Where do I start? Except
for the play of Alex Bannister on punt coverage and the interception return
for a touchdown by Ken Lucas, I can't think of one positive thing to say about
this game. And I'm the rose-colored-glasses guy!
As much as it's going to
hurt me, let's take a look at some "Extra Points" from Sunday's experience
in futility.
What the hell has happened
to Matt Hasselbeck? He looked as nervous and jittery as a school girl on her
first date on Sunday. He was terrible in every facet of the game. He overthrew
or threw behind the receivers, he tried to force the throws when he should have
tucked it and ran, and he basically looked like a guy who had no confidence
in himself or the offensive line to protect him. Matt is a Pro Bowl quarterback
and I have confidence that he'll bounce back next week but it was very disturbing
to watch this kind of performance. I will give him credit for being a stand-up
guy by placing this loss on his shoulders but that doesn't make it any easier
to take.
Have opposing defenses
totally caught up with Holmgren's game plans? I don't know about you guys but
opposing cornerbacks seem to jump every route and always seem to be in perfect
position to make a play on our passes. Are we getting that predictable? Are
the quick slants and quick outs that easy to see coming? And what's with all
the tipped passes at the line of scrimmage all of a sudden? It seems that every
week Hasselbeck gets 4 or 5 passes either tipped or batted down. It's not that
Matt isn't tall enough, so what's the problem? Is it that defenses know what's
coming so if they don't get that initial push towards the quarterback they simply
hold their ground and jump up to swat the pass down? And while I'm on the topic,
why doesn't our defensive line do more of that?
Not having the capability
to throw deep is really hurting us. I think it's one of the reasons that cornerbacks
and safeties can cheat up and jump the little short routes. If Hasselbeck has
a weakness, this is it. He still hasn't developed a good touch for the deep
throws to keep secondaries honest. It doesn't help that our receivers haven't
gotten much separation going deep either but Matt has missed a lot more deep
throws than he should. We've got to get better throwing the long ball or it's
going to get even tougher for us to complete the short to intermediate routes.
I realize that injuries
are hurting us right now but good teams still find a way to win no matter what
(see the Patriots). Guys need to step up and make plays. I thought that Tracy White played pretty well on Sunday and was flying around all over the place.
But we need others to step in and step up to make a positive difference.
Are injuries the reason
that we seemed to have lost our aggressiveness? Is Ray Rhodes afraid to trust
the reserves with an aggressive game plan? We sure seem to be playing a lot
of soft zone and allowing way to much room for average receivers these days.
We also seem to be missing more and more tackles too. This is one fundamental
that can't be blamed on reserves having to play because it's our starters, especially
our secondary, that's missing so many of the tackles. Did 80-year old Emmitt Smith make Ken Hamlin look silly on more than one occasion with his jukes and
fakes or what? C'mon Hammer, make a tackle.
Good-bye Koren? And quite
frankly, good riddance. Here's some friendly advice from a Seahawks fanatic:
Why don't you learn how to catch the damn ball? If you wind up with a month
of free time in the near future, just have friend toss you some passes each
day while you try and focus on the little brown pigskin that's coming towards
you. Is that a little harsh? Yeah, it is, but I'm so sick of his drops that
I wouldn’t be sad to see him go. And is he does serve a four-game suspension
for repeated failure of drug tests, he has no regard or respect for himself
or his teammates or the fans that actually help pay his enormous salary. If
this happens, I hope he comes back a changed and better man, and one that can
actually catch a pass every now and then.
I could go on and on but frankly I'm sick of thinking about this game. I'd love
to just chalk this one up to a horrible performance by a great team but I'm
not sure that's the case. I sincerely hope it is but some of the same things
have been happening for more than this one game. We've got to get this thing
straightened out right now. As horrible as we looked on Sunday, we are just
as capable as looking that good this upcoming Sunday against the Panthers. This
is a winnable game at home and one that should allow us to show the rest of
the league that we're more like the team that started 3 and 0 instead of the
team that's lost three straight and looked bad or worse, disinterested, in doing
it. C'mon guys, get it together and get it done!
It's a great time to be
a Seahawks fan (yes, even after this horrible performance), always has been,
always will be.
Micky James writes weekly for Seahawks.NET. You can reach him at teamjames4@yahoo.com.