he must get reliable run support. And as far as the defensive side, we need to be able to stop the run from the inside out.
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hellomouthbreathers – Lol, good one.
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hellomouthbreathers – your douchebaggery continues to impress me. and by ‘impress’, i of course mean ‘entertain’.
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princeaden – no doubt you are right. We still haven’t solved the LOS problems we had then, but have faith. We are building!
Last weekend we didn’t have our best defensive lineman, Mebane, but he will be back! We didn’t have our best offensive lineman, Jones, but he will be back! Plus Spencer getting healthy means we have depth on the interior offensive line, and Cole and Redding give us unprecedented depth on the interior defensive line.
We still don’t have a Tubbs or a Hutch, but we have depth. The Seahawks are building this team on the LOS and I think a tougher team will emerge this year!
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“noodle-armed Wallace” Hey does that come with marinara sauce ? Sounds like a menu item at a bad Italian restaurant !
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Hard not to chime in, my pick for blame goes to Babs which has been pointed by others. One-on-one with a shot at a RB and he doesn’t get a finger on him…..twice. Gore is no Barry Sanders, no major moves, just straight ahead and gone. Demoralizing giving up 14 points from 79 and 80 yards out. Those 2 plays are still killing my hopes 40 hours later, almost as bad as Ryan friggin’ Grant.
I still don’t think we have played well against the run ever since that GB playoff game, oh yeah, the one where Babs dropped an easy interception of Farve. All right, I’m done venting. Babs, you owe us about 4 pick 6’s.
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I thought about that playoff game as well. That’s the most disheartening thing about it, is that those runs were right up the gut. Not unlike how the Bears pounded the rock right up the middle in that 37-6 beat down in Soldier Field.
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Regarding the high number of injuries, any thought on how Ruskell drafts highly skilled smaller guys vs larger/faster. Years of that and we’ll have more injuries on average.
Also – I hate thinking about next years draft early cause we have lots of time this year – but obviously we need a safety early in next years draft. I put RB and safety ahead of QB, cause I believe we have years of Matt and Seneca. Lets hope mgt does not band-aid a position. Lets get the younger guys more time.
Curry needs to learn to stay home, and not over think his position. I think if Hill or Lofa was there, he would have performed much better. They would have given him an earful.
I hope Teel gets more time with the second team this week, and gets more face time with his coaches. Teel may be our future, and we dont know it yet.
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For the first run you have to look at Curry first, he was out of position, both he and Herring went to the defensive left, leaving the gap wide opened. Yes Babs took a bad angle, misjudging Gores speed . . . but I guess I do not expect much from a safety these days . . . not since the good ol days of 84 . . .
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BTW– Did DD Lewis play? Why wasnt he in there?
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Maybe more base defense against Gore will be one change made for the next 9ers game? Better able to catch Gore before he breaks the long one and hold him to 5 to 6 yards a pop and hope to hold him to less. It seems as if the Hawks “load the box” strategy might have backfired in hindsight (always 20/20)
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bird_spit,
In the past your concern about Seattle’s smaller players might have been accurate. But this season Seattle has one of the largest Defensive front lines in the NFL. Curry is a beast with both size and speed. The only smallish players on Seattle’s D this year are Lofa (who wasn’t in for Gore’s runs) and Wilson who was outside the play.
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Agree with chuck. I don’t think you can blame Ruskell’s drafting or size of Seattle’s defenders.
San Franciso victimized a rookie’s (Curry’s) tendency to over-pursue, they victimized Kerney’s tendency to over-pursue, and they victimized backup linebackers Hawthorne and Herring. Then, they got lucky when it turned out Babs wasn’t ready to play safety against a good run game.
Basically, I think Singletary and Manusky looked at Seattle’s defensive tendencies (8-in-the-box, get off the line quick, don’t think, just pursue) and game-planned very well for them.
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Why is hellomouthbreathers so angry at the world?
Lay on the ground and let patrick willis get a run at you.
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Go with base D and hope for the best. At least more D players between Gore and the endzone.
