As you can imagine, Seattle players were understandably frustrated and upset by the 31-20 loss against the Arizona Cardinals. The Seahawks felt that they were finally healthy and ready to challenge again for the NFC West crown, but the Cardinals proved for the second straight season that they are the better team.
Arizona swept the season series for a second straight year, and now has won six of the last seven against Seattle. The Seahawks have not won in Arizona since a 33-19 victory on Nov. 6, 2005, and are 0-4 in University of Phoenix Stadium
Mora admitted the Cardinals are the better team right now.
“The bottom is the team we played today is ahead of us,” Mora said about the Cardinals. “They’ve one five of the last six times we’ve played (actually six of the last seven). But we’ve got to try and continue to get better. And that’s what we’re trying to do.”
Even though the Seahawks are 3-6 on the season and now three games back of the Cardinals (6-3), and essentially four games back with seven to play because Arizona owns the tiebreaker, Mora said the team is not giving up on its goals, which included getting back to the playoffs
“We’re not counting ourselves out of anything at this point,” Mora said. “We’re not readjusting our goals, other than the fact that we’ve got to continue to try and get better.
“I see growth on this football team. And I thought coming into this year that we would see growth, once we got some continuity. And now we’ve had some continuity and I think it showed up today offensively. We were able to move the ball against a very good defense.”
Regarding injuries, running back Julius Jones has a broken rib. He’s in a Phoenix-area hospital and will in Arizona through the night as precaution.
“There’s an issue there, but he’s not in any danger, but we’re going to play it safe” Mora said.
Mora said other than the Jones’ injury, there were no other injuries to report. Center Chris Spencer snapped with his left hand against Arizona because of an injured thumb on his right hand, which his usually snaps with. So that could have been an issue with some of the shaky snaps to Hasselbeck.
Some tidbits:
* The Seahawks led offensively in total yards (472-462), rushing yards (164-122) and third down percentage (40 percent to 17 percent).
* Seattle lost this game because of turnovers (two Matt Hasselbeck interceptions at the end of the game) and not converting in the red zone (Seattle was 1-of-4 and Arizona was 3-of-5).
* Justin Forsett was impressive playing in place of an injured Julius Jones, finishing with 123 yards on 17 carries for 7.2 yards per carry. It was Forsett’s first 100-yard rushing performance in a regular season as a Seahawk.
“It was impressive what just Justin did, but that’s what we’ve got to expect out of him,” Mora said. “He’s a good little player. He’s got a big heart, and he’ll give you everything he’s got every time he’s in there.”
*Seattle finished with no sacks, and part of that was due to the team’s strategy not to pressure Warner and drop guys into coverage instead. Arizona quarterback Kurt Warner talked about that during his conversation with the media.
“I think they just took the approach that, “We’re not going to let them get the ball out quick and make those kinds of plays, we’re going to make them work for things and we’re going to drop an extra guy in the box,’” Warner said. “A lot of times they were rushing three and dropping eight guys and trying to make it hard on us from that perspective.
“So that was something that was different and something that was different to me from a Coach Mora team. He likes to change it up and he like to bring a variety of pressures and that’s one thing we didn’t see today.”
*Patrick Kerney, Cory Redding and Lawrence Jackson combined for one tackle and one quarterback hurry. John Carlson and Matt Hasselbeck combined for one more tackle than those three.
* Nate Burleson, who made the luke-warm guarantee that Seattle would beat Arizona earlier in the week, was targeted five times and finished with no catches on the day.
* T.J. Houshmandzadeh had another solid day, finishing with a game-high nine catches for 165 yards, including a long of 53 yards.
pathetic D-line pressure….this is the death kill for Ruskell.
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Maybe the team can take moral victories AFTER they lose a road game by single digits??
Today was one of the few red zone INT’s Hasselbeck has ever thrown in his career. The last one I can remember was against Arizona last year.
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bad news for our running back http://twitter.com/Adam_Schefter
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Between lack of pressure on Warner and the pass protection breakdowns on offense… that’s what doomed us.
