I like Justin Herbert. He’s got a feel good story to him, growing up in Eugene, Oregon, being an underdog, un-recruited, walk on player for his hometown Oregon Ducks, becoming their star quarterback, and getting drafted by a quintessential NFL underdog team in the LA Chargers.

He seems like a genuinely good dude, too. Despite having all the measurables that NFL teams drool over (size, arm strength, speed, etc.), he apparently fell a bit in the 2020 draft because of his lack of toxic masculinity. He’s kind of a quiet guy who prefers to let his abilities on the field do the talking and leading.

If I were a Chargers fan (or Ducks fan), I would likely own his jersey. I like guys like Justin Herbert, especially when you combine that personality with a God given ability to play NFL quarterback at the elite level he does.

I also really, really, really like Geno Smith, and when I mean “like,” what I specifically mean is that I practically have to pinch myself every time I glance at the advanced analytics of his elite play over the past six games to make sure I’m not in a dream. Through six games, he is second in the league behind Jared Allen in most metrics, and I am rooting hard for him to continue this trend. In fact, there is no guy in this league I will root for harder this year than Geno Smith, and that’s not just because he is the starting quarterback of my favorite team.

A Geno Smith success story in Seattle isn’t just what the Seahawks need, it’s what the entire league needs. To my core, I believe teams need to be reminded that there are short comings to giving up on young quarterbacks too early.

It wasn’t just the NY Jets that gave up on Smith, too early, either. It was pretty much the entire league, except for eventually Seattle. After the Jets moved off of him after year four, he bounced around as a backup with the Giants when Eli was nearing retirement, and the Chargers as Phillip Rivers was nearing his, as well. Neither team seemingly took effort in grooming Smith to be their heir apparent QB1 behind an aging starter.

Why is that? I don’t definitively know, but I do know that when Geno Smith was in college at West Virginia, he was a prolific passer who put up all kinds of gaudy numbers. He had ability and success that should have secured him as a top fifteen pick in his 2013 draft class, but it sounds like interviews at the draft combine scared quarterback needy teams off. Thus, he slid.

I’m not a big fan of putting race into the equation, but I can think of a pretty punky white kid from Oklahoma a few years back who seemingly wasn’t a great interview during the draft process yet Cleveland had no problem drafting tops overall in 2018. In fact, when Cleveland decided to give up on him this year, Carolina had no problem trading for him and declaring him the starter. Both quarterbacks were prolific college passers in quarterback friendly offenses, and both drew some red flags about their personalities, in their own separate ways. Why was the white guy treated so differently?

At any rate, Geno Smith eventually found his way to Seattle to serve as Russell Wilson’s backup for a couple seasons until being pretty much proclaimed the starter last Spring by Pete Carroll even though the coach said there would be an “open competition” in training camp with Drew Lock. In hindsight, I think we can all say that Carroll had a hunch about what Smith could do in this offense this year if given the opportunity to be the guy through camp. There was never any real competition between him and Lock, and it drove many fans (myself, included), and those in the local media nuts over it.

The question is, why did it drive so many of us bonkers?

The simple answer is that most of us completely wrote him off as a player. The logic inside our minds was that Lock was the player with significantly more upside, even though Denver couldn’t wait to get rid of him. Now, I think perhaps the only reason why we felt he had this upside was the fact he was only 24, as opposed to being 31 like Geno was. That was our red herring in the Seahawk quarterback debate.

This is why I will continue to root heavily for Geno Smith. I want to see him sustain the level of play that has him as a top quarterback in the league by the analytic grading team of Pro Football Focus. I want to see him to be able to play himself into a bigger extension with the Seahawks to be their longer term solution at quarterback. It would be fantastic for him and the club, and they can use that draft capital from Denver to further build up the defense.

Justin Herbert is a great story in this league, coming from somewhat humble Central Oregon origins, and being a bit of an underdog, but Geno Smith is THE UNDERDOG story of the league right now. That cannot be denied.

So, as one might expect it, I’m going to do the homer-y, homer-est, most homeric home-y-ass thing right now, and I am going to pick my hometown Seattle Seahawks to go down to Los Angeles and beat these Chargers this Sunday. I’m going to say Seattle wins this thing, 20-13.

It will be a bit more of a modest effort from the Seahawk offense again, but I think it will be led by another efficient outing by Geno Smith. I think he will continue to take what the defense gives, building off of what should be a solid ground game, but maybe throw for a score or two that becomes the difference in the game.

The Chargers play a similar defense to the Cardinals, they like to show pressures and make you have to guess quickly. They will makes some plays and give some up in the process. Geno got a good taste of this against the Cards, I think that helps him some in this match down in LA.

I also think that rookie runner Ken Walker III is going to have a day, both as a runner and a pass catcher. The Chargers haven’t been a great run stopping team. I look for Seattle to take advantage, here.

The biggest reason why I see Seattle winning this one, though, is the Seahawk defense. I think this is a good week to build off of their solid game against the Cardinals. The Chargers are coming off the tough MNF game against a tough Denver Bronco defense. They have a banged up offensive line coming off a short week of preparation, and they are facing a Seattle front four that is now being allowed to play more aggressively than it has been in previous weeks.

It feels like Seattle could be finding its grove by having their three techniques attack rather than react, and that should only help the linebackers and the secondary more. When you marry that with the fact that rookie corners Tariq Woolen and Coby Bryant are playing better ball each passing week, I see better things happening for this defense moving forward, and I think it continues in this match.

Would I be shocked if I’m wrong and the Chargers win? Absolutely, not. Justin Herbert is an elite quarterback in this league, and he is carrying them to wins with an offense that has a banged up line and perhaps a lack of overall speed at receiver. He is finding good outlets like running back Austin Ekeler, who is their Do Everything offensive player right now.

But I feel a momentum with Seattle, and I think Herbert is still playing banged up, himself. Contrastingly, I think Geno Smith is playing healthy with a bunch of confidence and control over this offense, and the defense feels like it is now going to come together. They lost close games against Atlanta and New Orleans that perhaps they should have won because of the disarray on their defense. If the disarray is diminishing, Seattle could be a dangerous team to play the rest of the year.

I think we see that this Sunday. Seahawks are going to win. Book it.

Go Hawks.

Games played between the Seattle Seahawks and the Arizona Cardinals have most often been a weird watch over the past decade. It’s almost become a joke of a factoid that whenever these teams play each other, the home team loses, and at times, badly loses.