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They were putting 8 men in the box as it was and Gore still gashed them. I think Stevo provides a fairly accurate account as to why. All but referring to Babs poor angles as luck. Unfortunately we have seen that movie, so to speak, before.
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Yeah, Curry overpursued, but he’s a rook, I expect some uneven play out of him for most of the season…just so long as he’s learning from his mistakes…same for Hawthorne and Herring…Absent those two runs, and statistically, we did a pretty good job…and looking around the rest of the league, for a defense that has as many injuries as we’ve got, we’re pretty much kicking butt…and our backups are getting experience…so long as it doesn’t go on TOO long, this is a good thing…better to get your “learning experiences” out of the way early:)
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nightwulf, you are the King of Silver Linings! Ha!
Ok, injuries are “a good thing” because younger players get experience. (cough.) Following your optimistic reasoning, we can be glad that Vallos and Willis were forced to play a lot last season, and so came ready to play this season. Sure would be nice to see what our starting 11 looks like though. :-/
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The O-line concerns me.
First: we talk about an active spencer as a moron who never fell into his expected role of dominance(can’t even call correct line audibles). Then we see vollos and get excited about him and it ends being a big let down. Now we’re crying for the return of spencer? Our OL is that pathetic.
Ruskelll has failed miserably at restoring any kind of resemblance from 05. Anyone he brings for the OL never stands out and earns the spot in a way that excited people. Look at wrotto, kyle williams etc etc. Maybe Unger will be the guy(for center), but one guy now out of all the failures spells disaster.
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Has vollos ever heard of an arm workout called “the curl”?
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I think the Bears will come in to Qwest riding high on their victory over the SB champs but the Hawks D will be cranky after last week.
Kinda wondering if Seneca plays, will he be able to hang in the pocket or get happy feet. I hope Matt can play for consistencies sake.
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I didn’t want to point this out, and I’ve been holding onto this observation for a while because those runs that we were gashed for were mainly due to 2 things.
1. Great execution by the 49er OL with washing out our DT and Isolating the DE
2. Piss poor mistakes by Babineux, Curry, Kerney, and Babineux..Yes he gets called out twice because he is the only constant between the 2 runs.
The other constant can either be called cheating or smart football. Look back at the runs, whether you recorded it or catch it again on highlights.
1. On the first run there were 2 “minor” holds and one blatant major hold on wilson that directly affected the play. The hold was just outside the direct vision of the referee and away from where he would track play…but dangerously close….smart
2. On the second run there was a ticky tack hold on Lucas that may or may not have affected play, but again another blatant major hold on curry. Again just outside the direct vision of the referee and away from where he would track play….again smart.
Both times same referee….and no it was not Bill Leavy
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Ditto variable575 on the Leavy front, and on the resting Matt ’till the fractured rib has at least knitted itself back together and doesn’t give the potential for pucturing his lung. Leavy made some calls for the Hawks, which I was grateful for. The block in the back that called back a Rossum return for TD would have made the score 30-10 had he not called it. But, there were many holding calls against the 9ers not called (which were clearly seen on the tube) yet Max gets called for unseen holding which negated a near TD reception. Have to beat the opponents by doubling normal offensive production when Hawks play games reffed by Leavy.
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I hate to sound like a vengeful punk but i hope Hutch and AP split Pwillis in half and williamsX2 as well as J-Allen turn blueberry hill into dough! Maybe that will wipe singletary’s smirk off his face………..i didn’t know that $%$#% had such an ego………I should have known though after he dropped his pants infront of his team to get the proper response from them………”that guys a maaaaaan baby”
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Hawks run D in terms of YPC (7.4) is currently last in the league, but their pass D in terms of YPA (5.4) is around third. I guess if you can’t stop the run, why bother to pass?
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We just need to learn when to hold at opportune times. Cheat when you cant get caught.
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It’s seems so ironic that a player that most of us would agree has been a big ? so far and looking like a waste of a number 1 pick has turned out to be one of the most consistent performers on the team thru the first two weeks – LoJack. WTF ?? Now if everybody else can just play up to his level ??? I can’t believe what I’m typing !
