With the Seattle Seahawks losing five of their last six, the same sort of questions keep cropping up each week.
Today after the game, Seattle head coach Jim Mora talked about the accountability aspect of the team, and guys remaining professional in dealing with the adversity the team is facing right now.
Mora said he talked to the players about guarding against developing an indifferent attitude with the losses mounting, appealing to them to remain professional.
“They’re professionals,” Mora said. “And they’re paid a lot of money to compete at the highest level. And it will not be tolerated if somebody’s not doing that. It absolutely will not be tolerated. It will not be a part of our program, ever.”
Offensive guard Rob Sims echoed Mora’s sentiments when we talked to the players in the locker room after his coach spoke.
“You got to,” Sims said. “This is our job. This is our family right now. We get upset with each other and try to stop all the pointing fingers and what not. But it’s an emotional game, so what we’ve got to do is we’ve got to keep going back to work and remember it takes all of us to win.”
Some tidbits from today’s game.
* Dallas had four, different receivers score against the Seahawks, including Patrick Crayton on an 82-yard punt return. Dallas quarterback Tony Romo completed passes to 10 different receivers.
* Seattle had a couple big plays offensively, including a 36-yard reception by Nate Burleson and a 23-yard touchdown catch from Deion Branch, his first touchdown this season. Seattle’s longest run was an 11-yard run for Julius Jones. I thought Jones ran the ball OK, finishing with 56 yards on 15 carries.
* Edgerrin James rushed six times for 17 yards, passing Marcus Allen and vaulting into the top 10, all-time rushing list. James has 12,246 yards in his career. He needed 15 yards to pass Allen on Sunday.
* T.J. Houshmandzadeh finished with just four catches for 24 yards, his worst game statistically as a Seahawk.
* Linebacker David Hawthorne played solid in his return to Texas, finishing with eight tackles, two sacks and a forced fumble. Hawthorne played his college ball at Texas Christian, and hales from nearby Corsicana, about an hour south of Dallas.
* The Cowboys totaled 26 first downs and held a 34:45 to 25:15 time of possession advantage.
Cornerback Marcus Trufant did not make excuses for the three defensive penalties he was called for against Dallas. Trufant actually played a lot more than I thought he would heading into this game, with Seattle running a lot of nickel defensively. Trufant showed considerable rust.
“There is no explanation,” Trufant said. “The referee made the call and you’ve got to live with it, and that’s how it is. … You just live with the call, and you move on and try to get better.”
The only call I questioned was the one in the end zone against Roy Williams where it looked like the Dallas receiver ran the wrong route and the two just got tied up. I also didn’t think the ball was catchable.
Left tackle Damion McIntosh actually played solid, giving up a sack late against DeMarcus Ware. Seattle had more problems containing the Cowboys’ defensive front inside, as the interior of the defense had a couple plays where they looked confused as to how they would handled inside blitzes and stunts.
Remember when Hasselbeck threw an interception against AZ and Douchmandzadeh just jogged off and didn’t even try to stop the return? Sadly, that’s the type of apathetic player we don’t need on this team.
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Well, I have never offered my opinion on Ruskell and have really been willing to give him every benefit of the doubt…but I’m starting to agree that he has really mismanaged this team.
Our season is nearly over before Halloween for the 2nd year in a row. And, this was not ordinary team or ordinary owner that Ruskell had to work with:
He had a future hall of fame coach for several years.
Took over a team on the verge of making a superbowl run.
We had owned the NFC West for five years and a well established winning atmosphere in the lockeroom.
Ruskell has one of the wealthiest owners in the NFL.
A new stadium.
A state-of-the-art training facility.
An owner who has deep pockets and doesn’t meddle in making football decisions.
And, what do we have to show for it? We have a team who is 6 -13 since last year.
Can Ruskell use the new coach excuse since it’s Mora’s first year as head coach here? Look at the teams who are doing well with a new or nearly new coaching staff. Denver, Indianapolis, Pittsburgh, and even San Diego in spite of Perv Turner.
Not only that but Mora had a transition period last year, so presumably he should have been able to hit the ground running this year.
The year he joined the team, we had a run but he can’t take full credit for that. Ever since then, this team has deteriorated despite all of the support and control that he has had. I think the buck stops with him and it’s time for Ruskell to go. This is an ideal situation for a gm, so we should be able to recruit one of the best.
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Hear, hear.
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Well, let’s see….
We have a glorified scout as a GM.
We have a glorified DC as a HC.
We have a glorified QB coach as an OC.
We have a glorified LB coach as a DC.
Hard to believe we can’t figure out how to overcome adversity and compete in the face of obstacles.
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Yeah, I like Housh, but he was acting like a pouty littte whiner. Pull your skirt up Housh, you f’g nancy.
Sad loss…and my fantasy team lost as well…erg.
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The path of this team has followed EXACTLY the path of the Tampa Bay Buc after he was promoted and then EXACTLY the Atlanta Falcons after he took over.
