Russell's stinker

[RiverDog]

That was as bad of a game as I've seen Russell play in a long time. His final stats were embarrassing: 17/33 for 151 yards, 0 TD's, 2 INT's and a RTG of 38.8. As a team, we were 0-10 on 3rd down until late in the game, and a lot of that falls on the QB. Tampa Bay was not fielding a great defense, not even ranked in the top 20, yet all this offense could manage was one measly field goal. Yes, he was under nearly constant pressure and our running game was almost non existent as our drastically improved offensive line couldn't run or pass block, but he was also missing open receivers. One that sticks out in my mind was a 4th quarter 3rd down quick slant pass to Lockett that Russell air mailed about 3 feet over his head that ended a promising drive.

I'm sure that this game was just an anomaly and I'm not calling out Russell as much as I am expressing my personal frustration. All QB's have bad games, and I suppose if he were going to have one, yesterday was as good of time to have one as any. But there's no amount of excuses one can make for his play. He stunk.

[c_hawkbob]

He's made his living here allowing us to win in spite of a horrendous offensive line. It's a dynamic with no room for anything less than his best every game. Every once in a while a little help is in order. Stats are tough to come by when you're dealing with an evaporating pocket.

The Buc's D-line dominated that game and our O-line let them. This time Russ was not able to overcome it.

Our offense lost us this game, not just Russ.

[Hawktawk]

It was a combination. The line was atrocious. Wilson was inaccurate.When russ misses he misses high which leads to picks and gets receivers banged up.
I still think Richardson ran that rout too skinny instead of breaking in on the first pick.

The last game Russ had this bad I remember(with russ healthy) was AZ in 2013 at Clink. Despite 4 picks of Palmer and a fumble Seattle could not move the ball effectively and lost on a late TD. Russ was inaccurate then as well, and the game ended on the famous Baldwin forearm interception.
A month later we hoisted the lombardi.

I dont have the gun in my mouth yet but that looked like the chariot had turned into a pumpkin.
worried

[burrrton]

RW did look uncharacteristically bad, and I'm willing to concede he just had a stinker (as you put it), but off the top of my head, I don't recall a single play yesterday that he was able to so much as pause after his dropback, if he was even able to finish his dropback at all.

As I said in the other thread, that was the worst job of blocking as a unit I ever remember watching.

[Uppercut]

What about Kearse? How many drops did he rack up?

[RiverDog]

RW did look uncharacteristically bad, and I'm willing to concede he just had a stinker (as you put it), but off the top of my head, I don't recall a single play yesterday that he was able to so much as pause after his dropback, if he was even able to finish his dropback at all.

As I said in the other thread, that was the worst job of blocking as a unit I ever remember watching.

I haven't re-watched the game, but my instincts tell me that you're essentially correct. Russell didn't have very much time at all, was sacked 6 times and not very many of them are what you'd call coverage sacks. A less mobile quarterback probably would have taken 9 or 10. And the worst of it was that Tampa Bay was doing it by rushing 4. If our 5 guys can't keep out their 4, then the odds are that our 5 eligible receivers won't have a lot of success getting open against their remaining 7 defenders. And to make matters worse, we had no running game to make his play action fakes credible as most of our rushing yards came off of Russell's scrambling or him keeping on the read option. Take that away and we had less than 50 yards rushing.

But it wasn't just the 7 step drops that Russell had a hard time completing. He was off on his short quick stuff, too...and you can't blame those on pocket pressure. It just wasn't his day.

I'm not sure if that's the worst performances I've ever seen out of an OL as I've watched a lot of football, but it is certainly the worst performance in recent memory. I'm not advocating it and I think the guy is a jerk, but if Mike Leach were the head coach, he'd make every one of them get up and apologize to the team and to their fans for their putrid performance.

[RiverDog]

Our offense lost us this game, not just Russ.

Agreed. I just wanted to keep some balance to our argument. Sometimes there are fans (not necessarily you) that make excuses for the star quarterback when the team fails.

One comment that this game reminded me of was once made 35+ years ago in a post game press conference by yesterday's opponent's first head coach, John McKay, after a similar loss. McKay was asked what he thought about the execution of his offense. His response: "I'm all for it!"