I guess that means we need to address both lines in the first round. The thing that sucks about that is that you rarely ever see dominant play from a guard or tackle or a defensive end or tackle in their rookie seasons, which probably means we’re two years away from being able to get pressure on the QB or having an OL good enough to run the ball consistently or give the QB time to throw.
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The Seahawks have invested a lot of draft picks and money on the defense and it’s as bad as ever. The last several years have been awful. It has set this team back years. The architect has to be held accountable.
We are at the point where it’s a moral victory when they can hold a decent offense under 400 yards/30 points.
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We have raped the offense at the expense of the defense and, you’re right, our defense still sucks. The safety play is bad. The line can’t get any pressure. Everyone misses too many tackles. It simply sucks. And it’s frustrating!
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Patrick Kerney, Cory Redding and Lawrence Jackson combined for one tackle lol
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Jackson is who we thought he was prior to the season. He had a good first month… and now he’s back to being the invisible man. At least he’s the only one of those three who will probably be back.
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Rushing 3 guys against 5 is a joke – it’s a prevent defense – i have no idea why we did that so much today. Even if we had a Freeney, if you rush 3 guys time and time again, they double that one guy if they need to. It just feels like a formula guaranteed to get no pressure. If that’s the intended scheme – it’s a terrible one.
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Among the many things wrong with the Hawks, the most troubling is the DL.
Keep Mebane, who is the only legitimate DL on the team and possibly Cole for his skill of occupying OL and keeping them off the LB’s.
Sad to see someone so inept at their vocation. I remember receiving a letter from Ruskell when he got the job promising a top 10 D built on a stout DL.
5 years later? One DL that belongs in a starting position in the NFL. The rest are back-ups, practice squad players or don’t belong in the league.
Not sure who’s next, but Ruskell has failed in the area he set as his own benchmark.
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We should go after Mike Zimmer. I doubt it’s gonna happen though. Maybe if the new GM wants his own coaching staff.
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F you Mora
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Its sad to see none of these coaches can get it right!! Where was curry today!! Trufant go all that money and is supposed to be a great corner hey got burnt like twice and all the these pemalties of him!! We should never given that guy all that money!! We should have cut him lose !! I want to see more kelly jennings and wilson these guys might be small but they play hard! And also play more read and jackson !!kerney has to go the guy ahs lost a step and has no more resistance! He is alwats hurt and he is just to slow we need a motor at 100% all the time like reed! And hats off to forsett imagine this is the guy we let slip away after we knew he was good some management ! Just like how we let benneth get away this year! And can someone tell me why we went away from letting forsett run or throwing him those short screens??!! Mattis an ok QB but once you let hom throw too much your asking for trouble!! He just seems to always mess up when he is under extreme preausr
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Sorry for the spelling mistakes I’m writing from my black berry extrely small keys!!! Like I said matt is ok QB but if you have him throw to much you asking for trouble! He cnt seem to handle extreme preasure!
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And when I meant forsett geting away I
I mean on waivers and then he ended up with the colts for one game and we got lucky to claim him back! Sorry for those spealling mistake I’m writing from my black berry very small keys! Like I said matt is an ok QB but if you let tjis guy throw to much your asking for trouble
!! The guy does not seem to be able too handle extreme preasure
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Great Article by Steve
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/stevekelley/2010280185_kelley16.html
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The Kelley article hit the nail on the head. It’s basically the same stuff we have said over and over today after the game. This sucks. I hate having to look forward to next year. It’s a long time away. I’m gonna be mad if Unger isn’t moved to Center this week.
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This is also a good article about Ruskell
http://bleacherreport.com/seattle-seahawks
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The goals should now shift from playoffs to avoiding the franchise futility marks set by the 1992-1994 squads aka “The Tom Flores Years.” What helps the cause is the Seahawks play 5 total games against 2 of the worst teams in the history of the modern NFL, the 2001-2009 Lions and the 2008-2009 Rams.