Two of the strangest games that I’ve ever watched in the Pete Carroll era of were against these Cardinals. One was a late December game in 2013 where it was freezing cold and Russell Wilson couldn’t do anything against the AZ defense, and Carson Palmer eventually got the Cardinals a game winning touchdown after getting picked off all day long by Richard Sherman. The other was that weird as fuck 2017 game down in the desert that resulted in a brutal tie with Kam Chancellor getting a neck stinger that would end his career, and Sherman blowing out his achilles and thusly playing his last game as a Seahawk.

There used to be a time when I rested easily as a Seahawk fan against this matchup, but I think that dates back to the Mike Holmgren era prior to smart phones. Nowadays, when the schedule comes out, I almost feel more inclined to chalk a home came up against the Cardinals as a loss, and then I feel inclined to chalk the road game against them as a win.

So, it shouldn’t have been a surprise to myself in the second half of this dreadful match against the Cardinals, I found myself saying out loud, “why are these games against these two teams always so gawd awful weird????”

Folks chuckled around me because I said it after the Cardinal special teams got punter Michael Dickson to fumble the ball in the end zone for a touchdown that made the game 12-9 in favor of Seattle, but it was something I was thinking in my mind for a while before that. Even though Seattle seemed comfortably ahead 12-3 moments before that dreaded play, I sensed weirdness about to happen which would give Arizona new life, and it did.

Then Geno Smith and Kenneth Walker III happened together on Seattle’s next series. Geno would guide the Seahawk offense with his arm along with Walker’s wonderful playmaking ability, and the offense put together a beautiful touchdown scoring drive to effectively ice this game. In that drive, Geno peppered pretty passes to Noah Fant, Dee Eskridge, DK Metcalf, Walker, and Tyler Lockett, only to hand the ball off to Walker (who has lateral moves that I haven’t seen from a Seahawk running back since the days of Curt Warner in the 1980’s). Just gorgeous offensive football.

But that drive wasn’t nearly the full story. The larger storyline was how Seattle’s much maligned defense stepped up in this game against Kyler Murray and flustered him, rattled him, and made him looked decidedly human. The defensive unit that has been the laughing stock in the league since week two of the season, sacked Murray six times, and largely stuffed the ground game outside of the odd play where Murray took off for big yardage.

Defensive coordinator Clint Hurtt adjusted his defensive line in a way in which I have been hoping for weeks to happen. Instead of playing a more passive read and reaction style, they attacked with guys who are better penetrators than two gap cloggers. The result was that three of the sacks game from defensive tackles, Poona Ford, Shelby Harris, and Quinton Jefferson, two came from edge defenders Uchenna Nwosu, and Darrell Taylor, and one came off of a safety blitz by Ryan Neal. Seattle found multiple ways of getting after Murray. When he wasn’t sacked, he hurried throws into incompletions.

Linebackers Jordyn Brooks and Cody Barton played much better, and the Seahawk corners were flipping fantastic! This was the first time this season where I felt Seattle played connected together on defense.

Rookie cornerback sensation Tariq Woolen now has four interceptions in four games, and he is just scratching the surface of knowing how to play NFL corner. All he is going off of right now, and God given length, strength, size, and ability. He’s the DK Metcalf of NFL corners, and when he really starts to figure out the nuances of playing the position.. my goodness.. then we are talking about a rare talent who can take away an entire side of the field.

He’s already making quarterbacks feels uneasy. From my seats in the nose bleeders, it looked like Kyler Murray was often wanting to go elsewhere with the ball.

That elsewhere just so happened to be the “other rookie” Coby Bryant who also had a nice game again. I’m telling you, do not underestimate the effect that Tariq Woolen can have on this defense in turning it around. If he starts to make quarterbacks more uneasy, the defenders can anticipate more where the ball might be traveling. That would make them better ready to make plays on the ball. Bryant made nice plays in coverage in this game. This is a really encouraging sign.

In terms of the sensational efforts of all these rookies, perhaps lost in the spectacular play of Walker, Woolen, Bryant, and the offensive tackles, is the steadily strong effort Boye Mafe brings as an edge defender against the run and pass. I’m high on Mafe, I think he’s going to be a special player. He’s already showing a strong ability as a run defender, and he’s only going to get better as a pass rusher.

He’s doing it right, too. First thing is first as a defender. You take away the run, and once you do that, you earn the right to pass rush. This is a timeless adage in football, and Mafe is on point with it. One off-season training with Cliff Avril in his local pass rush academy is going to turn this guy into a quarterback’s nightmare, too. Just you watch.

But the player of the game?

Come on, now. How could it not be Jason Meyers for making four out of four field goals, and providing most of the points?

Sometimes this league comes down to who has the better kicker. In weird ass games, it often comes down to that, and it did sorta in this one. Quietly, Meyers has been having an excellent year, thus far.

Seahawks played this game well rounded. It wasn’t perfect, Geno didn’t rattle off spectacular numbers like he’s done the last three weeks, and he took a number of sacks, and there was that weird blocked punt thing for a Cardinal touchdown, but Seattle did well enough on all three phases of offense, defense, and special teams to beat a dangerous divisional opponent at home. They played complimentary football for maybe the first time this year, and it was fun to see it against this particular team.

It was also fun to see Geno taking what was there against this aggressive and tricky Cardinal defense. Arizona seems very focused on taking away DK Metcalf and Tyler Lockett, and forcing Geno to go other places with the ball. In years past, I feel like Russell Wilson would have played stubborn and would have tried to get into scramble mode to free up his preferred targets, and that would have lead to sacks, interceptions, and three and outs. Geno recognized the situation, stayed patient, and chose other outlets. The result was Dee Eskridge finally making an impact as a slot receiver, and Noah Fant having a bigger game.

While his stat line wasn’t spectacular, this game for me provider further evidence that Geno Smith should be more strongly considered as a longer term solution at quarterback for this team. It’s clear that he understands this offense well, and can execute it at a high enough level. He can make all the throws needed, and is pretty accurate, and protective with the football.

And the fans in the stands absolutely love this guy. In my section, there were Geno chants throughout this game. Sure, he’s going to continue to have some doubters and detractors, but as time moves on, I feel like those numbers are going to shrink.

Pete Carroll was immediately in high praise over Geno after this game. He knew how well his quarterback played. I felt it again, as well.