[Hawktawk]

Haven't seen another fire Bevell thread yet but it may be time.
When your line cannot block you do not have time for deep drops and chunk plays.
Get the ball out quick or at a minimum have a checkdown route in the call if you are trying to go long.How many times do you send everyone vertical when the QB is getting pulverized?
Russ was off on his accuracy on a few short ones but he wasn't just getting sacked, he was getting rag dolled and those were primarily deep drops. He got popped pretty hard sliding too, no flag of course.

It was bad on offense. And they seemed to almost abandon the run with plenty of time left in a relatively close game as well.
It was like Tampa's D coordinator was in our huddle or headsets.
Maybe the 10.7 PPG the Tampa D surrendered over the past 3 games is who they really are becoming.

Russ was brilliant with his wheels on the bright side.
Hopefully its an aberration for the entire offensive unit. If not this thing could go south in a hurry.

[Hawkstar]

What about Kearse? How many drops did he rack up?

Kearse is targeted far to often in my opinion. Jimmy gets half the number of balls thrown to him and makes more catches.

[obiken]

Haven't seen another fire Bevell thread yet but it may be time.
When your line cannot block you do not have time for deep drops and chunk plays.
Get the ball out quick or at a minimum have a checkdown route in the call if you are trying to go long.How many times do you send everyone vertical when the QB is getting pulverized?
Russ was off on his accuracy on a few short ones but he wasn't just getting sacked, he was getting rag dolled and those were primarily deep drops. He got popped pretty hard sliding too, no flag of course.

It was bad on offense. And they seemed to almost abandon the run with plenty of time left in a relatively close game as well.
It was like Tampa's D coordinator was in our huddle or headsets.
Maybe the 10.7 PPG the Tampa D surrendered over the past 3 games is who they really are becoming.

Russ was brilliant with his wheels on the bright side.
Hopefully its an aberration for the entire offensive unit. If not this thing could go south in a hurry.

I don't mind you holding RW accountable for a bad game, however when he was sacked 6 times and hit 17, I don't see how you can blame the QB for this one. Our patchwork quilt of an offensive line is missing patches who were replacement patches to begin with. Scary thing is we were in this one till JG's fumble.

[Uppercut]

Bevell - Time to access and possibly replace! At times his calls look great but many times my lab could make better calls

Cable - Gets handed a POS each season to slap into shape by Nov-Dec..maybe too much of an order this season, could you imagine if he had the Cowboys O-Line to work with? Cable can't be expected to keep making a silk purse from a sows ear.

Kearse yeah why so many targets? Irritating

The rest of the season will not be a picnic as some think

[NorthHawk]

The youth on the Offensive line showed up yesterday. Play calling might have had a hand in it and I don't think Russ was on top of his game, either.
I'm hoping it was one of those days when all the bad stuff happened at once, but what was most concerning was how they were physically beat by the Bucs DL.
For guys who were drafted for their "explosion" among other things, getting pushed back and manhandled is a concern.

Whatever the reason, it's got to change for Sunday if we are to be competitive.

[Hawktawk]

Russell took the blame. Said he needs to get the ball out quicker, find ways to make more plays and take care of the ball.
It's about what you would expect. We get so spoiled with Rws accuracy and touch and magic it's shocking when it isn't there

[HumanCockroach]

Just wasn't a good game as a whole, top to bottom. Even the defense which was pretty damn good for 3 quarters of the game came out flat, running strictly zone and allowing Tampa to literally just cruise down the field and score.... Even WITH the success afterwards, they had trouble stopping them from moving, and flipping the field.

Ultimately, the line played poorly, Wilson played poorly, Bevel once again refused to adjust to what was being shown, receivers ran wrong routes, Wilson was all over the place ( interesting that he missed that easy TD at the end of the game with both Kearse and Lockett running free into the endzone, simply not a throw I've really seen him miss before) high, low, behind receivers, bad reads etc. Several receivers didn't come back to the ball, Rawls looked like his 2016 self and wasn't productive, Graham was invisible the first half ( playcalling?), Richard started the first half with almost a prevent D, refusing to blitz, refusing to man up Evans. The continuation of conversions on 3rd and very long is a disturbing pattern to me, Seattle used to FEAST on those, now it seems anyone can either convert them or at least gain big yardage to make field position matter or attempt a FG when they were outside of range.

There's a LOT of blame to go around, no one should feel immune to it.

