The dirty little secret: Our DL sucks

[RiverDog]

We went two straight game without registering a sack, which tied a club record. Had we not picked up a sack during garbage time yesterday, the best defense in this era and arguably one of the best all time would have had one of the most dubious distinctions. To make matters worse, we weren't even getting close to Rodgers yesterday, and he was so lame that he couldn't walk without a hitch in his get-along.

So in my best Vince Lombardi impersonation..."What the hell is going on out there?!"

[HumanCockroach]

Nah, the QB sucks.

[HumanCockroach]

Don't really feel that way, he doesn't, neither does the D line.

It's stupid to claim they do.

[Hawktawk]

People forget who Seattle has played the last 3 weeks. Crab Legs and Sharp dressed man are big strong mobile dudes who avoided several sacks but they faced pressure. I attended the Carolina thrashing and Seattle had free runs at Newton a few times, he was able to spin out of it but he was knocked off his spot. Yesterday they struggled to get any penetration into the backfield. Not to mention Rodgers is one of the best ever at helping his linemen by sliding in the pocket to throw instead of running himself into a sack.

No phase of the team "sucks".

The TEAM sucked yesterday.

Come on Thursday.....

[RiverDog]

OK, maybe sucks is a bit over the top. But the defensive line has under performed. Way under performed. They weren't even moving Rodgers off his spot.

[HumanCockroach]

Fair enough, and I agree with it.... Sucks was over the top. This is a legitimately great line, that for whatever reason has stalled several of the last handful of games. To much talent not to be getting home more often.

[The POPE]

D-line sucks, O-line sucks, flags flying upside down or taken down. Need a little cheese to go with that wine, I would have thought the Packers provided enough cheese to choke on. Could be worse, could be a Rams, 9'ers or cardinal fan. Keep calm and carry on

The Pope

[obiken]

I don't think our DL has been that dominant since Red Bryant left, but that's just me. We lost our best Defensive player and RS is wounded, as I said before we not going to be just ok. Having said that our LB corps sucked as well and they have been good.

[HumanCockroach]

[RiverDog]

I don't think our DL has been that dominant since Red Bryant left, but that's just me. We lost our best Defensive player and RS is wounded, as I said before we not going to be just ok. Having said that our LB corps sucked as well and they have been good.

Red Bryant? Really? What I remember of Red was that he was great against the run but never ever got any kind of pass rush.

We have plenty of talent on the DL. Bennett and Avril are as good as it gets at getting pass pressure, but even they weren't coming close. I suppose you could come up with an excuse that this was only Bennett's 2nd game back and that he might still be a bit lame and I know that the footing was suspect. But it was the 3rd week in a row w/o a sack, except for the one that came late well after the outcome was decided.

No part of our team had a good game, but it all starts up front in the trenches. Win that battle and you'll win 80% of the contests.

[Hawktawk]

Unless Im mistaken we were leading the league in sacks a few weeks ago.We have faced in order 2 big strong mobile studs and one of the slipperiest HOF QBs ever.That can lead to a reduction in sacks.
We still have a great chance of having 2 guys or more with double digit sacks facing the 3 stiffs we have coming up.
A line that can throw Ruben, Bennett, Clark, Avril, Marsh etc at you is not your problem folks.

Our defense is not the problem. Its our offense.
Our QB is morphing into Teddy Bridgewater on the road. Our receivers cant catch and our lineman can't block and our punter cant punt.

The defense is the primary reason there are 8 wins and a tie.
Blaming any facet of our defense is misguided.

I predict Mr Goff will meet a few of our linemen up close and personal in a couple of days.

[NorthHawk]

I'm not so sure the posters above were blaming the losses on the Defense, rather they were noting how they haven't been as dominant as past years and early in this season.
At least that's how I took it.

When you have an Offense that can't grind out wins when the Defense stumbles, this is what happens, but this is how the team is designed and we've won with it.

