Hawks/Vikings

[Spohawk5092]

Line is Vikings by 2. WE are only 3-5 at home this season. Not good. Smith and Walker are good to go......want to see the offense get it together again.

[River Dog]

The Vikings have given up a ton of yards through the air, 29th in pass defense by yards, but they don't give up a lot of points, 2nd only to the Eagles at 18.0 ppg. The difference is that they lead the league in interceptions.

This season, I've been on the bandwagon, off the bandwagon, back on the bandwagon, and now off the bandwagon again. I'm pretty disappointed after the Packers loss. I think we lose this one by two scores.

Vikings 35, Hawks 24.

[c_hawkbob]

I've got a weakness for 3 point or less home dogs, even us.

[NorthHawk]

I think this game is a toss up as we have been playing alternating good and bad games.
I just get the feeling that this will be a good day even if we don’t eventually win but play well.

[Spohawk5092]

A shame the Rams won as Jets had a lead but couldn't hold it, again. Rodgers should retire. His best years are behind him.

[Spohawk5092]

the offensive holding penalty, how many times do we get this. Like stop it. So far the game is completely predictable in most every way.

[River Dog]

A shame the Rams won as Jets had a lead but couldn't hold it, again. Rodgers should retire. His best years are behind him.

Aaron Rodgers is truly a mess, both professionally and personally, and IMO it couldn't have happened to a nicer guy. I dislike him more than I did Brady.

The Commanders upsetting the Eagles hurt our playoff chances. They're sitting on the 7th and final seed with two winnable games vs. the Falcons and Cowboys. Dan Quinn might wind up being Coach of the Year.

[Stream Hawk]

At least we are keeping it competitive. The penalty on the punt return killed a little momentum IMO. I’m hoping the defense keeps up the pressure on Darnold.

[Spohawk5092]

all 3 Hawks penalties have been very costly today......

[River Dog]

And here comes the bad Geno, another interception.

[Stream Hawk]

We needed to run there. Now we still should run. Take it out of streaky Geno’s hands.

[River Dog]

Take out that one TD drive and we've had 3-three and outs and a 1 play drive that resulted in an interception. That's putting a lot of pressure on the defense.

[Aseahawkfan]

I guess we see who comes out of the half better.

[River Dog]

Things are looking better. Gotta get a ground game going, though. 2/3's the way through the third quarter and our running backs have 24 yards rushing.

[Aseahawkfan]

7 rushing attempts to 25 passing. It's like the reverse of Pete.

[River Dog]

Yeah, we've had two rushing first downs, and one of them was by a safety on a fake punt.

If we're not going to run the ball, we need to be using Zach or McIntosh. They're better blockers.

[River Dog]

Boy, nice TD catch by Barner! He barely held onto it. We might actually pull this one out! (Knock on wood)

[c_hawkbob]

60 yards is a long way...

[Spohawk5092]

yes, yes it was......costly penalties today for the Hawks.

[curmudgeon]

Finito…..

[Aseahawkfan]

Reading game comments on a site like Field Gulls makes me think a lot of people drink heavy while watching football turning them into manic-depressives where everything good is exaggerated and everything bad the end of it all. Crazy.

Minnesota isn't a great team. 13-2 is an illusion. The teams they've beat are not contenders. Their best win is Green Bay, another middling team. They will get clowned by Detroit or Philly in the playoffs.

I'm fine losing. We need higher draft picks more than we need pretender wins to go pretend to be a contender in the playoffs with a QB that will never....ever...ever...never be a Super Bowl QB. I'm tired of half-measures and pretend contention so people can pretend going to the playoffs as a pretender is fun year after year. Been there, done that, tired of it.

This team needs better talent and a better QB.

[trents]

When that last drive with 1 minute to go started, I said to myself, "I'll bet Geno throws an interception." He didn't disappoint, though Mark Sanchez seemed to think it was caused by Metcalf breaking his route off incorrectly. Geno had two picks today and should have had at least two others had the D backs held onto the ball.

[Rambo2014]

Wow, u gave it away!

The Rams bandwagon is taking passengers. Get on now and enjoy the fun.

Maybe you can compete next year.

[curmudgeon]

This team needs better talent and a better QB.

And a new GM……

[River Dog]

When that last drive with 1 minute to go started, I said to myself, "I'll bet Geno throws an interception." He didn't disappoint, though Mark Sanchez seemed to think it was caused by Metcalf breaking his route off incorrectly. Geno had two picks today and should have had at least two others had the D backs held onto the ball.

