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Huge win. I don’t care if Bosa and Kittle were out. We’re missing Nwosu, Fant, and just lost our center to retirement. This is a statement win. I actually have some brewing hope that this will change things. No Super Bowl this year, but coach Mike is a stud coach; we just need to be patient and trust the process.

Stream Hawk wrote:Huge win. I don’t care if Bosa and Kittle were out. We’re missing Nwosu, Fant, and just lost our center to retirement. This is a statement win. I actually have some brewing hope that this will change things. No Super Bowl this year, but coach Mike is a stud coach; we just need to be patient and trust the process.

I agree. It's a very important win, because it showed that during this much needed time off, the team managed to overcome a sudden retirement, get some players back, and we let our leading tackler go for a rookie who hasn't started much this year, and we came through at a place we have not won in a very long time. I don't think we are going to the Superbowl this year, or even winning the division, but it showed Mike Macdonald is pushing the team in the right direction.

Well, I wouldn't call it a statement win. When I think of a statement win, I think of a victory over a strong, contending team that puts the winner into the conversation for a Super Bowl. I don't think we can say that about our Hawks, at least not now, and we certainly can't say that about the Niners.

But one thing it does mean, at least to me, is that we can probably use it to write the 49'ers obituary. It looks like their window has closed. Even when everyone is healthy, they have a very pedestrian team, average at best.

This is why I didn't want to throw in the towel and start talking about tanking games. Teams can and do change quite dramatically during the season, sometimes catch lightening in a bottle as the saying goes. I don't want to get all jacked up about one game only to be severely bummed out when it all comes crashing down, but neither do I want to write off our chances.

If we beat the Cards next week, there's a chance that we could be in a 4-way tie for first place in our division. I'm not sure if I've ever seen that happen this late in the season. They're coming off their bye week, so they'll have had plenty of chance to prepare and get healed up.

River Dog wrote:Well, I wouldn't call it a statement win. When I think of a statement win, I think of a victory over a strong, contending team that puts the winner into the conversation for a Super Bowl. I don't think we can say that about our Hawks, at least not now, and we certainly can't say that about the Niners.

But one thing it does mean, at least to me, is that we can probably use it to write the 49'ers obituary. It looks like their window has closed. Even when everyone is healthy, they have a very pedestrian team, average at best.

This is why I didn't want to throw in the towel and start talking about tanking games. Teams can and do change quite dramatically during the season, sometimes catch lightening in a bottle as the saying goes. I don't want to get all jacked up about one game only to be severely bummed out when it all comes crashing down, but neither do I want to write off our chances.

If we beat the Cards next week, there's a chance that we could be in a 4-way tie for first place in our division. I'm not sure if I've ever seen that happen this late in the season. They're coming off their bye week, so they'll have had plenty of chance to prepare and get healed up.

It definitely did put the Niners on notice, thats for sure....
and I honestly cannot recall the last time there was a 4 way tie for first in our Division. Crazy.

Spohawk5092 wrote:It definitely did put the Niners on notice, thats for sure....
and I honestly cannot recall the last time there was a 4 way tie for first in our Division. Crazy.

Yeah, I think that we can all agree that this isn't the same Niners that have dominated our division for the past couple of years. Same goes for the Rams. There's definitely a changing of the guard going on.

And it's not just our division. Take a look at the NFC South:

Falcons 6-5
Bucs 4-6
Saints 4-6
Panthers 3-6

One game separating first and last place.

Stream Hawk wrote:Huge win. I don’t care if Bosa and Kittle were out. We’re missing Nwosu, Fant, and just lost our center to retirement. This is a statement win. I actually have some brewing hope that this will change things. No Super Bowl this year, but coach Mike is a stud coach; we just need to be patient and trust the process.

I like how you said the statement is more of a "the Hawks are on the right long-term track" statement, because I absolutely agree. I wrote in the game thread at halftime that win or lose, the performance gave me faith in Macdonald, and the way the game finished strengthens that faith. So it's a statement to the 12th Man and to the Niners that our paths are going in different directions.

But I don't think it's a statement to the league because of how streaky these Hawks are. Sure, some weeks they can win on the road against a solid-but-no-longer-spectacular team, but some weeks they absolutely s*** the bed against poor teams.

It seems to me our 2 best performances have come after an extended time off - after the Thursday night game and after the bye. Does this mean our coaching staff aren't getting the team ready soon enough or does it mean the team is starting to find its way with the new schemes and philosophies on both sides of the ball? It remains to be seen how the rest of the year will unfold but teams like ours will often surprise us fans both positively and negatively from game to game.
It was a good game yesterday even if SF was missing 2 very key players on Offense. They were thought of being far superior and deeper than most teams, but it seems that time is catching up to them.
The teams in our division to really watch out for are the Cards and Rams. The way the Cards have been playing, they should be the favorites to win the division but, like us they will probably suffer some inconsistencies in the remaining games.
It'll be interesting to see if Seattle is a Jekyl and Hyde type of team or is now building upon something from this win.

NorthHawk wrote:It seems to me our 2 best performances have come after an extended time off - after the Thursday night game and after the bye. Does this mean our coaching staff aren't getting the team ready soon enough or does it mean the team is starting to find its way with the new schemes and philosophies on both sides of the ball? It remains to be seen how the rest of the year will unfold but teams like ours will often surprise us fans both positively and negatively from game to game.