[RiverDog]

We have faced in order 2 big strong mobile studs and one of the slipperiest HOF QBs ever.That can lead to a reduction in sacks.

We're not talking about a reduction of sacks, we're talking about an elimination of sacks.

That slipperiest QB ever was severely limited by a leg injury as he hurt his calf on their opening drive. He couldn't even walk without a pronounced limp. Besides that, we didn't even get close to him, failed to move him off his spot. Rodgers was 18-23 with a QB rating of 150. That should not have happened against a DL like ours. Normally I'd be receptive to an excuse about the footing, but the Packers were putting pressure on Russell all day long...and you know that couldn't have happened against our vastly improved OL if the footing was that bad.

Neither the Bucs or the Panthers are in the top 10 in fewest sacks surrendered. It shouldn't have taken a Herculean effort to get either of those QB's on the ground, but we didn't.

Stop making excuses. Our DL underperformed, and not by just a little.

[MackStrongIsMyHero]

I have no explanation for the lack of pass rush. Avril, Bennett, Clark, Marsh, Rubin, and Reed are all healthy. I want to go into conspiracy theory mode and suggest that the Seahawks defense was asked to back off by the NFL because it is Aaron Rogers and the Green Bay Packers. Otherwise, I don't know how they don't do better with that match up.

[NorthHawk]

I have no explanation for the lack of pass rush. Avril, Bennett, Clark, Marsh, Rubin, and Reed are all healthy. I want to go into conspiracy theory mode and suggest that the Seahawks defense was asked to back off by the NFL because it is Aaron Rogers and the Green Bay Packers. Otherwise, I don't know how they don't do better with that match up.

The NFL doesn't ask teams to back off.
If they did, they would do so for teams playing the Browns so as to make them more competitive and keep their QBs off of the injury lists.

[MackStrongIsMyHero]

I don't believe they would, but I'd sooner believe they'd do it for a gimped-up, franchise quarterback of a storied franchise trying to claw its way into the playoffs over a perennial punching bag; I am just thoroughly befuddled at their performance Sunday.

[Hawktawk]

[quote="RiverDog"

We're not talking about a reduction of sacks, we're talking about an elimination of sacks.

That slipperiest QB ever was severely limited by a leg injury as he hurt his calf on their opening drive. He couldn't even walk without a pronounced limp. Besides that, we didn't even get close to him, failed to move him off his spot. Rodgers was 18-23 with a QB rating of 150. That should not have happened against a DL like ours. Normally I'd be receptive to an excuse about the footing, but the Packers were putting pressure on Russell all day long...and you know that couldn't have happened against our vastly improved OL if the footing was that bad.

Neither the Bucs or the Panthers are in the top 10 in fewest sacks surrendered. It shouldn't have taken a Herculean effort to get either of those QB's on the ground, but we didn't.

Stop making excuses. Our DL underperformed, and not by just a little.[/quote]

I completely agree on the Green Bay game. The line was flummoxed entirely.No pressures or making aaron work hard at all othe than the first TD which he executed flawlessly anyway. Rodgers at home is the master of the hard count which freezes D linemen and then he has a line that is just grabby enough to avoid hankies while slightly restraining rushers.

They got handled. The d got stuffed. The dam broke after holding up and carrying a pathetic inconsistent offense for a good part of the season.

The previous two weeks they were disruptive enough to hold an obviously talented Tampa Bay scoreless for the final 3 quarters despite being on the field all day. Then they were able to hold Carolina to 7 points.
They were able to get those guys off their spot and both Newton and particularly Winston avoided almost certain sacks on a couple of occasions.Season stats mean nothing in any particular situation on a given day. I watched the games and saw what happened.

The line has had one bad game. Green Bay.

That's all I'm giving you RD.

[RiverDog]

I completely agree on the Green Bay game. The line was flummoxed entirely.No pressures or making aaron work hard at all othe than the first TD which he executed flawlessly anyway. Rodgers at home is the master of the hard count which freezes D linemen and then he has a line that is just grabby enough to avoid hankies while slightly restraining rushers.

