The Tape: Whiteout

by John Morgan on Jan 13, 2008 11:20 AM PST in Game Recap

Hey folks, it would seem we packed up our coffee grinder in the move yesterday, meaning that I feel tired to pair with my sick. I've watched the tape, and beyond being stomach turning, it was also almost entirely uninformative. Pretty much no one on the Hawks roster played like themselves. The Seattle Seahawks are a warm weather team. Those of us who live in the Pacific Northwest might take umbrage to our weather being called "warm", but the average January temperature in Seattle is not unlike Memphis, Tennessee. Brian Russell is the only regular on defense who has played in an open-air, cold weather environment in the last 5 years. He was also the only defender who played better yesterday than he usually does. On the offense, Deion Branch, Marcus Pollard and Bobby Engram all have substantial pro experience playing in the cold. Branch was hurt. Pollard played most of his career in a dome, and had his production crater the last two seasons in winter home games in Detroit. Engram played 5 seasons in Chicago many seasons ago, and had the best game among Seahawks receivers, but was also the target of 4 incomplete passes and was charged with a hold.

The point is, when the snow began to fall in Lambeau, the Packers home field advantage vaulted from sizable, to dominating.

I'm going to take the rest of today off to lick my wounds. I'll piece a highlights package together for tomorrow, as now that the season's over, I see no reason to rip anyone. It might be short.

I have some plans for the offseason, but, in general, my posting is going to decrease in frequency and length. Season reviews for each of the Seahawks regulars will be posted sporadically. I'll do my best to keep up with all the hot rumors in free agency, along with any news, in whatever form it takes. Sometime next week I'll post an offseason checklist: Goals for the offseason, prioritized and with suggestions. I figure an offseason "plan" falls apart the second a team makes a move not on your original "plan", but a checklist provides a list of goals, that can be revised and updated as a team's needs and opportunities change. It's not so pass/fail.

Thank you everyone for the support, it's an honor to write for such great fans, Seahawks or otherwise.

0 recs | Comment 24 comments

Story-email Email Printer Print

Comments

John I know you mentioned a little big ago

That we were terrible at defending runs off tackle to Tapps side. And from first glance it seemed like GB just abused that side of the field.

Am I far off with this? I haven't watched the replay nor do I really want to.

V. 1.0, mutherf***er, know what I'm sayin'?

by Scruffy Lefty on Jan 13, 2008 11:56 AM PST 0 recs

Yep.

Left End: 8, 7, 8, 0, 43, -1, 2, 3, 18 and -3

Also, both touchdowns and a 28 yard run were executed behind left tackle. Every Hawks weakness was magnified by the snow. Their speed taken away. Their size allowing them to be pushed around, abused. Mike McCarthy's multiple blockers just tore up our rush D up. When you consider how lucky Seattle was to recover two fumbles deep in Packers' territory in the first 4 minutes of the game, it's really heartbreaking to think just how severely Seattle was stomped. I'm pretty sure when Football Outsiders publishes this weekend's DVOA results, the Packers will have put the worst stomping of the playoffs on the Hawks.

by John Morgan on Jan 13, 2008 12:10 PM PST up 0 recs

That's why to my mind the story is our offense...

I get why the defense didn't play well. Weather aside, lots of people had poor games. I still don't get why the offense just could do nothing in the pass game. I was could not have been more disappointed in our receivers given that neither team could get much pass rush.

"Those who fear disorder more than injustice inevitably produce more of both." -- Rev. William Coffin

by dcrockett17 on Jan 14, 2008 6:32 AM PST up 0 recs

Thanks John

Your work this season made Field Gulls one of my daily reads and I learned quite a whole new way to look at football.

Nothing really to add to the depressing result yesterday, but I just wanted to let you know how much I appreciated your stuff.

by brokejumper on Jan 13, 2008 12:50 PM PST 0 recs

Cowboys blow it

Even with all the tools, the human wrecking ball which is Marion Barber, T.O, Romo, somehow the Cowboys lost. Somehow makes me feel better.

by paul2 on Jan 13, 2008 4:54 PM PST 0 recs

I feel good

except the Colts lost :(

Anyone else really starting to dislike the Chargers? Between Norv's bitching and Rivers and Merrimans trash talking I'm really starting to hate that team

V. 1.0, mutherf***er, know what I'm sayin'?

by Scruffy Lefty on Jan 13, 2008 5:01 PM PST up 0 recs

Agreed.

Rivers drives me nuts.

San Diego punched NE's ticket to the Super Bowl by beating Indy.

I reject your reality and substitute my own!

by Phildopip on Jan 13, 2008 5:14 PM PST up 0 recs

NE vs GB for sure

ugh

by Matthew on Jan 13, 2008 5:35 PM PST up 0 recs

agree on both ends

after the chargers all but wrapped it up, rivers started runnin' his mouth at fans behind the chargers sideline. even dan dierdorf doing the game said he needs to stop doing that crap.

