Seahawks vs. Falcons

[Aseahawkfan]

That was a nice surprise. Crushed the Falcons in an early game. 3 sacks and a couple of ints. Byron Murphy back. Maybe he's more impactful along the D-line than anticipated in year one. Nice to see the offense explode for 34 and the defense hold a team down.

[c_hawkbob]

Impressions from at the game:

1- The PA system is really loud, made me wish I had earplugs ... the crowd is not.

2- There were a whole lot of Falcons fans there disguised as empty seats, by the mid 4th quarter seahawks fans dominated, both blue in the stands and crowd noise.

3- Our run game is effective for consuming clock, but it's Geno and the boys that'll win us games, we need to temper our want to force the run a bit until our run blocking improves. A lot.

4- On the scoreboard they said DK was out with a knee injury, we know anything more about that? Other than his early drop he looked pretty good.

5- I don't much like Atlanta, don't think I'll hang out here much. Sure had a great time at the game though!

[MackStrongIsMyHero]

Was worried we see good Cousins; he’s the kind of QB with that kind of talent that would give us fits. The D made some plays and capitalized on mistakes.

Walker looked awesome. Made some big plays; the pass TD was a thing of beauty.

Shout out to Jerrell; holding his own in his first ever NFL start is something.

[NorthHawk]

Yeah, Jerrell really played well from an expectations point of view.
He made some mistakes but that’s to be expected so early in his career. I thought he got some push in the run game.

[NorthHawk]

Injury report.
DK is week to week with a grade 1 MCL sprain.

[4XPIPS]

What a relief to see us bounce back after giving me nightmares of last year's Defense the last 3 games. Hopefully, we can stay healthy going forward and build on this as we have another big test coming up against the division leading Bills.

[River Dog]

Boy, what a nice surprise! The defense finally woke up from their sleepwalk. We took advantage of a horrible mistake by Cousins, trying to throw while running to his left with Mafe breathing down his neck and out in the open like that. It was the play of the game. The running game still isn't where it ought to be, but it looked better than in recent weeks. The stats looked pretty even, with the big difference being turnovers and penalties.

And speaking of coming out of their sleepwalks, Metcalf came out of his, hitting paydirt for the first time in 4 games. With today's results, including the Niners losing to the Chiefs and putting us back in sole possession of first place, we can dismiss any thoughts of trading him before the deadline. I still don't think this team is championship caliber, but there's not a lot of teams out there blowing people's socks off, so who knows. You always got to give yourself a champ.

[NorthHawk]

In my opinion we're at least a year or two away from being close to championship caliber even if in this next off season we hit on all of our acquisitions.
We have a sprinkling of exceptional talent and some young players who might become good, but there is still the missing mass in the middle that makes teams succeed. The 'dirt bags' on the OL and more DL depth to cycle in and out are what I mean.
The role players are an important piece of any team and we don't seem to have enough of them at the moment.

The Falcons DL isn't very good but we still had some trouble running and Geno had a great game. Cousins isn't mobile so the pass rush had a good guess whereabouts he would be when pass rushing.
We are going to have a much bigger test against Josh Allen and his mobility and their Defense with the pressure it can get against our OL.

[River Dog]

In my opinion we're at least a year or two away from being close to championship caliber even if in this next off season we hit on all of our acquisitions.
We have a sprinkling of exceptional talent and some young players who might become good, but there is still the missing mass in the middle that makes teams succeed. The 'dirt bags' on the OL and more DL depth to cycle in and out are what I mean.
The role players are an important piece of any team and we don't seem to have enough of them at the moment.

The Falcons DL isn't very good but we still had some trouble running and Geno had a great game. Cousins isn't mobile so the pass rush had a good guess whereabouts he would be when pass rushing.
We are going to have a much bigger test against Josh Allen and his mobility and their Defense with the pressure it can get against our OL.

I agree about our being a couple of years away from being a true championship contender. But we have this tendency to look at our team in a vacuum and not take into consideration the teams around us. There just doesn't seem to be that many good teams in the league, especially in the NFC. The Lions look pretty tough right now, but they lost their best defensive player to IR and is unlikely to return this season. Heck, even with him in the lineup, we racked up over 500 yards of total offense but got zero breaks. The Niners have also lost some key players to injury, and Mr. Irrelevant is starting to live up (or is it live down?) to his billing. Baker Mayfield looked awful last night, and the Bucs lost their top two receivers to injury.

So, who does that leave? Vikings and/or Packers maybe? The Eagles don't look very intimidating. IMO we're definitely in the conversation.

Stranger things have happened.