Bravo. Now, beat the Chargers next week.

Go Hawks!

The Seattle Seahawks have the best DVOA offense in the NFL right now. Through five games, they also have the highest rated quarterback in the league by Pro Football Focus. Their defense, however, is miserable; second to last, in fact.

The Arizona Cardinals lack the offensive explosion that they had last year at this time. Their quarterback, while still dangerous, has been more up and down. They also have a defense that hasn’t been very good. Without Chandler Jones, they have had a hard time generating a pass rush, and their corners haven’t been covering well enough.

Seahawk fan is probably looking the Seahawk defense right now, seeing the match up with Kyler Murray, and is thinking “oh no.”

Cardinal fan is probably looking at the Cardinals coming to Seattle with a defense that doesn’t pass rush very well, and is looking at the Geno Smith feel good story and is thinking “f’ing hell..”

It’s time, folks. It’s time for one of these teams to show that they are worthy of competing for this NFC West division. We can all see how good San Francisco is with that defense and ground game. Between the Rams, Cardinals, and Seahawks, which 2-3 team right now wants to hang with them?

I am going to do the homer-est homer-y homeric thing that a homer could ever homey with, and say that this is the time my Seattle Seahawks kick it in the ass, and finally play some better defense. They have to do it.

The Vegas odds makers currently have Arizona favored in this game by 2.5 points. These are the same disrespecting dill weeds who had the Detroit Lions beating Seattle by double digits two weeks ago. It’s time for the Seahawk defenders to situate themselves in a manner to which they rub these odds makers noses in it like a bad puppy who went number two on a Persian carpet.

I’m saying the Seahawks win this thing at home 31-27 over the Cardinals. I think we see some better play out of the Seattle defense in this one, and I think Geno and the offense stays the course enough, even with the bummer loss of Rashaad Penny for the year.

Why am I so optimistic about this Seahawk defense that hasn’t stopped the run well or the pass?

That’s a good question.

It’s a vibe!

That’s correct. I’m going entirely off a blindly hopeful hunch that is supported be zilch zip nada no analytic data, or on field eye test whatsoever.

As bad as this defense was last week against the Saints, I got a sense that things were turning a wee bit. The rookie corners looked a bit sharper. Jordyn Brooks was laying more forceful hits. Ryan Neal looked better at safety.

I think with a bit more tweaking with the defense, and fitting it better to the talent on this roster, Clint Hurtt is going to get this thing turned around. Is it a 3-4 or a 4-3, or a 5-2? I don’t frankly care as long as it gets better this week, which I think it does.

I think in this one, Seattle is going to show the Twelves a better tackling effort. I just feel it in my homer bones. They’re going to get after it better. They are going to get off their blocks and they are going to tackle better in space. Kyler Murray will get his, but it won’t be enough. Not in this one.

Why you ask?

Because Geno Smith is going to Geno F’ing Smith once and again, and continue his war path showing the league that it gave up on him way too early as a starter. Bet on that one, Vegas.

I also think DK Metcalf, Tyler Lockett, and the wonderful trio of Seahawk tight ends are going to have a day. I think DeeJay Dallas and Ken Walker III are going to have one, too.

Seahawks win this one. Book it. Take it to the bank and cash it in, and buy yourself that moose hunting trip to Alberta. Seahawks win.

Go Hawks.

Let me be clear on this thing. I believe that the Seattle Seahawks should have won this game over the Saints, as bad as the defense played once again.

I believe that the Saints caught two huge second half breaks from the refs that turned the game in their favor. One was on a DK Metcalf fumble when it looked like he didn’t have possession of the ball after an attempted catch, and the other was phantom hold call on Charles Cross that negated a beautiful touchdown pass to Metcalf later in the fourth quarter.

Of the two, the BS holding call on Cross seemed most egregious, as it took points off the board. After the game, Carroll mentioned that defenders are throwing their hands up in the air more these days in order to “sell” a hold to a ref, and that appeared to be the case here.

That said, I also want to be clear about how much I hate using bad officiating as an excuse for why my team lost. The Seahawk defenders could have done a lot better defending Taysom Hill in the wild cat offense NOLA used, and don’t even get me started on what it was exactly that Michael Dickson did on that crazy attempt to run the ball instead of punt. Not stopping an obvious wild cat play, and not using the best punter in the game to punt is a good recipe to lose any game.

Instead of making this a total bitch piece about refs, a horrible Seahawk run defense, and a maybe even worse special teams play, I want to bounce back and forth with some true positives that came out of this game for the Seahawks along with some negatives. Maybe this will be a helpful exercise to gain a proper perspective on state of this team.

The best thing that I can say about this game is that I now believe that Geno Smith looks to be more than just a capable starting quarterback. I think he’s playing like a really good one.

After he won Offensive Player Of The Week honors last week, I heard skeptics such as Hugh Millen on KJR FM say “yeah but he played the lousy Lions.. let’s see what he does against the Saints defense.” Well, okay then. On the road, Geno Smith went a solid 16 for 25 in pass attempts for 268 yard, 3 TDs and 0 INTs against the 9th best defense in the NFL, but that doesn’t even tell the full story.

He should have had another 300 yard game again and 5 touchdowns. He had an easy touchdown grab dropped in the end zone by DK Metcalf, and had that gorgeous touchdown to Metcalf in the fourth quarter taken away by that bullshit call on Cross.

I’m saying this now, having watched him through five games. I think Geno Smith is playing like a guy who deserves to be the starting quarterback in Seattle now, and in the future. In fact, if he sustains this pace through the season, I think it would be foolish for the Seahawks not to lock him into a multi year deal and build around him. It’s obvious he works in this Shane Waldron offense, and I feel it’s likely that the quarterback and play caller are only going to get more comfortable with each other as this season unfolds. The Geno Smith redemption story is becoming one of the best storylines in the league right now, and I am personally happy that it is happening here in Seattle.

Sadly, though, it was horrific to learn that Rashaad Penny injured his tibia and will likely be out for the season. As much as it has been fun rooting for Geno to succeed, it’s been a continual joy watching Penny continue to shine, and build off of his solid play from late last year. I hope he recovers quickly, and continues being a part of this team.

