Unless the Rams become more of a factor than we expect them to, the NFC West will be won by Seattle or Arizona.
So, it’s appropriate that they start off the second half of the season together, both coming off byes, and playing what should be a hard-hitting, highly intriguing game on “Sunday Night Football.”
This matchup brings a very interesting dichotomy: Each team sees the other as the top dog.
Continue reading Hawks & Cards each see the other as the top dog
Paul Richardson is expected to make his season debut Sunday vs. Arizona.
Jeremy Lane is “one day at a time,” but Russell Okung is expected to play vs. Arizona after missing the Dallas game.
Ricardo Lockette returned to Seattle. Okung and Marshawn Lynch had stayed in Dallas with him last week.
Michael Bennett talks his usual goofy gibberish about his fine for hitting Matt Cassel and other things.
Nice feature from ESPN’s Sheil Kapadia on Cliff Avril, who lost his dad earlier this year and has been playing as well as ever this season.
The Seahawks have been highly disappointing this season as the combined effects of a Super Bowl hangover (i.e., not fully trusting Pete Carroll anymore), contract squabbles and new additions have yielded the worst-case scenario: a 4-4 record.
But, they won two straight before their bye and now have a chance to redeem themselves in the final eight games.
Let’s take a look at each position to see how it has performed, what it needs to do better the rest of the year and what it might look like next year.
QUARTERBACK
Russell Wilson is completing a career-high 68.8 percent, but that has done nothing to help the offense in the red zone, where Seattle is the league’s worst offense.
Wilson’s crew has been the main culprit in meltdown losses against Cincinnati and Carolina – games the Hawks should have won.
Wilson is in his fourth season now and should be playing at a consistently high level, but he is not. Some of that is due to the subpar OL in front of him, some of it is due to the inconsistent play calls, some of it is due to him.
Wilson needs to have more urgency. He needs to change plays more at the line. He needs to account for blitzers. He needs to move more to create better passing lanes. He needs to find his open receivers more quickly and get the ball out fast.
The Hawks have little room for error in the second half, and Wilson needs to play like it.
Way back in April, we said a 4-4 start would be the worst case for the defending NFC champions. Well, unfortunately, here the Seahawks are.
Pete Carroll understatedly called their record “nothing to be shouting about.” Hell, it’s barely anything to whisper about.
“But,” he pointed out, in his oddball way of speaking, “it did put us in a position where we have a second half to really go forward. We have all of the matchups in the games that we need to play in the division to settle issues and go for it and take it as far as we can.”
He has to hope that is farther than the last time the Hawks started 4-4. In 2012, they rallied to finish 11-5 and had to hit the road for the playoffs, where they beat Washington and lost agonizingly in Atlanta (kinda like they have lost some of their games this season).
It’s just how Carroll’s slow-starting team typically does it. Since Russell Wilson became quarterback, the Seahawks have gotten better as the season has progressed. They are 20-12 (.625) in the first half and 20-4 (.833) in the second.
Last year, they rallied from 3-3 to finish 12-4, and Carroll thinks they are in a similar spot this year.
“I don’t think it feels much different than it did last year,” he said. “I think it’s very similar. It’s unfortunate that it takes us a while, but I think this is an opportunity to observe what it’s like to be where we’ve been and to come back.
“If we’re able to put the second half together like we plan on, then we’ll be really proud of that.”
What do the Seahawks think of their situation entering their midseason bye?
The offensive line played pretty well in Dallas, but Pete Carroll is correct when he says, “It’s just one game. It doesn’t mean you’ve made it over the hump.”
Field Gulls broke down the way the Seahawks used the middle of the field.
The Seahawks have been using Jimmy Graham more and more.
As expected, the Hawks made no trades. They really had no room to do so unless they wanted to swap big-salaried players or make a minor deal that probably would not help.
The Seahawks were emotionally rattled by Ricardo Lockette’s neck injury and incorrectly called the hit by Jeff Heath a “dirty play.” (Lockette clearly ran right into him.)
Lockette had neck surgery is expected to spend the week in Dallas.
Jeremy Lane is expected to start practicing next week but not return until perhaps Week 11. Will he reclaim his nickel back spot?
Russell Wilson and the Seattle offense are getting lots of credit for a 17-play drive that yielded the winning field goal in Dallas — the first time in four chances this season Wilson has led a game-winning drive in the fourth quarter or overtime.
But let’s not let one very inefficient winning drive confuse the facts: This is the worst offense the Seahawks have had with Wilson at quarterback.