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I told everyone who would listen that we would lose and now everyone is all pissed of. Well, I’m tired of getting mad after our team losses and now I’m just going to get ready for next year and hope its with a new GM
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I tried defending this team, to my own detriment.
I can’t do it anymore.
Watched a 14-0 lead dwindle then get beat by 11 in the end.
I give up, all you guys are right. Changes must be made.
Worst of all I had sit next to a drunk Cardinal fan all afternoon tell me how much more talent they had.. on and on. I thought Matt & everyone would make him eat his words.. Stood in disbelief at how the game ended. I thought we were gonna pull it out.
Great game by Forsett. So many missed opportunities. Matt is a warrrior.
He tried and tried. No luck.
I thought Knapp did a good job calling plays in the 1st half but the 2nd was horrible.
I got nonthin else.
Hawk fan til the end..
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I hope JJ is alright, broken rib with bleeding in the lung.
Hate him if you want, He’s apart of our team.
Get well soon..
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Laurance Jackson, is who we thought he was!!!!
To me, if you have a truly dominant front 4 defensive line, you can cover a boatload of deficiencies on a team. A.) Teams can’t run the ball B.) Teams get constantly pressured, sacked, hurried, balls batted down-scared quarterback in general-like Tom Brady in the Superbowl C.) the corners and safeties look better because they don’t have to cover as long and don’t have to be the 8th man in the box. Linebackers are clean and can look like pro-bowlers.
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This knapp offense started to do good things. Our D got beat from an obvious HOF QB. AZ has built a fine offense and our coaches/ players aren’t responding to the challenge.
I don’t think we need a RB in the draft. Forsett is the real deal, and proved it Sunday. I think D. Butler should be our next DB. Can’t catch, but sure can defend.
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I don’t hate Julius Jones, I just don’t think he’s a very good running back and was overpaid. What I’d like Mora to explain is how you blow a 14-0 lead and then let yourself get outscored 31-6 the rest of the way. Pabuwal, unfortunately we’ve already played the Lions and the Rams don’ t look like the pushover they were in week 1, judging from the way they played the Saints on Sunday.
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I hope this is a wake up call for Paul Allen.
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This game was lost by the coach staff no question about it. You saw that AZ was down and at halftime made some adjustments. While the Hawks coaching staff beleived that rushing 3 against AZ boggles my mind. I can see trying it out and if it doesn’t work get some pressure but when AZ went down the field in less then 3 minutes twice change your scheme… When you have 6-7 db’s and AZ is still throwing all over the place change what you are doing. The coaching staff didn’t put their players in the best situations to win today. Mora and his so called O and D coordinators are all smoke and mirrors. Oh and Trufant is a bust, got his money and now he looks like a 2nd to 3rd stringer out there, he got burned again today, it becoming a normal thing now.
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What puzzles me is this.
1. Lack of pressure from the Defence.
2. An Offence and Defence unable to make adjustments to their opponents.
3. The extreme lack of depth at any position.
4. Ruskells inability to evaluate talent and chemistry.
5. Millions and millions of dollars spent on a defence that really looks lost.
6. A team that is not built to contend in their own division.
7. The skill set of the Hawks directly reflects the skill set of it’s coaches and GM
8. We are what our record says we are.
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Except our LBs have pretty good depth:)
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I am really dissipointed in the defensive coaching staff. We had NOTHING to lose. Why wouldn’t you not just throw everything and the kitchen sink at Warner? You might give up a big play or two or three(which we did anyway) but you also might knock Warner out of the game or throw him off his game or maybe even cause some turnovers. All of our linebackers and secondary seem very capable of blitzing….but what we did was not an “attacking, physical” defense. I do think Ruskell has put together a very talented defense and now that Hill is back and the secondary is healthy and they have had more time in the “new” system they NEED to show some ability to dominate, especially on the road. I almost never like to see a coach go after one year….but these last 7 games seem to be VERY important for Ruskell and Mora. With the new systems and ALL the injuries they do need to be cut a little slack for the first half of the season…..but no more! If we don’t show some serious improvement the rest of the way then I think Mora has lost the team(or never had them) and we are just beating a dead horse to continue this route. Before the year Mora talked up our defense…..that they would be “physical, relentless and attacking”. And THAT is the biggest dissipointment in my book.
