Panthers Game

[RiverDog]

The injury list looks pretty bad, with RT Abraham Lucas and DL Mike Morris on IR, LT Charles Cross and CB Coby Bryant ruled out, CB Riq Wollen and TE Will Dissly listed as doubtful, and safeties Quandre Diggs, Julian Love, and Jamal Adams along with WR DK Metcalf, RB Dee Jay Dallas, and OG Phil Haynes all listed as questionable. In total, 11 players did not practice on Thursday.

The Panthers will be without their starting QB and #1 overall draft pick Bryce Young as well as LB Shaq Thompson, out for the season with a leg injury.

In my opinion, the key to the game will be our defense's ability to get some pressure on Andy Dalton, the veteran QB who will be replacing Young.

The Niners, following an impressive 30-12 win over the Giants, our next opponent following the Panthers game, have established themselves as the clear favorites in the division at 3-0. Going into Week 3, the three leading contenders in the NFC would appear to be the Cowboys, the defending champ Eagles, and the aforementioned Niners. The Cowboys have won their first two games by a combined score of 70-10.

Comments?

[NorthHawk]

This game will show us how close the backups are to pressing the starters at those positions.
Quality depth is required for a team to go deep into the playoffs, so this game should be telling.

[MackStrongIsMyHero]

The injuries are troubling. As much as I hate early bye weeks, this team needs it at Week 5.

Andy Dalton, with the caveat he was paired with Taysom Hill, created problems in NOLA last year. Hoping hosting him and no T Hill makes a difference in this one. Seahawks really need some home field redemption to really wash the bad taste of Week 1 out.

[4XPIPS]

Well last year on our home turf Geno played probably his worst game of the season and it was too much to overcome. This was a game we should have won. Darnold last year picked our defense apart, and I can see Dalton doing that as well. This game will be closer than most think. Our defense is so bad at this point, and now with injuries to deal with it surely makes every game close. This game will only be won on how efficient our offense plays, because regardless who we play against our defense can’t stop the run and gives up way too many 3rd downs.

Panthers 31
Seahawks 27

[c_hawkbob]

I think we win fairly easily, say 24-12 or so.

[RiverDog]

Immediately following the Detroit game, I had this as a slam dunk win, like by 3 scores. But with the injuries piling up and the realization that our banged up secondary and nonexistent pass rush will be going up against a seasoned veteran like Andy Dalton, I'm down to less than a touchdown win for us.

27-24 Hawks.

[Aseahawkfan]

Hmm. 35-20 Seahawks.

Offense keeps rolling. Defense keeps a weak QB from scoring much.

[4XPIPS]

Can the Seahawks ditch the wildcat with Dallas? You are not surprising the Panthers with this formation.

[RiverDog]

Can the Seahawks ditch the wildcat with Dallas? You are not surprising the Panthers with this formation.

Yeah, it's not the first time that thing has blown up. If I remember correctly, we used it against the Niners and Dallas threw an interception out of it.

I don't like the way this game is going. We gotta start scoring TD's instead of settling for FG's. Not that I disagreed with his decisions, but Pete obviously isn't a fan of analytics.

[Aseahawkfan]

We scored a TD, RD. We need more.

[4XPIPS]

Yeah, it's not the first time that thing has blown up. If I remember correctly, we used it against the Niners and Dallas threw an interception out of it.

I don't like the way this game is going. We gotta start scoring TD's instead of settling for FG's. Not that I disagreed with his decisions, but Pete obviously isn't a fan of analytics.

Yeah I was trying to avoid that memory, but it's burned in my head. It was against the Niners, and it came on the heels of a pretty solid drive. It was when we got real dumb with having 4 RBS in the backfield, Homer/Penny/Dallas/Walker(taking the snap), and Dallas rolled right and threw the ball 8 yards too short.

[trents]

O line did pretty good today considering all the backups who played. Running game got going good in he second half. Loved that play where Charbonet pancaked that defender on about the three yard line.

[c_hawkbob]

1- We suck on 3rd down!
2- Game balls to Geno, the 12th man and Zach Charbonnet for that finishing hit even though he stepped out of bounds!
3- At least I got the spread right.

[Spohawk5092]

crowd today was awesome!! 8 false starts. Reminded me of the good ole days.

[RiverDog]

crowd today was awesome!! 8 false starts. Reminded me of the good ole days.

Wow, there were that many false starts? The elements might have had something to do with the communication problems, too. It looked like it was raining pretty hard at times, might have kept them from focusing.

This is about how this game should have gone, so it doesn't change my assessment. Next week, the Giants will be coming off a long break, a mini bye, after having been thumped by what's shaping up to be the best team in the conference.

Cbob's right. We suck on 3rd down. Our offense is ranked 28th on third down conversions, and our defense is ranked 31st in opponent 3rd down conversions.

[NorthHawk]

The 3rd down issue if it continues will really hurt near the end of the season when or if we are challenging for a playoff spot.
These type of things matter most when the games are critical and teams are much more evenly matched.

[4XPIPS]

Well I finally gave the game a full watch, and I am glad to be wrong on my score prediction. I still believe in order to win Geno & co need to continue to score 30+pt games in order to win as this defense is so poorly coached.