In that, I absolutely think it’s fantastic that Seattle has Ken Walker III on this team, and that big time run he had in place of Penny showed me everything I needed to see as to why Seattle spent a high second round pick on him. This dude is a special, special talent with the ball in his hands. He is now the man moving forward, and for me, that is exciting. Seattle will have to add depth behind him now, but if this guy stays healthy enough, it’s going to make this offense all the more dynamic. He’s a true home run hitter at running back. I’m looking forward to it.

It was hard to watch this defense through much of the game. They held a pretty middling Saints offense to 17 points in the first half, and I suppose that’s okay given how the Seattle offense was performing, but they literally had no answer for Taysom Hill as a running quarterback in the wild cat. It was almost like the Saints should have just stayed in that offense the whole time, and that’s not an indictment on Andy Dalton as the Saints’ quarterback, it’s just a slamming one on Seattle’s run defense right now.

I don’t know what the fix is with this Seahawk defense against the run. Personally, I think they have good players. Al Woods, Shelby Harris, and Poona Ford are all decent interior run defenders. Jordan Brooks is a good run stopping linebacker. Quandre Diggs is a capable tackler at safety. Tariq Woolen is an exciting talent at corner.

I’m not going to pretend to know more about NFL football than Clint Hurtt and Pete Carroll. These two guys could rattle off concepts in seconds that would have my head spinning. What I wonder, however, is if Seattle has the right personnel to run a 3-4 to a high level. Specifically, whether they are deep enough at linebacker, and if they have the right type of defensive linemen.

It’s hard for me to watch replays and not wonder if Cody Barton is overwhelmed and over thinking as an inside linebacker in this style of defense. It’s also hard for me to watch Poona Ford get pushed back.

I also wonder, with Jamal Adams out for the season, and maybe him being one of the big reasons why this team chose to play more 3-4 this year, if they should set aside that look for a return back to Carroll’s tradition 4-3 under. People can criticize Ken Norton Junior all they want, but at least his defenses over the past four years could stop the run. This defense, under Hurtt, thus far, cannot, and that is a demoralizing watch as a fan.

At least if they shifted back to more 4-3, they would run with a four down linemen front that featured Quinton Jefferson at 5 tech, Al Woods at Nose, Shelby Harris at 3 tech, and either Darrell Taylor or Boye Mafe at Leo end. Uchenna Nwosu can continue his solid play at SAM linebacker. This front could at least ease things up for Jordyn Brooks and Cody Barton to play freer and more fast.

If I were Pete Carroll on the long flight home from the Big Easy, these would be the thoughts in my mind. I kinda think that if you really want to run a 3-4, you gotta have really great linebackers and capable two gapping defensive linemen.

Right now, it feels like Seattle is suspect at linebacker, and the defensive linemen they have are better fits in a 4-3. I’ve heard KJ Wright kinda intimate this on his 710 Seattle Sports show in recent weeks. He feels like Poona Ford and Quinton Jefferson aren’t being used in ways to do what they do best in getting upfield.

Of course, I have no idea if Carroll would make this switch. I think it could be a pretty big awkward ask for Clint Hurtt to give up on a scheme he believes in after five games, but then again, I think it would be a hard ask for Carroll to sit back and watch this defense continuing to give up this sort of ridiculous yardage on the ground in the hopes of things eventually clicking.

Something feels like it needs to give. Either they adjust the scheme to better fit the talent, or they start looking outside to bring in talent that better fits the scheme. Staying the course doesn’t feel like it will work, not after watching what Hill did to this defense in the wild cat and then watching what Alvin Kamara did on other run plays.

On the plus side, I thought the rookie corners continued to show up. Tariq Woolen now has three interceptions in the last three games and is playing like someone who could now win RDOY. Coby Bryant also created another forced fumble, and played tougher in coverage. As bad as the run defense was, I sense that these two guys are going to get better and better as the season continues.

Also, as bad as this loss felt for my Seahawk fans such as myself, the Rams and Cardinals also lost, and Seattle is in a three was tie for second place in the NFC West. The also share the same record as the Patriots and Bengals, for what that is worth.

This season is not lost. If they can just fix up the defense enough to have these guys playing better ball, they have the offense that will put up the points needed to win games. 32 points on the road to the Saints should have been enough to win for Seattle.

I think Seattle should have won this won, but they didn’t. Now let’s fix the reasons why.

Go Hawks.

Through four games, the Seattle Seahawks have a top five offense in the league, but one of the worst defenses. The games that they have played the last two weeks are projecting right now what a lot of their season might be playing out like.

Assuming that this week’s NFC Offensive Player Of The Week Geno Smith stays healthy and continues the pace that he has right now, they will be in a lot of games because of their offense, but their defense will keep other teams in these games, as well. If they want to be in playoff contention in December, they will need this defense to get better, and the sooner the better.

It will be fascinating to see if this offense can sustain itself, and if the defense can catch up. If Geno Smith carries forth this level of passing efficiency, and this defense can just get to become a middling one, Seattle could become a very dangerous team to play in December, and that would be fun.

In terms of the New Orleans Saints, it appears like the opposite might be happening for them. They have a top ten defense, but their offense feels closer to third tier right now. Also, their special teams has been a struggle.

Special teams between Seattle and New Orleans might prove a big determining factor this Sunday. While the Seahawks have had a couple special teams mishaps (oddly, each involving a Tyler Lockett punt return), they appear to be perhaps the better unit.

If I were to predict a likely scenario for how Dennis Allen will want to attack Seattle’s struggling defense, I would say the he will want to get Alvin Kamara going early and often against Seattle’s linebackers, and then take shots down field against the rawness of the corners that Pete Carroll has been riding with. Until Cody Barton and Jordyn Brooks become a better tackling tandem, and Tariq Woolen, Michael Jackson, and Coby Bryant prove that they can play cleaner against receivers down field, I would expect any offense featuring a quality running back and receiver to test these areas of the Seattle defense. The Saints have both in Kamara and rookie receiver Chris Olave who is averaging 16 yards per catch right now.

In fact, as it stands, I kinda see another shootout in this one. I don’t think it matters whether Jameis Winston or Andy Dalton is starting at quarterback for the Saints, both are capable enough quarterbacks to test this Seattle defense, but I also see Seattle’s offense continuing to hum with Geno, as well.

I suspect that the entire Seattle offensive unit will play with confidence against this tougher Saints defense after pulling off that big shoot out win in that hostile and loud environment in Detroit, and I think the coaches know that they need to keep this offense wide open in order to win. Having played New Orleans last year in Seattle, Geno is likely more aware of the challenges they brought with their coverages, and might well have a better sense of what will work against that particular brand of man coverage. DK Metcalf could have another big day. So could the running backs.