He is at his absolute best putting fine tweeks on a team to help them get over the hump. He should be hired as a consultant not as a GM
TB went to and won the super bowl the after he was promoted
Atl Made it to the NFC championship the year after he was hired
SEA made it to the super Bowl the year after he was hired.
and what to do ALL 3 have in common – they follow that season with 4 or more years of consistant decline!!!!
I would give him a pass on the injuries but many of them had no answer behind them!
Granted we had NO way to see what was going to happen to the WR last year but on the OL this year if you didn’t she this possiblity you are blind
Spencer/Locklear/Sims have missed at least a few games every year. Walt was Clearly questionable – and how did you have no Answer for when Wahle was gone. They had to know that it was a possiblility that he couldn’t play and if they didn’t they aren’t doing their jobs.
We have to stop giving big bucks to the guys that are “playing for a contract” and give the money to guys that have been successful and healthy year after year. (as much as I hate to say it i.e. the cowboys with D. Ware)
We also have to start treating it like NE and realize it is a business and know when to cut bait with players! It will suck sometimes. but I would rather be in the play -offs 4 out of 5 years then like what we have now!!!1
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I am going to sound like a complete dumbass after this comment in which I am about to make, but it is really how I feel.
I feel as if we obviously need to basically hit the reset button and move on with the younger players and forget the veterans. I also feel as if we should trade Tatupu in the off season and get some good picks or a solid young o linemen. I know I sound completely insane, but again that is how I feel. He has already had some significant injuries early on in his career, and although he is the “face” of this franchise, I feel as if Hawthorne brings the nasty approach that we need more of on this team. Tatupu is an extraordinary talent and that is very apparent, but I feel as if this would actually be the best move for the team. It would get rid of alot of salary to an already over payed position, and bring us some much needed help along the o line. Criticize me if you must, but that is how I feel.
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As I watch this offense, the only starter I can see in the top half of the starters in the NFL is Carlson and that’s pretty sad. Being a Seahawks fan over the past 27 years has simply meant a lot of mediocrity, some greatness, but very little awfulness. These 2 years rival 1992-1993 as the lowest depths the franchise has seen in the last 30 years.
Is anyone convinced that Hasselbeck can make over half of the throws needed by an NFL QB? His age and injury related decline rivals Alexander’s.
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This team has just gotten really old on us.
I feel as if we don’t NEED Tatupu, we have Hill and Curry and Hawthorne fills in pretty damn good
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Trade players? Get picks? The season is over…NOW? What a bunch of jokers! From day one anyone with half a brain could have told you this was a bad team. I have 1/4 of a brain and called this stinker out in August. Want apathy? Try with the idiotic fans! We KNEW this was a bad team, we KNEW nothing had changed since last season, and we KNEW how this year would turn out. But, hey, I’m just an a-hole, not a real fan, so don’t listen to me. WRONG. Anger and frustration is where I am coming from unlike so many apathetic lazy fans out here. Want a team with some spunk? Start with a press corp that questions a team that did NOTHING to improve itself, NOTHING. Then go to the fans that sat around and drank the kool aid like it was liquid crack. Want to eliminate apathy? Start with the Seattle press and it’s nancy-a– fans. And the whole time I am dropping cash like a rapper at a strip club on this sorry team.
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“Accountability” shouldn’t start with just the HC, it should start from the Owner on down. TR has made this HIS Team by design. He should be held fully accountable.
TR has not built ANY Team he’s been with into anything better than what it was when he arrived. His specialty is defense, where’s the improvements since he became GM? His band-aid approach to the OL for the last 4 years SUCK!
TR HAS to be held accountable… to the Fans, to the Team and to Mr. Allen. It’s time to dump this guy and get someone with a positive track record of salvaging teams into winners again.
Fire TR so the Seahawks can GO FORWARD!!!
GO HAWKS!!
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Shut up Mora.
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Now it is time to start giving Teel some reps every now and then in game time situations and start using Seneca as reciever or something to get him on the feild. Mix it up and go crazy, the season is over so go out there and make it interesting, it’s not like we can embarass ourselves anymore than we already have. I do think it would be neat to fire Ruskell now just to make a point and bring in somebody with more of a football background instead of just being buisness savy. Do something to keep me interested. I’ll always watch them, but come on.
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Ruskell and Mora are going to go down with the ship with an injury prone and declining QB.
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I still believe that a team can turn it around. It may take a season or two. Or a game or two. I’m willing to give this new staff a chance. At least two seasons.
Holmgren had a really bad first season here and he had taken a team to the Super Bowl. Jim Mora and staff have not had a fair chance yet.
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I never forget this. I was watching the Seahawks game last year, and the Hawks were losing. The camera showed Mora (future coach in waiting) and he was smilling and joking with defensive players. I told myself, what an a**hole, the team is losing and he is happy.
Well, Jimmy Jr., how does it feel now…….
