Post Mortem - SB Redux - Hawks v Pats

[auroraave]

Breaking news! The 2026 NFL season is underway and it's already smelling like Seattle, and not in a 'dirty needles in the park" kind of way.

Out of the gate - 1-0.

Wow. What a game. What a way to win. Just. Wow.

I consider our SUper Bowl rematch another preseason game. Seattle looked sloppy at times, a bit out of sync at times, but goddam if they didn't play down four startres including Sam Darnold and oull this out - Seattle style. Just. As. Scripted. Right?

Seattle secondary - they "Maye" deserve their own nickname - with Emmanwari and Okada out - the secondary said 'fuck you, deal with us" andn they stepped it up big time. Three picks in the 4th. DId anyone notice on the final pick - the pass rush - STOPPED looping around behind Maye to cut off the edge - taking away any outside scramble opportunity - and that was huge IMO. Too often in the game, I was watching the guys outside getting behind Maye who then stepped up and ran. They finally solved that in the 4th.

Game ball to Lock for stepping in and stepping up. Yup, it was a bit shaky at times, but c'mon, off the bench, new coordinator, season opener, all eyes on you, and he delivered. My only complaint was the delay penalties inside the 5 that kinda fucked us. But, comms between Fleury and Lock had to be a work in progress. That is a very very tough spot to be in - and we managed it. F'n legendary.

Cooper Kupp. That one handed catch. C'mon. The game turned on that. We grabbeb some momentum and confidence. That was huge.

Kicking game did Seattle kicking game thing - they fucking dominated. Well, except the return game. I guess we're fair catching the ball now with 25 yards of open territory in front of us? Fax to Rasheed Shaheed: Dude, down four starters, including the QB, probably a good idea to grab every yard you can. Full stop.

JSN doing JSN things. If that homerun didn't get you off the couch, were you even sitting on a couch? That was ELECTRIC. Dude was doing some silky gliding and it was beautiful. That dude is soe smooth. How lucky are we?

If Darnold is out for a while - if it is a labrum in jury - Seattle has to accelerate Milroe's development. He is going to have to see some playing time.

Defense - front 7 - did not seem in prime time form. It's not talen or coaching, it's rust, IMO. We let Maye off the hook way too many times with clutch scrambles and absolutely maddening long third down conversions. The secondary shined though. Not at all wiorried about the front seven, make no mistake. I believe early in the season, offenses have a slight advantage - defenses are reacting. Let's get 100 plays under thier belts and they'll be right back in form. Time to step back and marvel at the dline - that is one loaded unit. Uchenna was flat-ballin' out there and Mills had another SUper Bowl highlight tackle while taking down a lineman. This unit is gonna be a big fuckin' problem and I love it!

Jadarian Price. Dude is Walker 2.0. He is gonna be collecting yards. The only reason he "only' had 52 yardsw rushing was the derfense was selling out to stop the run. Once the passing game is back on track, Darnold and Horton, he's gonna feast. He was fast, twitchy, confident. His ceiling is gonna be fun to find. "Oh, but he's not a pass catching threat" read the 'reports'.

Now we come to Brian Fleury. I am impressed. I am really impressed. You could not put him in a more difficult spot - and he responded. SOme great play designs, great strategy, he is going to be good. Imagine game one your QB goes down, your first day on the job. The play design JSN score on. There is a lot to like here - and remember - NE has one of the better defenses in the league.

Gotta cut down on the self inflicted wounds via penalty. SOme may have been iffy but the late hit out of bounds - c'mon, we dumped Woolen for that kind of stupid shit.

Reminder - Seattle has a monster draft haul coming up. Yay!

Yeah, it was sloppy at times, but what a way to rally. Now let's hope Sam doesn't have a labrum tear. Also, I think I like the new owner. He gets it.

https://x.com/vkhosla/status/2097901978 ... awks-owner



go hawks...

[DavidGee24]

We beat these bums by a lot more than the final score indicated. Twice on second-and-short near the goal line we ran out of time and took stupid penalties, one a delay of game and one an illegal motion. Took four for sure and probably eight points off the board right there.