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If the 49ers can outmuscle both Williams, Allen, Hutch, and McKinnie… that will be saying something. I don’t think they can.
Concerning LoJack —
The bad – he’s doing this against 2 teams with piss poort OT pass protection.
The good – If the StL/SF OT situation is so poor, why aren’t other DEs of ours like Kerney doing the same thing?
Remember about 15 years ago when God “healed” Reggie W/hite? Why can’t He do the same for Matt?
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“Warrior” or not, it’s foolish to have a guy who missed nine games last year to a back injury and a lot of games over the years before that to injury, to risk get another season ender on a play like that. Just before the half in a 7 point game (and the 2nd game of the season), do the slide and live to fight another day.
I expected to see the injury card played as an excuse for the poor team play Sunday, but “the scheme is too complicated” (i.e. it’s the defensive co-ordinator’s fault-again) excuse? Isn’t this the same Gus Bradley, he of three whole years in the NFL and 10 years at that cradle of coaching greatness, North Dakota State, before being hired here that everyone was raving about for months? The new defensive coaches were supposed to make everything all better? Someone here hit the nail on the head, the defense got beat at the line of scrimmage, no if, ands or buts; deal with it. 8 men in the box is supposed to guarantee that someone doesn’t go 80 yards, twice, on you, whether you some backup DT and a couple of backup linebackers in the game or not. If that’s the excuse that is going to be made for losing the game, then the word “depth” should not be used because blaming three guys being out means that you’re saying the backup guys suck. And saying “take away those to runs and we played great” doesn’t hold water. What’s that saying used regarding trouble in someones history, “once is an accident, twice is a trend”. Babineaux was supposed to be the fix at free safety, but he’s just another stop gap, and behind him is a washed up 36 year old. So if they put him as an 8 in the box guy, watch Hester/Knox/Olsen/Bennett being futily chased by an ancient Milloy toward the end zone. This team hasn’t had a good safety since Kenny Easley.
If anyone was “victimized” it was the defensive guys who were reading their own press clippings, including Aaron Curry. I’ll forever have that image of him completely whiffing on an open field tackle, on a fullback, when we had them backed up to their 1 yard line, allowing them to get a 1st down and extend the drive. This guy gets talked about as if he can walk on water, but usually the ability to heal the sick and infirm comes with that, and he seems to have not gotten that part of the package judging from our injury report.
I looked up his stats; in comparison to other rookie defensive players, he’s tied for 6th (7th really) in tackles with Al Alfalava, a safety with the Bears from Oregon State who was a 6th round pick, at 8 total (all solo) no sacks, no INT’s, no forced fumbles, no recovered fumbles, no passes defended, except that Alfalava has a sack; and Glover Quin, a cornerback with Houston who was a 4th round pick from New Mexico, who has 8 total (5 solo, 3 assist) tackles. In the group ahead of Curry are 3 linebackers, James Laurinaitis with 22 total/16 solo tackles and a recovered fumble, Brian Cushing with 18 total/12 solo tackles, and Rey Maualuga with 12 total/6 solo tackles, 1 sack and 2 forced fumbles. Considering that the Rams were the first opponent and the other two starting linebackers were out in game 2, and all the hype with this guy, those are pretty pedestrian numbers; 4 tackles per game, period. Curry is currently 157th on the NFL.com stat sheet in tackles. The winner of last years 4th Annual Tim Russkell 1st Round Flop Award has at least equalled his sack total from 2008 (3), so put down the press clippings and stop reading the “beast/stud/Hall of Famer” posts about yourself and start earning that gargantuan contract you held out for (remember Aaron, you’re getting more guaranteed money than anyone but Stafford, including Mark Sanchez and he just beat the Patriots, so get on the good foot and show you can stop Matt Forte and Greg Olsen and stop whiffing on open field tackles against fullbacks).