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How is it that an organization which touts it’s self as having tremendous foresight with a coaching change can look so pitiful. Indianapolis went through the same thing and they are 9 and “O”. Is Ruskell living so deep in a bunker they have to pump daylight to him? Damn what a frigg’n mess…
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It’s always sad to see a player get hurt so I mean no disrespect to JJ, I hope he heals up quick. But Forsett runs harder, quicker to the edge and tends to plow for yards after contact. I think he’s making a case to be the back of the future like we thought he might be preseason last year. Maybe he still isn’t an “every down back” but then again not many backs in the league are anymore.
On a different note…Man, it’s true what they say about Tard fans…they are pretty lame. That place was SOOO quiet, I had to question whether I was at a professional sporting event. Qwest has to be 5 times as loud and not just when the ball is being snapped.
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Until we can win the battle at the line of scrimmage, we are in trouble. Smoke and mirrors will last only so long. Unfortunately, by the time we have a good running game(not just draws) Hass will probably be retired or in a wheel chair. Truth is, is that if Matt continues to take this kind of punishment, he wont last long.
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A LOT more deficientcies could be pointed out, but why bother. Until you can win up front, the rest is pointless.
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After a defensive performance like that, how can you stand up there and talk about it like you’re proud of it? mocarob, I’m in the same boat. Thought getting new coaching blood would be a good thing especially on defense and am now pulling my hair out. There is absolutely no credit left to extend to this defenseive team. If our front four are so bad like many of you say, then good coaching would be to scheme it better to cover that up.
“this team is ahead of us” Give me a freakin break!! Our back office and coaching staff all need to go. These guys have done NOTHING to instill any confidence that this situation will get better.
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There’s really no need to put this anyway else, and it needs to be blunt:
Hasselbeck sucks. He’s taking home elite pay and giving us jittery-rookie feet in the pocket, and back-breaking picks like it’s 2002.
Sure the line sucks, but I don’t recall Seneca getting any breaks from anyone here for playing behind the same line.
I’d rather be losing with Seneca getting reps than wasting a huge salary on Hassel’s twilight years. Instead we’ll be right here again next year, with Seneca on another team*, a rookie sitting on the bench, and Hassel still riding the nostalgia express
*I’m not saying Seneca will start and/or be successful for another team, but I’d rather be rebuilding with him and his salary than Hasselbeck. I believe Seneca will leave so that he at least has the chance to compete for a starter job before his career ends, as long as Hassel is in Seattle, the job is all his
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All I could think about throughout this game was Mora’s pre-season promise that our defense was going to be “relentless.” HA!! I’ll have to watch the game again to make sure, but I literally only recall seeing a blitz sent on 1 or 2 plays THE ENTIRE GAME. Not my definition of relentless. AZ sent more blitzes on our first possession.
Also, I’m pretty sure the blitzes that were “dialed up” were safety blitzes. What’s the strength of our defense right now? Our linebackers. When we had our 3 man line, they often sent in 7 DB’s, leaving ONE linebacker. And to top it off, which linebacker was it? Our BACKUP MLB. I like Hawthorne and am strongly advocating the move to a 3-4 next year, but it really looked like he was either lost or just in way over his head yesterday. It sure looked good seeing Curry and Hill on the sideline for most of the 2nd/3rd quarter.
As for Knapp, isn’t it odd that I actually liked his playcalling in the first half? You know, when we were moving the ball consistently, getting Seneca involved, etc.? Then in the second half, once AZ had a chance to adjust to our we’re-going-to-pass-on-1st-down game plan, it was back to the boring, predictable play-calling that helped put us in this 3-6 mess to begin with!
