Monthly Archives: November 2018

Week 13: San Francisco
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CHAWK LINES -- Sherman returnsRichard Sherman’s return to Seattle is one of the bigger reunion games the Seahawks — or any of the city’s teams — has ever had. Here’s a look at everything being said about it:

Doug Baldwin still hates the way Sherman’s Seattle career ended. Might have to recycle this quote next year if/when Baldwin leaves.

Bobby Wagner had some great good-natured digs at Sherman. Pete Carroll called him a “challenge” to coach but also expressed great respect for Sherman. Shaquill Griffin admires Sherman for mentoring him last year: “That wasn’t in his job description. He didn’t have to do that.”

Sherman basically stuck to the same criticisms of Seattle he made when he was cut. And he also made clear what he thinks of Russell Wilson as a QB (ICYMI: They’re not buds).

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Playoffs, Week 13: San Francisco

10 wins should be enough for playoffs

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Logo -- San Francisco(Updated Nov. 30)

Two-thirds of the way through the season, the Seahawks are right where they need to be: in control of their postseason destiny (which apparently is a surprise to almost everyone but us). If they win out to finish 11-5, they will make it in.

But what happens if they drop a game and land at 10-6? That’s where they would need a couple of things to fall their way — but the odds still would stack highly in their favor.

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Franchise history, State of the team, Week 12: At Carolina

Hawks’ run defense is historically bad

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Logo -- At CarolinaWhile everyone else marvels over the fact that the Seahawks are over .500 this deep into the season, we’re more concerned about how Seattle’s historically bad run defense might prevent the team from advancing in the playoffs.

We have always projected the Hawks to be above .500 at this point (they actually have underachieved by a game in our eyes), and it speaks well of their developing offense that they have been able to stay in games against high-powered offenses such as the L.A. teams, Green Bay and Carolina — rallying to beat the latter two.

But Seattle’s defensive line has proven to be more of a liability than we thought it would be. No one expected the pass rush to be very good outside Frank Clark — and that largely has proven true (Clark has 10 sacks, Jarran Reed a mildly surprising 5.5 and the rest of the team 12.5). But the run defense has been a major disappointment.

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Week 12: At Carolina

On last play in Carolina, Hawks keep control of destiny

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Logo -- At CarolinaFor the second straight week, the Seahawks rallied in the fourth quarter for a big NFC win, beating Carolina 30-27 on the final play to retain control of their playoff destiny.

“We’re alive. We have a long ways to go,” Pete Carroll said. “We’re already in the playoffs as far as we’re concerned (i.e., every game matters).”

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Contracts, The roster

Could be final season for Baldwin & Wagner, too

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It’s looking more and more like K.J. Wright and Doug Baldwin are in their final seasons with the Seahawks — and, if the Hawks don’t want to pay Bobby Wagner again, he will have to join them.

The Seahawks created a lot of shockwaves when they separated from a handful of their Super Bowl stars earlier this year — a sudden about-face for John Schneider and Pete Carroll that showed they were ready to remake the team.

A lot of fans are going to hate this, but the smart ones will recognize the reality of it: Wagner, Baldwin and Wright all might join Earl Thomas, Richard Sherman, Michael Bennett, Kam Chancellor and Cliff Avril as former Seahawks next year.

Continue reading Could be final season for Baldwin & Wagner, too →
Schedule

‘We don’t have to lose anymore’

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“We don’t have to lose anymore.” — Pete Carroll

Fresh off a comeback win against Green Bay that got his team back to .500, Pete Carroll thinks there’s no reason for his team to lose another game.

With the running game now on full blast — seven straight games over 150 yards — and the defense tightening up in the second half against good quarterbacks, the Seahawks certainly have a chance to win out.

Carroll told 710 ESPN that his team’s 5-5 record “sucks. Why are we here? We’re better than this. … We don’t have to lose anymore. We’re done with that stuff. Let’s go win some games.”

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Week 11: Green Bay

Will clutch rally end Wilson’s inconsistency?

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Seahawks at Packers helmetsRussell Wilson had not rallied his team to a comeback victory all season. And the way he played for most of Thursday night, it didn’t look like he was going to pull it off vs. the Packers either.

But he did. And maybe that is all the hope he and the Seahawks need to find some consistency and make a run to the playoffs.

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Franchise history, Week 11: Green Bay

Lots on the line as Hawks host Packers

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Seahawks at Packers helmetsThe rally for the playoffs starts now for Seattle, and how apropos that the Seahawks are facing the Green Bay Packers as it begins.

These teams have been intertwined like few others over the past 20 years — both on the field and off. This will be their seventh meeting in seven years, and — like many of these games over the past two decades — there will be some reunions: Jimmy Graham will return to Seattle and Brett Hundley will watch his old Packers teammates from the sideline.

On top of that, this game will be the head-to-head measuring stick for whether Russell Wilson deserves to be paid more than NFL salary leader Aaron Rodgers.

And, bigger than those personnel ties, this game basically will eliminate one team from the playoffs.

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Week 10: At L.A. Rams

Despite giving games away, Hawks still in it

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It has become abundantly clear by this point that the Seahawks are not good enough to beat both themselves and the opponent this season — not like they did in their recent glory years.

That was proven once again in their 36-31 loss to the Rams as the Hawks gave away yet another game with an easy-score turnover and failed again to make a harried comeback.

As expected, the Hawks were not good enough to beat the high-powered LA teams the past two weeks, so they now sit 4-5 and needing to win at least six of the final seven to make the playoffs.

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Week 9: L.A. Chargers

Wilson, Hawks throw away another

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Logo -- Los AngelesThat’s two games Russell Wilson has thrown away for Seattle this season.

Just like Week 2 in Chicago, he threw a pick-six against the Chargers that basically put the exclamation point on an inexplicably poor performance by Seattle’s offense in a 25-17 loss.

Everyone expected Philip Rivers and the high-powered Chargers to put up yards and points on the Seahawks’ young defense, and they did for a while. But this loss really has to be pinned on Wilson and company, who — good rushing numbers aside — looked a lot like the Week 1-2 offense that failed to win in Denver or Chicago.

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