Tag Archives: Russell Wilson

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 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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Schedule, Week 9: L.A. Chargers

Time for Hawks to prove they are contenders

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Logo -- Los AngelesThe last time the Seahawks faced Philip Rivers, four years ago, they lost the day’s battle but won the season’s war (or came a yard short anyway).

Coming off a stunning 36-16 blowout of the Packers in the 2014 opener, the Seahawks went down to San Diego and melted in the heat against Rivers and the Gates of Hell. They stumbled to a 3-3 start that year, but they survived an early gantlet of great quarterbacks and rallied to reach the Super Bowl for the second straight year.

Now, here they are again — trying to pull away from 3-3 and make a deep playoff run, with a string of excellent QBs and offenses looming. It’s the perfect test for this team to prove it is a real contender.

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Week 5: L.A. Rams

Hawks fell way behind in division but still took a step toward playoffs

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Logo -- Los AngelesAs feared, Seattle’s defense couldn’t stop the Rams. And now, barring some catastrophic injuries to the Rams (5-0), the Seahawks (2-3) are chasing a wild-card spot the rest of the season.

There are reasons to be confident they will catch one: (1) They finally put together a pretty complete game on offense, (2) their young secondary will get better and (3) they will get back a couple of key injured players soon.

“I hope you can tell how our team has grown. The last three weeks has been really an extraordinary step forward for us,” Pete Carroll said. “There’s a long season ahead of us — and how we come out of this game and go on to the next one, it will be crucial, just as it will the next week. But there’s no doubting who we are as a team and how we’re trying to build this thing.”

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Week 5: L.A. Rams, X's & O's

Hawks need a complete game from offense

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Logo -- Los AngelesAs good as the Seahawks’ defense has been over the first month, it is about to face its biggest test of the season — and that means Seattle’s offense is going to have to be a lot better than it has been if it is going to win a shootout.

Seattle ranks seventh in overall defense, fifth against the pass and sixth in takeaways — rankings built against some of the league’s poorer offenses. Now, without Earl Thomas, they go up against a Rams unit that ranks first overall and second in passing and scoring.

It’s the ideal time for Russell Wilson and company to find themselves.

Under Brian Schottenheimer, the offense still is having trouble figuring out what it wants to be when it grows up.

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CHAWK LINES, Week 5: L.A. Rams
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CHAWK LINES -- Rams at SeahawksHere are Bob Condotta’s things to watch in the Rams-Seahawks game.

Matchups and key stats for Rams-Seahawks, via FieldGulls’ Alistair Corp.

Frank Clark is going to play despite fighting food poisoning all week. Dion Jordan and Chris Carson also will return.

The Hawks are confident in Tedric Thompson replacing Earl Thomas, although the Hawks have struggled without Thomas.

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Week 3: Dallas

Thomas & Co. take a bow after first win

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Earl takes a bowEarl Thomas and company, take a bow. Oh, Earl already did?

Well, he deserved to. Along with Bradley McDougald, Chris Carson, Tyler Lockett and the rest of the Hawks, who finally got on the board and avoided the dreaded 0-3 start.

The Seahawks played great defense, overcame a reshuffled offensive line, ran the ball and took advantage of Dallas’ defensive blunders in a 24-13 win Sunday.

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CHAWK LINES, Injury report, Week 2: At Chicago, Week 3: Dallas
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CHAWK LINES -- Cowboys at HawksEarl Thomas sat out a couple of practices and Pete Carroll was evasive in his explanation, calling it a “personal” issue. That led to fair speculation that the Hawks might be talking trade. But Dallas denied it was talking with the Hawks again, and then Thomas basically declared he was playing against his favorite team.

Russell Wilson has a hamstring injury but says he’s “ready to go.” Meanwhile, Ethan Pocic is out, with J.R. Sweezy moving to left guard as D.J. Fluker returns at right guard. Justin Britt (shoulder) is expected to miss more than just one game, meaning Joey Hunt will start at center. It also sounds like Doug Baldwin will be out several more weeks.

On defense, Bobby Wagner said he will start vs. the Cowboys after doing the “grown-up” thing and sitting out Week 2 (he watched the game with Cliff Avril and Kam Chancellor). Mychal Kendricks could be available as his suspension appeal continues to be reviewed by the NFL — but he is questionable with an ankle injury.

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State of the team, Week 2: At Chicago

Triangle of distrust

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Logo -- At ChicagoRobert De Niro’s “Meet the Parents” character would be disappointed. Pete Carroll, Brian Schottenheimer and Russell Wilson would not make Jack Burns’ “circle of trust.”

They can’t even create their own triangle of trust with the Seahawks. Wilson does not trust Schottenheimer’s scripted plays, so he holds the ball too long, which puts the Hawks in deficits. Then Carroll gets impatient and orders Schottenheimer to abandon his balanced attack and take deep shots. When those fail and the Hawks are in desperation mode, Wilson starts calling more audibles. But, because his lack of trust helped put them in this position, Carroll and Schottenheimer don’t trust him to do that.

On top of that, no one buys Carroll’s explanations for his running back roulette.

It’s a vicious circle of antitrust.

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Week 2: At Chicago

Wilson, offense put Hawks in 0-2 hole

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Logo -- At ChicagoThe Seahawks could easily be 1-1, even 2-0, if Russell Wilson had played the way he is capable of — and if Brian Schottenheimer had called better games and if Pete Carroll had kept his stupid offensive opinions to himself.

But the Hawks are 0-2 because Wilson followed up a poor first game with an even worse second effort, Schottenheimer still didn’t help him enough and Carroll admittedly messed up the OC’s playcalling by telling him to call deep passes in the third quarter of the 24-17 loss in Chicago.

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