MM already not happy with Kubiak

[Donn Beach]

Kubiak happy with Darnold or at least he says he is.

Yeah, I have been meaning to point out that PFF rating, one of the best in the league. Just how the article is written, finding the root of seattle's offensive problems, I doubt you are going to find a root. It's probably more a combination of a lot of things than a root. And that probably includes Saleh's defensive plan

Makes about as much sense as when J Rod was in the bottom 90s in every offensive statistic, but his WAR made him elite. Anyone that watched Seattle's offense on Sunday and saw a QB that was "one of the best"? Should never be paid to grade a fucking football game. I guess all it takes is to complete a ton of three yard passes and watch your team fucking punt all day, then fumble inside the ten with the game on the line to be one of the best. Can't make that shit up.

believe me, Darnold is no Arod lol

[Donn Beach]

the steelers seahawks matchup seems like a hard one to predict. Its hard to overlook the steelers home field advantage

Prediction No. 3: Steelers win 21-16
“This one feels like a hard one to predict, because there are some things with both of these teams in 2025 that are vastly different than what they displayed in 2024. For Seattle, they didn’t look great last week, but their defense looks like it could be very, very good. Pittsburgh escaped with a win last week, and the offense looks like it could have some juice with Rodgers having some decent weapons and time to throw. . .

” . . With the Steelers being at home, they get the nod in this one for me. I think their offense will be too much for a Seahawks team that might struggle to score touchdowns. Pittsburgh did a good job of putting pressure on the New York Jets’ offensive line last week, and that could look even worse for Darnold and his unit up front, which doesn’t look great on paper.”

–Justin Churchill

Prediction No.4: Steelers win 24-17
“Pittsburgh’s offense was more impressive than many thought it would be in Week 1. The question now is can it be sustained? I think it will, but that doesn’t mean scoring 30 every week. The Seahawks have a solid defense, and should play hard after being the only team in the NFC West to lose last week. Both Seattle and the Steelers have a lot of new pieces that are gelling together, but Pittsburgh is clearly further along, and has home field advantage in this matchup.”

-Nick Roesch

Prediction No. 5: Steelers lose 24-20
“This should be one of the more fun matchups on the NFL Week 2 slate. Which isn’t normally something said about a random AFC vs NFC matchup this early in the season. But both of these teams went through major changes on offense this offseason one move specifically involving both teams. That being the Steelers trade for former Seahawks WR DK Metcalf. . .

” . . .Who doesn’t love a revenge game where a former player takes on his former team? Shockingly, my gut is telling me to go with the Seahawks though as I expect Metcalf to have a lackluster showing and I think [HC Mike] Macdonald will have the Seahawks defense playing better than whatever we want to call the lack of defense shown in the Steelers Week 1 matchup vs. the New York Jets.”

– Destin Adams

[D-train]

Kubiak happy with Darnold or at least he says he is.

Yeah, I have been meaning to point out that PFF rating, one of the best in the league. Just how the article is written, finding the root of seattle's offensive problems, I doubt you are going to find a root. It's probably more a combination of a lot of things than a root. And that probably includes Saleh's defensive plan

Makes about as much sense as when J Rod was in the bottom 90s in every offensive statistic, but his WAR made him elite. Anyone that watched Seattle's offense on Sunday and saw a QB that was "one of the best"? Should never be paid to grade a fucking football game. I guess all it takes is to complete a ton of three yard passes and watch your team fucking punt all day, then fumble inside the ten with the game on the line to be one of the best. Can't make that shit up.

PFF has value for Defensive positions and the O line but I agree, a PFF rating for a QB seems questionable given all the stats and metrics they can look at.

[Michael K.]

PFF has value for Defensive positions and the O line but I agree, a PFF rating for a QB seems questionable given all the stats and metrics they can look at.

Bottom line is, I doubt anyone walked away from that game and felt like Sam Darnold played well, even Sam. So, if there is a metric that says he was one of the best in the League? That Metric is garbage.

[Donn Beach]

PFF has value for Defensive positions and the O line but I agree, a PFF rating for a QB seems questionable given all the stats and metrics they can look at.

Bottom line is, I doubt anyone walked away from that game and felt like Sam Darnold played well, even Sam. So, if there is a metric that says he was one of the best in the League? That Metric is garbage.

yeah, so nobody has access these days? Probably best to leave the PFF stuff alone if we don't actually have access to it

[57reasons]

PFF has value for Defensive positions and the O line but I agree, a PFF rating for a QB seems questionable given all the stats and metrics they can look at.

Bottom line is, I doubt anyone walked away from that game and felt like Sam Darnold played well, even Sam. So, if there is a metric that says he was one of the best in the League? That Metric is garbage.

Sam wasnt a problem last Sunday, the playcalling was, and you know i'm the last one to harp on that. There's a good youtube video out there by some former scout with the Ravens and a few other teams on what went wrong with the run game last week. Biggest takeaways were that the Niners back end played the run game exceptionally well, crashing hard to limit the effective runs to modest gains that other teams might yield more on, and secondly, that the Seahawks O wasnt threatening enough horizontally in both directions to conflict said defenders so they might be slowed down a bit. e.g., could have used a lot more boot action like we saw a fair bit with Geno in past years. more of that and more play action should help open up the passing game.

[Donn Beach]

PFF has value for Defensive positions and the O line but I agree, a PFF rating for a QB seems questionable given all the stats and metrics they can look at.

