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Craig Terrill Chases a Ghost

There's infinite ways to win the game of football. Making Kyle Orton look good is not one of them.

More photos » Elaine Thompson - AP

There's infinite ways to win the game of football. Making Kyle Orton look good is not one of them.

4. Patrick Kerney beat Ryan Clady to force an incompletion. It was the play after the jail break screen. Kerney didn't bite on play-action and with most of Seattle's front seven knocked back or chasing the runner, his pressure alone allowed the Seahawks to escape a long completion.

3. Correll Buckhalter is a career backup and soon to be 31. He isn't bad; He's Maurice Morris east. Lofa Tatupu isn't one of Seattle's best tacklers. Tackle, the stat, isn't equivalent to tackle, the ability. Tatupu is great at tracking the play and can hit with the best of the NFL. His stocky, cylindrical build, typically good angles, technique to bury a shoulder on the run, and ability to both shed blockers and avoid blockers allow him to get a lot of tackles, get a lot of meaningful tackles and occasionally blow up his opponent. From a strictly square and wrap perspective, he's unreliable. See, his arms are short and as he's bulked up they looked to have retreated into his torso. So when Buckhalter put a move on Tatupu, putting Tatupu out of position, and then stiff armed him into the dirt, it wasn't too surprising. But it was embarrassing and less than I expect from Seattle's middle linebacker.

2. And then Seattle committed the cardinal sin of defensive play calling: the seven man blitz. Even as a show-me call, it fails. Done on third down, it's akin to suicide. The best outcome is too often an incompletion and with nearly two thirds of the defense committed to the first five yards of the field, the worst outcome is too often a touchdown. Seattle's rush never arrived and Kyle Orton found an uncovered Brandon Stokely for five and the first. Ken Lucas limited the damage with a solid open-field tackle.

If you thought the Three Stooges blitzes left with John Marshall, think again.

1. The Broncos were driving. Maybe the Seahawks rush defense could force a field goal. Enter Craig Terrill. Terrill does one thing well: he gets off the snap and into the backfield. This can be disruptive; it can open gashes in the defensive line. If a giant hole appears center, right guard or right tackle it's become instinctive for me to look for Terrill's milky guitar-arm, barely visible, stabbing out from under a surge of opponent jerseys. But on this play, incompetent becomes outright strange.

Terrill knifes into the backfield, turns left and then chases a ghost. Is he pursuing the fullback? Is Chris Kuper blocking him in the back? Why did he turn left in the first place? The result is a defensive line breach and little remaining between Buckhalter and the second level but Cory Redding's arm. Redding pushes off Ryan Harris' block and wraps Buckhalters legs. Funny enough, Redding's momentum, Harris' block and Buckhalter's momentum cause Redding to slide on his back for about a yard. It's a saving play by Redding, but Buckhalter still gets eight.

Eight plays in, Denver is second and two on the Seattle 12.

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Comments

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It's good to see Kerney factored

From my limited view, it seemed he hadn’t.

The demise of the Broncos in '09 is our future. Pray hard.

by Nick Andron on Aug 23, 2009 4:10 PM PDT reply actions   0 recs

You got the name!

Nice job.

Andrew Raycroft for backup? Does not compute.

by Woodinville_12thMan on Aug 23, 2009 5:02 PM PDT up reply actions   0 recs

I cut off my left pinky :)

The demise of the Broncos in '09 is our future. Pray hard.

by Nick Andron on Aug 23, 2009 5:26 PM PDT up reply actions   0 recs

Pleasure to meet you

The demise of the Broncos in '09 is our future. Pray hard.

by Nick Andron on Aug 23, 2009 7:38 PM PDT up reply actions   0 recs

The Terrill play baffled me at the time

So I went back and watched it about a dozen times. Watch it in slow motion and you can see Terrill make consecutive steps with his left foot, almost like he planted with his right foot and pivoted. Thing is, with your momentum going 100% forward there’s only one way you can make consecutive quick steps with the same leg like that and that’s if something stopped your other leg from moving.

About the same time he made the “move,” one of the lineman is blowing past him on Terrill’s right, which would seem to jive with him getting chipped and cause his whole body to pivot. There isn’t anything definitive in the replay that shows him getting chipped but considering the other options (he allowed himself to be swallowed up by the lead blocker, he was following a phantom ballcarrier, he was just lost, etc.) I’m inclined to believe that he got chipped.

This also highlights Terrill’s shortcomings as a defensive tackle, that a mild chip block can throw him 90 degrees off of his preferred trajectory.

by niko on Aug 23, 2009 4:21 PM PDT reply actions   0 recs

Hm.

Interesting, it does seem like the only thing to cause two consecutive steps with one foot would be a chip holding back his other leg. Great analysis.

Andrew Raycroft for backup? Does not compute.

by Woodinville_12thMan on Aug 23, 2009 5:04 PM PDT up reply actions   0 recs

I thought our defense was supposed to be good?

Is it the schemes, players, or both that is the problem?

by Wilder. on Aug 23, 2009 4:33 PM PDT reply actions   0 recs

When all else fails, I inexplicably revert to blaming it on Aaron Curry.