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LOL. Apathy will not be tolerated. Okay, and how bout a self-imposed deer in the headlights look from the good coach. How many times did they pan over to see him looking like a clueless buffoon during that contest?
Moving on, are we to assume that the rest of Seahawks Nation is now fully and firmly aware just how bad this football team is?
I hope so.
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Yeah I’m getting pretty tired of Moras spunk. A team can only go so far with high fives and optimism.
Just out of curiousity…anyone have any thoughts on who would be a good fit as our new GM?
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It’s not the QB, its the lack of an O line, it’s lack of managements desire to get QUALITY O linemen for too many years.
When the QB is running for his life every down then they are not successful, and sooner or later they get hurt.
Hall of Famers would suck with this O line
Same goes for RB’s with out the O line working they suck too, whats happening this year. Sucky O line = sucky QB and RB’s.
Do i hink we have great RB’s no, but they should do better than they are doing.
I too think most of the staff needs some time, more than 1/2 a season, but our special teams coach was supposed to be a great coach, when 1854? hasn’t showed anything here. + the trainers should be looked at hard, too many strained groins and back injuries.
Was it just me or did Tru look awfull slow out there today?
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On the Carpenter sack and the Brooking sack:
Both came on stunts through the a-gap, Carpenter went right side (sims), and Brooking left (Unger), but both times, Spencer completely ignored the blitzing LB to double team the NT on the opposite shoulder of the rush.
Both plays illustrate well just how clueless Chris Spencer is as a center.
It’s bad enough to have it happen once, but twice is mind-boggling and it’s very easy to see that a lot of the OL’s problems come from the fact that we don’t have a leader snapping the football.
A center has to be able to make that read and call it out, he just has to. Those two sacks were an utter embarrassment, and it’s clear now that the only reason Spencer is the starting center is because our moron GM wasted a first-round pick on him (5 slots before Logan Mankins, BTW).
I’m glad we have Unger, now, it’s time to get Spencer out of a leadership role, get him at RG or into Floyd Womack’s old role, but, my God is he a lousy freaking center.
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2620
I agree with you completely on Tatupu.
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Reading around, I’ve heard the name Gruden mentioned with Holmy as the GM. Anyone else intrigued by that thought?
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MauMau
It’s not just you….Trufant was getting burned by Williams and Austin today. He was pretty fatigued early on which I expected.
I am not trying to seem like a downer or anything, but honestly, how do the Seahawks and the organization expect people to s#@# out 2 grand a year for season tickets. You can call me what you want, but when it comes down to it, if you are just an average person and you save your money up for those season tickets hoping for a fun season and you get this back to back years….you cannot expect for people to continue to spend that money in which they could be helping out there families every year to watch this pathetic team. For example, I am not rich nor poor, but I don’t have the money to just waste on an awful season and be like Oh well, we will get them next year. Obviously, there cannot be 32 awesome teams in the league, but I think that there should be some kind of price reduction if your team doesn’t reach .500 or something. It’s kind of ridiculous.
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Don’t spend the money next year. THe worst message fans can make is that winning is acceptable. Look at what Mariners fans did for years after ’01. They filled that ballpark, so management didn’t bother winning baseball games.
Vote with your pocketbook, don’t buy tix next season.
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I Love Holmgren. But, he does scare me as a GM. Duke was kind enough to post his picks while serving as gm. And I must admit, it was less than impressive. I dont know if that was a result of having too much responsibility while performing the duties of both coach and gm or that he’s just not that good at evaluating talent.
Gruden did get the Raiders to the SB and won one with Tampa Bay. He would be a improvement. I’m just not sure if it’s enough of one.
I don’t know what the answer is. But, I’m pretty confident that the TR/Mora and co. show IS NOT.
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Where is Stevos and his “Greek syndrome” now? I bet he is waiting for the “storm” to go away so he can come back with his : love (Ruskell & Mora) story.
We aren’t going anywhere as long as” Ruskell&Mora clown job” are running the Seahawks. The sooner those two and the rest of the coaching idiots are fired , the sooner we can be on our road of rebuilding and recovery. Most of our players are OK. I bet they’d play their hearts out for the right coaches ( Dungy, Billick, Cowher, Pitts’ LeBeau , “Girls” OC Garrett or the Saints’ OC (can’t think of his name right now))
In all reallity, if we can beat AZ and Frisco, we have good chance of winning this division. We are one behind the 9ers and two behind AZ.
Either way, Ruskell and Mora must go!!! Allen should have fired Ruskell as soon as Hutch was taken by Mini; that decision there showed his incompetence and plain stupidity..
Me and Chewy were always calling for Ruskell’ head and we were insulted by the rest of bloggers here ( I was called a troll and I was not to be “fed” by the rest of you “geniuses”, my posts were idiotic, ETC) I wander who are the idiots now?
Have a nice day Y’all geniuses. I salute you.
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You were right Mr. Troll. I’ll feed you, you want a sandwich? How ’bout Italian?