Both teams have a lot to play for in this one. Therefore, I expect both clubs to lay a lot on the line.

The Saints are desperate to avoid a 1-4 start to their season in a division that features Tom Brady, but the Seahawks on in a four way tie for first place in the NFC West, and a win against on the road against the Saints puts them in a nice spot next week with hosting the Arizona Cardinals. Beating the Saints with a chance to top the Cardinals in order to climb ahead in their division feels pretty incentivizing.

So, I’m going to be a homer again this week, and say that my Seahawks seize the day in the Big Easy, and pull off a 31-27 win in another hostile environment situation on the road.

I think we are going to see better play out of the Seattle defense this week. Coach Carroll has already indicated some personnel changes likely happening with going back to the steadiness of Ryan Neal at safety, and I wouldn’t be surprised if we see a change up at a couple other spots this week, as well. I get the sense that Seattle is still sorting through its personnel to get the best eleven guys not he field together. I suspect that they have figured out that Neal is a better safety than Josh Jones is right now, and they might be losing patience with the youth movement at corner some.

I also thought the run defense actually played better in Detroit until they hemorrhaged that busted run to Jamaal Williams in the third quarter. Also, Detroit is a better offensive team than New Orleans. So with all of that, I am sensing a better overall outing for the Seahawk defenders this weekend, but if all of this reasoning appears to be wishful feebleness to you as a reader, I totally understand.

In terms of the Seattle offense, I think this is a week that they get the run game going more again with the quick passing attack filled with man beating concepts. The Saints appear to be good against the pass, but have struggled more the the run. I see Geno softening up their defense in order to set up explosive run plays by Rashaad Penny, and Ken Walker III. Also, I suspect the Seattle will have looked at how Justin Jefferson of the Vikings exposed the Saint defenders downfield in London, and will look to do their own exploiting as the game progresses with DK and Tyler Lockett.

In the end, I think we see pretty balanced attacks from both offenses, but something is going to happen (perhaps on the special teams) that will provide a path to victory for Seattle.

At least, this is what I think will happen.

Also, it’s my birthday weekend, and therefore, the Seahawks have to win.

Go Hawks!

Geno Smith did not beat the Detroit Lions. The Seattle Seahawks did. I know this.

In fact, Detriot’s offense actually outscored Seattle’s in this one, and had it not been for rookie cornerback Tariq Woolen’s pick six play on Jared Goff, Seattle might very well have walked out with another game in the loss column instead adding to the win one. If someone labeled that the play of the game, I wouldn’t argue against it.

One might even suggest that had DeeJay Dallas not secured the ball on Nick Bellore’s botched attempt to secure on onside kick at the end, Seattle could/would have lost this game, as well. Dallas honestly had one of the most vital plays of this nutziod shootout.

But all this said, make no mistake about it, Geno Smith had an outstanding game. He hit 23 of 30 passes for 320 yards, 2 TDs and 0 INTs while running for 49 yards on seven carries and a score. These are the sort of numbers that can earn you an Offensive Player Of The Week title.

He was super efficient again, and was in total control of mostly everything Shane Waldron wanted to run, yet again. This feels like a theme brewing with him.

In fact, if Geno Smith goes into the Super Dome against the Saints, and put up similar efficiency numbers as he has had over the past couple weeks, I think a lot of people are going to have to consider walking back a lot of what they have said about him on the airwaves, and written about him online. In fact, I would say that they are perfectly welcome to start walking it back now.

Through four games, Geno Smith is appearing a lot more capable of a starting NFL quarterback that most were probably thinking he was. There can be little debate in that now.

In four games, he has out played Russell Wilson. Pretty much all stats are backing that up, and supposedly Russell Wilson is on a better team with better weapons.

The irony of Geno Smith’s stellar performance this Sunday is that the guy who might beat him out for Offensive Player Of The Week is actually on the same team. Rashaad Penny ran roughshod on the Detroit defense with 17 carries for 151 yards and two scores, and he saved his best runs for when needed most on critical third down plays that lead to big scampering scores, and a first down at the end of the game that finally iced it for Seattle.

Geno Smith, Rashaad Penny, and DK Metcalf all had a day for this offense. DK and Penny are guys that you should expect to have big days given their talents, but this makes me circle back to Geno.

I’m happy for Geno Smith. In fact, I’m overjoyed. I’m so filled with joy over this, that I hope through the remaining course of this season, Geno gets to enjoy more games like this one than not, and the Seattle Seahawks are playing meaningful football in December and January. It would be great for him, and it would be outstanding for the development of this team.

If Seattle is going to have a top ten pick in next year’s draft, let that pick be the one that comes from Denver. I’m serious about this.

I don’t want to watch this team suck for a top pick. I don’t feel that is how to build a contender. I think you build a contender with the talent already on the roster coming together as the season goes on, and they develop into star level talents.

I want to see Tariq Woolen, Boye Mafe, Abe Lucas, Charles Cross, Ken Walker, and Coby Bryant become blue chip talents that other teams missed out on just like Kam, Sherman, KJ and others were way back when. That is how I want to see my Seattle Seahawks built up again.

So, you know what? Screw this suck for a quarterback thing. Screw it in the pants!

If Geno Smith balls the F out like this throughout the season, good. G-O-O-D!

The idea of Geno Smith turning his career around in Seattle, and them winning because of that is a big reason why I am a long time, diehard, Seattle Seahawks fan. I think this region is hard wired to root for guys like him, and let’s examine that.

In all of the pinnacle points of Seahawk post season ascension, from 1983 on to recent times, they have always risen as an underdog with an underdog at quarterback. Dave Krieg was an undrafted free agent, Jon Kitna was an undrafted free agent, Matt Hasselbeck was a developmental sixth round pick traded meagerly for, and Russell Wilson was a third rounder. These are the only quarterbacks who have ever guided Seattle into playoff games and beyond. A Geno Smith success story in Seattle would fit in well within this group.

Of course, there are a lot of games left to be played, and Geno has to stay healthy, and continue playing well, and I understand it if there are still doubts.. yada, yada, yada..

I would also say that, through these four games now, there is enough encouraging signs from Geno in this Shane Waldron offense to think his high level of play can continue.

