Coffee and Cigarettes: Seahawks links for Wednesday

Hump day.

Fourth-and-Short: A Tale of Two Quarterbacks - The Triangle Blog - Grantland
After consecutive losses to the Falcons and Texans in Weeks 2 and 3, the buzzards began to surround Peyton Manning. His statistics — 7.1 yards per attempt with a 60 percent completion percentage — were pedestrian. His shocking three-interceptions-to-the-Falcons game lurked as a sign of how much Manning had lost, an opinion seemingly confirmed when a veteran scout told the NFL Network's Albert Breer, "Peyton Manning can't throw the ball anymore."

New Grantland: Post/Wheel and the Latest Wrinkles in Holgorsen’s West Virginia Offense | Smart Football
It worked. The receiver outside of Austin, J.D. Woods, ran a post while Austin ran a wheel up the sideline. The post-wheel route combination is one of the oldest in football, but it has increasingly become one of Geno Smith’s favorites. A big reason is that the routes aren’t static; although one receiver runs a post and another a wheel, each receiver has freedom to adjust his route by curling in between zone defenders or changing the angle of the post route. In this way, Holgorsen’s Air Raid offense has taken on shades of the old run-and-shoot, a pass-first attack known for receivers’ adjusting their routes and whose influence is still felt in the NFL. On this play against Maryland, no adjustments are necessary. The defense is confused by the post and fake touch pass and leaves Austin wide open in the end zone.

Dana Holgorsen and the maturation of West Virginia quarterback and Heisman Trophy favorite Geno Smith - Grantland
Geno Smith became the most talked-about player in college football overnight, but the path to becoming a Heisman favorite has been a long one

ProFootballWeekly.com - Dockett should be good to go for Cardinals in Week Five
Although it’s not a given, we hear Darnell Dockett probably will be back wreaking havoc from his customary DLE spot this Thursday night against the Rams for a Cardinals defense that definitely missed his presence in Arizona’s overtime victory over the Dolphins.

FOOTBALL OUTSIDERS: Innovative Statistics, Intelligent Analysis | Any Given Sunday: Rams Over Seahawks
Coming into this week's 19-13 letdown against St. Louis, Seattle had put on a show on Monday Night Football. No, I'm not talking about the disputed Golden Tate Hail Mary catch, I'm talking about the job they did putting pressure on Aaron Rodgers.

FOOTBALL OUTSIDERS: Innovative Statistics, Intelligent Analysis | Week 4 DVOA Ratings
Houston returns to the top spot in the Football Outsiders DVOA ratings after its big, dominant win over Tennessee this week. Atlanta's close escape over Carolina drops the Falcons to fourth place, behind San Francisco and New England. The Patriots are one of a number of teams which rank highly in DVOA despite 2-2 records, thanks to big wins mixed with close losses. The Broncos are fifth, the Packers seventh, the Giants 10th, and the Seahawks 11th.

ReFo: Seahawks @ Rams, Week 4 | ProFootballFocus.com
Often considered one of the weakest divisions in football, the NFC West contained three teams over .500 going into Week 4. The Rams were the only team under that mark, thanks to some very inconsistent offensive play. That inconsistent performance remained this week, but a touchdown on a fake field goal, and 12 points from real field goals were enough to beat a turnover-prone Seahawk team. With this win St. Louis has matched its 2011 total in just four games under Jeff Fisher.

Seattle Seahawks Passing Offense Is Reminiscent Of 1992 - 12th Man Rising -
Watching last Sunday’s game, I couldn’t shake the deja vu that I’d already lived through this once. No, it wasn’t the game against the Cardinals in week 1, it was a lot longer ago. It turns out that my head was remembering games from way back in 1992. I went and looked at the stats. this year’s team can’t possible compare with that disaster of a team that went 2-14, could it? Well, through 4 games, the two teams are closer to each other than you might think:

Report: Jets fear Holmes done for season | National Football Post
The New York Jets haven't disclosed the exact nature of receiver Santonio Holmes' foot injury, but the team now fears that his season is over, according to the New York Daily News.

NFC West Practice Squad Breakdown | National Football Post
3. Hebron Fangupo DT BYU 6006 323 5.18 Seattle Seahawks Practice Squad Blessed with rare natural strength, Fangupo can be a dominant run defender when he gets hands on offensive linemen first. When he beats offensive linemen to the punch, his violent hands enable him to jolt and control blocker and at times he has flashed the strength to just toss blockers off him to make plays. Lacking explosiveness off the ball limits Fangupo’s ability to get backfield penetration vs. the run and keeps him from pushing the pocket as a bull rusher. In Seattle’s defense they ask its defensive linemen to be strong at the point, carry out their responsibility and shed and make the play if they can, which fits Fangupo perfectly. He lacks the height of current starter Red Bryant, but his strength, violent hands and production vs. the run give him the tools to become a similarly good starting defensive end with improved initial hand quickness.