I still don’t understand why the “strength and conditioning” coaches weren’t replaced this year, the Seahawks always seem to have an unusually high number of guys, key guys, getting hurt and going on IR or the PUP list. This seems to be the year of the back spasms, Walter Jones, Marcus Trufant, T.J. Houshmandzadeh (speaking of new guys not playing up their contract so far). If Locklear can’t go Sunday, it’ll be interesting to see how the 3rd string tackle (thanks to our GM ignoring the OT position in the offseason and draft) fares againt Ogunleye and Anderson.
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Stevo, I was trying (not very successfully, obviously) to say that it’s good that these things are happening earlier in the year, rather than down the stretch of in the playoffs…And as it turns out, yeah, since the season was toast anyhow, Vallos and Willis DID get some good experience last year…but I agree, I would love to see our starting 11 out there…:)
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If Matt Hasselbeck can withstand that Patrick Willis hit to the general area of his back that was hurting him last year, then that only proves that his back is perfectly healed (if the FO is being truthful about this injury). And that gives legitimacy to Ruskell/Mora in determining that Hass was perfectly healthy and ready to go for ’09 and passing on a QB like Sanchez. I don’t fault the FO for having faith in Hass in this regard. Besides, Matt isn’t on the wrong side of 30 that’s closer to 40. I think he’s still got some years in him.
I am with you, nighthawk, on your “too complicated” stuff. That makes me mad. I’m not overly sure how you “play fast” if you’re busy thinking about crap.
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nighthawk,
You won’t be seeing ‘our third string tackle’ this weekend. Walter will be playing LT. Most likely Spencer will also be back at center.
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nighthawk – I believe your criticism of Curry’s play, to date, is accurate. His whiff in the open field, was as embarrassing a display as can be had. If that play alone doesn’t get his immediate attention, nothing will. And you are exactly right when you say that this weekend can be a great opportunity to “get on a good foot”. He’s too damn talented not to.
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nighthawk-
I like the post. Facts with anger.. Curry needs to earn it, and he should be able to since Lofa wont be casting a shadow. In fact – Curry was totally abused by SF. They played him like a fiddle. Most of all that 8 man front defense is scary. Why would you expect it to work consistently with a bunch of back-ups and inexperienced rookies? Maybe it’s Mora who needs to come down off the mount..
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is there any word on Tatupu and his injury? i am assuming he will be gone for this sunday, considering he was iffy during the week, and came out early on sunday.
with travis fisher banged up, does anyone see us bringing in any help for corner? i guess they could slide babs down there and bring in milloy when needed, but yeah.
if mebane was questionable for the SF, is it possible he may be close to returning for this weekend?
thanks guy. trying to look at everything positively.
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Hasselbeck says that he’s had a fractured rib before, and he didn’t miss any games. But we don’t know if he was any good in the game he played afterwards.
But, not all fractured ribs are equal, so he may very well be able to play effectively next week.
Tackle totals aren’t a pure measure of defensive performance. If a player is on a bad defense, they get more opportunties to tackle. If they have big tackle numbers and the team defensive stats are good, then they’re likely to be having a big impact.
As a fan, I don’t understand what seems to be a contradiction – Seahawks D-staff wants their players “playing fast”, “flying to the ball”, etc. Heard this over and over again.
But they are embarrassed last Sunday on the big Gore runs because they’re missed their gaps and lacked discipline.
How do you “fly to the ball” and “maintain gap discipline” at the same time? Obviously there is some subtlety and complexity to this, but at face value to a fan these seem contradictory.
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Effort is not to be confused with discipline. Aggression is not at the sake of discipline either. Curry (to name just one) abandoned all technique and assignment (specifically containment when he came off the edge) and it was at the detriment of the team. He must play fast and aggressive and react but he simply must follow through with his assignments if he is to be great at this level. He’s not in the ACC anymore, everyone’s good at this level.
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variable575, you talk about the ’05 offensive line as if they were five pro bowlers and this years line is five idiot underachievers. Not true.
