The sky isn't falling...for now.
After Seattle's demolishing 27-3 victory against the lowly Oakland Raiders in jolly ol' London, the Hawks found themselves winners of three of the last four games and are playing pretty solid ball.
It's hard to take away too much from the Raiders game because that team is a dumpster fire. The Seahawks fired Offensive Line Coach Tom Cable in the offseason, and his abysmal O-Line coaching skills continued to show as the Seahawks sacked Derek Carr six times (smell ya later Cable). Along with Cable, former Offensive Coordinator Derrell Bevell and former Defensive Coordinator/Secondary Coach Kris Richard got the boot and we were blessed with the return of Ken Norton Jr. and welcomed new OC Brian Schottenheimer with open arms.
The Seahawks had a hell of an offseason by turning over a new leaf on the coaching staff, drafting players that look extremely promising, while also making some difficult roster decisions with legendary players such as Richard Sherman, Cliff Avril, Michael Bennett, etc. It was difficult to say goodbye to those studs, but it gave Coach Pete Carroll his team - and most importantly his voice - back! We knew that 2018 was going to be an interesting, yet struggling year with the vast amount of young players on the roster who are trying to fill shoes that may never be filled with that much success ever again.
The Seahawks have 10 more games on their schedule, and it's going to be a real challenge for these guys as they'll face the Rams again (in LA this time), Green Bay on Thursday night, at Carolina, red-hot Kansas City and an injury-ridden, yet pesky 49ers team with Richard Sherman. The schedule may get tougher, but the Seahawks have shown me through these first six games that they can hang with anybody in the NFL. Although the 33-31 loss to LA was brutal and put Seattle three games behind in the NFC West, that was a game that nobody believed they could win, let alone hang with the Rams...and they took it down to the last second as they always do. Think about it this way: If Sebastian Janikowski had made one more field goal against Denver, they could've gone into OT and who knows what would've happened. If the Seahawks didn't play so conservative and/or if Wilson didn't throw that atrocious pick-6, that could've been a win. Even in their losses they've managed to lose by a touchdown or less, which is nothing new for Pete Carroll's Seahawks ever since he became their coach. (24-27 against DEN, 17-24 against CHI, and 31-33 against LA). This team could easily be 5-1, but they're not, they're 3-3 entering their Bye Week and I am more than okay with that.
What made the Seahawks so dominant many years ago was their ability to run the ball down the throats of their opponents and playing rough and tough defense, while the offense does just enough to tack on points when they could. Over the last four games, I have seen vintage Seahawks-style football that includes running the ball like crazy, hard-hitting defense that comes at you fast (four players have gone through concussion protocol in the last two games because of how hard the Hawks hit), and most importantly...turnovers! The Seahawks of the last two years were living off past glories, we knew they were a stingy defense but it had to come to an end eventually. The sad part is, it could've lasted longer if defensive players would've kept their opinions to themselves. We didn't see as many takeaways from the defense, we didn't see hard-hitting tackles, we didn't see anything remotely close to explosive, but I've seen all of those traits resurrected in every game so far this year.
Even the offensive line, which was deemed as laughable, putrid, and horrendous over the previous few seasons, has vastly improved. I was another Germain Ifedi blown assignment away from demanding him off the team, but he's looked great and we can thank veteran presences like Duane Brown, J.R. Sweezy for that, along with new O-Line coach Mike Solari. The formula for successful Seahawks football is pounding the rock and running down the throats of their opponents, and with the above-average performance that I've seen the O-Line play, there's a reason why the running game looks improved (anything is better than last year's ugly mess).
It would be unprofessional of me to not talk about some flaws with this team. The offense still stubs their toes with questionable play-calling and eye-rolling penalties, the defense is really young and will give up yardage unlike the defense of the past, and Sebastian Janikowski has recently made some "too close for comfort" kicks that are barely sneaking into the goalposts (but hey...at least it's not Blair Walsh). One of the biggest question marks heading into the season was the pass rush, and despite recording 15 sacks so far this year (six against Cable's sickening Raiders O-Line) they need to get after it more in the second half of the season or else guys like Jared Goff, Cam Newton, Patrick Mahomes and Aaron Rodgers are going to put up stellar numbers against them.
So fellow 12s, I know there won't be any Seahawks football this weekend, but take advantage of 3-3 heading into the Bye Week. The Seahawks have won three of their last four games and are improving not just for this season, but the younger players in particular are improving for years to come. I refuse to believe this is smoke and mirrors because as long as Russell Wilson is your QB, Pete Carroll is your coach, and John Schneider is your GM, they'll be just fine! Lastly, congrats to Pete Carroll for becoming the winningest coach in Seahawks history, and please give Frank Clark a contract extension, that dude is a bad man!
10/20/18 UW Prediction:
UW 27 Colorado 17 (I'm still bitter over that Oregon loss...Go Dawgs forever!)