[Aseahawkfan]

I agree about our being a couple of years away from being a true championship contender. But we have this tendency to look at our team in a vacuum and not take into consideration the teams around us. There just doesn't seem to be that many good teams in the league, especially in the NFC. The Lions look pretty tough right now, but they lost their best defensive player to IR and is unlikely to return this season. Heck, even with him in the lineup, we racked up over 500 yards of total offense but got zero breaks. The Niners have also lost some key players to injury, and Mr. Irrelevant is starting to live up (or is it live down?) to his billing. Baker Mayfield looked awful last night, and the Bucs lost their top two receivers to injury.

So, who does that leave? Vikings and/or Packers maybe? The Eagles don't look very intimidating. IMO we're definitely in the conversation.

Stranger things have happened.

AFC has all the power right now. Chiefs are the clear dominant powerhouse. Ravens are next on the list. Then a mix of teams in the next tier. Even the top NFC teams are in that third tier in the AFC. No one in the NFC seems dominant. Every team is a few injuries from falling off.

[4XPIPS]

AFC has all the power right now. Chiefs are the clear dominant powerhouse. Ravens are next on the list. Then a mix of teams in the next tier. Even the top NFC teams are in that third tier in the AFC. No one in the NFC seems dominant. Every team is a few injuries from falling off.

I would make the argument that the Lions are up there. The Chiefs are winning ugly, and haven't blown teams away, but regardless they are winning and face a tough schedule considering they are SB Champs. Other than the Lions, I think the rest of the NFC is sort of up for grabs. One would argue the Falcons were a top 5 NFC team going into this last weekend, but the way they lost make one think the NFC is pretty open right now.

[Aseahawkfan]

I would make the argument that the Lions are up there. The Chiefs are winning ugly, and haven't blown teams away, but regardless they are winning and face a tough schedule considering they are SB Champs. Other than the Lions, I think the rest of the NFC is sort of up for grabs. One would argue the Falcons were a top 5 NFC team going into this last weekend, but the way they lost make one think the NFC is pretty open right now.

The Lions are maybe in the second tier in the AFC, but they are not dominant.

The Chiefs have a strong defense now. They can win either way at this point. They don't even need Patrick Mahomes to win, yet they still have him. They are the odds on favorite at this point.

[NorthHawk]

At this point to me, it looks like the SB will be decided between the Ravens and Chiefs.
But as in most seasons, injuries will play a big role and KC is at a disadvantage in that regard because of all of the games they’ve played in the playoffs over the past few years.

[MackStrongIsMyHero]

Besides Mahomes, the Chiefs are well-coached under Andy Reid and Steve Spagnuolo. They continue to be in top as long as that holds.

[River Dog]

I agree about our being a couple of years away from being a true championship contender. But we have this tendency to look at our team in a vacuum and not take into consideration the teams around us. There just doesn't seem to be that many good teams in the league, especially in the NFC. The Lions look pretty tough right now, but they lost their best defensive player to IR and is unlikely to return this season. Heck, even with him in the lineup, we racked up over 500 yards of total offense but got zero breaks. The Niners have also lost some key players to injury, and Mr. Irrelevant is starting to live up (or is it live down?) to his billing. Baker Mayfield looked awful last night, and the Bucs lost their top two receivers to injury.

So, who does that leave? Vikings and/or Packers maybe? The Eagles don't look very intimidating. IMO we're definitely in the conversation.

Stranger things have happened.

AFC has all the power right now. Chiefs are the clear dominant powerhouse. Ravens are next on the list. Then a mix of teams in the next tier. Even the top NFC teams are in that third tier in the AFC. No one in the NFC seems dominant. Every team is a few injuries from falling off.

I completely agree. The Chiefs, Ravens, and Bills all look lots better than any team the NFC can produce, especially now that the Lions are without Hutchinson. The NFC teams seem to have been snake bit by injuries more than in the AFC, with Tampa Bay and the Niners losing key pieces. We'll get a good test of our impression this weekend when Buffalo comes to town.

[Aseahawkfan]

I completely agree. The Chiefs, Ravens, and Bills all look lots better than any team the NFC can produce, especially now that the Lions are without Hutchinson. The NFC teams seem to have been snake bit by injuries more than in the AFC, with Tampa Bay and the Niners losing key pieces. We'll get a good test of our impression this weekend when Buffalo comes to town.

I've heard Buffalo lacks good receiver options. Allen needs some weapons as his play style works for getting to the playoffs, but isn't so great once you're there.

[NorthHawk]

The Bills did pick up Amari Cooper, so their WR group is immediately improved from earlier in the year and so far, Allen isn't turning the ball over so they are playing good football or at least a more solid game than years past.
Their Defense is a little suspect against some of the better teams but I don't know how it translates to us taking advantage of it if at all.