The Seahawks scored just once in the skintight 13-12 win in Dallas — the fourth time in eight games they have tallied one TD on offense. In the four other games, they have scored just two TDs. They have yet to score three touchdowns in a game.
In fact, they are the only offense in the league not to put up a TD trifecta. New England has done it in all seven. Arizona has done it five times. Even Oakland has done it four times and Jacksonville three.
Pete Carroll likes to say “it can’t be pretty and perfect all the time” or some silly copout like that, but does it really have to be so ugly and imperfect every damn game? The answer, Pete, is no. No, it doesn’t. If you knew anything about offense, you would have figured that out by now.
Continue reading This is Seattle’s worst offense under Wilson
Don’t get too excited about the reports that the Seahawks are working the trade phones ahead of the deadline Tuesday: Any deal they might make almost surely would be minor.
It’s no surprise John Schneider is on the hunt for offensive line help, but the Seahawks are not in financial position to bring on a big-money player such as Cleveland’s Alex Mack or Joe Thomas.
The report that Schneider is willing to trade a receiver such as Chris Matthews is evidence that any deal Seattle makes would be minor. The Hawks are not going to get much for Matthews or Ricardo Lockette, and they surely aren’t going to deal Doug Baldwin, Tyler Lockett or Paul Richardson.
The Dallas Cowboys have what the Seahawks want, but the only way Seattle could get it is by losing a lot more and using first-round picks.
We’re talking about a great offensive line, of course.
If Russell Okung, who injured his ankle in practice Thursday, misses the game in Dallas on Sunday, the Seahawks will end up starting undrafted players at the tackle spots and center, with a seventh-round conversion at right guard and a second-round reach at left guard.
The Cowboys, meanwhile, have invested three first-round picks in their line over the last five drafts, and they lucked into a potential first-rounder when rookie La’el Collins went undrafted due to a murder case he was peripherally attached to.
The Cowboys won a recruiting war for Collins, adding him to an already stacked line that includes left tackle Tyron Smith, the No. 9 pick in the 2011 draft; center Travis Frederick, the No. 31 pick in 2013; right guard Zack Martin, the No. 16 pick in 2014; and veteran right tackle Doug Free.
“They’ve put their money in it. They’ve got three No. 1s playing there, those guys are all terrific football players,” Pete Carroll said. “Tyron was a guy that we loved coming up; he’s a fantastic athlete at the spot. And Zack’s terrific; it’s just a really good group. I think that they made a commitment to it and they’re benefiting from it. I don’t know if they’re the best one — we won’t see everybody particularly – but they’re as good as we’re going to see all year long.”
The Seahawks are looking to prove this week that they really have awakened from their early-season doldrums and have returned to Super Bowl contenders.
For the record, Michael Bennett has not experienced any hangover — even though he was unhappy with his contract last offseason and considered holding out, as Kam Chancellor actually did. Instead, Bennett has played as well as ever (a bunch of early offsides penalties notwithstanding) — and is coming off a 3.5-sack effort against San Francisco that earned him recognition as the NFC’s defensive player of the week.
In a couple of recent interviews, the always candid Bennett said he chose not to hold out because he is determined to help lead the Seahawks back to the Super Bowl. And he shed some light on the causes, as he sees them, of Seattle’s ridiculous 2-4 start.
To sum it up, Bennett said the team became complacent, greedy, selfish, unfocused — all while getting younger because it has lost some key veterans over the past two years. He said this incarnation of the Seahawks had to learn how to handle losing and needed to regain the trust, chemistry and confidence that had disappeared since the last Super Bowl. He also hinted that XLIX still lingered in the minds of the Seahawks — proof that Pete Carroll did indeed damage his team’s psyche with his stupid call on the goal line at the end of that game.
Continue reading Bennett says Hawks became complacent, selfish, unfocused
Apparently, Thomas Rawls is not going to be able to play this week. Why else would the Seahawks sign Bryce Brown? The Hawks lost Rod Smith off waivers to Dallas two weeks ago, so they had to look elsewhere for reinforcements this time. B.J. Daniels was released for the second time this season.
Pete Carroll says K.J. Wright is having his best season (he’s great at defending screen plays, and he’s apparently not the one giving up big yards to tight ends).
Paul Richardson’s pending return highlights the general lack of contributions from the 2013 and 2014 draft classes.
CHAWK TALK: Everything being said about the Seahawks 