Geno obviously expected Metcalf to be on the spot where he threw the ball, so that leaves just one of two possibilities: Metcalf ran a sloppy route, cut it off at a 45 instead of a 90 degree turn. Or, there was a miscommunication, Geno thought Metcalf was going to be there and he wasn't, which could have been on either player.

The whole game, arguably the whole season, hinged on that one play. Too bad that two players that have been doing this for almost 3 years can't get on the same page when it matters most.

[Aseahawkfan]

Geno obviously expected Metcalf to be on the spot where he threw the ball, so that leaves just one of two possibilities: Metcalf ran a sloppy route, cut it off at a 45 instead of a 90 degree turn. Or, there was a miscommunication, Geno thought Metcalf was going to be there and he wasn't, which could have been on either player.

The whole game, arguably the whole season, hinged on that one play. Too bad that two players that have been doing this for almost 3 years can't get on the same page when it matters most.

A whole season of mediocrity relied on that one play? Riq's regression? Geno always and forever being a backup? The O-line that can't hold? OC that doesn't use the running game much? Inconsistent defense that looks great against weak teams and gets eaten alive by even moderately good offenses? That's the whole season that hinged on that one play? Means next to nothing to me.

What I wouldn't give for one or two crash and burn seasons to load up on talent over this endless mediocrity to just be 1 and done in the playoffs over and over and over again. Sorry, crash and burn, draft high, preferably a QB, then do something for a long time. This "making the playoffs but not as a real contender" is just a recipe for endless mediocrity.

Teams like the Rams and 49ers became teams we start to envy because they crashed and burned and drafted players like Bosa at pick 2 and Aaron Donald at pick 13 and KC picking Patrick Mahomes at pick 10 and Buffalo Josh Allen at Pick 7. While we're almost always picking in the mid teens in a bad year and usually late teens or early 20s as we "Just make the playoffs" and get wiped out as soon as we run into a team with more talent.

We've had one period of real contention under Pete Carroll and then one great year under Mike Holmgren.

What I wouldn't give to have a few crash and burn years where we finally draft a high draft pick QB that actually is a stud. I want another super team, not endless 9 and 8 or 10 and 7 one and done playoff seasons pretending, "We punched our ticket, so we got a real shot" mediocrity.

Just crash hard for a few years, get a year where a stud QB class comes out or some stud D-line , then finally build a new monster. I miss having a monster team.

[River Dog]

Geno obviously expected Metcalf to be on the spot where he threw the ball, so that leaves just one of two possibilities: Metcalf ran a sloppy route, cut it off at a 45 instead of a 90 degree turn. Or, there was a miscommunication, Geno thought Metcalf was going to be there and he wasn't, which could have been on either player.

The whole game, arguably the whole season, hinged on that one play. Too bad that two players that have been doing this for almost 3 years can't get on the same page when it matters most.

A whole season of mediocrity relied on that one play? Riq's regression? Geno always and forever being a backup? The O-line that can't hold? OC that doesn't use the running game much? Inconsistent defense that looks great against weak teams and gets eaten alive by even moderately good offenses? That's the whole season that hinged on that one play? Means next to nothing to me.

What I wouldn't give for one or two crash and burn seasons to load up on talent over this endless mediocrity to just be 1 and done in the playoffs over and over and over again. Sorry, crash and burn, draft high, preferably a QB, then do something for a long time. This "making the playoffs but not as a real contender" is just a recipe for endless mediocrity.

Teams like the Rams and 49ers became teams we start to envy because they crashed and burned and drafted players like Bosa at pick 2 and Aaron Donald at pick 13 and KC picking Patrick Mahomes at pick 10 and Buffalo Josh Allen at Pick 7. While we're almost always picking in the mid teens in a bad year and usually late teens or early 20s as we "Just make the playoffs" and get wiped out as soon as we run into a team with more talent.

We've had one period of real contention under Pete Carroll and then one great year under Mike Holmgren.

What I wouldn't give to have a few crash and burn years where we finally draft a high draft pick QB that actually is a stud. I want another super team, not endless 9 and 8 or 10 and 7 one and done playoff seasons pretending, "We punched our ticket, so we got a real shot" mediocrity.

