Postmortem: Seahawks v Failcons

[auroraave]

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, and by 'times' I mean halves of NFL football for Seattle's Jekyll and HyDarnold offeens.

Damn, after a first half of sputtering like a 1970 SS 396 Chevelle missing a spark plug wire, Kubiak made high-quality half time adjustments to the offensive motor to get our little engine that could firing on all cylinders, leaving a fresh patch of smokin' hot BF Goodrich rubber all over Atlanta.

Damn.

Hey kids, take a moment to consider this... Seattle is 10 - 3. Who had that on thier bingo card? No, you didn't, you damned liars!

Some thoughts (but no prayers)...

Game ball to Kubiak and the offense for those adjustments. Game ball to The Darnold for upping his rushing game. We don't need a lot of yards, but we do need a few plays where he uses his feet. He is not unathletic. Did we not learn anything from 2014? Run the damn ball! Aniother game ball to The Darnold for dialing it all in in the second half and making us first half Darnold naysayers eat crow, like me! Mmmm, crow....

Shaheed showing us exactly why we got him. He's our Percy Harvin 2025, minus the depression and rag weed breath.

Fun hearing Seattle fans louder than the Mylanta fans. Yeah, the 12's travel well.

Atlanta is a puzzling team - offense looked good - then just constantly fell apart. Cousins can still sling it. Bijon Mustard got some nice wheels, too.

Atlanta was 1-13 in third down conversions. Read that again. The Darnold's huge third down conversion to Rasheed in the 4th was a huge play, not only only converting, but showing Sam still has confidence despite the first half nightmare.

On Witherspoon's interception, he kept leaning in at the line like he was blitzing and it looked like Cousins expected him too, but he backed off and totally blew up the play. It was beautiful and a great reminder of the deception this defense plays with.

Emmanwori is gonna be a big problem and a moment of silvent gratitude to DK Metcalf for being a greedy, underachieving head case and league leader in bone headed, deive killing penalties, for demanding a trade. That pick turned out pretty good for Seattle. Also, shout out to John Schneider for trading up ton get him and assembling the NFL's most feared defense right now.

I can't give any game balls to the defense, since they let Atlanta score. Sorry not sorry. The bar has been set - shut outs our nothing. Too much to ask? FIne, okay, okay. Does anyone remember back in the LOB days, there was an article that came out showing that teams that played Seattle usually lost the next weekend, and it was suggested they were so beat up from playing us that it took a toll into the next weekend. Who remembers that?

This defense is truly frightening. A lot of injuries - that are exposing the ridiculous depth we have. This feels so much like that LOB squad - but this group is probably better - that dline rotation is frightening.

FOur games left, Indy, SF, Lambs, Panthers. All winnable. Can you imagine if this team won out to finish 14-3? Not sure that's a realistic expectation, but right now, after seeing the second half, anything seems possible. Blocvked kicks? CHeck. Shaheed taking on to the house? Check. JSN ballin' out? Check. That defense doing what they do?

It's important to take a moment to acknowledge how well this franchise is run. One of the best for decades, no hesitation in moving on from the directionless sinking ship that was Carroll, no hesitation in snagging Macdonald, no hesitation in replacing Grubb, tdares to bring in Shaheed and Earnest Jones, dumping DK and Geno, moving up to get Emmanwori, it's staggering to think how many 'got it rights' we have had lately.

Fun facts: Seattle has the second highest scoring offense - and the second lowest scoring defense in the NFL right now.

I don't want to sound cocky, but I am really looking forward to the Colts game. I think Seattle is gonna punch them in the mouth.

go hawks...

[trharder]

Game ball to Kubiak and the offense for those adjustments. Game ball to The Darnold for upping his rushing game. We don't need a lot of yards, but we do need a few plays where he uses his feet. He is not unathletic. Did we not learn anything from 2014? Run the damn ball! Aniother game ball to The Darnold for dialing it all in in the second half and making us first half Darnold naysayers eat crow, like me! Mmmm, crow....
go hawks...

I agree with this, but I was also very glad to see MM let the offense cook it's way out of the funk even after
they had a nice lead that they could have just basically run the ball and the clock out. They didn't need the points
or gain anything by running it up, but The Darnold and his crew needed to practice being legit and necessary. I think
it will pay dividends in the games ahead.

[trharder]

Mina Kimes - The Seahawks defense playing with a lead

[auroraave]

Game ball to Kubiak and the offense for those adjustments. Game ball to The Darnold for upping his rushing game. We don't need a lot of yards, but we do need a few plays where he uses his feet. He is not unathletic. Did we not learn anything from 2014? Run the damn ball! Aniother game ball to The Darnold for dialing it all in in the second half and making us first half Darnold naysayers eat crow, like me! Mmmm, crow....
go hawks...

I agree with this, but I was also very glad to see MM let the offense cook it's way out of the funk even after
they had a nice lead that they could have just basically run the ball and the clock out. They didn't need the points
or gain anything by running it up, but The Darnold and his crew needed to practice being legit and necessary. I think
it will pay dividends in the games ahead.

They didn't need the points, they needed the redzone practice. Too many FG's for this offense - need to convert that shit. We already know FG's ain't gonna beat the Lambs. At this point, every drive should be pedal to the metal mentality until Lock comes in to relieve.

[Sibelius Hindemith]

Game ball to Kubiak? How do you give him credit for the 2nd half and not blame for the first? Personally, i give Darnold credit over Kubiak for making the adjustments. Each passing week my opinion of Kubiak diminishes. What he came up with this past week was pure horseshit.