Arizona Cardinals' rise didn't happen overnight; NFL-wide notes - NFL.com
"We're tougher," Graves said, when comparing the 2012 Cardinals to the 2008 version. "We're physically tougher, our mindset is tougher, we're mentally tougher. And I just think we're really a lot like the kind of team we wanted to be when we hired Coach Whisenhunt. The idea was to bring that Steeler mentality here. We're still working to get there. I don't feel like we've arrived. But we've taken huge steps, making this team tougher."

Five from Sunday: Record scoring pace continues; which 4-0 team misses playoffs? - NFL
The NFL is at the end of the first quarter of the season and it is really the first time we can take a look at the results and make some determination about how this season is shaping up.

Starting Russell Wilson debatable, defensible | Dave Boling - The News Tribune
For the most part, Carroll said, Wilson has been doing what they’ve asked of him: take care of the ball, give the team chances to win at the end, and he’s "not far off from being really, really successful." It’s when Carroll addresses the possibility of using backup Matt Flynn that things get hazy. The quarterback competition between Wilson and Flynn is still in effect, he said, except Wilson gets almost every snap during practice.

Reading between the lines: Pete Carroll and his quarterbacks | Seahawks Blog | The Seattle Times
Quarterback was the biggest topic of discussion in coach Pete Carroll's press conference Monday. Actually quarterbacks, plural, as the coach was interrogated about Matt Flynn's health and Russell Wilson's performance

Seahawks.com Blog | Up next: Carolina Panthers
Star power: Cam Newton. The Panthers’ ridiculously talented QB hasn’t exactly picked up where he left off last season, when he was NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year after breaking the league rookie record for passing yards (4,051; old mark 3,739 by Peyton Manning in 1998) and putting up the third-highest rookie totals for completions (310) and touchdown passes (21). But Newton has passed for 1,013 yards this season and also shares team-high honors with 167 rushing yards. In Sunday’s loss, he flashed some of his rookie magic by throwing for two TDs and rushing for a career-high 86 yards and another TD. The Seahawks’ No. 3-ranked defense already has faced Tony Romo, Aaron Rodgers and Sam Bradford in its past three games, but they have yet to see anything quite like Newton.

Silver linings: Seahawks at Rams - NFC West Blog - ESPN
The facts: The Seattle Seahawks fell to 2-2 with a 19-13 defeat to the St. Louis Rams at the Edward Jones Dome. The upside: Even the worst defeats tend to feature a bright spot or two.

AP Pro32 comments about Seahawks - NFL - SI.com
Dan Pompei (Chicago Tribune, 17) - The Seahawks are starting to look like one of the most inconsistent teams in the league: capable of winning the ones they aren't supposed to win, and capable of losing the ones they are supposed to win.

Kevin Calabro Show - Podcasts - MyNorthwest.com
Seahawks kick returner Leon Washington tells Jim and Steve on "The Kevin Calabro Show" about Seattle's struggles in Sunday's loss to St. Louis. He also talks about the art of returning kicks and his plans for when his career is over.

Podcasts - MyNorthwest.com
Hall of Fame quarterback Warren Moon tells "Brock and Salk" that Seahawks fans should have more patience with rookie quarterback Russell Wilson. Moon thinks Wilson shouldn't be solely blamed for the offense's struggles and that he can do more than what he's been asked to do.

FOOTBALL OUTSIDERS: Innovative Statistics, Intelligent Analysis | 2012 NFL SNAP COUNTS
Tables are now sortable. We're still working on an addition that will allow you to look for a player's total snaps for the season instead of week by week. Also, this display does not have search capability, but to find any player, simply change both the team and position drop-downs to ALL and then do a page search. We hope to include search capability at a later time.

San Francisco 49ers – Niner Insider Blog – SFGate.com " How does Sunday’s offensive creativity reflect on Alex Smith?
"Now they are trying to manufacture offense rather than executing offense, and I don’t think that manufacturing offense in today’s NFL wins Super Bowls," Cosell said Monday on KNBR-AM’s Fitz and Brooks show. Cosell has been breaking down film for over 30 years at NFL Films. "I think the teams that compete have a stable offense, whether it’s run, pass or both with consistency and they are not looking to manufacture offense on a week to week basis. The way they won yesterday might raise more questions than answers."