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I want to say first and foremost that I love Matt and think he’s the best QB in our franchises history. And, I think our defenseive performances are what is costing us these games.
Now, with that being said, Matt reminds me of Drew Bledsoe in that first Patriot superbowl year. The Pats sucked early that year, especially on ofense, with Bledsoe at qb and everyone was talking about how his Oline sucked and this and that. Then Bledsoe gets hurt, and this young punk Brady comes in for him. They immediately start winning and the Oline has been considered outstanding since then. My point is that unless the qb is beyond reproach, you just need a change sometimes and give diferent guys a chance. Matt hasn’t led us to a late win in a loooong time. He’s never been that solid. At this point, why not see what else we can do at QB? We always need to see if we can get better at EVERY position. Yes, even at quarterback.
I keep hearing from some how “Matt isn’t the problem”. I think we need to realize that he isn’t the solution either.
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Hats off to Housh, he really made some great catches yesterday, including the catch that was ruled (rightly so) a no-catch in the endzone. I had a feeling he would come up big against AZ.
For some reason, I also had a feeling Burleson would have the game that he did. Let me start out by saying that Burleson is one of my favorite Hawks, but it seems like he just is not ready to go on road games. He’s obviously not the only one, but I think he has the biggest performance discrepancy between home/road games.
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Well said Bulldog80.
We’ve held on too long and it’s (past) time to move on.
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It’s time to draft Suh and move to the 3-4.
As for the offensive line, well, that will only be improved when our Massengil GM is shown the door.
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What do you guys think was the turning point in the game? I remember telling my wife that if they didn’t score on one particular drive midway thru the third quarter that they would not win the game.
This was the drive that they ended up having a first and goal at the 1, to which they inexplicably threw the ball on 2 of their 3 attempts to get in. Although I was still *hoping* for them to pull it out in the end, I just knew after that series that they couldn’t do it.
I know we don’t have the best running game, but we actually had a pretty good one yesterday. We still don’t have any interior *push*, so lining up in the goalline set will do us no good unless they run a toss. Why not run the wildcat in that situation or spread them out? Or at least put Seneca in and try 3 QB sneaks. He would just have to fall forward 1 foot each time to get in.
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To clarify, I said the drive that ended with a FG was midway thru the 3rd quarter. It actually carried over into the beginning of the 4th quarter.
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We need to draft a safety next year. Babineaux can’t tackle the running backs. Grant not much better. I’m tired of watching our safeties get run over.
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I think one of the more disappointing things about their situation, in lieu of Ruskell’s Q&A last week where he admitted they were in a rebuilding mode, is that they haven’t appeared to hit bottom yet. There a numerous holes on this team now (o-line, DT, safety, CB) and positions that will need to be addressed in coming seasons (QB chief among them. How many more seasons can Matt possibly play while taking these weekly beatings?) that will take time to develop into strengths. In addition to the players, the coaching staff has a long way to go before they become competent. All this under the guidance of a GM whose allowed this rebuild to become necessary in the first place. Sigh…
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Yes, the competency of the coaches and management is the biggest question to answer right now. I think we can all take personnel changes/rebuilding. But, what’s the point if the current coaching staff is incompetent anyway? There’s no way to fairly evaluate the players if they haven’t been utilized effectively. I KNOW that this is the current situation with our defense. I firmly believe now that we don’t want this management to put their “stamp” on this team any longer. If they’re allowed to, it will just set back our success that much longer.
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Forsett NEEDS to be the starter. That is all.
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Lefty24 – “What do you guys think was the turning point in the game?”
There were more than a couple of opportunities for a mediocre team to get back in, or even win, that game. Sadly, we didn’t rise to that level.
I’d say that the interference call in the endzone that gave us 1st and goal from the 1-yard line and the subsequent failure to do anything either through the pass or run was a biggie.
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Oh, and the real problem is Olindo Mare. There I said it, we were all thinking it, but I said it.
His lack of 4-10 field goals per game is KILLING us.