"We want the ball and we're going to score"

by stlcardinalsfang on Jan 13, 2008 6:11 PM PST up 0 recs

Did you see

the trash talking that Rivers and some other bolt did to the Denver's Jay Cutler? Cutler seems like a pretty decent guy. He sure looked like a knob.

by olpete on Jan 13, 2008 7:51 PM PST up 0 recs

I don't

that means we lost an NFC Championship game at home opportunity against the Giants; which means we lost a Super Bowl berth.

by Matthew on Jan 13, 2008 5:35 PM PST up 0 recs

agreed

when the Hawks get knocked out I like to see all the favorites move on.

The Giants winning kinda bugs me, because the Hawks really did have good chance to make it to the super bowl. I still think the Hawks are better than the Giants, yet they're still playing and we're at home. It's frustrating.

With all that said, watching the Cowboys lose is never a bad thing.

Josh Brown is better than you. The Rest of the team is worse.

by MFAN on Jan 13, 2008 7:19 PM PST up 0 recs

TO is crying talking to the media

what a faker.

Packers: 42, 'Hawks: 20 told ya.

by stlcardinalsfang on Jan 13, 2008 6:17 PM PST 0 recs

He's crying 'cause he didn't get to go to Cancun!

by Gray on Jan 13, 2008 6:40 PM PST up 0 recs

or cabo san lucas

lol

Packers: 42, 'Hawks: 20 told ya.

by stlcardinalsfang on Jan 13, 2008 7:29 PM PST up 0 recs

But first

he gave all thanks and praise to the Lord, who helped him heal for the game,

while wearing his diamond earings and flashy outfit,

and shortly thereafter claimed that he never did anything but supports his QBs.

To paraphrase TO, if it walks like a fake and talks like a fake...

by olpete on Jan 13, 2008 7:44 PM PST up 0 recs

We were done when the snow came down.

This is a fast defense best suited to fast tracks and when playing on the right surface is dominant.

Defensively this was an abberation. The solid run D that we saw the 17 weeks prior is a more accurate representation and I maintain all the faith in the world in the front 7.

We saw the Hawks real defense at its best at the beginning of the game on the clean field buzz around and grab us 14 points. Then the snow came down and the Hawks were in quicksand and it was game/set/match Pack.

If that snow doesn't come down or the game is 3 hours earlier I believe we are hosting the Giants next week.

That said, the pundits that said this was a fast defense not made for weather were right.

Home field advantage will be of the utmost importance to this team next year; and with the forseeable boost that the running game warrants we will have a shot at HFA.

For some crazy reason I am wildly optomistic about next season.

by puerto on Jan 13, 2008 7:23 PM PST 0 recs

You know

here, at Seahawks Huddle, Seahawks Sal, heck even some columnist at the Seattle PI, all I heard was that your coaches are better and your players are better and your team is better.

Some of the players who made key contributions are low DVOA guys including Bigby and Tramon Williams, our fourth CB. He was a street guy by the way. Another "bus stop" guy was Donald Lee.

I read that Kearney was double teamed on a fourth of the plays. That means he was one on one for three fourths and didn't record a single tackle much less a sack.

It was also a near certainty that cowboy Favre would offer up a couple of freebies.

The snow also eliminated most of what GB does in passing.

Having said all that, the conversation here is head and shoulders above anything I saw at other Hawks forums, and really pretty good among football sites in general.

DVOA doesn't deserve its place on a pedestal though.

by olpete on Jan 13, 2008 8:27 PM PST 0 recs

So, uh, maybe Scruffy

or John or Shrug or whoever deleted my diary on Tuesday or whenever. Maybe you shouldn't have!

"I think we know who the 'Hawks true rival is"-John Morgan

by Coach Owens on Jan 14, 2008 12:28 PM PST 0 recs

I never saw it.

by John Morgan on Jan 14, 2008 12:40 PM PST up 0 recs

You broke the seal

if you would of never posted we would of never been jinxed

V. 1.0, mutherf***er, know what I'm sayin'?

by Scruffy Lefty on Jan 14, 2008 12:52 PM PST up 0 recs

I missed out on the fun.

What'd the diary say?

I reject your reality and substitute my own!

by Phildopip on Jan 14, 2008 1:37 PM PST up 0 recs

Coach put up Post your Hawk

on Tuesday night and I stumbled upon it and being the superstitious sheep I am. I removed it

So somewhere in there our mojo was stripped

V. 1.0, mutherf***er, know what I'm sayin'?

by Scruffy Lefty on Jan 14, 2008 2:11 PM PST up 0 recs

Ah, yeah.

You can't break tradition so late in the season. Besides, I think when something is established like that it should be up to the regular person (i.e. Christian doing "Post Your Hawk" and Scruffy doing "Video Preview") to take care if it unless they are not able and specifically ask somebody else to post it.

There's a certain amount of ownership and protectiveness that I'm sure comes from posting a regular site feature like that.

Think of it this way, Coach. Imagine if you started doing reviews of the game tape and breaking down the game by quarter. You'd be stealing John Morgan's thunder (as well as doing a disservice to the site because I'm 99.9999% your analysis wouldn't be any where near John's...and that's not meant as an insult to you). I'm sure John wouldn't be very happy with you doing that considering his "The Tape" posts are a staple of the site and he has a certain ownership over them.

I hope that made sense.

I reject your reality and substitute my own!

by Phildopip on Jan 14, 2008 2:42 PM PST up 0 recs