But I can believe that the team was just sloppy due to fatigue.

"Part, fools!
Put up your swords. You know not what you do."

by Fearless Frog on Aug 23, 2009 4:38 PM PDT up reply actions   0 recs

Nah, I'll refrain from blaming Curry

Until Crabtree starts burning us twice a year and Sanchez beats us in the Superbowl. : )

by kearly on Aug 23, 2009 5:34 PM PDT up reply actions   0 recs

And Eugene Monroe stonewalls the kitchen sink we throw at him.

"Part, fools!
Put up your swords. You know not what you do."

by Fearless Frog on Aug 24, 2009 10:11 AM PDT up reply actions   0 recs

I believe our playcalls were fairly vanilla.

And fatigue.

Glenn Beck likes argument, but has a deap-seated hatred for logic.

by Cheddar28 on Aug 24, 2009 12:32 AM PDT up reply actions   0 recs

What does this mean exactly?

JP-Hill-Tatupu used to be called/call themselves “the three stooges.” So is a 3 stooges blitz one where all 3 LB’s blitz?

by kearly on Aug 23, 2009 5:32 PM PDT up reply actions   0 recs

No

Its the 3rd and something blitz 6-7 and give up a first down/touchdown type thing.

by vanrijn on Aug 23, 2009 5:34 PM PDT up reply actions   0 recs

Yep, blitzing far too many in situations where the risk to reward ratio is poor
Stupid Blitzing: I’m not quite on the can John Marshall bandwagon, but since we’re being statistical, let’s look at two really stupid blitzes. Both involve rushing 7 men, and both are in a situation (3rd and 7+ yards to go) where the average passing DVOA against 7+ man blitzes is 61.4%. In other words, roughly equivalent to the 2007 New England Patriots (61.8%).

3-8-SEA27 (Shotgun) J.O’Sullivan scrambles up the middle to SEA 11 for 16 yards (D.Grant).

3-7-SF23 J.O’Sullivan pass deep right to I.Bruce to SEA 44 for 33 yards (J.Wilson).

The latter essentially lost the game. And really, in overtime when any score will do, your opponent backed to its 23, why would you blitz seven on 3rd and 7? Seattle needed only to force a punt to be in an excellent position to win. A standout bad call in a game of bad calls.

Link.

by Nate Dogg on Aug 23, 2009 5:49 PM PDT up reply actions   0 recs

Same, I was impressed with Wilson last year.

But as a starting CB, I’m not sure he has what it takes. He seems to get a big play once in a while, but is out of position too often. I guess it could just be a limited experience thing though.

by LantermanC on Aug 23, 2009 6:17 PM PDT up reply actions   0 recs

He got beaten quite a bit during the Denver game

I think he’s slowly showing more and more that he’ll be a career nickelback. And kick/punt returner :P

The demise of the Broncos in '09 is our future. Pray hard.

by Nick Andron on Aug 24, 2009 10:27 AM PDT up reply actions   0 recs

Fisher limped off the field

I think. Maybe he’s ok. I"m sure we’ll get a full injury report as the week progresses.

by ASeahawkfan on Aug 23, 2009 7:08 PM PDT up reply actions   0 recs

I won't start worrying unless they play this way opening day

which I don’t think they will. I think things will look a bit different when the starters begin playing for real in September. As for Bradley calling a 7-man blitz in a practice game? Hmmm… so what? Its just practice.

by Stevo's on Aug 23, 2009 11:04 PM PDT reply actions   0 recs

Hugh Millen analysis

Hugh this morning on KJR did not panic in relation to the defensive struggles in the first half. He credited two things for why they didn’t look so good.

1) Game planning. Many of the plays Denver got significant yards on were plays in which a team would need to do some game planning to stop. The routes were not so basic that vanilla D could prevent success. Also the screen package used by Denver isn’t something the Hawks would have game planned for.

2) Fatigue. “didn’t have their game legs”. In reference to the hard work done by the team in camp. He said they’d look faster and play faster with game rest preparation.

That being said, he did say he was disappointed that the first string D failed to pressure Orton. He needs to see that next week.

I think its good the D got pushed around a bit. I’d rather have them look good in week 1-16 of the regular season than in week 2 of the preseason. This is not the time to be playing your best football.

Lofa Tatupu’s Abe Lincoln beard looks silly.

by Section 128 on Aug 24, 2009 8:32 AM PDT reply actions   0 recs

Anyone listen to the spectatular 40-minute interview with coach Mora?

He kind of said the same thing.

Shotgun & bubble-screen is pretty hard to prevent a completion on even with gameplanning. You just plan to contain it so it’s not worth wasting snaps on because they need more yardage.

by jacobstevens on Aug 24, 2009 10:46 AM PDT up reply actions   0 recs

I noticed the effects of Craig Terrill

in general, on Colin Cole being teamed up with him, it really rendered the whole interior ineffective. I hadn’t seen so much from Cole & Mebane yet to really feel that it was really great, but the contrast is pretty stark, and John’s analysis about Cole being paired with Mebane instead of rotating with him seems to be pretty accurate.

by jacobstevens on Aug 24, 2009 10:44 AM PDT reply actions   0 recs

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