Our offense sustained drives early, but bogged down near the redzone and I think this was an illustration of Dissly not out there. I think he disguises the block better and sneaks out and catches those flat routes better than Parkinson. Nothing against 80's Hairband Parkinson. So basically we are the best offense between the 20s but have to convert more TDs, but can't complain as Geno shrugged off an INT and came right out slinging.

Defense had some positives as well as it was nice to see some QB pressures. Albeit I think there is too much talent on this defense to be schemed up so poorly. However, after numerous procedure calls and getting the Panthers in 2nd and long, and 3rd and long we still give up 3rd downs like its a free tickets to the State Fair(miss those Walla Walla Onion Burgers). I did rewatch from the 10 min market of the 3rd quarter till the end of the game and I was purely focused on Bobby Wagner. I hate to say it, but he played more motivated last year with the Rams as a "F" "U" to Schneider. At most times he is out of place on runs, and almost 90% of time he was locked up on blocks and could not shed them. The few times he shot the gaps to blitz, he was swallowed up in the trenches and was not effective. I love Bobby, but I think his play has dropped. He is a natural leader and he has done so much for team for such a long time but its's almost like watching Russell where I am waiting for that big hit, or that big goaline stand. On most short passes he is either beat or looks gassed. Maybe I am being too critical at this point and he knows this is a long season and is leaving some of it in the tank as we were projected to make the playoffs, but hopefully we can get some of the vintage Bobby back.

Kudos to the crowd, and how they affected the game. If we can continue to be like this at home I can see us upsetting the 49ers.

Lastly, what a catch by Bobo. I mean that looked like Larry Fitzgerald reaching and catching at the high point and having the wherewithal to toe tap and drag the feet. Larry in his later years of his career had lost so much speed and was primarily as a possession receiver or redzone threat, and of course the hall of famer did that the last 5 years of his long career. Which makes me think who cares if Bobo doesn't have top end speed, he can be immensely effective when used right and that was a heck of a throw and catch!

[NorthHawk]

Charles Davis commented at one point that we aren't using JSN much beyond the LoS. Most of his pass routes have been within 10 yards. That has to change for the WRs to become truly dominant as he can draw another defender to him thus giving more room for Lockett and DK. If we don't change it, he will be a waste of a draft pick.

[RiverDog]

Charles Davis commented at one point that we aren't using JSN much beyond the LoS. Most of his pass routes have been within 10 yards. That has to change for the WRs to become truly dominant as he can draw another defender to him thus giving more room for Lockett and DK. If we don't change it, he will be a waste of a draft pick.

Looking at some of the stats, a couple of things popped out at me of which I haven't heard anyone talking about. The first one was Tyler Lockett. He has 21 targets but just 13 receptions. That seems pretty low. The other was that we don't seem to be throwing a lot to our running backs, averaging just 5 targets per game. Some of that might be influenced by the first game when our offense ran just 14 plays in the 2nd half, but even so, when you look at the number of targets going to our WR's, 19 per game, it would seem that we're a little bit out of balance.

Running the ball, we have just one run over 20 yards. But the good news is that we haven't put the ball on the ground at all in 3 games, plus Geno has just one interception, and despite playing with a makeshift offensive line, we've given up just 5 sacks. The biggest problem, as was pointed out, has been on 3rd downs where we're 2nd to last in the league, and on defense, where we're ranked 29th in both yards and points per game, most of the problems stemming from the passing game.

As the saying goes, there's liars, damn liars, and then there's statisticians. But they can tell a story.

[NorthHawk]

Lockett doesn't drop that many, so it might be misleading in that the ball could have been purposely thrown out of bounds or in such a way that only the Receiver could catch it creating low percentage throws.
But he's still money in or near the end zone and on critical plays.

Edit:
It's also odd that teams aren't really trying to run on us but are finding success through the air. Maybe the entire Defense is suspect.

[RiverDog]

Lockett doesn't drop that many, so it might be misleading in that the ball could have been purposely thrown out of bounds or in such a way that only the Receiver could catch it creating low percentage throws.
But he's still money in or near the end zone and on critical plays.

Edit:
It's also odd that teams aren't really trying to run on us but are finding success through the air. Maybe the entire Defense is suspect.

Our opponents have 81 rushing attempts vs. 131 passing, or a 62% pass/38% run, which is in the top 25% or so in the league for passing. Just looking at it, the league averages seem to be around 58% pass, 42% run.

[NorthHawk]

You’d think that teams would be testing the run defense more after the last few years of poor play. That they’ve found weakness in the pass defense might suggest we need to step it up if we want to be competitive against the better teams who can exploit in both ways depending upon the defense they are playing against.

[Oly]

I think the 3rd down and JSN stats are linked. When he was drafted, I recall reading (from whom, I don't know) that because JSN thrives in the slot and at finding space, he'd be a 3rd down weapon. I haven't looked at snap counts to know if he's just not getting open/targeted, or if he's not been getting those snaps, but I wonder if some of the preseason planning for 3rd down was specifically about him and his injury stopped him from getting the preseason snaps that would have made that plan work. If so, then the fault is mainly on Waldron for not getting those slot reps to Bobo or other WRs in preseason.