In ’05 we had Walt and Hutch – two of the best ever – in their prime. Those kind of athletes don’t come around very often. its not like every team has two linemen like that. Its rare. The rest of the ’05 line were average guys, old Chris Gray, up-and-comer Locklear, and old wiley Robbie Toebeck. The reason that line was great is they played together for 50 games in a row. That makes a great line.
Our ’09 line does not have five guys who have played together very much. That is why they are not a good line yet. Come back 50 games from now and you may be surprised at what you see.
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freedom_X
Question: “How do you “fly to the ball” and “maintain gap discipline” at the same time?”
Answer: be Ray Lewis.
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Ray Lewis with Hawthorne and Herring could have contained Gore in the 8 man in the box defense?
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Nighthawk2
Your best point was about the lack of conditioning of our players. Whether that is due to the coaches or to the players themselves or some mixture therein no one outside the organization can say. Even though we have a decent amount of youth on our team, ever since we lost the superbowl our team just seems like it’s aging like Robin Williams in the movie “Jack.”
Sidenote: I can’t believe Lofa even tried to play Sunday. Players that don’t practice throughout the week shouldn’t play on Sunday in my opinion because even if they feel recovered, the area around the injury will be weakened and not ready for game speed. Unless it’s playoffs of course and they get some magic shots.
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Although there are aspects of Curry that I don’t like through two weeks, I think he’s going to be fine.
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Nighthawk2; “I still don’t understand why the “strength and conditioning” coaches weren’t replaced this year”
What is your evidence that Coach Clark is responsible for anyone’s injury? What’s with your blame blame blame game?
Pathetic.
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bird_spit – It may have happened once. It most likely would not have happened twice.
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Note: Jermaine Phillips was placed on IR today. Why would I write this about someone who plays for Tampa Bay?
Remember when he visited this past off-season? Well, he should have signed with us and he would have fit right in.
So, even if he wold have started at Safety, he’d be hurt by now and Babs would be starting anyways (obviously I don’t believe he would be hurt if he played for us – different circumstances in every game — just pointing out something ironic).
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Curry moved from outside linebacker 1st game to inside and outside linebacker for this game . Of course he is probably a little confused, he’s still learning the system and new position on top of that.
His speed got /gets him in trouble by over pursuing, and Yea he tanked ONE open field tackle too, BIG woop, everyone does, Butkus, Urlacker, Merimann, name em they have missed an open field tackle tackle once in a while. This team has a lot of poor tacklers, so far he’s shown good tackling skills. Hope he doesn’t learn the poor tackling from the others.
Last week he was tackling everyone.
Comparing an outside linebacker who has been put in pass rushing/coverage positions tackles to a safety or inside linebacker’s tackles is apples and oranges. A safety getting a lot of tackles means his linebackers are either missing tackles or they are poor in pass coverage, the defens is designed for the inside linebacker to eat up a lot of tackles.
If he was drafted as an inside linebacker and played it the whole pre season and first two games he’d probably have a few more tackles, the responsibilities are way different.
Same as week one people calling him all world future HOF, this week people are calling him a bust.
Give the guy a break, let him play a few games before coming to any decision.
Right now 1 big game 1 not so good is equalling ok, not a bust or HOF
Give him some time at 1 position he’ll do fine.
He needs to contain his speed and maintain his gap or contain responsibility I think he’ll be fine
The season is 2 games old Boys and Girls Simmer Down
I still expect a good season.
Beat Da Bears and listen to the win it all talk, lose to Da Bears it will be equally opposite talk.
The bears had 1 sucky game and 1 good game, sound familiar, they lost their #1 linebacker and a couple of others. Sound familiar.
They are coming to Qwest I’ll be yelling my voice hoarse like the rest of the true fans.
Ebay seat buyers and people too cool to yell, STAY HOME!!!, Qwest isn’t the loudest because of you its loud in spite of you.