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No pepperoni,please. LOL
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Joking aside, I am hurting now and quite pi$$ed-off.
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Quote of the night:
‘I wander who are the idiots now?’
Well done, sir.
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BobbyA – Great analysis on how clueless Spencer has been throughout his career. He is a back up guard, at best.
princeaden – Gruden never took the Raiders to the SB. Bill Callahan took his team to the game the year after Gruden left (and then Tony Dungy’s Bucs that Gruden coached beat the Raiders).
And someone else said — Matt can’t make all the throws anymore? What? Perhaps if he had time to throw he would/could. The deep ball has never been a strength, but he’s still a good QB. And will remain so for a few years. Eric had a stat earlier today about Manning’s line only allowing 2 sacks this season. That’s pretty telling. Not taking anything away from Manning, because he is truly great, but how in the hell can Matt compete with the likes of that when he’s continually getting his ass kicked by defenses? No way Manning has this Seahawk team at .500. First of all, he’d probably be hurt.
Look at the bright side, we’re going to notch our 3rd shutout of the season in a week when we shutout the Lions 31-0. And, no, we’re not going to lose to the Lions. And, no, there’s no reason to drink kool aid about it because the Lions really don’t count as an NFL team. We’ll get back to reality when Arizona beats us 38-10 in two weeks.
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Oh, and the person who thought Holmy had a bad first year here — um, the Seahawks won the division.
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We’re all definitely frustrated. This I know. For the bloggers tell me so. I’m so sick of seeing Matt in 3rd and long, our OL is weak and I miss Mack Strong.
But the Gods hate us. Nobody loves the Seahawks (see Super Bowl XL for the divine intervention of screwing us over).
We must face it. We are all pathetic creatures to be the fans of this team. But it’s okay… we will survive. Maybe this bond actually makes us stronger?
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Seahawklovertoo, how exactly do you have a victory on your hands when ruskell and mora have not yet been fired, and since they have not been fired, nothing has changed with the team?
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There is only one reason this offensive line looks like a spaghetti strainer it’s Tim Ruskell. The management of this team is atrocious. I can only hope that Paul Allen says enough is enough. Give me Holmgren and Dungy.
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I like Gruden, but, like Prince, not very keen on Holmy as GM…. This game came down to coaching, and we lost again… anyone else wonder about Housh dealing with a team coaching staff that is clearly inadequate??? That is the feeling I continue to come back to… the comments here are of pretty frustrated fans… add me to the list… Think Housh might be feelin’ a bit like us??? I didn’t like the defensive schemes for our defensive backs last year that Mora had direction of… I really don’t believe Mora is the right guy for us… and, if he goes, so should our GM…. I am not expecting this feeling to change… If Mora stays, by some miracle, TR should stay one year also…. succeed together or ‘Get out of Dodge’ together…
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Ibgoofy is right. Housh had very high hopes for this season and they’ve been dashed by stupidity. Draws and screens with edge on 3rd and long. Morahhhn.
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What about this, Holmgren as Prez, Cowher as coach/gm?
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THe play that Housh blew up on was so pathetic, I would’ve been pissed at him for not begin pissed.
He created 7 yards of separation and was well across the first-down marker, and Matt dumped it off to Burleson on a cross 2 yards behind the line.
Matt’s first read should be Housh on third down EVERY SINGLE TIME. That’s why he was brought in here.
IMO, Matt doesn’t like Housh, and he doesn’t feed him, but on that play in particular, there was no excuse not to look Housh’s way, McIntosh had good pro to the left side, and it was WIDE OPEN.
I’ve been behind Housh every step of the way, and I’ll continue to be, because the bottom line is, he’s right. If you get first downs, you score points. If you score points, you take pressure and wear/tear off your defense, and you win football games.
It’s a travesty that he had, what, five catches for 24 yards? Something pretty pathetic. This dude gets open constantly and Matt never hits him. It’s a personal thing, it’s gotta be.
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Here’s a question for Eric, why do the Seattle beat reporters take it so easy on this coaching staff?
Ventrella’s (granted, he’s paid by the club) question was set up for Mora to go positive, then Boling chimes in with another creampuff inquiry.
Why don’t they get more specific and question the playcalling/decision making?
It seems as though the Seahawks beat reporters are like a small group of pals that have been greased so well by the organization, that they’re afraid to criticize.
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“Is anyone convinced that Hasselbeck can make over half of the throws needed by an NFL QB? His age and injury related decline rivals Alexander’s. ”
I don’t see that – I still see Hass making good throws. Even today – i didn’t think he was the problem.
There’s plenty of weak spots on this team – but I haven’t seen the decline you refer to.
Trufant probably had his worst day as a Seahawk – we probably should have seen it coming since he hasn’t played in so long. Agreed that he got jobbed on the 2nd PI call though.