And even though Lock did a good job protecting the football, if Darnold doesn't get hurt we attack those bastards and probably blow them out.

The secondary said "Next man up" and Drake Maye ended up having to take a 60-minute shower to get the smell of fart out of his pretty hair. And a special Ouch That Smarted Award to Michael for posting that Mike Vrabel couldn't sprint off the field fast enough to go cheat on his wife.

Clean up the penalties and we're going to have another great season.

[Michael K.]

I agree with both of the posts above. Not much to add besides.....GO HAWKS. I was resigned in the 3rd quarter to just say "what are you supposed to do when you lose your starting QB on the opening drive and play missing Nick E. and Okada". But fuck that! LOL

[Donn Beach]

Went through a similar situation last season, the Tampa Bay game and then afterwards. They needed to rely on defensive back depth and kicked ass. Remember MM taking responsibility for the Tampa Bay loss, that he didn't adjust effectively. I think it points out how important the system is. They have depth of talent and a coach that knows how to deploy it effectively

[Donn Beach]

MM isn't cringing over needing to play reserves, it is an attitude MM brings

Mike Macdonald doesn’t sweat when he has to play backups. He’s excited to see what they can do because he knows they’ve earned the right to be in the lineup.

Rodney Thomas and Nehemiah Pritchett exemplifying that

[trharder]

If Darnold is out for a while - if it is a labrum in jury - Seattle has to accelerate Milroe's development. He is going to have to see some playing time.

I don't think there ever will be any significant development. I liked the pick at the time, but not all picks work out. Milroe is a turd.
John Clayton used to say the backup was usually only going to win you 50% of the games they play. I can't get The Professor's voice
out of my head after the Darnold went down.

When you factor in the starters hadn't played any real snaps since the SB, I wasn't surprised there was a little rust.
I'm more worried about Emanwori staying healthy than I am about the Darnold's status. If Emanwori were to stay healthy for the rest
of this season, we will win the SB again. I said it. He is the best player on the team, if healthy.
I was a little taken aback by our RB situation in real life. I thought Price looked good, but you can see they are factoring in him being
a rookie with their use of him and play calling. He literally was sharing snaps with a practice squad guy. The guy we got from GB had
what, one or two carries? That's disturbing. Charbs will fix a lot of my anxiety, probably.

[auroraave]

If Darnold is out for a while - if it is a labrum in jury - Seattle has to accelerate Milroe's development. He is going to have to see some playing time.

I don't think there ever will be any significant development. I liked the pick at the time, but not all picks work out. Milroe is a turd.
John Clayton used to say the backup was usually only going to win you 50% of the games they play. I can't get The Professor's voice
out of my head after the Darnold went down.

When you factor in the starters hadn't played any real snaps since the SB, I wasn't surprised there was a little rust.
I'm more worried about Emanwori staying healthy than I am about the Darnold's status. If Emanwori were to stay healthy for the rest
of this season, we will win the SB again. I said it. He is the best player on the team, if healthy.
I was a little taken aback by our RB situation in real life. I thought Price looked good, but you can see they are factoring in him being
a rookie with their use of him and play calling. He literally was sharing snaps with a practice squad guy. The guy we got from GB had
what, one or two carries? That's disturbing. Charbs will fix a lot of my anxiety, probably.

Milroe's accellerated development would be for readiness as Lock's back up. I also think there are potential Milroe packages available to give defenses different looks. This is not a "OMG we need Milroe to be the starter" I am suggesting strategically, he brings a value with his different skillset. What the ceiling of that is - no one knows yet - in his last game he looked good - so progress is happening. He's on the roster - use him - if it makes sense.

Price looks like a star. Part of what held him back, IMO, was the defense blatantly selling out to stop the run after Darnold went down. Once the passing game is back to normal, I expect him to go off. Holani is a more seasoned back with more experience in pass protection, him getting reps makes sense.

Crazy to think of this team's ceiling when Emmanwari, Okada, Darnold Charbs and Horton are back. Horton could be a difference maker - he has size and speed and will necessitate attention from opposing defenses - who already have to deal with JSN, Kupp, Shaheed and the emerging TE group.

And this team has a serious draft haul coming up as well.