The O-Line seemed to play well. It seemed like we were much better at picking up the blitz. Hass looked good.

But you’re analysis of Jacobs couldn’t have been more wrong. You wrongly assumed that somehow we were going to control the line of scrimmage, and that we would be able to gang tackle Jacobs down.

There is more to this than just revamping the secondary. If you weren’t noticing the front 7 we’re being thrown around like rag dolls, and NY’s guards were creating massive holes for Jacobs to run through. It was easy to set up play action and get the secondary to bite. There was just no way they had any chance with that kind of running game. I do think both corners played poor technique though when they were challenged, so in that sense they did meet expectations as well.

What it comes down to IMO is coaching. Poor scheme, inspiration, and play calling. We should have brought more blitzes. It seemed like since we got burned on a few, Marshall stopped calling them. That was the only way to throw off Manning, and the few times he made poor throws were when we did blitz and get to him.

Unfortunately, there won’t be any firing of Marshall until after the season ends when Mora takes over. Holmgren is too loyal. He’s going to live or die by Marshall. It’s ironic that in Holmgren’s last hurrah with the Hawks, that after five years of making the playoffs, they likely won’t make it this year.

The one thing I am very hopeful of next year is that we can bring in a more creative WCO mind, to open things up. Zorn would have been ideal (see the Antwan Randle-El TD toss today), but anything’s better than vanilla Haskell. As for the defensive coordinator, I’m excited to see who Mora bring in next year. It’s time for new blood, and a new scheme, and a better play caller.

KHON-2 in Honolulu spared me the misery of having to watch the fourth quarter as they went to Redskins/Eagles to finish. To me, this was like the game against the Steelers last year or even the playoff game in Green Bay, games during which I reach a point of “it’s not happening today,” and while I’d like to be proven wrong, it just gets way, way worse. At that point, I just wish they could walk off the field so no one would get hurt.

I guess one thing that amazed me about the Giants is that they didn’t even need Ahmad Bradshaw that much. I’ve seen him do some crazy stuff in soem of the Giants’ other games.

I’ve taken three shots at writing this post and had to erase them all. There is simply too much talent on this team to give up though. I have to trust the coaches and the players themselves to make the necessary adjustments to come out next week like it is the first game of the season with everything to play for.

Let’s not forget we were playing on the East coast, with our best WRs just coming off injury, against a great team that defines our nemesis: bruising O and D lines with a giant HB plowing into our undersized but quick defense.

Let it go. For your own sanity’s sake, let it go. With a week more practice between Matt and the WRs, a rejuvinated running game, and an emerging TE, our offense will be on the field longer and give the defense a chance help us win games.

Russell was absolutely awful. Wilson got burned so many times in which Russell was nowhere in the frame, with Wilson isolated center field.I recall another massive Jacobs runs where, to avoid needing to hit jacobs head on, Russell let him get by him and then tackled him from behind 20 yards later. Most embarrassing thing I have seen a Seahawk do. Obviously a lot of players had to suck to lose this badly but there is a dark undertone to having Russell on the field sucking. That is, the secondary is Mora’s unit, heck, Russell even looks like Mora. It is his responsibility to bench the guy. I don’t give the guy that much credit for the secondary improving last year because we completely broke the bank for Deon Grant and Trufant was already an excellent if unappreciated corner. I could be wrong but it looked like we were living in a very soft zone every down. Further, we did not get much pressure with our front four at all. Manning had time again and again and the running lanes were massive.

This is despite the fact that we have exactly the personnel we want out there on D. This is just a bad defensive philosophy that Ruskell should take the fall for. We have seen what I count as our fourth straight ‘successful’ year. Successful beating down crappy teams at home and nothing else. Our last win against a team that was better than .500 for that same season was @Denver 2006. Denver was 9-7 that year and it was Jay Cutler’s first ever start, in which he exhibited considerable stage fright. That was the only such win that year and guess what? In the ‘magical’ 2005 we didn’t beat a single better than .500 team on the road. 2004? Nope. 2003? Sorry. No wins against better than .500 teams on the road. This is all including post-season. Think about it. Can you think of one road win that was at all impressive over the last FIVE seasons?…. Still thinking? I have been as upset as any other Seahawks fan over the years when we were called a weak team that only shined because of a weak division. I have to admit it now. The last three ‘good years’ were founded upon the suckiness of the NFC West. We have won only one road game against a better than .500 team in the last 5+ seasons and it was a 9-7 team that we beat by 3 points WITH a Daryl Tapp interception return TD and Cutler completely pissing his pants all game. In other words, a lucky gimme.

