Seattle Seahawks Recover Fumble, Flip Odds Through Failure

by John Morgan on Sep 14, 2009 11:56 AM PDT Comment 6 comments

Lance Laury shoved David Roach aside and speared the football from Donnie Avery's grasp. The ball caromed to Will Herring and he fell on it for an easy recovery. It was all easy. Seahawks recover on the St. Louis 19. Without hardly an effort, their win probability shot up to 65%.

Ease cheapened the victory for many. The Rams were 2-14 in 2008 and nearly as bad per play as the winless Lions. Of course, Seattle was 4-12. Had it lost a slim victory against St. Louis in week 15, it would have been 3-13 and in a virtual tie with the 3-13 Rams. If Super Bowl contender is the beginning standard, a satisfying victory versus the Rams is unattainable. If 4-12 is the standard, yesterday was a hoot.

Seattle is not guaranteed to be a good team. It reinforced that doubt in the resulting offensive series.

John Carlson motioned out of tight end and Seattle aligned in a three wide receiver, "I" formation. The Seahawks attempted to stretch right, but Rob Sims and Max Unger struggled to sustain their blocks and the hole collapsed around Julius Jones.

Cameron Morrah motioned on the next play. He sprinted from right-tight to left wide out and turned an ultra-conservative, two tight end, single receiver, "I" formation into a moderately conservative two wide receiver-"I". The motion worked. Cornerback Jonathan Wade moved off wide receiver Nate Burleson and over to Morrah. Safety Oshiomogho Atogwe moved left to cover Burleson. Matt Hasselbeck ran a weak play action and gunned it to Burleson. The accuracy and timing were on. The pass targeted Burleson in the numbers, but between the ball and Burleson was Atogwe, the best player in St. Louis' secondary and likely the best defender on the Rams. If it were a decision, it was a bad decision, but the play was planned and Hasselbeck didn't read, he reacted. The motion moved the man and Burleson was functionally one-on-one.

A second before the snap, a shadow crosses the field. Seattle has turned a gimme turnover into third and ten. It splits three wide, tight end and matches Justin Forsett to Hasselbeck in the shotgun. Seattle sends out five to receive. The Rams drop seven. It's nickel-man defense with a two-deep zone. Underneath receivers Forsett and Carlson are open, but short of the first. Deon Butler is covered on the right. Burleson has separation out of his cut, but Hasselbeck's read is T.J. Houshmandzadeh running a seam route out of the slot. He takes a three step drop and fires high to Housh. He is double covered. Wade tips it and James Butler recovers.

Win probability, 52% -- Rams.

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Comments

Jitters. Excitement. Rust.

That’s what I’m chalking the Seahawks’ performance in the 1st quarter up to.

If anything, the absolutely clinic put on in the 2nd, 3rd and 4th quarters is evidence of that the first quarter performance wasn’t representative of the Seahawks or even the Rams’ defense.

(PS – I’m an unabashed optimist, if you can’t tell.)

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

by Nick Andron on Sep 14, 2009 12:10 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

It's nice to see the resilience of the offense to overcome that first quarter.

Hopefully most of the kinks were worked out in this game and those mistakes are minimized going forward. I am sure Hasselbeck had some reservations about taking a hit with all of the injuries over the last few seasons, which led to those early mistakes. But he settled in nicely and should feel more comfortable with each game.

by Wilder. on Sep 14, 2009 12:15 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

I was sitting at home, watching the game

With an attractive young lady who knows nothing about football, and early on when we had 3 turnovers, I started to explain the odds against winning when the turnover differential is getting ugly.
Then of course it turns into a rout, and now she thinks I know squat about football.
I wonder what the influence of the coaching staff was on getting them settled down after that shaky start? Settling down didnt happen once Walrus’s face got red and his whiskers starting pointing out, towards enemy.

by Strictnine on Sep 14, 2009 12:46 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

That was an uggggly first couple of drives.

Hass seemed to be firing into coverage left and right. No fear, but the picks were the result. I was honestly nervous whenever he had the ball. Shades of 2008. Then the 2nd quarter happened, I relaxed a bit, and then the 3rd quarter happened and I felt happy inside.

by Fear on Sep 14, 2009 1:05 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

I don't think the drives themselves were ugly.

The Seahawks were moving the ball at will. It’s the result of the drives that was undesirable.

If the drive was ugly, I’d think that there were ugly execution, sloppy play, blown assignments, running the wrong route, throwing the ball to a receiver and getting intercepted when the obvious decision should be to throw the ball away, etc.

Sam Bradford, future Seattle Seahawk.

by Carl Shinyama on Sep 14, 2009 9:26 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Knapp's run call after the forced fumble really pissed me off.

The stage was set for a quick hitting pass TD and Knapp killed off all of the momentum/excitement with a JJ run to the right that got stuffed. I will admit that Knapp called a masterful game that was plenty aggressive from that point on.

As far as the first Hasselbeck INT goes, my feeling is that if Hass is going to force a ball into tight (or even double coverage) space he needs to throw it to 6’5" John Carlson rather than Housh or Burleson. Not only does Carlson have the size and strength to catch the ball in traffic, he’s often facing LB’s who are less likely to convert a dangerous pass into an INT.

Hasselbeck almost threw another pick on a quick read slant to Burleson that the DB jumped. If and when Branch returns, I think we’ll see much better execution on quick hitting slant routes. Save the screen passes for Burleson, and the slants for Branch as he runs much more precise routes and has better quickness out of the break.

by Culter on Sep 14, 2009 1:31 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs