Official Seahawks vs Cowboys POST Game Thread

[savvyman]

What a weird victory - The play on the field was not the type of play that results in a victory. Seahawk players just do not seem to have the unity that they did in the past. Defense played very good. Our Offense though is about as bad as any team in the league. Russell is playing very scared. Come on offense get it together- your more scared of the end zone than a pimply faced, nerdy 7th grader of asking the most beautiful & popular cheerleader to the Jr. High dance in front of all her friends.

[jshawaii22]

I thought the Offensive Line played real well today. Bailey... didn't give up any sacks and I don't remember any penalties. Hard to complain. Once again, it seems the vanilla offense from Bevel. One thing about Bailey and Britt, they opened up some holes for Marshawn.

The LOB, again, held a QB under 100 yards for the day. Holding Dallas to a FG after the int was the game changer. Overall, they did good.

js

[HumanCockroach]

Simply no excuse valid for another anemic offensive showing. None. They all from the coaches down need to look in the mirror and figure it out. Piss poor play for eight weeks is enough.

[RiverDog]

Our offense continues to struggle. Today the OL did a decent job, but Russell didn't have a very good game, miss fired on a number of occasions. I'd like to hear Anthony's excuses for his lackluster performance today.

This year is looking eerily familiar to last season, with us playing catch-up to the Cards, with a couple of important differences: We're starting out in a larger hole, just now getting to .500. Carson Palmer is still upright and playing well, and the Rams look like they might challenge for a playoff spot this season. We also had some important wins over division winners last year, including Green Bay and Carolina, two teams that are undefeated and leading their divisions those season that we've lost to.

I still don't see us making the playoffs. With any offense at all, we should have won that game today by 3 scores. Our offense sucks.

[savvyman]

Our offense continues to struggle. Today the OL did a decent job, but Russell didn't have a very good game, miss fired on a number of occasions. I'd like to hear Anthony's excuses for his lackluster performance today.

This year is looking eerily familiar to last season, with us playing catch-up to the Cards, with a couple of important differences: We're starting out in a larger hole, just now getting to .500. Carson Palmer is still upright and playing well, and the Rams look like they might challenge for a playoff spot this season. We also had some important wins over division winners last year, including Green Bay and Carolina, two teams that are undefeated and leading their divisions those season that we've lost to.

I still don't see us making the playoffs. With any offense at all, we should have won that game today by 3 scores. Our offense sucks.

One factor that is more favorable than Our Offense is the difficulty of Arizona's schedule over the final 8 games:

Sun 11/15 @ Seattle 8:30 pm ET
Sun 11/22 Cincinnati 4:05 pm ET
Sun 11/29 @ San Francisco 4:05 pm ET
Sun 12/6 @ St. Louis 1:00 pm ET
Thu 12/10 Minnesota 8:25 pm ET
Sun 12/20 @ Philadelphia 1:00 pm ET
Sun 12/27 Green Bay 4:25 pm ET
Sun 1/3 Seattle 4:25 pm ET

[obiken]

Playoffs?? Playoffs! Are you kidding me playoffs? With this team? Please!

[RiverDog]

One factor that is more favorable than Our Offense is the difficulty of Arizona's schedule over the final 8 games:

Sun 11/15 @ Seattle 8:30 pm ET
Sun 11/22 Cincinnati 4:05 pm ET
Sun 11/29 @ San Francisco 4:05 pm ET
Sun 12/6 @ St. Louis 1:00 pm ET
Thu 12/10 Minnesota 8:25 pm ET
Sun 12/20 @ Philadelphia 1:00 pm ET
Sun 12/27 Green Bay 4:25 pm ET
Sun 1/3 Seattle 4:25 pm ET

Not very reassuring, savvy. I don't see us being able to compete with the Cards.

Our 4 wins have come against the 2-5 Bears minus their starting QB, the 1-6 Lions, the 2-6 49'ers, and now the 2-5 Cowboys minus their starting QB. We are not a playoff team let alone a SB contender.

[jshawaii22]

Three of our losses have been to undefeated teams. Two of the losses were given away in the last few minutes of the game. Yes, The season is on the line after the bye. Win against AZ and we still have a chance. It's uphill, but I wouldn't blow the playoff's just yet.

js

[obiken]

It the way we have lost games River not just our wins

[savvyman]

Worst Review decision I think I have ever seen:




Try Not to Drool all over your screens in Envy when you see how a real offensive lineman blows up two players on one play:





I think that was $21 million in annual payroll that #71 knocked on their Asses.......

[HumanCockroach]

Someone I was begging for Seattle to take a "chance" on( and to be fair we will never know if they did indeed try to sign him) that said, while its cool and all that he knocked down Wagner and all, not real impressed with any lineman pushing an under sized safety with a full head of steam. If it was Kam I would be impressed, that said, who knows if he would have won if it was Kam?

[NorthHawk]

I think we all wanted our FO to sign or maybe even draft Collins considering how much we needed talent after losing 2 starters on the OL.
That being said, the guys we have played OK today. They're still having some trouble with short yardage run plays and the Red Zone, but the pass pro was better than it has been and they opened up some holes for Marshawn. Some progress remains, but all in all it was a good game for them. I was surprised at how well Bailey did in place of Okung.

[Zorn76]

Geez.

I understand the win wasn't pretty, But I'll take it.

My take...

The offensive line actually did its job today - 30 pass attempts, zeros sacks surrendered. And for as often as I've beaten this group up this year, I have to give credit where it's due.

Now, that said...this is not the OL to stick with moving forward. They need to draft legit prospects next offseason. This is not a group that has earned the benefit of doubt in terms of seeing if they will gel over the next 2 yrs or whatever. The sample size is small, but you can already tell this is not the future up front for protecting RW long term. Good game today, nice to see, but really they did was there job for a change.

Sherman - Great game. Shut down Dez. And even if Bryant was out for weeks, it was still a solid job by the Chunky Soup DB.

Defense - Finally finished strong to preserve victory. I understand it was Matt Cassell out there, but holding them to 4 FG's in their house is still worthy of some praise.

Offense - Didn't do much, but just enough to pull it off. Beast had a ok day running. Luke Wilson had the game's only TD.

RW - He was off target on some key throws that he usually makes. He also continues to make some questionable decisions on some of his deeper passes. The 25 yd attempt on 3 and 7 was dumb. Keep the chains moving, stick to short routes. Keep down and distance in mind. In a game where points are a premium, you have to keep drives going. Attempting a low percentage pass on 3rd downs are drive killers.

Good stuff - He lead a nice long drive that included some 3rd down conversions via passing and running. And that's really the most important thing. He showed some signs of being clutch again late in the 4th.

Coaching - Bevell drawed up some decent plays for the first half, then lacked some imagination in the 2nd. Fairly typical for him. And while I understood why we ran the ball on the final drive on 3rd down before kicking the FG, I was still hoping we'd pass and try to get the TD. I get it - if it's incomplete then there's too much time on the clock after kicking for 3. Still, I wouldn't have minded taking the risk to get a TD there and go up by 5 or 6 pts.

KR called a solid game defensively. Some hard hitting and mostly solid tackling, though players not wrapping guys up and going shoulder only still drives me nuts.

Bottom line - It was an ugly win, and there's still plenty of work to do, but we at least stay alive for the playoffs/division.
Keep in mind, too, that all the teams in front of us have noticeable flaws of their own. Az is only 2 games up. We get to play them 2x, the first being in Seattle in a few weeks.

It's way too early to give up on this season. I understand this is not the team of the last 2 yrs, but we still have solid shot of getting into the playoffs. The goal is to get in however we can, and go from there. ..

[obiken]

I thought the Offensive Line played real well today. Bailey... didn't give up any sacks and I don't remember any penalties. Hard to complain. Once again, it seems the vanilla offense from Bevel. One thing about Bailey and Britt, they opened up some holes for Marshawn.

The LOB, again, held a QB under 100 yards for the day. Holding Dallas to a FG after the int was the game changer. Overall, they did good.

js

Bevel is mixing and matching because we cant block for a 3 and 1 little own a 3rd and 3. We have to Use Graham but he is a more of a slot WR and not a blocking TE. The rest of the line is a mess. Its has IMHO, very little to do with Bevel, who most people blame. Wilson being scared, I am not touching that one.
How much did Okung being out have, we cant say for sure but it has to hurt. Yeah on photo of The Cowboys OL, can you imagine if we traded them our OL for theirs? Wow.

[NorthHawk]

The Cowboys OL is made up largely of first round picks as a result of poor team play over a number of years.
Collins was someone we should have gone after aggressively, but that's water under the bridge.

I think we need to get better up the middle - Center and Guards to give us the push on short yardage. We won't be able to get a Pro Bowl LT drafting late, but we might be able to get a solid player assuming Okung leaves. With a mobile QB, we might not need a great LT, but we do need guys that can control the LoS on run plays and grind down opposing DLs so 4th quarter drives can result in TDs.

[RiverDog]

Bottom line - It was an ugly win, and there's still plenty of work to do, but we at least stay alive for the playoffs/division.
Keep in mind, too, that all the teams in front of us have noticeable flaws of their own. Az is only 2 games up. We get to play them 2x, the first being in Seattle in a few weeks.

It's way too early to give up on this season. I understand this is not the team of the last 2 yrs, but we still have solid shot of getting into the playoffs. The goal is to get in however we can, and go from there. ..

The "way too early" qualifier isn't going to last much longer. We're halfway through the season and we're at 4-4, which means we're going to have to win 6 of our last 8 (which would make it 8 of our last 10), including sweeping the Cards and beating the Rams (don't look now, but the Rams are ahead of us at 4-3 with a 3-0 divisional record).

Our offense hasn't played well for an entire game all season. One or two decent drives per game ain't going to cut it, even with our defense. Even at home against the lowly Bears, we looked horrid in the first half. It was an issue that showed itself in the first preseason game and hasn't looked noticeably different for 4 months. Pete keeps telling us that we're going to gel, but I haven't seen anything that would give me any hope that a resurrection is just around the corner. The learning curve is gone. If this offense was going to gel, we would have seen something by now.

[Hawktawk]

The offense hasn't looked particularly good all year but Jesus all the whining you would think we lost. Here's something very encouraging about yesterday from an offensive standpoint. Russ and the offense closed it out for the first time all season. It was Wilsons first 4th quarter GWD of the year.17 plays, 79 yards, over 5 minutes of clock, just what the doctor ordered. Take away the blocked FG and the horrendous call on the fumble and its a much more convincing win but no more so a win than it already is.
Oh and incredible job by Russ getting Hardy on the ground after that fluky pick. Someone say Russ is "scared"? He may not be sharp but Russ is never scared of anything.

As a damn good coach named Mike Holmgren once said after a 9-6 FG contest," to win in this league is hard. "
We played a desperate team with a major offensive weapon returning and as the 2 time defending conference champs we have everyone's undivided attention. And still its a W. Its a beautiful W. I think the turbocharger is going to start spooling up on my Hawks team real soon like on Nov 15.

[c_hawkbob]

The offense hasn't looked particularly good all year but Jesus all the whining you would think we lost. Here's something very encouraging about yesterday from an offensive standpoint. Russ and the offense closed it out for the first time all season. It was Wilsons first 4th quarter GWD of the year.17 plays, 79 yards, over 5 minutes of clock, just what the doctor ordered. Take away the blocked FG and the horrendous call on the fumble and its a much more convincing win but no more so a win than it already is.
Oh and incredible job by Russ getting Hardy on the ground after that fluky pick. Someone say Russ is "scared"? He may not be sharp but Russ is never scared of anything.

As a damn good coach named Mike Holmgren once said after a 9-6 FG contest," to win in this league is hard. "
We played a desperate team with a major offensive weapon returning and as the 2 time defending conference champs we have everyone's undivided attention. And still its a W. Its a beautiful W. I think the turbocharger is going to start spooling up on my Hawks team real soon like on Nov 15.

Careful, you're dangerously near joining me in "cheerleader" status ...

I agree wholeheartedly though. Too many here forget that there's another team out there trying their best to win too.

[kalibane]

I'm on the fence this week. I'm happy that both the offense and defense finally closed out a game and I'm happy the Offensive Line didn't give up a sack for a change (especially considering Okung was out). I also didn't expect a ton of offense because Okung was out and the offensive line has been such a struggle with him.

That being said. It's hard to get excited about a game like this. The offense just has too much talent to be rolling out these crap efforts week after week. All I can do is hope that they can hold on eking out wins until something clicks and they get back to being a contender.

Hope I'm wrong but in my gut it just feels like we're sleep walking through this season with very little light at the end of the tunnel.

[NorthHawk]

The OL showed they can play a decent game. Against the Cards we will see if in fact that wasn't a bad game from the Cowboys DL, or if it has started to turn the corner.
With the 4th quarter drive to get the winning FG and taking enough time off the clock, the next step is for the Offense to show it can score TDs instead of FGs. Improvement in the Red Zone is a must if we expect to beat the real good teams as well as not take a step backward in pass protection.

As said above, we are running out of time and I think we have to sweep the rest of our NFC West games to have a real chance at the playoffs.

[HumanCockroach]

http://www.seahawks.com/news/2015/11/01 ... as-cowboys

Carroll covers it pretty well.He must be one of us negative folks as well.

[burrrton]

Too many here forget that there's another team out there trying their best to win too.

Yep. Too many also forget how mediocre we've looked at times the last few years (ugly wins and losses vs the Rams, going down 21-0 to winless Tampa Bay, etc), and how so many of the same things were being said at the time as are being said now ("Contenders don't struggle with bad teams" blah blah).

Our offense certainly doesn't look strong yet, but that's precisely what we've said at various times 2013-2015, and a difference in a couple of plays could have swung our record dramatically both negatively and positively every season.

[RiverDog]

http://www.seahawks.com/news/2015/11/01/five-takeaways-seahawks%E2%80%99-13-12-win-over-dallas-cowboys

Carroll covers it pretty well.He must be one of us negative folks as well.

The first take away in that article is that the offense "came up big when it mattered most"? If that's the #1 take away, then we're really in trouble. I don't think that even our cheerleading section would characterize that effort as "coming up BIG". Coming up 'big' would have meant scoring a touchdown and leaving less than a minute on the clock, but instead, we had a running back go out of bounds, essentially giving the Cowboys an additional timeout, and the drive ended up no different than how over 70% of all our red zone drives end up, ie settling for a FG. I don't call that "coming up BIG". We couldn't punch it in and left Dallas with well over a minute needing just a FG to win. Even against our defense, there's a lot of teams that would love their chances if they went through 58.5 minutes and end up with the ball on their own 20 needing a FG to win.

Even the Kool Aid drinkers at Seahawks.com are having a hard time coming up with examples to match their over blown superlatives.

[kalibane]

It's still different this year than it's been in the last 3 in terms of offensive struggles.

I never said anything about the offense in 2012-2014 like I've been saying this year. It was actually kind of the opposite. For instance in that Tampa Game I never thought they were going to lose and my only frustration was the inevitable media spin, not the actual performance.

[HumanCockroach]

Burton, there's an enormous difference between looking bad on offense "at times" and looking horrid on offense EVERY week( no matter how good or bad the defense is that is being faced). I don't think anyone has " forgotten" those games at all, but to ignore two full months of incompetence from the OC on down seems a bit of a stretch, though there are some it seems hell bent on doing so.

Truth is they CAN make the playoffs with zero offense, they could even win the whole thing, it's been done before ( though only once to my knowledge) but I don't recall that teams fans ignoring how bad that offense was when they did it, and the truth is, right now, Seattle's offense isn't performing at the level of those Dilfer led Ravens O did.

[Zorn76]

While I agree that this is not the same team of the last 2 years, a quick glance of the standings reveals that there are only 6 teams in the NFC that have winning records, with the Vikings currently holding the 2nd WC spot, and the Rams ahead of us at 4-3.

Winning the division would mean that we'd have to sweep the Cards, I agree. But while AZ is 6-2, there are some definite chinks in their armor. They had a nice comeback win against Cleveland yesterday, but that's due in large part to the Browns being the Browns. Not saying our wins have been impressive by any means, but rather our division leader does have flaws that can be exploited. Are we a good enough team to beat them? We'll see. But I don't think it's as far fetched as one would think.

If nothing else, we still have a lot to do with controlling our own destiny. We have 4 division games left, and we get to play Minnesota in their house this season.

We've seen how weird this season has been in already. St Louis and now New Orleans are in the mix in terms of their records. However, I think we still stand a better chance of finishing in front of them. Beating the Vikes would give us the tiebreaker there, and we obviously need to beat the Rams next go around.

The bottom line for me is this: We're no Juggernaut, but this team still has a shot at finishing strong. We'll have to put ourselves in a position to have the advantage in terms of tiebreakers over certain teams, ones that we play a direct part in (Minnesota, Stl). There's plenty that's out of our hands. We can only control so much, and obviously we put ourselves at a disadvantage by blowing two games in particular (Bengals, Panthers).

But our remaining schedule does make it possible to go on a nice run. 3 straight home games coming up, including Az after our bye week. At least we'll have 2 weeks to prepare for them, which should help, on top of being very familiar with them (and them us). Then we host SF and Pittsburg (who now are without RB Bell, a big loss).

There is very little margin for error. The "must win" scenario is right in front of us. Maybe we get help elsewhere, but it cannot be banked on. IMO, we are good enough to beat the Cards in Seattle. Sounds crazy to some, but I think we can. Likewise, they are good enough to beat us. We'll see.

Mentally, the Seahawks are still a strong team. I think their collective psyche is in good place, even with all the challenges remaining. I understand that if feels sketchy, but I'd love for us to at least get into the playoffs, then see what happens.

[Zorn76]

deleted. double post.

[burrrton]

Kal and HC- I didn't intend to hand-wave away the offense's struggles this season (re-reading it I can see it did come across that way). I agree there's a significant difference this year.

The optimist in me is just looking for ways to link the offense to a more successful time, I guess.

[RiverDog]

While I agree that this is not the same team of the last 2 years, a quick glance of the standings reveals that there are only 6 teams in the NFC that have winning records, with the Vikings currently holding the 2nd WC spot, and the Rams ahead of us at 4-3.

Winning the division would mean that we'd have to sweep the Cards, I agree. But while AZ is 6-2, there are some definite chinks in their armor. They had a nice comeback win against Cleveland yesterday, but that's due in large part to the Browns being the Browns. Not saying our wins have been impressive by any means, but rather our division leader does have flaws that can be exploited. Are we a good enough team to beat them? We'll see. But I don't think it's as far fetched as one would think.

If nothing else, we still have a lot to do with controlling our own destiny. We have 4 division games left, and we get to play Minnesota in their house this season.

We've seen how weird this season has been in already. St Louis and now New Orleans are in the mix in terms of their records. However, I think we still stand a better chance of finishing in front of them. Beating the Vikes would give us the tiebreaker there, and we obviously need to beat the Rams next go around.

The bottom line for me is this: We're no Juggernaut, but this team still has a shot at finishing strong. We'll have to put ourselves in a position to have the advantage in terms of tiebreakers over certain teams, ones that we play a direct part in (Minnesota, Stl). There's plenty that's out of our hands. We can only control so much, and obviously we put ourselves at a disadvantage by blowing two games in particular (Bengals, Panthers).

But our remaining schedule does make it possible to go on a nice run. 3 straight home games coming up, including Az after our bye week. At least we'll have 2 weeks to prepare for them, which should help, on top of being very familiar with them (and them us). Then we host SF and Pittsburg (who now are without RB Bell, a big loss).

There is very little margin for error. The "must win" scenario is right in front of us. Maybe we get help elsewhere, but it cannot be banked on. IMO, we are good enough to beat the Cards in Seattle. Sounds crazy to some, but I think we can. Likewise, they are good enough to beat us. We'll see.

Mentally, the Seahawks are still a strong team. I think their collective psyche is in good place, even with all the challenges remaining. I understand that if feels sketchy, but I'd love for us to at least get into the playoffs, then see what happens.

Don't forget about the Rams. They are only one game behind the Cards and already own a win over them, plus the Rams are a perfect 3-0 within the division. Losing that first game to them could really come back to haunt us (thanks, Kam!).

[Zorn76]

Yes, it easily could (losing 1st game to Rams).

Like I said, the margin for error is very narrow right now.

The trick is to put together a streak that buys you some time, and it starts with a big task of beating Az in our house in a couple of weeks.

Timing is Everything.

If we beat the Cards, SF, and Pitt - all at The Clink - then we're looking much better, obviously, moving forward.

But we have to do it first. We have, at most, 2 more losses afforded, based on previous WC records for our conference.

It's a big "if", I understand. The key is to Finish games strong, starting in week 10.

[Seahawks4Ever]

As long as Bevel is calling the plays we won't make the playoffs let alone a 3rd. trip to the Super Bowl. What is wrong with that guy?? How can he be such an idiot??
Hey Russell Wilson! Take note, you make the BIG BUCKS now, time to speak up and let Pete know that you have no faith in the play calling of the OC. Tell Pete that you are going to take the bull by the horns and just ignore the plays Bevel calls and just calling your own. Tell Pete he needs to fire Bevel and bring in some one COMPETENT. Go PRIMA DONNA! The 12s will have your back! The 12s HATE Darrel Bevel, heck, we have been praying every off season that some team like the Browns will hire that bum but so far no go.

If I was in the Mafia, Bevel would be roommates with Jimmy Hoffa by now. I have heard the booing, we have ALL heard the booing inside of the CLINK when yet another stupid play call by Bevel.

Look at yesterday, a sweep to the right by Lynch lost yards, a sweep to the left by Lynch lost yards. When IS Bevel going to learn that Lynch does NOT run sweeps very well. The ONLY one I saw last year that worked was a failed sweep to the right that set up a later play when Lynch threw the ball back to Wilson who then threw a TD pass. Yet, Bevel called 2 sweeps that lost yards yesterday when we needed a TD in the worst way.

I am sick of it, I am sick of Bevel. I respect the heck out of Pete Carroll, but he has a BLIND EYE where Bevel is concerned. He doesn't seem to understand that his blind faith in Bevel is going to be the agent that destroys what Pete worked so hard to build here in Seattle.

Even better idea would be for Bevel himself to wake up and pull his head out of his own corn hole and start calling a better mix of plays.

[RiverDog]

Yes, it easily could (losing 1st game to Rams).

Like I said, the margin for error is very narrow right now.

The trick is to put together a streak that buys you some time, and it starts with a big task of beating Az in our house in a couple of weeks.

Timing is Everything.

If we beat the Cards, SF, and Pitt - all at The Clink - then we're looking much better, obviously, moving forward.

But we have to do it first. We have, at most, 2 more losses afforded, based on previous WC records for our conference.

It's a big "if", I understand. The key is to Finish games strong, starting in week 10.

There's some big games besides your aforementioned 3 at the Clink. We could win all of those games, even every remaining game on our schedule and if we don't beat the Rams, we still may not win the division.

We've also got a big game coming up with the Vikings. They're 5-2, one game behind the Pack. If Arizona runs away and hides in the NFC West, then our games with the Packers, Vikings, Rams, perhaps even the Panthers could determine who gets the wild card.

The playoff picture doesn't really start to take shape until after Thanksgiving weekend, but the fact is that we're not going ANYWHERE until we can get this offense straightened around, something we haven't done all season long and something I see very little evidence of a positive change from what we've seen for the past 4 months. We can't count on our opponents trotting out quarterbacks like Kaepernicks, Clausens and Cassells for our defense to feast on.

[HumanCockroach]

I haven't been quiet about the offenses offensive displays this year, but I do recommend people look at the remaining schedules before writing off Seattle's chances. The Rams aren't winning this division baring some unforeseen resurgence on offense ( and no a single player doesn't do it), the Cards SHOULD have lost two straight, to pretty piss poor teams to boot, and now their schedule gets difficult. The divisions there for the taking, whether they do or not I have no idea, but it is far from impossible or even unlikely at this point.