Just crash hard for a few years, get a year where a stud QB class comes out or some stud D-line , then finally build a new monster. I miss having a monster team.

I did say that the whole season "arguably" hinged on one play, and I think that's accurate. If our goal was to get to the playoffs, and I think that most every team sets that a sone of several goals at the start of the season, that game was absolutely critical, especially given that the Rams and Commanders both won, and that play torpedoed our best chance to come back and at least tie the game and send it into OT if not win it in regulation. It was a close, hard-fought contest between two evenly matched teams.

I wasn't listening to the commentary during the game, but my understanding is that Dr. Butt Fumble was laying the blame for that pick on Metcalf. I tend to agree, but I'm reluctant to come out and say it as I know I'll be pounced on as a Metcalf hater.

[Oly]

Geno obviously expected Metcalf to be on the spot where he threw the ball, so that leaves just one of two possibilities: Metcalf ran a sloppy route, cut it off at a 45 instead of a 90 degree turn. Or, there was a miscommunication, Geno thought Metcalf was going to be there and he wasn't, which could have been on either player.

The whole game, arguably the whole season, hinged on that one play. Too bad that two players that have been doing this for almost 3 years can't get on the same page when it matters most.

This Dan Orlovsky breakdown suggests that DK's route was supposed to break at 18-22 yards and so, by design, DK's head wasn't turned to see that he needed to break of his route early because Oluwatimi was instantly destroyed by the DT and Geno had to throw early. Maybe Geno just hoped that DK would see the safety and make it an option route on the fly? I don't get the sense that Grubb uses many option routes or that DK has ever ran many of them. In any case, Orlovsky thinks neither Geno nor DK were at fault. It was all on Oluwatimi.