[Hawk Sista]

Russell did not blame his teammates, coaching, the line, the officiating....nobdy but the curly headed dude standing in his own shoes. He, like a BOSS, BTW, said "this is on me...I need to get the ball out quicker and figure out a way." That is who we have as our Franchise QB....not a whiney Aaron Rogers and quotes like "somebody else needs to make a rushing TD besides me, I can't do it all" and other such whiney BS....It wasn't Cam whining and pouting and storming off stage - AGAIN! It wasn't an inaudible Cutler talking about injuries that nobody saw occur... It was OUR guy saying "this is my team and we I am going to work my A$$ off to help fix it." It does not get any better than that, IMHO.

I'm not making excuses for him and he didn't make them for himself. It was clearly not a great game for him (though his 80 yards rushing and 151 yards passing under heavy duress made up for like 90% of the damned offense). But being hit, sacked, hurried all day makes one a little off target, me thinks. And having Kearse soooooo involved is starting to make me scratch my head. The pick play was unneeded and stupid and JEEEZ - what is with his drops? Lack-luster and un-crisp (new word) routes by almost everyone all day might have contributed to the outcome as well, there. And I have not even started on Britt's absence, the swithcharoo game with Sowell and Gilliam, Fant getting turn-styled and whatever the eff was wrong with Ifedi. I suspect Tell the Truth Monday will be difficult for A LOT of people, RW included. Joey Hunt, though Britt's communication and style were likely key misses for his peers, looked pretty damned good for a 6th round rookie's first start at Center in the NFL.

We ran into a buzz saw of a team that has been playing some damned fine ball and we lost. Cite all the stats you want about how they are only #22nd in the league in this and #30th in the league in that. They are an up and coming winning football team at HOME who have had some good wins this season. Winston is slinging the rock, Evans is a Beast, their RB when healthy is one of the best, their O-line (despite what I saw as multiple holds) was very solid. Their D-line, anchored by Gerald McCoy is beastly. Say what you want, RD, but they beat us in the trenches so badly that RW was lucky to get the yards he got.

This was a team loss.

[RiverDog]

Russell did not blame his teammates, coaching, the line, the officiating....nobdy but the curly headed dude standing in his own shoes. He, like a BOSS, BTW, said "this is on me...I need to get the ball out quicker and figure out a way." That is who we have as our Franchise QB....not a whiney Aaron Rogers and quotes like "somebody else needs to make a rushing TD besides me, I can't do it all" and other such whiney BS....It wasn't Cam whining and pouting and storming off stage - AGAIN! It wasn't an inaudible Cutler talking about injuries that nobody saw occur... It was OUR guy saying "this is my team and we I am going to work my A$$ off to help fix it." It does not get any better than that, IMHO.

I'm not making excuses for him and he didn't make them for himself. It was clearly not a great game for him (though his 80 yards rushing and 151 yards passing under heavy duress made up for like 90% of the damned offense). But being hit, sacked, hurried all day makes one a little off target, me thinks. And having Kearse soooooo involved is starting to make me scratch my head. The pick play was unneeded and stupid and JEEEZ - what is with his drops? Lack-luster and un-crisp (new word) routes by almost everyone all day might have contributed to the outcome as well, there. And I have not even started on Britt's absence, the swithcharoo game with Sowell and Gilliam, Fant getting turn-styled and whatever the eff was wrong with Ifedi. I suspect Tell the Truth Monday will be difficult for A LOT of people, RW included. Joey Hunt, though Britt's communication and style were likely key misses for his peers, looked pretty damned good for a 6th round rookie's first start at Center in the NFL.

We ran into a buzz saw of a team that has been playing some damned fine ball and we lost. Cite all the stats you want about how they are only #22nd in the league in this and #30th in the league in that. They are an up and coming winning football team at HOME who have had some good wins this season. Winston is slinging the rock, Evans is a Beast, their RB when healthy is one of the best, their O-line (despite what I saw as multiple holds) was very solid. Their D-line, anchored by Gerald McCoy is beastly. Say what you want, RD, but they beat us in the trenches so badly that RW was lucky to get the yards he got.

This was a team loss.

Agreed with everything except that I'll say that especially considering how many starters were out, one at every level, the defense played well enough to win, so I'm not pinning too much of the blame on that unit.

I didn't see the interview with Russell, but everything you described is a perfect fit for his character and represents exactly what I've come to expect from him. He's a class act. The only reason I started the thread was to add some balance to our discussions, it wasn't to assign blame to him alone, and from reading all the comments, it looks like we are all seeing things pretty much in the same light.