Now, as I look at the schedule and see at the Saints, hosting the Cardinals, at the Chargers, and hosting the Giants, with the way this offense is coming on with him, none of these matches seem nearly as daunting as once appeared. If Seattle can sort out its defense more over the next week or so, that’s all the better.

Sorting out the defense feels like the bigger “if” right now, though, to be honest. While there were some positive signs out of this unit at Detroit, this was still a group of defenders who gave up way too many yards and points, even against a what appears to be a talented Detroit offense on the road.

For as fun and timely as the Woolen pick six was, he’s still raw and he’s learning how to cover NFL receivers (so is Coby Bryant). Carroll seems very intent on riding and dying with his rookie corners, though. So the hope is that, they continue to learn quickly on the job.

If I am to say something positive on about this defensive performance, I would say that it was hit and miss, and pretty uneven all together. That would be the polite thing to say about it.

I thought Boye Mafe made some strong plays on the edge against the run, and that was good to watch, but the one busted run that they gave up for a big long touchdown was against a wide alignment where the DTs were split outside of the guards and the ends were wide outside the tackles. That alignment screamed for a draw run to be called inside, and defenders behind the line of scrimmage all seemed to be napping when Jamaal Williams bolted through the gapping hole like a ball shot out of a cannon.

I have faith, ultimately, in Clint Hurtt as a DC, but I will be happy to not see them go “wide nine” like that for a while. They’ve shown that look a lot through these games and have paid prices. Time to maybe set it aside for something else.

That something else could come against the Saints who are probably going to try to pound it more instead of chucking it around like Detroit did in this one. This will be a good week to continue honing in on the run fits and tackling, and maybe a few more tweaks to the scheme.

As bad as the defense looked at many moments against these Detroit Lions, I sense a turn. I think we are going to start seeing them play better, and possibly pretty soon.

It was nice to finally see Sidney Jones playing at corner, along with Ryan Neal more at safety. I like these two veteran players. I keep feeling like Seattle has players on this side of the ball who are decent, and they just need to better sort it out with them. Getting Jones and Neal on the field was a nice start.

I’m here for it. I’m ready for a good defensive showing against the Saints. Let’s do it.

Go Hawks!

It is no joke what these 2022 Seattle Seahawks ave looked like through their first three games. They’re a team that is capable of showing decent spurts of offense, but they can’t stop the run right now, and if you cannot stop the run, you won’t win many football games in a football season.

On the surface, they have a tough task of traveling into Detroit, and beating a Lions team that seems to be really good at running the ball, and scoring points. Even for as banged up as the Lions appear to be right now, they have to be looking at Seattle’s defense, and salivating like an apex predator that their names suggests.

The Seahawk defenders have been playing the run like dainty gazelles. They need to be a pack of angry rhinos, instead.

The good news is that this is still early into an NFL season where Seattle has completely shifted from its traditional 4-3 defense into a new 3-4 looking scheme. Given the fact that off-season training is more limited these days, as is the amount of contact in August training camp, it really shouldn’t be a total shock that Seattle’s shift to a new front has looked sloppy, thus far. It should get better, and I think, as the coaches now understand the players more in it through these early games, tweaks to this defense are coming.

It is just a matter if whether or not the turnaround can happen soon enough, and they will be able to flip the switch against Detroit. I completely understand the doubters on this one. Many are projecting Detroit to be some sort of darling team on the rise this year.

I have a more tempered view of this Lions team. Through three games, they look like they are playing better ball, especially offensively, but injuries are starting to mount, and your best ability will always remain availability in this league.

Is the hard hitting style that Dan Campbell imposed on this team during training camp (as seen on HBO’s Hard Knocks) starting to take toll? I think it’s possible.

They recently lost their defensive leader in safety Tracy Walker, so the backend of their defense will be thinner against Geno Smith, who has been tossing the rock surprisingly well enough for Seattle. They could also be without their star running back, star receiver, among others this Sunday.

So, while I was very tempted to pick Detroit as the winner in this match, I’m going to be the ultimate homer again this week, and pick my Seahawks in this one. I think this could be shaping up into a week for the Seahawks to catch the Lions on the road, and get things better on track.

As bad as Seattle’s defense has been against the 49ers and Falcons, they were at least respectable against the Broncos. I think the talent is there for this defense to be better than what it has been over the past two weeks. That talent just needs to be better used.

Rookie edge defender Boye Mafe, in his limited snaps, is recognized as one of the best run stoppers in the league as graded by the analytic minds of Pro Football Focus (they have him currently in the top ten). Pete Carroll indicating that we will now see him more on early downs in place of Darrell Taylor should be seen as a positive by Seahawk fans. Uchenna Nwosu is a good veteran edge player on the other side, and Darrell Johnson has graded out pretty decently, as well.

Carroll indicated that he likes the new scheme, but the coaches have to do better to adjust it to the talent they have. I found this pretty intriguing, and kind of encouraging, to be honest. I won’t predict what I think those changes will be, but if I had to guess, I would think it might have something to do with the players they have up front.

I went back and looked at old footage of the 3-4 defense Seattle ran with great success in the 1980’s when Chuck Knox was the coach. They were a bit undersized with Jacob Green, Joe Nash, and Jeff Bryant as the main dudes up front, but they used their athleticism more on stunts, and when all three of these guys were working together with the linebackers, it created sort of a beautiful symphony of pressures against the run and pass. They were an exciting front with an attacking mentality.

I’m not saying that these Seahawks of today have the makings of that special unit back then, but I think it is safe to say that guys like Poona Ford, Quinton Jefferson, and Shelby Harris are probably better up the field one gapper types than they are as zero technique two gap types like Big Al Woods. In short, I think it’s possible we see Seattle do some adjusting with them, and that might open up things more for the linebackers, as well.

I would also say that by playing against Jared Goff, Seattle doesn’t have to fret about playing against the running quarterback that they’ve had to prepare for going against Russell Wilson, Trey Lance, and Marcus Mariota. This might make Clint Hurtt and Pete Carroll feel like they can turn their guys up front loose more.

As for the Detroit defense, its is fair to say that they are pretty middling of the right now. They also have one of the worst pass rush win rates in the league, and that was before the loss of Walker on the back end. They can only get pressure by blitzing, and without Walker, that could make the backend of their defense even more vulnerable, if Geno Smith is able to find the hot read, and Geno has been pretty good about getting the ball out quickly.