My only disagreement is that the real fault is with Grubb or whomever designed the protection scheme that left the guards watching for blitzers and, by design, left Oluwatimi on an island with the DT. Really?! Rather than having the guards double team and peel of if necessary, the guards were watching for blitzers when the Vikings were in a prevent situation, with three down lineman, and only one LB showing blitz. Maybe Oluwatimi should have changed the protection scheme at the line, but that was ridiculous.

~~~

I think this loss was a team effort, not just this one play. Pre-snap penalties at f-ing home. Tre Brown lining up in the neutral zone. Murphy's facemask penalty. Grubb abandoning the run game. Love's "you had one job!" moment when as the deep safety in a Cover 2 he let Jefferson get behind for the easy TD. Etc Etc. This team is just a mid/lower-mid tier team, and while the Vikings aren't elite, they're a tier up. The Hawks need more talent and better offensive coaching. That's why I was surprisingly not upset watching the game. I expected them to lose to the better team and they did. That whole final drive was a low percentage effort anyway. For me, if I'm identifying the late-game clutch-moment f-up that cost them the game, it's either the sack a couple plays before the missed FG or the stupid play call on 3rd and 16 that didn't even target a receiver far enough downfield to make the kick shorter without YAC. Again, team loss for me.

[Spohawk5092]

penalties cos us the game. Period. Especially the face mask one. When will the Hawks ever learn?

[River Dog]

penalties cos us the game. Period. Especially the face mask one. When will the Hawks ever learn?

It's hard to pin the facemask penalty on Murphy. He was grabbing for the QB, was off balance, had a blocker between him and the QB that he was trying to reach around, and got a hold of his facemask for just an instant before he realized it and let go. I don't feel it should have been a penalty because it wasn't a violent, blatant face mask and not something that Murphy had a lot of control over. I mean, what's he supposed to do, not reach for the QB?

Penalties certainly played a major role as they quite frequently do and we had 11, mostly on the offense, but I wouldn't put the entire weight of the game on penalties alone.

[NorthHawk]

That face mask was an effort penalty, not something like lining up off sides or slapping the opponent in the face. I can live with that type of penalty so long as it's not a continuous thing.

[Spohawk5092]

That face mask was an effort penalty, not something like lining up off sides or slapping the opponent in the face. I can live with that type of penalty so long as it's not a continuous thing.

that one cost us the game imo. Vikings would have been down and out up until that happened.

[NorthHawk]

I don’t usually subscribe to one play being the cause of a defeat unless it’s the last play.
There were too many plays where mistakes were made to point to one penalty as the cause of the defeat.

[River Dog]

I don’t usually subscribe to one play being the cause of a defeat unless it’s the last play.
There were too many plays where mistakes were made to point to one penalty as the cause of the defeat.

Especially this game. There were scads of plays any one of which could have changed the outcome.

One in particular was Macdonald's decision on 4th-and-15 on the Vikings' 42 to attempt to kick a 60-yard FG to tie the game. The clock was stopped for the 2 minute warning and we still had two timeouts. Meyer's career long is 61 yards, the stadium record for 22-year-old Lumen Field is 57 yards, and it was a cold, damp day at sea level. Why not let the league's best punter see if he can't drop one inside the 10?

I'd be curious as to what analytics says in that situation.

[Spohawk5092]

what I can't wrap my shrunken head around is we are 3-6 AT HOME. Can anyone else recall a season when we were that bad at home in recent memory?

[NorthHawk]

probably pre Carroll.

I didn’t expect us to have a good record this year but the struggles at home have been going on for a few years.
The ongoing problems with the OL haven’t helped and with new schemes and coaches this is year 1 of the changeover.
The Defense is playing better so that’s something to be relieved about but I would expect major changes in both players and maybe coaches before next year.

One thing is certain and that’s a focus on the OL has to be the top priority. Going after good FAs would allow them more room to select the best players in the draft but if they don’t fill those needs in FA then they will be forced to draft players that even with good success at the College level aren’t proven at the NFL level.

[Aseahawkfan]

Do you think Geno, DK, and Tyler will be on the team next year? Cap management would make you think Tyler is definitely gone, but maybe DK and Geno may not both be here either. We have to clear some cap space for team building. Riq will likely walk too as we won't pay him for his current production.

[River Dog]

what I can't wrap my shrunken head around is we are 3-6 AT HOME. Can anyone else recall a season when we were that bad at home in recent memory?

The Mora year, 2009, we were 3-5 at home, 5-11 overall.

Some of it has to be due to the lack of a 12th man. We've been commenting about it for years. The Packers game was the worst I've seen/heard in our stadium ever. The Packer Backers took over the place. It was a similar situation when we played the Bills. Our last game with the Vikings looked and sounded a lot better, not to the level of the LOB days, but better than the previous week.

[Aseahawkfan]

The Mora year, 2009, we were 3-5 at home, 5-11 overall.

Some of it has to be due to the lack of a 12th man. We've been commenting about it for years. The Packers game was the worst I've seen/heard in our stadium ever. The Packer Backers took over the place. It was a similar situation when we played the Bills. Our last game with the Vikings looked and sounded a lot better, not to the level of the LOB days, but better than the previous week.

Washington State has a lot of fair weather or bandwagon fans. They like to buy the gear and hop on when Seattle is doing well, but just as happy selling their tickets and checking out when the team isn't doing well. Seahawks still the strongest fanbase in the state, but Washington State doesn't produce the fan base like a New York or Philly. It's why we lost the Sonics. Just glad the fanbase was strong enough not to lose the Seahawks. Younger folks seem even less interested in sports in Western Washington.

[River Dog]

The Mora year, 2009, we were 3-5 at home, 5-11 overall.

Some of it has to be due to the lack of a 12th man. We've been commenting about it for years. The Packers game was the worst I've seen/heard in our stadium ever. The Packer Backers took over the place. It was a similar situation when we played the Bills. Our last game with the Vikings looked and sounded a lot better, not to the level of the LOB days, but better than the previous week.

Washington State has a lot of fair weather or bandwagon fans. They like to buy the gear and hop on when Seattle is doing well, but just as happy selling their tickets and checking out when the team isn't doing well. Seahawks still the strongest fanbase in the state, but Washington State doesn't produce the fan base like a New York or Philly. It's why we lost the Sonics. Just glad the fanbase was strong enough not to lose the Seahawks. Younger folks seem even less interested in sports in Western Washington.

I don't think it's limited to any particular region. Nationwide surveys has shown that Gen Z has a lot less interest in sports than previous generations.

Some fan bases come and go. The team with the longest number of people waiting for season tickets used to be Redskins. Not anymore. Dan Snyder destroyed that franchise. Some teams, ie Packers, Cowboys, and Raiders, have nation wide fan bases. Ours doesn't.

I'm confident that once we start winning again, the fans will come back. But I don't know if we'll ever reach the level it was back in the LOB days because, as you stated, the demographics and the tendencies of the younger generations will prevent us from reaching as large of a percentage of the populace as we did back then.