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The Cards don’t commit 11 penalties and that game is an even bigger disaster.
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“What do you guys think was the turning point in the game? I remember telling my wife that if they didn’t score on one particular drive midway thru the third quarter that they would not win the game.”
I think it was the Cards drive at the end of the 2nd half. To that point – Warner hadn’t established a rhythm of any note, and we gave them the ball w/only a minute left – the way the drove down the field so easily against our 3-man rush set the tone for the 2nd half.
And yeah, second biggest play, as another poster noted, was our inability to get a TD when we had 1st and goal from the one. Terrible series of play calls imo.
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@pdway
“What do you guys think was the turning point in the game? I remember telling my wife that if they didn’t score on one particular drive midway thru the third quarter that they would not win the game.”
I meant if the HAWKS didn’t score, I knew the HAWKS wouldn’t win. I guess it would help if I had better defined my pronouns. I knew I should’ve paid better attention in English!
But yeah, I was speaking of the drive that we (the Hawks) couldn’t get 6 from a 1st and goal at the 1. Although the Cards drive you mentioned at the end of the 1st half, in which a penalty took away a TD and they had to settle for a FG, was also a potential game-changing moment. Nonetheless, we failed to capitalize in the end.
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Mr Paul Allen….. The next move should be yours ….
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The main two problems I saw with our team yesterday was an offensive line that is just beginning to get on track after all their inures, can still become good but is way behind in learning to play together.
And a D line that was very very disappointing. (and yes, I was one of the guys who wanted to believe in this D line. I was wrong.) I like Bradley’s defensive schemes, but our DEs were not good enough yesterday to beat a good O line.
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BobbyAyala and others talking 3-4: I would agree that shifting to a 3-4 D next year would make a lot of sense for this team. It would take some work during the offseason, but we have the right players to do it, all except for having the right NT.
While I totally like Suh, I don’t think he’s the guy we need for that scheme. I think he projects as a 4-3 D lineman.
I’ve been looking at clips of NT Terrence Cody I’m not pro scout, but I’d love to see us draft Cody with one of our #1 picks and install him at NT.
Then Mebane/Bryant and LoJack/Redding rotate as DEs in a 3-4.
Curry-Tatupu-Hawthorne-Tapp as our LBs.
Hill could could compete at LB or become trade bait.
365-pound NTs like Cody are rare. He is that rare type of player that a team needs in order to switch to a 3-4. Considering how ineffective our current 4-man line seems to be, I think the switch to 3-4 could be refreshing for our defense.
Also, our other talent seems to line up well as a 3-4 scheme.:
- Tapp is explosive but gets lost as a small DE. He might excel at pass rushing from OLB if he lost 10 pounds. Tapp and Curry rushing from the OLB positions would put our two most explosive players in pass-rush mode from a standing position every down. That has to generate more pass rush than we have now.
- Mebane, Redding, and LoJack could all eat blockers as 3-4 DEs without being expected to get sacks.
- Tatupu and Hawthorne side-by-side could provide a lot of playmaking at ILB.
Just some ideas. I think its obvious our D line needs help. At this point, thinking about next year is mostly what there is to do.
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I’ve been one of those who have been talking 3-4 for a while now but there are a couple issues: Bryant needs to be active and play significant time the rest of the way. They have got to find out what they have there and make personnel decisions accordingly. Redding’s contract is up at the end of this year. At this point he feels like a one and done. I would think he needs to be resigned and play at a higher level, consistently, for a switch to work. The simply must get a physical, complete safety. This defense will always be hamstrung until that position is upgraded but especially if they really switch to a 3-4.
I like you thinking however and too am a fan of Cody.
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Yeah, but Suh is a beast. This team needs beasts.
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“Mora admitted the Cardinals are the better team right now. ”
Wanna know why? Look no further than Ruskell, who has ran this team into the ground and has made it one of the worst in a terrible division.