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I buy my tickets at ebay because a bunch of brokers eat them all up and try to sell them at three and four time the prices while I;m at work and can’t jump online at 10 in the morning bro, so ebay is were I get lucky sometime and get them at a reasonable price, were did that comment even come from. Oh, I am on the blue pride waiting list, could got charter seats, but really, I can’t afford those. Anyways go hawks, hopefully we can get after the bears and get Cutler to do what he did against Green Bay.
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Eric you mention a move happening this week.. What will be the move? I heard they brought in eric green former Arizona Cardinal CB.
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bigmike – i dont really know if this is updated or what, but i looked up eric green just to check him out, and it shows he’s with San Fran?
http://www.nfl.com/players/ericgreen/profile?id=GRE188533
i do not see him on the 9ers site though, so im assume it isnt up to date.
hm. i think a move of some sort needs to be made!
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Stevos-
Pull your head out of the ground so you can get a more realistic comparison of the 05 o-line and this years o-line.
And while i agree that time makes a difference(duh) that doesn’t even play into half of what makes an O-line. If that were the case, building an 05 reminiscent oline would be easier and everyone would have one–get real dude.
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Oh yeah
And in 50 games stevo i will be surprised and it won’t be as you think, that our now current OL will have 50 games under it’s bealt. No, it will be because someone in the front office learned how to draft productive Olinemen and the only one here in fifty games will be unger, and probably locklear.
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Well, while Curry and Babineaux are getting most of the heat – much of it deserved – I’m not sure enough attention is being directed to the defensive tackle play. Both those big runs were inside runs, and I’d expect the D-tackles to gum it up.
Maybe not make the tackle themselves, but force the runner to make a cut early or actually stop-start to get around them. The D-line shouldn’t be letting the back hit a seam at near-full speed. I know Kerney took blame for one of the runs, but all game long, I don’t think the tackles controlled the line of scrimmage at all.
I was pretty disappointed in Red Bryant. I didn’t expect sacks or lots of tackles for loss, but it didn’t look like he blocked up the inside at all. (or at least not very well.)
If we pick up another DB, someone has to get cut or put on IR. That means a D-lineman likely, since all the other positions are at a minimum or depleted. Can’t trim receivers with only 5. With Justin Griffith gimpy, can’t chop a back now. Can’t go with 2 QB’s if Hasselbeck is hurt. No surplus at OL, LB or DB of course. No 2nd kicker to get rid of. So where?
Maybe 2 TE’s (goodbye Morrah) or DL, those are the only positions that seem to have “surplus” (such as it is.) Would one of the preseason wonders get released, or would it be the disappointing Bryant, though it was only one game?
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don’t listen to me……I can’t even type belt correctly! but point made.
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Good point Freedom. I like a previous characterization of Bryant……..Pudding!
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Red Bryant, yet another hawk that is big yet not beefy. Didn’t someone already bring up the strength and conditioning coaches? I think so.
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Red was terrible on that first long Gore run.
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TruBlu
You sound like a Real Fan. Good luck with the Blue Pride
The ebay comment was for those who just come to the game and sit on their hands and make Zero noise.
The section I sit in I am surrounded by those kinda brokers and ebay seats and get a lot of wimpy fans and different people every time.
It chapps my hide when someone comes in and sits there and gives the rest of us funny looks for making noise, like we are disturbing them.
To me if you don’t want noise STAY HOME, let a True Fan take your place
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MauMau, I feel your pain. How about the SOB’s the row behind you that bitch about you/me standing up at key points in the game. See them once, then another pair comes along the next game with the same bitching.
Stay home if you want to sit down. Maybe I should have stocked up on some good Mexican food and Microbrews a few nights before.
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First off, I’m hoping for a healthy Mebane this week. Next, hopefully we get Walt and Spencer back and that should help. I don’t know what the reality of Matt being in action this week is,but if he can protect himself by not running, having him in there will go a long ways toward helping the Hawks get a win this week.
We still get another shot at SF at Quest and have a long schedule in front of us. And I do believe that Seattle will win their division. Only time will tell.
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Is everything ok with the blog/Eric?
There hasn’t been an update since Monday.
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