Anatomy of a Debacle
I’ve seen some really great games played by the Seattle Seahawks. Obviously no Super Bowl or even conference championships, but I’ve seen games I was proud of.
I’ve also seen some really bad games in the years we had a real stinker of a team. So I guess what I’m alluding to is I’ve seen it all. I’ve seen games we were robbed by bad officiating and games that we just got outplayed by a better team. But Sunday…well Sunday was something special. I’ve never seen this before.
Never before in my twenty-seven years of hearing, watching or even reading about a Seahawk game did I see, hear and watch what I watched that day. Sunday we hit an all time low. Sunday I was actually embarrassed by my team. Sunday I felt that the loss they were eventually handed was well deserved.
We went from a team that in the first thirty minutes was actually humiliating another division rival. We were embarrassing the Rams on national TV. The Seahawks were just crushing the very life and spirit of yet another team at Qwest field. We were a well oiled, fine tuned and determined team on both sides of the ball.
We ran, we passed, and we scored. We intercepted, we tackled and we made a statement to the NFL; take notice we are the Seahawks! We are no longer the red headed step child of the league and this is our year!
Yes, I and the faithful with me and in my section were filled with pride. We felt we had finally arrived after decades of hopes and dreams. The feeling I and those around me had was something only a true Seahawk fan can describe. My hands were actually sore from the multitude of high fives by the masses in 344. I’ll tell you, it was really a dream come true. Well, almost…
Somewhere in the deepest recesses of my always cautious mind during halftime I sat alone and had time to contemplate the scoreboard. I thought something seems too good here. Maybe it was those many years of good feelings that went bad. But I didn’t mention it at halftime to my brethren. I just kept thinking and saying out loud, "Keep the pressure on guys and keep scoring after halftime, don’t let them breathe."
Second half of the game begins and the rest as they say…is history.
In the second half we had a total of three first downs and were 0 for 6 in third down conversion. That’s simply staggering to think of since we had seventeen first downs in the first thirty minutes of play.
The same Rams team that had a grand total of five first downs in the first half put together sixteen first downs in the second half. Keep in mind we were the recipients of three turnovers to ZERO. We had the ball almost ten minutes of the fourth quarter and what did we do in those nine minutes and forty-nine seconds? We made three whole first downs.
So where did we go wrong?
Killer instinct:
We had absolutely no killer instinct from the kickoff after halftime until we eventually lost on that long third and eight that somehow, someway turned into a fifty-two yard touchdown.
And our defense was rated #1 in the NFL? This is the same defense that played lights out for three weeks and without question was our most stable side of the ball.
What I saw Sunday wasn’t quite prevent defense, it was more like a replay of the 2003 season where every stinking long ball somehow found its way into the hands of the no name receiver on the other end of the hail Mary-like pass. Since we had the ball for 9:49 of the fourth it couldn’t be the defense was tired. What the hell was it then? I still don’t know.
Offensive ineptitude:
Koren "we’ve been robbed again" Robinson is quite possibly the most overrated player in the entire NFL. He is simply a facade of this "Ready to break out any minute" wide receiver. And like the Easter Bunny and Santa Clause he has to be revealed as a myth.
This kid is just not very good. I would go farther to say that if Holmgren himself had not drafted this guy in the first round he would probably not even be a practice team player. Taco or Urban has more of an upside than this neverending head case.
Ahman Green isn’t here for fumbling in practice. Koren on the other hand is a drive killing machine…during games. Koren has quite possibly dropped more passes than any other starting WR at this point in his career than any other starter in NFL history; because quite frankly, you don’t remain a starter in the NFL with that kind of downside in your game. And Koren was benched for missing meetings? I don’t see the equality here.
I have never seen or heard of a player on a home team’s field get booed before halftime in a 24-7 blowout. But this man was thoroughly booed and rightfully so. We all knew, this was going to come back to haunt us, somehow, someway.
Coaching, time management and lack of adjustments:
In a word there was none. Holmgren again acted like a rookie head coach. He hasn’t learned a damn thing in all those apologies he’s made for all the lousy games he’s called in the five years he’s been here. Remember Baltimore, Washington and St. Louis Holmy?
