FanPost

Achilles Heel of a Super Bowl Champion

Yes, the Seahawks clawed their way to a gutsy win yesterday against the team with the best record in the NFL, but one thing that marred an otherwise great day was how atrocious the offensive line was once again. The score could have/should have been 21+ to 3 in the first half had the Hawks scored TDS in the red zone instead of field goals.
It wasn't all execution failures either. Wilson and the RBs were being gobbled up like the Cards front seven were the Hungry Hungry Hippos and they were the marbles! Lol Allowing seven sacks is simply unacceptable even for bad teams, and even more scary is the fact it could have been 10+ if not for Wilson playing Houdini out there and getting out of trouble time and time again. People can argue that Wilson is holding on to the ball way to long, and that is true but I saw Cards in the backfield numerous times yesterday like the o line was invisible and that simply cannot happen, and I'm really getting tired of the same tired excuses. (injuries,shuffling etc etc) The brutal fact is the Hawks have whiffed on every offensive lineman except Okung,Unger and Sweezy in the last decade! Can someone just admit this offensive line is easily one of the worst in the NFL this year?

I watched the Sunday Night Football game and it made me sick watching Romo sit back in the pocket for 7+ seconds on their game winning drive. He basically had time to make a sandwich, eat it then throw to Dez for the td. How nice would that be for Wilson? I know it wasn't really feasible, but has any gm ever had the bright idea of trying to draft the good lineman from their QB's college team? I think Wilson's last Wisconsin line is better than the Hawks current line and no I'm not joking. Go to Youtube and watch some Wisconsin offense highlights with Ball and Wilson. Those lineman were monsters!

We finally saw the Seahawks D we all expected come to play yesterday and that was refreshing, but the offensive line gets a BIG FAT F! I'm not even going to blame poor Patrick Lewis because he actually has played okay for a guy just thrown to the wolves at center. Bailey-garbage,Britt-garbage. Okung is like the anti-Walter Jones, penalties etc. If anything is going to sink this otherwise great team this year or in the future it is the same old broken record terrible offensive line. I swear ever since Big Walt retired this has been the same story. I really hope PC/JS make that the #1 priority this off season because Wilson is going to eventually get hurt if they don't get some real talent at that position. I hated the Britt pick, I hated the Carpenter pick (Saban was dumbfounded for good reason) I know they still won the Super Bowl with a patchwork line, but that was mainly overshadowed by the great defense last year.

I have not re-watched the game again, but seeing it live with a modicum of knowledge on how an NFL offensive line is supposed to block/protect the QB I'd say they didn't do that at all yesterday, and seven sacks and a dozen plus hurries is damning evidence enough. So riddle me this Batman, how can an equally atrocious New England Patriots no name offensive line in the beginning of the year all of a sudden look like world beaters? Is it coaching? cough cough Cable!

Let's just say for arguments sake it's the perfect in-perfect storm of poor play,bad coaching,mediocre receivers causing Wilson to hold the ball for too long?? something I saw RGIII do yesterday too.

So how can this serious problem be fixed this late in the season with a brutal gauntlet of remaining games that will decide if the Hawks are in or out? I don't think it can and the Hawks will just have to take the "duct tape" approach and patch as best they can and hope for the best.

As much as I hate the Cowboys and JJ, they did one thing right, they stockpiled some serious talent at the most important position on the team. Obviously the Hawks were not bad enough to pick the top o line prospects like them during the PC/JS era so far, but still they could have done a lot better than "Mr. Glass" James Carpenter! Saban is a football genius and he looked stunned in the draft room so what does that tell you? Britt's a rookie but I'm just not seeing anything special out of him so far either so to me that was a wasted pick too, and I'm sure some of the FG stat nerds can come up with some o line draft names that have made immediate impacts that were picked later than Britt. I really hope someday to see a stress free RW be able to sit in the pocket more than 2 seconds and throw to a talented receiver actually able to beat his coverage, and that all starts with a dominant o line. Probably never going to land a Walter Jones again, but the Hawks FO needs to address this longtime issue that has gone on far too long. Wishful thinking I guess. sigh.... GO HAWKS!