Charlie Whitehurst's Final Drive: What Whitehurst Did, Part 2

by John Morgan on Aug 18, 2010 4:47 PM PDT

7. 2-11-TEN 11 (1:14) 6-C.Whitehurst pass short right to 88-C.Morrah to TEN 4 for 7 yards (51-G.McRath).

Seattle runs this:

And Charlie Whitehurst is able to bait and evade Chris Harrington before outletting to Cameron Morrah. Morrah streaks right and nearly breaks a Gerald McGrath arm tackle. Break it, and he's in.

8. 3-4-TEN 4 (:32) (Shotgun) 6-C.Whitehurst pass short middle to 85-A.McCoy for 4 yards, TOUCHDOWN. WATCH HIGHLIGHT

Another subtle but solid play by Whitehurst: He reads linebacker Jamie Winborn up and left and just inside the goal. He reads Quinton Ganther running a swing. The second Winborn commits to covering Ganther, that is, Winborn shades every so slightly towards the left sideline, Whitehurst sees his opening and drills it into Anthony McCoy. Touchdown.

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"Holy crap did Whitehurst exceed expectations."

Well, a lot of expectations were p damn low. If not outright venomous.

Still a wait-and-see until he subs for Hasselbeck in the regular season, but in analysis his play looks even better than it did, in some ways.

by Thomas Beekers on Aug 18, 2010 5:35 PM PDT reply actions

Expectations were set by his previous 14 preseason games.

Not blind faith or a made-up notion of persecution.

by John Morgan on Aug 18, 2010 5:48 PM PDT up reply actions

shrugs I doubt a lot of people who dismissed him watched his previous 14 preseason games

Regardless, I saw no reason to dismiss or crown him before he got his shot to prove himself. I still don’t.

by Thomas Beekers on Aug 18, 2010 5:50 PM PDT up reply actions

I think you are taking a protected stance by not committing to a position and painting some undefined "other" in black and white.

One does not “dismiss or crown.” One creates a broad set of expectations based on the available knowledge. It’s not typical for a player to join a new team and in his first game blow away any previous performance. What Whitehurst did was surprising. Whitehurst certainly performed at the high end of expectations on Saturday. That’s meaningful. That is meaningful between the absolutes of “dismiss or crown.”

by John Morgan on Aug 18, 2010 6:16 PM PDT up reply actions

I am taking a protected stance, until I saw him play with my own eyes

I couldn’t be arsed to look up his Chargers preseason games and didn’t feel like basing my opinion only on your writings (you’re definitely one of the writers who most influences my opinion, but no writer influences me more than my own eyes, except Greg Cosell).

Undefined “other”, though? I’m not talking about your pieces here, tho you seem to have the impression that I am, I’m talking about the many commentators that had already written him off before he took a snap in Seahawks uniform. Or had I imagined those people? There’s nothing undefined about them.

And yes, this is between dismiss and crown. It’s testament to Field Gulls’ general community quality that we haven’t crowned him yet and there’s no broad call to play him over Hasselbeck. It’s why I love this place, it usually lacks the gut-feeling-start-shouting-opinions stuff broadly carried in footballandia. I’d say a good portion did in fact go for the gut-feeling-start-shouting-opinions before this game on Whitehurst though, and I’m not sure I have much faith that they wound back and watched Whitehurst play to base that opinion on. Though I can’t say for sure either way.

by Thomas Beekers on Aug 18, 2010 6:43 PM PDT up reply actions

I respect that.

by John Morgan on Aug 18, 2010 6:51 PM PDT up reply actions

I honestly didn't know what to expect.

I just had set of things to look for and hoped he displayed all of them.

Golden!

by Carl Shinyama on Aug 18, 2010 11:52 PM PDT up reply actions

Which he did.

Golden!

by Carl Shinyama on Aug 18, 2010 11:53 PM PDT up reply actions

I feel pretty confident saying that no one's expectations were venomous.

People had low expectations, and maybe you could argue they were too low (although fuck that I’ve been a Seattle fan long enough to know that no expectation is too low), but nobody is rooting against Whitehurst.

by Nate Dogg on Aug 19, 2010 9:51 AM PDT up reply actions

btw, any thoughts on Tate?

Between his performance in this one game and these comments I’m kind of tempering my expectations for his rookie year.

by Thomas Beekers on Aug 18, 2010 5:49 PM PDT reply actions

He's raw

He looked raw.

by John Morgan on Aug 18, 2010 5:59 PM PDT up reply actions

Delicious shashimi raw or putrid pork raw?

All The Way, AIRBORNE!!!

by Airborne Hawk Guy on Aug 18, 2010 8:07 PM PDT up reply actions

Marinating in the refrigerator raw

by The Ancient Mariner on Aug 19, 2010 9:22 AM PDT up reply actions

So glad to not be reading about underperforming defensive linemen anymore.

I’m Balmer-Jax’d out.

Though they sink through the Sea, they shall rise again...Death shall have no dominion...

by Cheddar28 on Aug 18, 2010 6:05 PM PDT reply actions

Seriously.

Just let me live in Whitehurst-hope-land for just 10 more minutes.

"Pass rushers enter the world of Okung but never leave." - JM

by Nick Andron on Aug 18, 2010 6:39 PM PDT up reply actions

I'm beginning to think we've got this "Charlie the Unicorn" thing all wrong.

Charlie isn’t the Karl-soundalike unicorn, he’s actually Candy Mountain. WE are Charlie the Unicorn… Schneider and Carroll are the pink and light blue unicorns trying to convince us that Candy Mountain is the best thing EVAR.

Along the way, they say that the “magical leopluridon” (read: Leo defense) will “show us the way”.

Ah, doing your Master’s degree in Film Theory helps for something…

by djafrot on Aug 18, 2010 7:07 PM PDT up reply actions

And is the bridge the preseason?

We’re on the bridge right now!? A MAGICAL BRIDGE OF HOPE AND WONDER?!

by Thomas Beekers on Aug 18, 2010 7:12 PM PDT up reply actions

Rofl.... at 1 am.

Though they sink through the Sea, they shall rise again...Death shall have no dominion...

by Cheddar28 on Aug 19, 2010 1:08 AM PDT up reply actions

Double ROFL

At my own post… at 3:39 a.m..

Candy Mountain = Super Bowl

“Shun the non-believer…. SHUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUNNNNNNNNLNNNNNUNNNNUNNNN………”

by djafrot on Aug 19, 2010 3:40 AM PDT up reply actions

He could be that Robot Unicorn from Robot Unicorn Attack.

Then he’d be awesome again.

Fans are typically idiots.

by The Typical Idiot Fan on Aug 19, 2010 4:58 AM PDT up reply actions

The Golden Robot Unicorn.

I like it. I think it will catch on.

First preseason game in a complex system for a rookie WR. Not the least bit worried, just hope they simplify his assignments enough to let him be productive as a rookie.

Anyone else notice the propers given to Roy Lewis? 2nd string behind Tru ain’t exactly chopped liver, and he mentioned he studied intensively under Morey for several months to become a Special Teams Monster, which we haven’t really had since Rufus Porter. Quickest way for a bad team to get better is good field position.

KoolAid anyone?

by bleedshawkblue on Aug 19, 2010 10:13 AM PDT reply actions