And you guys talking about a 3-4, dream on. By switching to a 3-4 defense you almost surely admit Aaron Curry is an outright bust, because he has no pass-rushing ability whatsoever so he can’t be a 3-4 OLB, and Hawthorne and Lofa are the ILBs. And even if you find a way to get rid of Lofa or Hawthorne (don’t count it out, Ruskell was stupid enough to trade Julian Peterson for pennies), you live with the fact that you drafted an ILB with a top 5 pick, which is a complete waste.
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Yeah, I remember that “relentless” defense that Mora promised too. Where is it and when is that promise going to be kept?
You can’t draft Suh and make him a 3-4 DL. He’s a feature guy, and in a 3-4 the DL don’t get featured. Granted, he’d be good/great wherever you put him.
As I’ve said many times, we can’t move to a 3-4 w/o drafting Cody (and as Stevos mentioned too). You don’t move to a 3-4 unless you have that one horse in the middle who won’t get fame, but he’s an unblockable beast. To me, Casey Hampton is the poster boy for a 3-4 NT. He’s big, powerful, and you can’t move him. His numbers suck, but he’s better and more important than any of his defensive teammates who get all the glory.
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Yesterday was one of the first times I didn’t feel like we got out coached. In Fact I loved what we did on Defensive from a scheme standpoint. The problem was and it was mentioned before in this thread that our DLine wasn’t good enough. It really looked like we showed up to a gun fight with 1 bullet.
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“Yesterday was one of the first times I didn’t feel like we got out coached. In Fact I loved what we did on Defensive from a scheme standpoint. The problem was and it was mentioned before in this thread that our DLine wasn’t good enough.”
I don’t get that – what did you love about the scheme? When does rushing 3 guys against their 5 lineman work? OK, so you are dropping 7-8 into coverage, but here’s the thing – with a QB as accurate as Warner (esp when he has no pressure), and athletic receivers like Fitz, Breaston, Boldin – someone will eventually get a step open, no matter how many guys you have back. So that scheme fails b/c passes still get completed over and over. And, ok, if you are going to try it, but if it’s clearly not working, it seems to me that you’ve gotta have a plan B, right?
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ballgame – I haven’t said anything about this, but I agree, I liked our change-up on defense. I thought it was good coaching and a good scheme given the talent the coaches had to work with. Perhaps going more traditional in the second half would have worked better since the Cards had time to adjust (or blitz the hell out of them more in the 2nd half).
If we rush 4; we suck. So, why not rush 3 and suck the same (which is what we did). At least in that scenario we have an extra defender in coverage.
There’s certainly nothing “relentless” about our defense though.
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I also agree pdway… a drastic plan B would have been nice (the bliz the heck out of them thing). But either way, when we sent 3 it was like it usually is when we blitz 4. In either scenario, we suck at getting to the QB.
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“But either way, when we sent 3 it was like it usually is when we blitz 4. In either scenario, we suck at getting to the QB. ”
But aren’t there any times we should send 6? or 7?
Other teams do it plenty – and it does seem like many of the better D’s in the league use those packages to get pressure on the QB.
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Yes. There are other times we should do that. Personally, I like the times where you rush 4 and only load up on one side and come from one direction and drop the others in coverage (if you have a versatile guy like Tapp at RDE and you are overloading over LDT.
This is kind of unrelated… but I never could figure out why teams used to rush crap players one-on-one against Walt in his prime. Why not fake coming in on a pass play and suddenly drop into coverage. Take away the screen or slant as a DE. Because no matter what you do, there’s no way in hell you’re getting to the QB anyways.
Like when we used to play the Rams and we rushed Wistrom and they had Pace in his prime. How stupid? You know damn well there’s no way Wistrom is even going to come close to the QB and yet you send him off to slaughter on every pass play when there’s no chance in hell he can even get close to Bulger.
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You still have to occupy the blocker otherwise the blocker would be free to help out somewhere else, making the rush even worse. Teams who flop rushers around try to match their best pass rusher against the weakest lineman (best suited for end/LB hybrid types.)
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