He’s lost his ability to pull out a win. He needs a big lead and a lousy team to assist with the victory. You would think he would just to continue to score out of respect for us the fans. Not out of some gamesmanship bull where he doesn’t want to run the score up.
Listen buddy, with the way you guys can blow a game you need to keep scoring until they blow the whistle at sixty minutes.
With the ball at 3:24 left on the clock Holmgren could have managed the game better by running more and throwing less; every drop resulted in essentially a timeout for the Rams because they had none.
At 2:40 Bobby…dependable Bobby Engram was thrown a lousy pass from Hass. The pass was far behind him and there was no way anyone could catch it. As subtle as that play was, that pretty much sealed our fate because the clock then stopped and gave the Rams a sliver of hope. And that’s all they needed.
Defensively our adjustment at halftime was to allow the Rams to win the game by playing far enough off to allow first downs and letting everything thrown long to land in the hands of the intended receiver. Who decided on the 3rd and 8 in OT that Bierria would cover a WR alone and Bobby Taylor would blitz without even bumping McDonald at the line of scrimmage?
Who drew that debacle of a cluster f#$% defensive play and why did we think we could get to Bulger in OT on 3rd down when we couldn’t get to him all day long? A four WR set and we left Bierria on an island? That’s simply inexcusable. They were throwing the deep pass all day with no pressure and now Taylor is going to be the catalyst we needed rushing from the outside on a for sure passing down?
I’m a bonehead fan with limited professional football experience (That’s obvious right?) and I saw that coming from way up in the 300 level. Bierria looked like Jim Carrey or Jerry Lewis running ahead of himself down the field. It was just then I though to myself, "That’s going to be the highlight from this game?"
Enough Blame to go around:
Bottom line is that it was this combination of players and coaches that sealed our fate. A lack of effort on both sides after the whistle blew starting the second half. A continued attempt at throwing passes to a WR who couldn’t catch the Ebola virus if we locked him in a cage with ten rabid infected recess monkeys. And a coaching staff that is as creative as Mike Martz hair stylist.
All these factors lead to the single most embarrassing loss by a team since Buckner botched a routine grounder. And we don’t have a single ref to blame this time…not one.
Hold them all accountable:
Hasselbeck can point the finger at himself with the bad throws and the miscues. Even Alexander who ran for 150 yards (It’s hard to even say this after 150 yards) can take some heat. If he would have had that one freaking yard on 3rd and one I wouldn’t even be writing this stupid column. Sure it would be a slightly skewed, slightly optimistic column for the lack of play in the second half…but a win that we barley squeezed out, but a WIN is still a WIN. A lesson would surely be learned. But that was replaced at 1:14 left in regulation with this column. Because that was the exact moment the Rams took possession and had their final drive; a drive that should have never even existed.
But Alexander’s not the only guy; it was ALL the guys and the coaches who decided that the Rams could not come back when they should have known better. Because in the 3rd quarter we the fans…we knew better and we were screaming it at the top of our lungs. "Don’t let these guys come back…what are you doing?" My throat still bares the scars of those words today. All the fans in my section had the look of the Cub fans. We saw the train wreck coming.
What happens now?
Is our season over? No. Has the optimism I once exuded through my pores diminished back to "Same old Seahawks"? It sickens me to no end to say maybe, maybe it has. And you all know I’m a huge homer; but as an objective columnist I have to write about what happened during the game and what that showed me as an objective writer.
They didn’t just lose today. Maybe they revealed who they really are; just another Seahawks team in another typical Seahawks year. Born to disappoint and flirt with greatness, to only in the end create a Titanic type disaster.
Next week will show me what this team is made of and where we are going; because next week a championship caliber team will emerge or it will be submerged.
You Seahawk players think I’m crazy? You think you’re better than that game showed? Well then you go ahead and prove me wrong guys.
Prove me wrong, I’m freaking begging you.
No comments:
Post a Comment