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Christmas Wish List:
Holmgren: Pres Football Ops
TR: GM
Holmgren: HC
Zorn: OC & QB Coach
Knapp: Off QC & RB Coach
Solari: OL Coach
Alex Gibbs: Asst OL Coach/ responsible for teaching zone blocking
Mora: DC & Asst HC
Bradley: Asst DC & Def QC
Quinn: DL Coach
etc.
DC and OC each have a ‘brain trust’ staff that go to opponents games, TCs, etc, and scout opponents – collect & update data, stats, chart plays, personnel, injuries, tendencies, player histories, etc. and help develop game plans for each scheduled opponent to be played in the next year. Opponent scouts also help teach players about their opponents for the upcoming game. Scouting of opponents is done in 20 teams of 3-5. One team is responsible for one opponent/yr and is given another opponent to scout for the next year after their work finishes for the game this season. One team (best) responsible for NFCW opponents offenses, and one team is responsible for NFCW opponents defenses. Teams include retired (or IR’d?) member(s) of opponent teams – coaches and players. To the extent practicable, these scout teams are to assist in players preparation for the game. These scouts are effective if they reduce the amount of time needed by the players watching films of opponents, so that the players can spent more time drilling on, or correcting their own on-field performance problems. Need to give the team more time to drill as a unit for each specific opponent. They should be drilling from before sunup till well after sundown each day.
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I’m not exactly calling for Ruskell’s head,….and im not real Ruskell fan either,….there has been some good,…and definitely some bad. Way I look at it, we are in flux right now and seems like there is no time better than the present to just go ahead and make a change at the end of the year. There is definitely some things that need changes,…..but not a single one of us can say for sure what that is. We could perhaps find a better GM and we could perhaps do worse,…question is,…has Ruskell done well enough in his time here,….to keep the seahawks from rolling the dice. My thought is we need to roll the dice on replacing players,…a coach or two,..( not necessarily HC ),….so its time to roll dice across the board and look to building a new future for seahawk football.
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BobbyK, I had it in my head that Gruden was coaching The Raiders when they lost in the SB. My Bad.
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Disappointing. To say the least. Something has to change.
But I can’t see how Mike Holmgren could help us. Has he been out scouting the best offensive talent out there, or riding his motorcycle around the desert? I want to see what Ruskell’s scouts can do with an offseason, or two, completely focused on our offense.
And I would not mind seeing what a firey, emotional coach like Chuck Gruden could do with our players. This team needs more fire and guts. I don’t know if Mora is the guy who can do this.
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“But I can’t see how Mike Holmgren could help us. Has he been out scouting the best offensive talent out there, or riding his motorcycle around the desert?”
Actually, he’s been an analyst for the NFL in Europe, and he’s been following everything all week.
Holmgren is a football genius, and you’re optimism has finally run its course.
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“Holmgren: Pres Football Ops
TR: GM”
Will never happen, nor should it, Ruskell’s head on a stick is the only answer.
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2620,
no, you’re not being stupid…we’ve got linebackers galore, and, while 20 yrs ago, the LB’s ruled the D, that day has gone…We’ve got an embarrassment of riches there, and dire needs elsewhere…I love Tatupu, but wouldn’t shed a tear if he were traded for a good quality O lineman or a 1st round pick…
For those of you saying that Matt sucks, or is done, or has lost it, or is too injusy prone, to misquote a former president: “It’s the O line, stupid!”
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Truth be told, Matt’s run his course. It’s time for a new QB. Nothing personal, but the dude is old as God.
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No matter what else we do, Ruskell & Moron need to go. oh……. Knapp needs to go even more.
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If we quit and don’t even want to try winning for 3 years, then some are right that Matt has run his course. The team should also cut ways with many of their overpaid 30-something vets and take the cap hit NOW. Basically, just go young and suck even worse than we do now. And drastically lower ticket prices since the money won’t actually be paid out and the product will be terrible.
There has obviously got to be change and we need to get younger, but I don’t think trading a good QB who is something like 34 is the way to go when we see other good QBs play until they are 40. Too many good QBs have definitely played well into their late 30s. Unless we want to give up on the 2012 or 2013 season(s) too.
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I support the release of the old guys like Kerney, but not our QB.
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Forget about our record..Hey as bad as things have been so far just think about this. If we beat the Lions this week and the Cards lose in Chicago, the following week we play in Arizona for a chance to be tied atop the division.
I know im crazy but who cares, sports are suppose to be fun, so lets have some fun.
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Does this mean Ruskell and Mora will both be quitting soon?
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I think it’s interesting that people here talk about how this team needs to “start rebuilding”, this team is already in rebuild mode. One can only presume there is some long range plan they are working on. I’m having a very difficult time seeing what that plan is, but there has to be one. In any case just a couple random thoughts after a night sleeping on it:
How in God’s name does Bruce DeHaven still have a job with the Seahawks?
David Hawthorn is twice the football player Aaron Curry is, at a fraction of the cost. Heater is a flat out stud.