I still think this team is very talented. We need to install a culture of accountability though Guys need to be benched or played based on performance, not based on the amount of organizational investment in them. Ditto the coaching staff. A crap year like this is probably ultimately a good thing because it would be suicide for our future to continue under the false pretenses that we are a Superbowl caliber team. Look at the data. Look at all of our road games against decent teams and you will see an alarming reality. If you abstract away all the divisional beatdowns and the fact we have lucked into easy scheduling outside the division, you will see that we have been awful against good teams on the road. Why are we good at home? I don’t know. I suppose that extra split second is the difference between a hit or hurry and absolutely nothing on every rush. Please don’t read my post as just frustrated hate-mongering. I love this team, I noticed the alarming road numbers earlier this week (and posted it) and decided this game was our big opportunity to right that trend. Not only did we not do that but we corroborated the now crazy to deny notion that we just aren’t even an average team on the road. Cases in point: 2008: BUF, NYG 2007: CLE, PIT, GB 2006, 2005, 2004, blah.

The disgusting thing is that we still have a very good chance of making the playoffs because it is becoming clearer and clearer that our division IS THAT BAD as well. That is to be excited, but perhaps feared also because it will delay the wholesale restructuring we need.

Save it?? Uh… we did, for Sunday.

“I’m confident New York’s defense, that has many a Seahawks fan quivering in their boots, is soon to show a softer side.” yea, we gotta find a way to stop those field goals.

Good job of gang tackling 20 yrds past the LOS, Fortunately Jacobs sucks cutting into the hole.

That said, playing at 10am body time could be a factor, but there’s this stuff called coffee, perhaps you’ve heard of it?

But the Gulls do have a better front 7 than Cinci or the Rams;

So thank you for providing us with the opportunity to practice our outdated, ’old school" smash mouth style running game against them as we prepare for the ’Skins, the ’boys, and the Iggles down the road.

Go make all of us feel better by beating up on the Fudgebackers, the goal of universal harmony is always closer when Frisco and Dallas have losing records. We’ll try to hold up our end.

So what exactly went wrong? Was it Tru? Jennings or was it everyone? It can’t be all Russell’s fault.

Right from the start, the Giants were completely having their way with our defensive line. I haven’t seen us pushed around like that in a long time (well, January).

Another thing I don’t get… if Russell is so bad (and he looks bad to me too), why in God’s name have we not even TRIED to replace him?

Mr. Morgan, that you deleted my explanation that the sarcasm of my post was directed at your writing, not at hope and dreams of Gull fans. Your talent at revising history has commercial applications, I hear Pravda’s hiring.

I’m not saying it would have closed a 38-point gap, but does anyone else think it was weird that John Carlson didn’t even have a ball thrown to him?

that led the staff and Ruskell to jettisoning Plack.

I’m half-expecting something big to happen in terms of the coaching staff or the roster, I just hope Ruskell and Holmgren are evaluating things with a clear head.

And how that is an ‘outdated’ way of playing defense in today’s NFL. I disagree. I think it’s what you do with it that counts. The counter argument of being undersized is being quicker and faster. In the right scheme, with the correct play calling, an undersized speed defense can work just fine.

Another words, I think that the underachievement of this undersized defense points to the coaching staff. People on other boards are pointing fingers at Ruskell for his ‘antiquated’ drafting philosophy. I say you can’t make a final judgement until he brings in his defensive guy. He indirectly did that with the Mora hiring. If in two years, we’re still seeing pastings like today, then I will begin to wonder whether the whole undersized but quick theory is justified and I will point the finger at Ruskell. Both Tampa Bay under Monte Kiffin and the Colts under Tony Dungy (when Sanders is healthy) have seemed to do just fine. We should be able to as well. The rate limiting factor here is Mora and his staff. A change should be made tomorrow (though it won’t happen) at the D-coordinator position while it’s still early. There’s no where but up to go from here in my opinion. You could keep the same basic elements of the scheme, but with a new play caller.

Any thoughts?