contemplating this as I walked back to my room a few minutes ago.

On paper, we're excellent. On defense, where could you point to a deficiency? Maybe another d-lineman that's good against the run, but front to back this should be an extremely talented/dominant group. Yet we see Kellen Winslow and Braylon Edwards wide open in holes in our zone. This isn't Michael Boulware running after a receiver breaking away after he bit on a play-fake, it looks like our scheme is outdated.

I'll take back a bit of what I said in the other thread about the line being half the problem- virtually no defense can stop a team from picking up less then a yard on a QB sneak. Play to our strengths, don't limp by and expose our weaknesses just in the name of balance.

first off I'm glad that Holmgren goes for it on those 4th and shorts.  A lot of coaches might punt in in the same spot, so I am glad Holmgren understands that going for it is the right call.

With that said, he needs to call a different play.  It's the same crap eveytime AND IT'S NOT WORKING!...it's not 2005 anymore, you need to mix it up Mike!

we can give them Frye and Russell back now?? And go grab Dilfer for next week.

Everyone at the bar in NYC took notice of the fact that Morris was the only halfback on the field for the entire final drive of the 4th and the OT drive. It looks like Holmgren is finally done with Shaun. Great game by Morris, 6.1 ypc, actually.

The fumble was actually not a very big deal since it was on a 4th down anyways and there was no return so it was the equivalent of a simple run stuff. Not a good thing for Morris to do but it wasn't a game changer at all.

Morris definitely looks like he can get this team out of this hole. The run is the only unit that is REALLY suffering at this point. S/T is playing great, the pass offense is great, the D is up and down but will be worlds better when the offense can take big minutes off the clock with long drives that include rushing plays.

I agree with the assesment about the coaching too. At the time I sort of thought the draw run was somewhat of a safe play because if Matt threw an interception we would have been done and this gave us some chance for a TD and still the possibility for a FG. Now that I think more about it, you don't have to worry that much about the pick because Matt doesn't have to throw unless someone is clearly open and even taking a sack wouldn't have taken us out of FG range. you don't want to go to OT on the road, particularly when your defense has been out of synch the whole second half. We always seem to be in such a soft zone and our blitz is always picked up.

I disagree with Holmgren talking about shuffling the O-line too. This is the exact same line we were using the second half of last year and the playoffs. While we were all very disappointed at the time because our expectations were based on the 2005 running game, we would all love to have that kind of production now.

SA last 6 games of 2006 and 2 playoff games: 201, 90, 76. 73, 140, 92, 69, 108. Man, and to think we were dissapointed about those days. Those games include Denver, San Diego, Dallas, and the Bears...

This line is obviously capable of being at least effective. Walt and Gray are a year older but Sims and Spencer are a year more experienced. Thse guys need to just exorcise their demons and play like they can. With Morris I think they will get a boost by getting some nice runs when they do get things right.

Hackett played a very good game. I didn't get a chance to focus on whether he was getting consistent separation but his hands looks so good I start to think he can come up with the ball even when covered. When branch comes back, a 4-wide set of Burleson, Hackett, Engram, and Branch sounds amazing. You get each of those guys in single coverage and man on man. I think the pass attack going from good to great and well the run has nowhere to go but up so...

The run was a lot better this week than the past couple actually.

no need to panic, we have to being playing good football by january, not next monday. Still in 1st, gotta love the nfc west.

more rams in our future.

Small sample size

Our pass rush blows.

48 pass attempts by Cleveland, zero sacks.

Anyone that ever wants to point to our sack total as being "evidence" we have a good rush should keep in mind two things:

• 13 of our 23 sacks came in two games (Rams and Niners) against possibly the two worst offensive lines in football;
  
• regardless, total sacks do not equate with consistent pressure on the opposing passer, which is something we simply cannot do when facing an offensive line that has any semblance of competence.

We dramatically need a good pass rusher off the edge; I'm not talking about Peterson in blitzes, I'm talking about a good edge-rushing DE.  Our four-man rush simply isn't good and it is one of the (several) things dragging this team down.

Really good edge-rushers don't grow on trees, and one may yet develop out of the guys on our roster (Tapp, if anyone, I suppose), but this is an area we need to address.  We really haven't had a good-to-great rushing DE since Sinclair at his peak, and signing 30-something guys (Kerney), "high-motor" guys (Wistrom) and Bryce Fisher-type clones isn't going to get the job done.

Some of you are confused about how the clock works. The right play at the end of regulation there was to throw to the endzone. An incomplete pass stops the clock so you don't even have to spike it after that.

I mentioned this above but Hasselback could have taken a shot at the endzone and if it fell incomplete then the clock stops and we kick. The only risk is the interception and since you can still kick the field goal you just don't throw if a guy isn't open or has a favorable matchup to come up with it.

I was outraged by the calling back of the hasselback scramble. Hasselback was cradling the ball and there wasn't a single angle that actually showed where the ball was when his elbow went down. How could they just assume that the ball was at his stomach and not his chest? I cannot for the life of me see how their was enough evidence to overturn the call on the field. Also, the TV commentators obviously didn't have any angle that showed the position of the ball because we saw all their angles and they didn't even mention that the ball was not visible.

Somebody please tell me if I am just mistaken but I was in a bar with 30 people and no one saw the position of the ball when hasselbacks elbow went down.

The Defense was horrendous in the second half. Cleveland scored on four out of five drives in the second half and OT. That is unacceptable, even against a good offense like CLE. They only played 33 minutes on the field including OT anyways so you can't blame it on that.

I think the blame falls pretty squarely on the pass rush because there were only a couple blown tackles and I didn't catch any blown coverages. It just seemed like Anderson had time to find Winslow against a safety or a hole in the zone every time. The browns only ran for about 2.2 ypc, but that number is misleading because it wasn't like 5, -5, 6, 4, -7, etc. It was more like 2, 3, 4, 2, etc. Almost always positive yards. Our linebackers seemed to be able to stop the run once it got past the line, but the line had no ability to stop short yardage. The four lewis TD's were a result of this.

   

Why not a pass?  I could be totally wrong, but it seemed like when we had the dominant rushing offense a couple years ago, we passed pretty frequently in short yardage situations.  It was like Holmgren knew then that SA was a great back but he wasn't great in those situations.  Not that are running game sucks, seems like we try to just pound it down the other teams throat anyways.  Holmgren is on the sidelines baffled that we can't pick up a yard when we need it and stubbornly calls the unimaginative our-guys-against-yours play call.

Sadly, that adjective, which was used to describe the Dennis Erickson Seahawks, once again applies.  John's point is true re the talent.  What positions can the Seahawks truly be said to be weak in?  Lack of established run-stopping DT (maybe, but Mebane had another great, great game)?  RG (probably).  RB (definitely with SA in the game, probably with Morris in the game).  Everywhere else, we have championship-calibre talent.

And yet, the Seahawks underachieve.  It is not shameful for Holmy to be worn out.  God knows I would be if I did his job for as long as he has.  But it is clear that his playcalling has deteriorated.  We were actually having some success running the ball in this game.  And he turned away from it, even with a lead in the second half.

The sad thing is that this comes at a time when age at two key positions (QB and LT) works against the team, and at another (RB) age and the reluctance to change horses has already significantly degraded the team's capabilities.  This is not a team that can afford an off year due to coaching inadequacies.

Ho hum.  At least the Ducks won.