They have also given up six rushing touchdowns through three games, and that feels like a lot. This could be the game to get Rashaad Penny and Ken Walker III smelling the end zone.

So, yeah, I am going to Seahawk homer up in this one, and say it again that I think my Seahawks take this one. I think Seattle will continue getting the run game going with Geno Smith continuing to make good choices, peppering it around, and occasionally taking advantage of Detroit needing to blitz. I also think Clint Hurtt is going to turn it loose a little more against Goff, and that might surprise.

In the end, I see Seattle walking out with the close score win of 20-17. Afterwards, the narrative around this team shifts more positively again as they head into a game at the Super Dome the following week against a struggling Saints team.

I’m saying it now, loud and proud. This game in Detroit is where the 2022 Seattle Seahawks flip the switch and turn it around, and I’m here for it.

Go Hawks.

I thought confidently heading into this game that the Seattle Seahawk offense was going to respond with a better outing than what happened last week. There’s too much talent on that side of the ball to have laid the egg as they did against the 49ers.

They have a good young running back hitting his prime, a good tight end group, and one of the best wide receiver tandems in this league. They also have some makings for potentially one of the better offensive lines with Charles Cross and Abe Lucas at tackle.

All they needed was for Geno Smith to throw it a bit more downfield, and to get a better commitment at running the ball out of Shane Waldron. They did this in this game, and, as a result, Seattle had very little problems moving the rock against a middling Atlanta Falcon defense.

The problem was, however, that Seattle’s defense had another dud of a day stopping the run. On a day where Geno Smith put up good enough numbers at quarterback and Rashaad Penny and Ken Walker got going, Atlanta’s Cordelle Patterson had 141 yard on 17 carries for an average of 8 yards per carry, and I think this was the single big difference in the final score.

These 2022 Seattle Seahawks will not win many games this year if this defense is going to average giving up close to 200 yards on the ground most games, such as been the case for the last two weeks. It practically doesn’t matter who the other team’s offense has at quarterback, tight end, or receiver, if they can simply keep with the run.

So, my biggest take away from this game is that Seattle still has a ton of work to do on defense. It is that plain and simple.

As bad as the Seattle offense was last week against the 49ers, it feels further ahead of the defense. Geno seems to have a handle on what Shane Waldron wants to do, and he can muster it against a run of the mill defense. I’m not sure this Seahawk defense can even handle a bad offense right now.

Through three games, it feels like this defense was really fortunate against Denver on Monday Night Football more than anything else; that Nathanial Hackett bungled the game not by calling for that stupid 64 yard kick attempt, but by letting Russ cook instead of running it against Seattle’s defense.

So, how do they fix it?

Is it the lack of Xs and Os, or is it the lack of Jimmies and Joes?

Unfortunately, I don’t have a great answer. My gut is saying that they don’t have the players to pull off a very good 3-4 defense right now. I think they have some good interior defensive linemen, but they are lacking right now at linebacker, or they just aren’t playing well because they are unsure, and not playing with confidence. It seems there’s confusion in the backfield, as well, but Seattle is starting a ton of youth back there.

If these players are unsure, especially at the edges, then maybe it is a scheme thing. Maybe it’s asking dudes to do too much. When Seattle’s defense was really humming at a high level, there was a simplicity to its scheme, and that freed up good players to play at a hyper high level. San Francisco plays that sort of defense today.

Maybe Pete Carroll should consider scrapping this 3-4 and just go back to the 4-3 he’s always ran. I know this sounds too soon to be suggesting this, but at least the 4-3 is a defense that is traditionally more apt to stop the run. If you can’t stop the run in this league, that’s a death sentence to your season, plain and simple.

Or maybe Seattle needs to lean in further with the 3-4, and just really be a true 3-4 defense instead of being this “multiple” business and showing looks of 3-4 and 4-3 at different times. The Pittsburgh Steelers are a true 3-4 and have been running it for decades. Tampa is a true 3-4.

Pick something and master it. There’s a novel idea.

Or maybe Seattle just needs more time with these young cats to really get what they’re supposed to be doing, and these next few games are going to be a bit of clown show before the light finally clicks. I seem to recall that in the early years of Pete Carroll here in the PNW, his defense had its fair shares of ups and downs before players gained confidence and it turned a corner.

Right now, if you are pulling for Seattle to make it competitive during this transitional year, the best thing that I can say is that through three games they are tied for second place within the NFC West with San Francisco and Arizona, and they play in Detroit next week. This season is not lost, but they need to fix the very obvious.

Pete Carroll and Clint Hurtt have their work to do. Say what you will about Ken Norton Junior, but at least his defenses were mostly able to stop the run. I’m eager to see Hurtt turn it around.

Doing it in Detroit, and winning would be a nice start.

Go Hawks.

Somewhere between the arrogance of Russell Wilson needing to chuck it deep, and the ultra safe dink and dunkness of Geno Smith exists the perfect quarterback for the Seattle Seahawks. Right now, we got Geno, and I got his back, but like Coach Carroll recently said, we gotta open it up.

Because, here’s the real deal. Our Seattle Seahawks are paying DK Metcalf too much money for them not to be making him the focal point down field, and taking advantage of his size and skills against smaller defenders. Even if it doesn’t lead to a completion, it will keep any defense honest, if they feel like that threat is genuinely there at any point.

Last Sunday, the 49er defense did not fear that. They knew what Seattle was going to do, and they played stingy against the run, and were very ready for Geno’s short passing. Pete Carroll knows that other defenses will look to do the same if Seattle doesn’t open it up deep.

Expect Seattle to do exactly that against the Falcons this Sunday. It won’t just be to DK either. I suspect we see the tight ends getting more involved again down field, as I would think we will see Marquise Goodwin be more active. as well. Seattle has too much speed to not test safeties more, and while Geno isn’t Russ, he is fully capable to throwing a pretty spiral down field.

This is a good matchup against a middling Falcon defense to get that done. It’s not a defense nearly as good as Seattle has faced with San Francisco or Denver. Therefore, this is spot in the schedule for Seattle to flip the script.

So, I am penciling this down as a get-right-at home game for this 2022 Seahawk offense. In fact, I’m saying book it, even though they will be without starting center Austin Blythe (which, admittedly, the idea of his absence is a bit nerve racking).