[Hawk Sista]

I hear ya, RD. It just seems a bit harsh when the entire team underperformed.

I realize there were injuries to the D at every level, but they sure didn't help much in the field position game... like at all. We were constantly letting them march to the 45 and pinning the O, who was admittedly having a hard Day, inside the 10 or 15 (or WORSE). I don't think we had a short field all day. Two fast TDs changes the thinking of the team too. and had their kicker not missed a makeable FG and Winston not thrown a STUPID ball, the game could just as easily have been 5 - 24 or 5 - 20.

We had O-line injuries, a TE injury (who has actually started getting decent at blocking) and RB injuries out the ying-yang. Needing a 1st down and Farmer is your best shot...OUCH! There are a lot of reasons we lost, primarily they were the better team on that day at that time. Their coaches did a better job and our boys played one sloppy game of football - we are just not used to seeing that lately. But I really believe there is enough blame to go around that everyone should own a piece of it..... from Pete, Kris, Tom, and Darrel on down.

#BeatThePanthers

[Hawktawk]

So true sis including the D giving up too many yards between the 30s screwing up field position all game.
Still though with 4 defensive starters including 2 of the best players on the team out they were the best unit on the field by far.
Looking at how the offense couldn't convert a single first down thus no time off the clock and the Tampa offense was pretty crisp all day to hold them to 14 points was borderline heroic.
This game is 90% on the offense although the defense giving up a methodical 7 minute drive to open up the game set the tone for what was to come for the Hawks,

[Vegaseahawk]

I thought that the Tampa Bay Defense played like we normally do. They were lights out, flying all over the field. It was their Superbowl, or at least they played like it. Not to give RW a break, he was as bad as I've ever seen him, but I think the Bucs D deserves credit for this loss.

[Hawktawk]

I've been saying the same thing. They were the best defense on the field. My hunch is having verners dad pass on Friday was a huge motivation for them. It was for him. A third down pick,third down textbook breakup and a role in the graham fumble.
I'm mature enough as a fan to admit I cried with joy for that kid even at my teams expense.
We got beat by a team that might be good for a long time. When they beat KC at arrowhead it was a wake up call for me.

Got beat plain and simple.

[Hawk Sista]

Indeed. It's hard to be on the losing end of a game like that. For a lot of years we were and I think people see that and revert to the the fears of yesteryear. This team is not those teams. If they fail, they fail....we cannot win every year...31 other teams are spending 100s of millions/year to win too.

I just believe, as long as Pete & John (even PA) lead & as long as (in no particular order) RW, Doug, Jimmy, Earl, Sherm, Kam, Bennett, Cliff, KJ, Bobby, Frank etc. are in Hawk uniforms - we have a chance to win it all.

[obiken]

Bevell - Time to access and possibly replace! At times his calls look great but many times my lab could make better calls

Cable - Gets handed a POS each season to slap into shape by Nov-Dec..maybe too much of an order this season, could you imagine if he had the Cowboys O-Line to work with? Cable can't be expected to keep making a silk purse from a sows ear.

Kearse yeah why so many targets? Irritating

The rest of the season will not be a picnic as some think

Beval: I am off Bevel's case because if you cannot block its not about the call.

Cable: Your not getting it UC, Cable wants piles of poop its a challenge to him to take a guy that was a Basketball player and make a starter NFL lineman out of him. THAT'S WHY JS AND PC WANTED HIM. Its part of Grand Experiment. Pay the back end and RW and go cheap on the OL.

KERSE: I agree, its become obscene, he is dropping more balls than DJack, or KRob combined, especially in the end zone. That has to stop.

[Vegaseahawk]

Heres an article about Kearse from Field Gulls

http://www.fieldgulls.com/seahawks-notes/2016/11/29/13771572/jermaine-kearse-targets-seahawks-red-zone-russell-wilson-touchdowns-pass-interference

[Jjones84]

They had a bad game. They are young. It is bound to happen. They will smoke the panthers this weekend, and everyone will be ready for the Superbowl. It is how this fan base operates. It is the most perplexing thing to me in the sports world. Up down, up down. I don't get it, it drives me crazy. But whatever, non of my business. I will continue to have hope, and support this team until they TRULY give me a reason to not.