Tag Archives: Marshawn Lynch

CHAWK LINES, Playoffs: Green Bay
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CHAWK LINES -- Packers at Seahawks

Kam Chancellor is the man of the hour and the talk of the town and the NFL as the Seahawks get ready to beat the Packers to head back to the Super Bowl. So let’s start with a bunch of stuff on him:

Pete Carroll talked about Lawyer Milloy’s influence on Chancellor in 2010.

Milloy then talked about Chancellor (and more) on 1090 The Fan.

Bobby Wagner told Chancellor “a pick-six would be great” just before the safety did it, per this NFL.com video feature.

And, for good measure, Gregg Bell wrote a nice comprehensive piece about just how important Chancellor is to the Seahawks.

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Playoffs: Carolina

History is on the Hawks’ side vs. Panthers

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Pete Carroll can identify with Ron Rivera’s Carolina Panthers.

Four years ago, the Seahawks were in the same spot: a sub.-500 division winner that won its home playoff game and advanced to the divisional playoff round.

Now the Panthers are trying to do what the Seahawks and five other teams without winning records failed to do over the past decade: Win in the second round.

Since the NFL realigned in 2002, seven teams have made the playoffs at 8-8 or worse, and six have advanced to the divisional round. But none have won.

Non-winning teams in divisional round

Like this Carolina-Seattle matchup, each of the five previous games has been a rematch of a game played earlier that season. And, in all but one of those cases, the team that won earlier in the season won the playoff meeting comfortably at home. (Seattle beat Chicago earlier in the 2010 season but lost 35-24 in Chicago in the divisional round.)

As if Carolina didn’t already have enough going against it Saturday.

Continue reading History is on the Hawks’ side vs. Panthers →

CHAWK LINES, Week 17: St. Louis
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CHAWK LINES -- Merry Christmas!

Bobby Wagner’s surprise Christmas present: a Pro Bowl nod.

Russell Wilson was NFC Offensive Player of the Week.

Rams coach Jeff Fisher on Wilson: “The best way to describe it is that he’s an extra player on offense. They’re playing with 12, and that’s very hard to defend.’’ So, Wilson is a 12th man, too.

Marshawn Lynch was fined $11,050 for grabbing his crotch during his backward dive into the end zone on his 79-yard run vs. Arizona.

Curious about what Lynch and Ricardo Lockette were saying into the microphone boom during the game in Arizona?

The Seahawks needed Jordan Hill to replace Clinton McDonald as the inside rusher, and he finally has, with five sacks in the past five games.

Week 16: At Arizona

Offense sets records & Carroll has a blast

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Luke Willson makes a catch over Arizona linebacker Larry Foote (AP)Few doubted the Seahawks would beat the offense-challenged Arizona Cardinals on Sunday night. The only question was whether Seattle’s struggling offense would manage to score any touchdowns.

Russell Wilson and company answered that emphatically, amassing a team-record 596 yards and scoring five times in a stunningly offensive 35-6 victory that served notice to the entire league that the Hawks are poised to run over anyone in their path on the way to another Super Bowl title.

Wilson played perhaps his best game of the season, throwing for a career-high 339 yards and two touchdowns and running for 88 yards and a score. He and Marshawn Lynch both turned in mindboggling TD runs — juking, stiff-arming and overpowering Arizona defenders — to put the game out of reach in the fourth quarter.

Combined with a defense that expectedly shut down the Cardinals — 216 yards, just 29 rushing — it was Seattle’s most complete, dominant victory since the opener against Green Bay. And it was Arizona’s first loss of the season at home.

It gave the Seahawks control of the NFC West and the inside track to the No. 1 seed in the NFC playoffs — both of which can be theirs with a home win over the St. Louis Rams next week.

Continue reading Offense sets records & Carroll has a blast →

Week 16: At Arizona

Nothing against Lynch’s awesome run, but Beast Quake was better

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Beast Quake and Desert StormIn the heat of the moment, plenty of people are calling Marshawn Lynch’s career-best 79-yard touchdown run Sunday the best run of his career. It certainly was another unbelievable effort by Beast Mode, but those people apparently have short memories.

While Lynch’s cutback dash past and through the Arizona defense was a sick run, especially for a guy who had a queasy stomach early in the game, it was only his second-best run ever. His 67-yard Beast Quake run against New Orleans nearly four years ago still stands as the superlative play of his career.

That is not to diminish the Beastly beauty of this latest run, which was remarkably similar to the one that sealed Seattle’s upset win in the 2010 playoffs. On both runs, he started left, cut back right to the sideline and then knocked down a defensive back (or two) on his way to the end zone. And he also finished each run with a satisfying backward dive into the end zone.

Continue reading Nothing against Lynch’s awesome run, but Beast Quake was better →

State of the team, Week 14: At Philadelphia

More about that awesome defense

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CHAWK LINES -- DefenseThe Seattle defense is the toast of the NFL again — now that Bobby Wagner, Kam Chancellor and Byron Maxwell are healthy and the unit is playing perhaps the best it ever has.

Pete Carroll said it has been “significant” to get back Wagner, who missed five games with a toe injury, and Chancellor, who sat out two games with a groin issue and got to rest his bad ankles.

“I think the camaraderie of all those guys being back in there and feeling right has been resounding,” Carroll said Monday. “You can really feel it.”

Continue reading More about that awesome defense →

State of the team, Week 14: At Philadelphia, X's & O's

Seahawks need to flip red zone performance

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Marshawn Lynch goes head over heels in the end zone vs. the Giants (Getty)The Seahawks’ matching 19-3 wins over Arizona and San Francisco the past two weeks have been impressive defensive feats — the lowest two-game total by Seattle opponents since the Hawks beat Philadelphia and San Francisco 83-3 late in their 2005 Super Bowl season.

Of course, led by coach Mike Holmgren and quarterback Matt Hasselbeck, the 2005 Hawks had the best offense in the league (in yards and points) and were No. 2 in red zone scoring.

About the only thing this Seattle offense shares with that one is a strong running game. Russell Wilson’s offense has struggled to score touchdowns, especially over the last three games.

Continue reading Seahawks need to flip red zone performance →

CHAWK LINES
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Chawk lines 75 pct

After Arizona lost Sunday, the Seahawks control their destiny (except for the No. 1 seed, where they need an unlikely loss by Green Bay).

More scuttlebutt about Marshawn Lynch retiring — or, laughably, leaving Seattle to join Tom Cable elsewhere. Really? Who is going to hire Cable as a head coach?

The media keeps thinking Lynch not talking is a big story.

The pass defense has returned to form, which explains the Seahawks’ rediscovered dominance, Jerry Brewer says.

Per Sports Press Northwest, Richard Sherman is the first player in 30 years to tally 23 interceptions in his first four years. The last two to do it? Everson Walls and Seahawks Ring of Honor member Kenny Easley.

This could be the first year without a flexed “Sunday Night Football” game. The Seahawks play Arizona on Sunday night, Dec. 21.