They got handled. The d got stuffed. The dam broke after holding up and carrying a pathetic inconsistent offense for a good part of the season.

The previous two weeks they were disruptive enough to hold an obviously talented Tampa Bay scoreless for the final 3 quarters despite being on the field all day. Then they were able to hold Carolina to 7 points.
They were able to get those guys off their spot and both Newton and particularly Winston avoided almost certain sacks on a couple of occasions.Season stats mean nothing in any particular situation on a given day. I watched the games and saw what happened.

The line has had one bad game. Green Bay.

That's all I'm giving you RD.

At least you came down off the Green Bay game.

We'll see how they do Thursday. There will be no excuse for not being able to get to Goff.

[Hawktawk]

At least you came down off the Green Bay game.

We'll see how they do Thursday. There will be no excuse for not being able to get to Goff.

If they cant get to Goff in prime time after the dump they took in Green bay then Im on board with WTH has happened to our line.
I think our defense will respond very well behind the 12s.

Its our offense sitting at #22 in points after being top 10 each of the last 4 seasons that is a cause for great concern.
Without Earl its going to be harder on our defense and the offense needs to do more or the postseason is going to be one and done.
And we aren't in yet.

[NorthHawk]

We've had a real tough time scoring TDs on the road - 9 in 7 games so far this year.
It puts a lot of pressure on the Defense with that kind of output and it's going to be much tougher without ET.

[RiverDog]

We've had a real tough time scoring TDs on the road - 9 in 7 games so far this year.
It puts a lot of pressure on the Defense with that kind of output and it's going to be much tougher without ET.

Good point.

But you'll have to admit that watching our line try to get to Rodgers last Sunday was a little like watching a cock fight.

[NorthHawk]

By all means, the DL hasn't played up to par the last few weeks, but when one part of the team struggles for whatever reason, good teams find a way to compensate.
In our case, on the road anyway, we haven't scored regularly enough to make up any type of letdown in other areas.
Maybe, like Jjones84 said in another thread this latest loss will propel us to get on a big roll.

[RiverDog]

Maybe, like Jjones84 said in another thread this latest loss will propel us to get on a big roll.

If all we needed was a wake up call, you would have thought that the Tampa Bay game would have provided the needed motivation.

[Hawktawk]

If all we needed was a wake up call, you would have thought that the Tampa Bay game would have provided the needed motivation.

When they went in to Arrowhead and won I knew it was going to be a battle royale.
Tampa Bay isn't that same old Tampa Bay. Its time for fans and players around the league to wake up and smell the coffee.
They have won 5 games in a row and 7 of 9 now, one of the hottest teams in the conference.
As is Green Bay the past month, hot as a firecracker.
Maybe the guys were basking in the glow of 40-7 and already thought they were woken up.

Seattle just isn't good enough right now in any phase to beat really good teams with their C game, much less D or last week F.
Conversely if they play their A game they can beat the Patriots in Foxborough,

The tale of this season will be written by which team shows up.

[RiverDog]

When they went in to Arrowhead and won I knew it was going to be a battle royale.
Tampa Bay isn't that same old Tampa Bay. Its time for fans and players around the league to wake up and smell the coffee.
They have won 5 games in a row and 7 of 9 now, one of the hottest teams in the conference.
As is Green Bay the past month, hot as a firecracker.
Maybe the guys were basking in the glow of 40-7 and already thought they were woken up.

Seattle just isn't good enough right now in any phase to beat really good teams with their C game, much less D or last week F.
Conversely if they play their A game they can beat the Patriots in Foxborough,

The tale of this season will be written by which team shows up.

Agreed.

Tonight's contest will be a fork in the road. We should blast the Rams back into the last century. They're a mess, having just fired their HC with a totally impotent offense featuring a rookie QB playing leaving sunny SoCal to play in sub freezing conditions in front of the 12th man on a short week.

Too bad I have to work tonight.