Interesting question. Given the amount of tweaking we've seen (e.g., the look-to-the-sidelines BS, new coverage concepts), I have to imagine that some of practice is still dedicated to understanding what the coaches want. This would crowd out some of the time dedicated to applying the schemes to that week's opponent. So in an extended week, they have more of that time to spend on getting players ready for that game, and that might explain it. I'd hope that as the year progresses, the tweaking stops, and the players know the scheme, they will be able to get into gameplanning earlier in the week and will be ready to go without extra time. I suppose we'll see soon enough.

NorthHawk wrote:The teams in our division to really watch out for are the Cards and Rams. The way the Cards have been playing, they should be the favorites to win the division but, like us they will probably suffer some inconsistencies in the remaining games.
It'll be interesting to see if Seattle is a Jekyl and Hyde type of team or is now building upon something from this win.

The Cards have what appears to be an easy schedule, with us twice, Panthers, Pats, Rams, and Niners. We play them twice within 3 weeks. The Rams still have to play the Bills and Eagles.

I'll call it a statement win. As long we understand that the statement is "don't count us out yet!" and not "Super Bowl baby!"

c_hawkbob wrote:I'll call it a statement win. As long we understand that the statement is "don't count us out yet!" and not "Super Bowl baby!"

I hear that, and concur!

River Dog wrote:Well, I wouldn't call it a statement win. When I think of a statement win, I think of a victory over a strong, contending team that puts the winner into the conversation for a Super Bowl. I don't think we can say that about our Hawks, at least not now, and we certainly can't say that about the Niners.

But one thing it does mean, at least to me, is that we can probably use it to write the 49'ers obituary. It looks like their window has closed. Even when everyone is healthy, they have a very pedestrian team, average at best.

This is why I didn't want to throw in the towel and start talking about tanking games. Teams can and do change quite dramatically during the season, sometimes catch lightening in a bottle as the saying goes. I don't want to get all jacked up about one game only to be severely bummed out when it all comes crashing down, but neither do I want to write off our chances.

If we beat the Cards next week, there's a chance that we could be in a 4-way tie for first place in our division. I'm not sure if I've ever seen that happen this late in the season. They're coming off their bye week, so they'll have had plenty of chance to prepare and get healed up.

Fair enough, maybe I used the wrong term. I was, however, simply thrilled at the time! It immediately reminded me of the 2012 Bears game. While Geno is not 2012 Russ, he is showing he can be clutch. I still like the trajectory of this team, and wins like that only strengthen its path forward

This division is definitely becoming wide open. It's going to come down to who can draft and develop best in the next few years to see who becomes the NFC West Big Dog.

River Dog wrote:Well, I wouldn't call it a statement win. When I think of a statement win, I think of a victory over a strong, contending team that puts the winner into the conversation for a Super Bowl. I don't think we can say that about our Hawks, at least not now, and we certainly can't say that about the Niners.

But one thing it does mean, at least to me, is that we can probably use it to write the 49'ers obituary. It looks like their window has closed. Even when everyone is healthy, they have a very pedestrian team, average at best.

This is why I didn't want to throw in the towel and start talking about tanking games. Teams can and do change quite dramatically during the season, sometimes catch lightening in a bottle as the saying goes. I don't want to get all jacked up about one game only to be severely bummed out when it all comes crashing down, but neither do I want to write off our chances.

If we beat the Cards next week, there's a chance that we could be in a 4-way tie for first place in our division. I'm not sure if I've ever seen that happen this late in the season. They're coming off their bye week, so they'll have had plenty of chance to prepare and get healed up.

Stream Hawk wrote:Fair enough, maybe I used the wrong term. I was, however, simply thrilled at the time! It immediately reminded me of the 2012 Bears game. While Geno is not 2012 Russ, he is showing he can be clutch. I still like the trajectory of this team, and wins like that only strengthen its path forward

I still haven't fully bought into this team and Coach Macdonald. It took me until that 2012 season before I really bought into Pete's teams, and it might have even been that Bears game you referred to that finally did the trick. Right now, I'm still in that "show me what you got" mode.

Speaking of 2012, I felt that we were the best team in the conference that year. We finished the regular season winning 5 straight including 7 of our last 8 and a virtual b**** slapping of the 49'ers in Prime Time in the 2nd to last regular season game then beat RG3 and the Redskins in the wild card before losing a game we should have won vs. the Falcons. It's going to take a run like that for me to really get on the bandwagon. Until then, I'll probably be an Obi-like Debbie Downer.

I did feel like we still lacked a legit pass rush in 2012. That’s why I was stoked when we signed Bennett & Avril. But yeah that shellacking of the Niners on SNF was one of my favorite Seahawk games of all time.

I don’t think we are there yet. I don’t think we will win the Super Bowl next year. I do hope JS takes the interior OL seriously. Or else.

Stream Hawk wrote:I did feel like we still lacked a legit pass rush in 2012. That’s why I was stoked when we signed Bennett & Avril. But yeah that shellacking of the Niners on SNF was one of my favorite Seahawk games of all time.

I don’t think we are there yet. I don’t think we will win the Super Bowl next year. I do hope JS takes the interior OL seriously. Or else.

It rained like the Devil that night in 2012, too. I can remember seeing someone hit the goal posts and see all the water pour off it. That probably has to rank in the top 5 of my ATF Seahawks regular season games, the only ones coming to mind that could top it being our first MNF game featuring Efren Herrea's fake FG play.

You're preaching to the choir about JS taking the IOL seriously, and we're not the only two in here that feel that way. It's been our biggest weakness for over a decade.

It’s not just us in this forum, I’ve been seeing it mentioned in other Seahawk forums and the occasional reference to bad IOL and specifically Center on national media shows. Frankly it’s becoming an embarrassment that it’s not been addressed yet and I have a hunch that it may be contributing in part to fan indifference.