Bradley continues to baffle with his schemes. They were eaten alive (AGAIN) by playing that soft zone, deep 2 (especially on some 3rd and obvious passing situations). They were effective when they brought pressure and pressed the receivers. After 7 games that has been a constant. I like his potential there and believe he will be a good coordinator for this team as he develops.
Edgerrin James: Why?
Spencer and Unger need to figure out their assignments before Matt gets killed. DTs simply cannot be allowed to spilt the A untouched. Multiple times. Wow.
Gregg Knapp should be let go at seasons end. Period.
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I lIke the sounds of that. Holmgren and Dungy
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Duke,
Agree with almost everything you just said, except the thought that Gus will be a good DC someday. What in heaven’s name gives you even a glimmer of hope that he will be good? His defensive calls are horrible. Teams pass at will on our soft zones and he refuses to bring pressure on the downs that he should. We have been slowly blead to death on every loss. Beside that, he should have had those types of calls figured out BEFORE he gets a DC job. This isn’t the position for on the job training for crying out loud.
We haven’t had good special teams since Pete Rodriguez. Why we let him go I still don’t understand. Our kicking game is horrendous, I have to cover my eyes on most coverages and returns. Don’t tell me that you guys EXPECT a turnover on those plays too.
You’re right on about our RB’s. We have noone with any speed and power. Little Forsett is the closest thing that we have and he keeps putting it on the ground. Personally, even with the fumbles, I’d keep giving it to him because at least there is some upside and at least a chance to break something.
What I don’t understand about Knapp is that on the first couple of games we were all excited to see the return of the screen game. Now when we need it the most where did it go? I only remember two or three yesterday and one of them was on that stupid 3rd and 18 and with geriatric Edge running it. Give me a break! I like the fact that they tried some trick plays, but the execution was piss poor.
The fact of the matter is that I have absolutely no confidence in this coaching staff anymore. They’ve used up my benefit of the doubt at this point. I mean we’re only in week seven and there is virtually no hope of anything positive moving forward. I can’t think of a single phase of our game that is going in the right direction. It’s embarrassing, and more than that demoralizing.
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My optimism for Bradley is this; aside from 3rd down zones which make me so angry my ears bleed, he has shown a creativeness that at time seems to baffle opposing QBs. And while I agree that on the job training can be painful to watch, I believe he will learn which Ds work best and when. He rotates in so many payers that refinement will come, in time. We’re watching sloppy play too often right now, that is to be expected with any wholesale coaching and scheme changes. But there are those times when this D is the stifling monster we are all hoping for. He is a big reason why and those times will come far more often and become the norm in time with him as the DC, IMO. The corp of this D is very young and it’s potential is terrific. They need to add a quality safety and DT (move Mebane back to LDT?) but next season at this time I feel sure we’ll feel grateful he’s here.
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I don’t see it, duke. GB seems to do okay getting to 3rd and long at times, but he seems to be running a low blitz or no blitz defense…even in obvious passing downs.
I haven’t been overly impressed by Knapp, but he is extremely limited by the o-line. If I’d give any coach some leeway, it’d be Knapp. Bradley has a relatively healthy defense, and he still can’t get off the field on 3rd and long.
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I guess my thinking is, what film has he been watching for the past 8 weeks? I get he may be learning, but we all see what happens when we blitz curry and put pressure on the qb with a 5th man….and we see what happens when we play a soft zone on 2nd and 3rd and long. Where’s the adjustment?? Next week we’ll shut out the lions, then see a repeat of yesterday against the cards and vikings.
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Dukeshire, I share your frustration with our defense.
After all the disruption to our O line, I expect our offense to still be finding its legs, but I expect more out of our defense. I like Bradley’s aggressive schemes, and I cringe at his zone schemes. Our defensive players are too good to be giving up 38 points to anybody.
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Who is the problem here, GM Ruskell and his staff of talent scouts? Or Mora and his staff of coaches?
In 2004, Ruskell inherited a team with a swiss-cheese defense. He came in promising to rebuild that defense for a team with a payroll lopsided with expensive contracts for its offensive stars. While rebuilding the defense, he patched a series of veterans and mid-round draft picks into the offense, but it has not been enough. While the offense is not as bad now as our defense was in 2004, it is lagging in its rebuilding.
Now it is up to Paul Allen whether TR be trusted to complete the rebuilding plan. Has TR’s rebuild been slow, or slowed by an unprecedented run of injuries? To be considered successful, I believe their offensive rebuild must be completed before Tatupu, Trufant, and Hasselbeck retire.
The real question on Allen’s mind: Is there another GM and scouting staff that could step in and do this better? Who is the unemployed GM and staff of scouts waiting out there who can rebuild our offense more quickly than Ruskell’s staff can?
Allen currently employs TR to run all football operations. Successes and mistakes are not his alone. Ruston Webster is in charge of player personnel. Fitterer and Yowarsky are our Scouting Directors, each employing a team of scouts. Lewis manages Pro Personnel. They were tasked with rebuilding the defense and have recently turned their attention to the offense. Why not let them finish the job?