[auroraave]

Game ball to Kubiak? How do you give him credit for the 2nd half and not blame for the first? Personally, i give Darnold credit over Kubiak for making the adjustments. Each passing week my opinion of Kubiak diminishes. What he came up with this past week was pure horseshit.

Yeah, he gets a game ball for making the correct adjustments at half time that resulted in 31 second half points. That's pretty impressive. It's hard to have four quarters of total dominance - and credit Atlanta for game planning well.

[trharder]

Game ball to Kubiak? How do you give him credit for the 2nd half and not blame for the first? Personally, i give Darnold credit over Kubiak for making the adjustments. Each passing week my opinion of Kubiak diminishes. What he came up with this past week was pure horseshit.

Yeah, he gets a game ball for making the correct adjustments at half time that resulted in 31 second half points. That's pretty impressive. It's hard to have four quarters of total dominance - and credit Atlanta for game planning well.

I'm okay with Kubiak criticism and praise. He's probably giving himself both. There's a good chance he will be hired
away at the end of the season, no matter what we think about him.
I'm now even more convinced the effectiveness of the offense goes the way of Darnold's mental state. I was saying
before this game he needed to run more. That's a simplistic way of saying it, but he had been a sitting duck before
and in this game he came out of that, both running for yards and moving the pocket, the latter probably play calling.
The second thing that happened is this is the first time, since the offensive slump, that Sam used the defensive efffort
to shutdown JSN against them by finding Shaheed and Kupp under pressure. That had to happen. Some people were
correctly worrying about being too JSN reliant before it even became a problem.

[auroraave]

Game ball to Kubiak? How do you give him credit for the 2nd half and not blame for the first? Personally, i give Darnold credit over Kubiak for making the adjustments. Each passing week my opinion of Kubiak diminishes. What he came up with this past week was pure horseshit.

Yeah, he gets a game ball for making the correct adjustments at half time that resulted in 31 second half points. That's pretty impressive. It's hard to have four quarters of total dominance - and credit Atlanta for game planning well.

I'm okay with Kubiak criticism and praise. He's probably giving himself both. There's a good chance he will be hired
away at the end of the season, no matter what we think about him.
I'm now even more convinced the effectiveness of the offense goes the way of Darnold's mental state. I was saying
before this game he needed to run more. That's a simplistic way of saying it, but he had been a sitting duck before
and in this game he came out of that, both running for yards and moving the pocket, the latter probably play calling.
The second thing that happened is this is the first time, since the offensive slump, that Sam used the defensive efffort
to shutdown JSN against them by finding Shaheed and Kupp under pressure. That had to happen. Some people were
correctly worrying about being too JSN reliant before it even became a problem.

I think it's hard for Darnold to sit comfortably in the pocket knowing a fierce pass rush is coming - understandable - but there are times he just needs to step up in the pocket or take advantage of the yardage available running. Once he gets the deer in the headlights look - it's all in his head. He needs to do a little street ball and get out of his head and just play occassionally. Another way to do that is to go uptempo - something we rarely lean into outside of the two minute drill and it's something I think could greatly counter a heavy pass rush - move quickly, stress the defense. I never understand why that isn't used more when it so often pays dividends.

I think Rasheed is finally finding his footing in this offense - he and sam are getting on the same page - it takes time, and it also takes scheming - we need to take advantage of the defensive scheme - if they blanket JSN then someone else is open - and as Sam/Kubiak/Rasheed figure out what defenses are doing, they can all react accordingly. It takes time. This is why I wanted them to get another playmaker - another Harvin type.

I hope kubiak isn't gone at season's end.

[Michael K.]

Here is what I don't understand about this place. Picture two games against two different defenses. One defense is 8th overall, and 5th against the pass (the Chargers are 220 passing yards better but still have to play tonight) . Your team wins that game 26 to 0, but the passing numbers are down....so you freak the fuck out about how shitty the offense is? The VERY NEXT WEEK, the other team is 15th overall, but 24th against the pass, and when the QB sucks for nearly an entire half, the fans are over the moon about the team's offense in a 37 to 9 win were all but six of those points came after a dreadful start to the game.

I was more impressed with our second half adjustments against a very good Viking defense that I was in blowing out a shitty Atlanta defense. What about last week put you people in a dark place but a second half surge against a dogshit defense cured all that?

Kubiak does what it takes to win. If you watch every game we've played there are basically a tale of two halves. We either jump out to a big lead and coast, or struggle a bit early and make adjustments. Either way? We have done what it takes to win in almost every game, and had a shot to win the three we lost. But last week, 26 to 0 was doom and gloom, and this week we are Super Bowl bound? I PROMISE you, what Kubiak is doing is EXACTLY what his boss wants. The one thing he does LIGHT YEAR'S better than Grubb. Besides a dogshit game plan against the Niners in week one, when we were scared of our own shadow? The only complaint I had was getting ultra conservative and nearly blowing the Cardinal game. Otherwise? Blown away by this staff and the performance they are getting out of some guys I would have never imagined would play at this level. Darnold and Thomas come to mind. A serviceable O Line? Crazy thought. JSN playing on an entirely different level than maybe anyone else in the league? Outstanding.

[D-train]

Daniel Jones is out so we're at 10 and a half point favorite again. Some dude named Leonard is supposed to start.