Also, in that, I think we see Seattle finally getting Rashaad Penny and Ken Walker going. Make no mistake, while Carroll talked about opening up the passing attack, what he really wants is for his run game to become a big time factor again. It should happen in this game.

If you have Penny on your fantasy team, I think you want to play him this week. He’s due.

Who know who’s also due this Sunday? The Seahawk defenders coming out with their hair on fire against the run.

I see the Seattle defense doing a much better job at tackling and being stouter in this one. Again, they aren’t facing San Francisco’s dominant offensive line and exotic run game. Therefore, this is their get right game because, well, frankly, it has to be, and here’s why.

After the debacle in Santa Clara, I’m sure some defenders are on notice. If they can’t stay discipline and determined against the run, Clint Hurtt and Pete Carroll will put players in the field who will. Carroll already mentioned he would like to see edge defender Darrell Johnson get into the game more because of his stouter play against the 49er run game.

I think that was a message to Darrell Taylor, and I expect him to step up and play more to his potential this week. I think Jordyn Brooks and Cody Barton will bounce back, as well.

I’m am so confident in this, I am not even going to waste space typing up keys to the game.

You want some keys to the game? Here’s some.

Run the damn ball like it’s your DNA to do it. Test the Atlanta defense down field with that big athletic freak who wears number 14. Fit your gaps, get off your blocks, and tackle like the ball carrier stole your momma’s purse and gave her a black eye.

In the end, I see Seattle walking away with a satisfying 27-24 win.

I think Atlanta will get some of theirs with their two young high profile targets in Drake London and Kyle Pitts, but it won’t be enough. I think Seattle gets to a lead, and holds onto it.

In the closing minutes, it wouldn’t shock me if Altanta scores against a prevent defense to make the final score more respectable, but this games end on Geno Smith taking kneel downs, and the Seahawks get to 2-1 in this young season.

At least, that’s what I’m pretty sure will happen.

Go Hawks.

When the schedule first came out, I penciled a loss in for the Seahawks in week two, on the road, against what I imagined would be a pretty fired up San Francisco team. I wasn’t wrong.

I even imagined that the loss could turn into a good old fashioned ass whooping, given that the Seahawks no longer had Russell Wilson. I wasn’t really wrong on that, either.

So, it’s weird that I actually thought all last week that Seattle was going to travel down into that environment, and beat these 49ers, who I believe are a vastly better team right now. I suppose I got caught up in an emotional state of delusion after Monday Night Football, when Seattle snuck by the Russell Wilson Denver Broncos, and Geno Smith looked pretty serviceable in his first start as Russ’s replacement.

Honestly, if you looked at his stat lines from this beat down, Geno, again, showed decent efficiency. I know that there’s going to be a bunch of I Told You So’s chiming in that Geno Smith is not an NFL starter after this match, and they may well be right, but let’s be real here; Geno Smith did not lose this game for Seattle.

In fact, when the score was still relatively close, Geno had the offense deep in the red zone, and the Seattle coaches thought that it would somehow be cute to run two wildcat plays with four backs on the field with Geno not at quarterback. It was fun when the first play netted some positive yards not he game with Ken Walker III running it, but it got decisively un-cute when the second play resulted in reserve running back DeeJay Dallas throwing one of the worst wobbly throws for an INT in the end zone that I’ve ever seen in the professional game of football.

Let’s think about what those two plays meant for this offense. Smith finally got the offense rolling enough to score, and then, amazingly, he was somehow not trusted enough to throw the ball into the end zone, that they wanted a reserve running back to make that throw instead. Wow. Let’s scrap that one for a while.

If memory serves correct, Geno Smith also wasn’t on the defense that couldn’t fill gaps or tackle worth a poop in the first half of ball, which lead to easy drives and scores by San Francisco, and I don’t believe that he was blowing any coverages on defense either.

So, no, Geno Smith did not lose this game for Seattle. Not even close.

The good news is that the season is not lost. Seattle is tied in the division with all the other teams, and hosts Atlanta and then plays at Detroit. It’s entirely possible that they could be 3-1 in two week’s time, but they will need to clean things up right now. They can’t play like this on both sides of the ball and expect to win both of those games.

They need to get the run game going, and they need to be able to stop the run, or this is going to be an ugly season. I’m not expecting miracles from Geno Smith, but I am expecting these two things for a Pete Carroll coached team this year; that they will be able to run the ball, and they will be able to stop the run.

Through two games, they have done neither, and Geno Smith can dink and dunk himself to all kinds of respectable efficiency numbers, but if they are not balanced on offense, they will not score enough points, and if they are not able to stop the run, they won’t stop other teams from scoring. It’s as simple as that.

Having said that, they did just play two pretty talented teams who are known to run well, and play strong on defense. So, it is fair to say that this was a tough start to the schedule, and they split these two games. That’s the positive spin, anyways.

But my God!

They must run the freaking ball, and they got to be able to be able to stop the run. I hope that this won’t become my new broken record thingy that I’m writing about every week. Oooof. I need a dozen Rolaids after that thought.

I honestly trust that they will get this run game going, though. Pete Carroll will make a point of that. Given that they are starting two rookie offensive tackles, it’s fair to say that it might take a bit of time, but it’s coming.

What worries me most, however, is the shift to Clint Hurtt’s 3-4 defense, and how that three man front can make it harder to stop the run than the 4-3 front they’ve been known for in years past. Again, it seems like the outside gaps were being exploited early and often, as they were against Denver, and Darrell Taylor, in particular, has to get better as a run defender on the edge.

It did seem like he got better as the game wore on, but he’s got to master playing the run. Boye Mafe played a nice game behind him, and he’s a high second round pick for a reason. If Taylor doesn’t start playing more stout, it’s not out of reason that Mafe could find himself in with the first team more.

But Taylor was not the only defender not showing up against the run right away. The interior defensive line got pushed around. Josh Jones whiffed on a tackles against the run and pass at safety. I didn’t exactly see Jordyn Brooks or Cody Barton blowing up running backs much, either.

It’s a new defense that is going to take time to master, and I get it, if this defense continues to play this bad against the run, I honestly wonder how much longer Pete Carroll is going to be willing to stay with the whole 3-4 look, and want to get back to some of his 4-3 principals.

Things to think about.

Run the ball, and stop the run. It’s really that simple. Hopefully, Pete Carroll and company get back to that this next Sunday against Atlanta. They need to do it. I’m ready for it.

Go Hawks.