Me, I’m getting tired of blaming the General Manager for what happens on the field. We’ve blamed him for starters being injured, we’ve blamed him for not having an offensive line corps two deep at every position, we’ve blamed him for backups who play like backups. None of that was within his control.
Football games are won and lost by players and coaches. Mora’s staff has somewhat revived a defense which last year looked demoralized under Holmgren’s tutelage. At the same time, Mora has failed to light a fire under his offense. O line injuries played a big role, but I’m still expecting more out of our offensive players. I think it’s on Mora to fix that.
Nine games from now, if our offense doesn’t play with more fire and execute with more regularity than it did yesterday, then it is Mora’s replacement I think we should be looking for.
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Yeah, the Heater is a beast. That guy is a good/great football player.
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This year’s team may finish with a better record than last year’s team due to the weak schedule but at least last year’s team played contenders (Miami, Wash, NYJ, NE, Arizona) extremely close with the game often coming down to the final minutes.
This team is just lucky to keep it within 20 each and every week. That’s 1992 pathetic.
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Rather than assigning blame, I will look to the category of , “what now?”. I will assign blame after the season. It will be more evident then.
Okay- what now? This team needs to figure out what it does well and do it, and come together in the process. By the end of this season the offensive line may turn out to be a strength. We already know that our QB is very good. is he elite? Probably not, but he is top third, no doubt. We keep him.
Running backs- I doubt we’ll view any of them as elite come the end of the season.
Receivers- maybe by the end of the year there will be a chemistry between the QB and all of them. Where is Deon Butler?
Defense- all we know about this bunch is that they play better at home and that they miss too many tackles. This bunch does not successfully defend the pass and is not a threat to intercept the ball.
This team needs to just keep working to get better, have some fun and hopefully they can do something cool in the next two weeks that will bring them together. I’m not going to get wrapped up in the blame game- as far as I’m concerned everybody should be blamed for a loss. I thought this team would have come together sooner, but it hasn’t. Perhaps the injuries prevented that from happening sooner? Hopefully we’ll see it soon. This team will be much more fun to watch once it happens.
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I look forward to seeing the Heater do more good things. It’ll be interesting to see how we view the LB position at season’s end.
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Apparently, our fearless blogger is still hung. LOL
It sucks when the biggest improvement of the year is getting a new reporter running this blog. Thanks Eric for hanging in there with us.
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Remember the close games…
3rd and 1 in the redzone. Alexander would follow Mack with Walt and Hutch clearing the way…destroying everyone in their way?! Everybody in the stadium knew what we were running, and we would just dare them to stop us. Hass wouldn’t even bother with play action, because we knew that we would just run it right down their throats anyway? Instead of a first down, Alexander would pop it into the end zone from 15 yards out? It seems like so long ago. I guess football years are like dog years….and especially for this team. Sigh.
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Norseman – What is GB? Green Bay? I’m confused how this relates to the Seahawks.
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Question to the long-time Seahawks fans. Is Julius Jones the worse Seahawks starting RB since Sherman Smith? Not that Sherman Smith was bad, but everyone else has been so good:
2008-2009: Jones
2001-2007: Alexander
1998-2000: Watters
1992-1997: Warren
1990-1991: Fenner
1983-1989: Warner
1976-1982: Smith
Maybe Derek Fenner? Since the team is sinking to post-expansion franchise depths, I figured it would be fun to examine it in more detail.
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Sorry, I get it now. Gus Bradley, goodness. Anyway, yes that is my point, exactly. Aggressive to get teams into 3rd and long then deep zone. It’s only sightly less frustrating to watch than Marshall bringing the the house in those situations. That was the entire point that I had made.
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I don’t have a problem with J. Jones. He’s not a long term answer to the position but he’s not a liability either.
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No Julius Jones isn’t the worst but he’ll never set the world on fire. You bring up an interesting topic, though. How about other players, positions, coaches?
Is Chris Spencer the worst center that we’ve had? How about Edge vs Franco Harris versus Alexander at the end? How about other positions? Do we have current Seahawks who are the worst ever at their positions?
It would be interesting to see the all-crap version of an all-star roster. An all-star roster would be fun too. How about if we could time travel into the past and bring in guys like Easely, Largent, Cortez Kennedy, Curt Warner, John L Williams, Brian Bozworth (just kidding, lol).
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I’d say the Rob Sims of ’07 was probably the worst starter we’ve ever had. And Spencer of any year can’t be far behind.
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NewJerseyMike, thank you for this:
“if we beat the Lions this week and the Cards lose in Chicago, the following week we play in Arizona for a chance to be tied atop the division.”
Its true, and is helping me climb down off the wall today. Our division is still full of teams that can lose to anyone. 9-7 or 8-8 could win the NFC West and earn a home playoff game. We were not so pathetic against the Cowboys that we cannot improve a little each game and become a playoff team by week 16. Bizarre, but true.