Bottom line is, I doubt anyone walked away from that game and felt like Sam Darnold played well, even Sam. So, if there is a metric that says he was one of the best in the League? That Metric is garbage.

Sam wasnt a problem last Sunday, the playcalling was, and you know i'm the last one to harp on that. There's a good youtube video out there by some former scout with the Ravens and a few other teams on what went wrong with the run game last week. Biggest takeaways were that the Niners back end played the run game exceptionally well, crashing hard to limit the effective runs to modest gains that other teams might yield more on, and secondly, that the Seahawks O wasnt threatening enough horizontally in both directions to conflict said defenders so they might be slowed down a bit. e.g., could have used a lot more boot action like we saw a fair bit with Geno in past years. more of that and more play action should help open up the passing game.

Yeah the lack play action was a mystery. My issue with darnold was the lack of distribution. Either him or the receivers not getting separation. I don't see that as a play calling issue. If someone has a link to what they think is good analysis I'd be interested . I'm not much on YouTube videos but this seems like a good reason for one

[Donn Beach]

A defense of the PFF grade, the coaches seem to blame the recievers for the lack of ball distribution

Pro Football Focus, for instance, slotted Darnold fourth in its weekly rating of quarterbacks after the first game behind only Matthew Stafford, Justin Fields and Dak Prescott with a passing grade of 82.6.

That means, in essence, that PFF declared that Darnold typically spotted the right receiver to throw the ball to, then made the needed throw to get it there.

Darnold hit on 16-of-23 passes.

Of the seven incompletions, one was a drop by Cooper Kupp on a third down.

Another was a fourth-quarter pass to Jaxon Smith-Njigba on a second-and-18 play from the Seattle 29 that initially appeared to be completed for a gain of roughly 25 yards before 49ers cornerback Renardo Green broke it up as both fell to the ground.

Another came on a pass to Smith-Njigba when there appeared to be miscommunication on the route.

Another was a deep shot to Smith-Njigba during the final seconds of the first half.

Another came on a pass to Smith-Njigba down the sideline when the timing appeared thrown off when a 49ers defender bumped Smith-Njigba as he made his break.

Another came on a spike to stop the clock at the end of the first half.

In other words, it wouldn’t have taken much for Darnold to have been almost perfect simply throwing the ball.

But a running game that managed just 84 yards on 26 attempts and an inability of any receiver other than Smith-Njigba – who caught nine passes for 124 yards – held the offense back.

“Plenty of things that we have to work on as an offense that we got to get better at,” Kubiak said.

[Donn Beach]

Huurd speculating on the mystery of the missing play action

During Tuesday’s Blue 88 segment on Seattle Sports’ Brock and Salk, former NFL quarterback Brock Huard speculated on some potential reasons why the Seahawks got away from play-action in the opener.

For one, Huard pointed to the number of screen passes Seattle called, explaining that perhaps the Seahawks felt they could capitalize on that area of their game and use those screens to slow down San Francisco’s pass rush.

“Screens can be great,” Huard said. “But when screens are run, you can’t really run (the ball) and then run the play-action off of it and do those things that are kind of in those tunnels. So it was like, hey, I really like this concept, this is gonna be open. … But then all of a sudden you look up and you’re like, whoa, we had two play-action passes out of 26 attempts? That can’t happen again.”



Huard also pointed to the possibility that Seattle was trying to scheme around 49ers star edge rusher Nick Bosa.

“(Bosa) is a problem,” Huard said. “So your whole boot game, your whole move-the-pocket game, your whole play-pass – if you turn your back to that guy, bad things happen.”

Even so, Huard said there simply has to be more play-action going forward.

“This was their first time doing it with the real bullets flying against a very good defense that knows (the Seahawks) and knows this scheme,” Huard said. “But there’s gotta be some conversation on those headsets of, hey, let’s get back to the DNA. And the DNA is the run, the outside run, the bootleg, some of the play-action pass off of it. We’ve gotta get to some more of that.”

[Donn Beach]

film breakdown of the sorry run attack, here its claimed to be mostly a timing deal, lack of, something that can get cleaned up. I heard MM make a similar comment.

“The play that sticks out to me a little bit as far as things not being ready for prime time yet, even though it’s week one, is the play before the strip sack,” Coach DC said.

“The motion across by Walker, I think puts him almost a full step, maybe even more than a yard slow. And as a consequence, [Nick] Bosa is able to close down. And you’re asking me about the run game. So, you know, week one, sometimes you have small issues to iron out. Any time you’ve got motion attached to the guy who’s getting the ball, whether it’s a jet sweep, a fast sweep, toss, whatever, there is some risk there of timing. And that play to me is one that I think kind of illustrates that; the timing will get better. Number one, or they’ll stop motioning the guy who’s going to get the ball, in this case, Kenneth Walker. But I think I’m more on the side of crediting the 49ers defense.”

“Walker is slow here. And I don’t mean he is personally slow but just the mesh here. Couple of things: What’s the threat for Bosa? I mean, Darnold keeping it out here? Not much. But you need something to hold or deal with Bosa. What some teams have done recently or in other situations is motion a receiver down to try to cut him off and dig him out. You can’t do that because Walker’s in motion, right? So, the design of the play is somewhat limiting in my opinion, but I still really like it.

https://www.fieldgulls.com/seattle-seah ... votal-play