But Mora and co. had better start getting in player’s grills and demanding more, now.
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How crazy would it be to end up winning the division at 8-8 and winning the Super Bowl?
Much of the respect the Cards gained from me with their win in New Jersey was lost yesterday with their pathetic home performance against the Panthers.
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We may be stinking it up so far, but at least the tards and the 69ers are starting to crack around the seams and the lambs are in nfl hell, so it could always be worse.
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I didn’t realize that Mora gave these guys time off over the bye. Eric said coaches want them to rest their bodies for a long season….fine. But, how about studying game film, playbook, stuff like that? It’s hard to understand why we lose almost every game after our bye. Did anyone notice some botches plays on offense yesterday? One play Branch and Burleson were at the same spot an nearly tripped over themselves. Stuff like that…how is that possible with an extra week to prepare?
How many hours are in an NFL player’s work week? They practice for what a max of 15 hours per week? How about the rest of the time? It seems like they should also be spending at least 40 to 50 hours or more studying film, etc.
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One more question…
How difficult is it for a center to make the correct line calls? Are we talking rocket science? Are the calls as complicated as play calling is for a QB? I really just don’t get it. Is Spencer really that dumb that he can’t pick it up in 3-4 years? Could someone who understands the game at a high level explain some of the intricasies of the position to help us understand what the problem is here?!
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Audible, I’m not Mora fan at the moment, but I thought what he did over the bye made sense. Instead of their usual day off Tuesday, they practiced tues and wed, then took four days off to rest. The next week they had an extra practice again on tuesday. That’s three extra practices over the bye, and some guys like McIntosh were working extra with the staff on film and drills. Mora also has all his practices early in the day, and this may have actually helped in the first half of that early Dallas game. I watched practices in camp, and I don’t have any problem with Mora’s practice regimen. He runs a fast and aggressive practice. I do, however, have some problems with the lack of aggression I see on the field sometimes.
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I too would like to see a much more aggressive defensive gameplan, However I do realize that many people on this site are very big Hawthorn and he is a nice young player. However I watched him very closely yesterday and he seemed to be late on his reads (reading OG’s through to the QB) causing him not to be able to scrap with his shoulders square. Most if his tackles if you watch are from the outside in, instead of the inside out. This happens when I MLB is slow on his reads so he has to almost turn and run to get to a hole so when the RB cuts straight up the field he has overran the cut back as has to come back inside to make the tackle. Now he is a good enough athlete to do that a lot of time, but there were 3 runs in the game where if he could have scrapped with his shoulders square he makes a tackle instead of giving up a 10 yard game.
Now here is where that matters with respect to defensive play calling. If you blitz most of the time you are going to play so form of man without a safety free in the middle and if your LB is late on his reads then you risk huge plays up the middle on simple run plays. The zone Defensive helps protect a young MLB.
Just a thought
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Why would anyone want to “win” this craphole division and get humiliated in a playoff game they don’t deserve to be in? Because that’s what would happen to the Seahawks.
“I don’t have a problem with J. Jones. He’s not a long term answer to the position but he’s not a liability either.”
Are you really serious? Julius Jones sucks. He sucks completely, totally, absolutely and without redemption. The Blogmeister said he thought Jones ran “OK”. Huh? 15 carries with 56 yards means 3.7 ypc and that sucks. The only thing that sucked more than Jones was Edgerrin James with his sub-3 ypc average and the guys who put the offensive in offensive line, i.e. Spencer and the interior. I saw MacIntosh get shoved 5 yards into the backfield at times, and yet we still didn’t put the tight end over there to help him (I call this Cardinals disease, but you could call it Packers disease too since neither of those teams do that either).
Yes, Tim Ruskell IS to blame for this monstrosity. He created it, there are maybe half a dozen guys or less left from Holmgren’s team. He let Hutchinson get away because he doesn’t value offensive linemen and feels guards are a dime a dozen, and gave us crap for guards since. He didn’t address the offensive tackle situation AT ALL during the off season. He gave us the crapola we have for running backs, at inflated prices (other than Forsett who was a 7th round pick). He gave us a lousy secondary, overpriced linebackers who can’t stay healthy and underperforming defensive linemen. He also gave us this coaching staff apparently made up of Special Ed rejects, and kept the “strength and conditioning” coaches who can’t keep anyone healthy. That guy in Canada who worked on Hasselbeck’s back should get their wages because with the pounding he’s taken he’s still walking and playing.
Frankly, Ruskell needs to be thrown out the door when his contract expires at the end of this season, and so should everyone else in that “front office”, from Tod Leiweke on down, and the coaching staff landing on top of them outside the front door. Someone asked who’s better than Numbskull to replace him? I ask who isn’t? Hell, maybe we can get Ron Wolf to come out of retirement, but there are good organizations like New England and Indy among others to look at for “front office” people. Just don’t pick someone who’s going to do what Ruskell did and make this Tampa/Atlanta north with all their cronies.
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