Category Archives: Seahawks Football

Updates and opinions surrounding the Seattle Seahawks

by | February 12, 2014 · 11:30 pm

Seattle’s Day

On Wednesday, February 10th, the city of Seattle gathered together to celebrate their first major professional sports championship in 35 years.  The championship was long overdue, as the 700,000 people who gathered would all tell you.  Everywhere you went there were chants of “SEA!” followed by echoes of “Hawks!”  Once the parade started, the Seahawks chants persisted but were joined by cheers of “Pete! Pete! Pete!” and “L-O-B!”

It was unlike anything I’ve ever been at.  The streets of Seattle were shut down in 25 degree weather.  I wish you all could have been there.  If you’re a Seattle sports fan though, you were there regardless if it was physically you or not.  It felt like Griffey, Edgar, and The Bone were there celebrating.  Payton and Kemp could have been standing beside me.  Shaun Alexander and Matt Hasselback would have blended right in with all of the fans that were wearing their jerseys.  Ichiro and Bret Boone could have been watching from Safeco’s roof.  February 10th was a celebration for all of Seattle.  It was a celebration of all the teams that couldn’t quite make it happen before our Hawks did and it was a celebration of all the fans that were patient and supportive in the past 35 years.  Of course, it was a celebration of a team that embodied Seattle more than any team ever has.  Our 2014 Super Bowl Champions were home and Seattle was ready to party.

What follows are some of my favorite pictures that I got from that day.  They are mostly of the parade and I’m just going to put them in chronological order.  Wordpress isn’t the best site for pictures but we’ll make do.  I’m not going to add any writing to these.  If you have any questions or want to see all of my pictures, leave a comment and I’ll get back to you.  I hope you’re able to soak these in, get a feel for what it was like there and realize that, even if you weren’t there, you were represented well by the best city in the world.  Go Hawks.

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– Andrew

 

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by | February 4, 2014 · 10:05 pm

Let The Good Times Roll!

I don’t have long here but I wanted to throw up a post really quickly to give you a few details of what’s going on.

Today, Budda Baker committed to the University of Washington to play football.  He was the top rated player in the state, a free safety who may play some offense, and has been a fantastic player for Bellevue High School in the last few years.

On Monday, Kaleb McGary committed to the University of Washington to play football.  He was the second highest rated player in the state and will play defensive end to start but may be on the offensive line by the end of his college career.  He’s a huge 17-year-old who has all kinds of potential.

Needless to say, things are going well in Seattle.  The Good Guys will have more on these players in the coming days.  Tomorrow is Nationals Signing Day and, as usual, I’ll have a running blog.  I plan to start at about 6:30 in the morning and go up until 8:30.  I’m going to the parade, so I’ll take a long break and come back tomorrow evening with some closing thoughts and recapping any surprises.  If you’re a loyal reader of the blog you know that this is one of my favorite sports days of the year but nothing would stop me from this parade.

In the days following signing day, Matthew and I will have posts recapping the players the Huskies signed.  So, check back in the following days if you’re out all day tomorrow.  I hope you all get to experience tomorrow but if you don’t I plan to take lots of pictures and put them up in a post here.

This is truly an amazing time to be a Seattle sports fan.  Maybe the best it’s ever been.  We hope you feel the magic and we hope to share it with you if you can’t be here!  I’ll be back tomorrow morning bright and early!  Go Hawks, go Dawgs, and go Seattle!

Andrew

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by | February 3, 2014 · 5:48 pm

A Championship Feeling

I’m not here to write about the Super Bowl.  The Super Bowl was perfect, an absolute dream that will replay in my mind until I’m old and gray, sitting in a recliner telling my grandkids about it.  Words won’t do it justice and other people can recap the game more capably than I can.

The same goes for the NFC Championship game.  You couldn’t write a Hollywood script better than that.  And I couldn’t write a recap better than watching a 10 minute highlight reel on Youtube.

The truth is, this season was perfect and there’s nothing I would change.  The 3 losses the Hawks suffered made the team more interesting.  The controversy made the unity between the fans and the team unbreakable.  If you weren’t in Seattle for the last month, I truly wish you could have been here.

My initial task for this post was to try to sum up everything I’ve felt about this team and, more importantly, this town in the last month.  After staring at my screen for the last few minutes, I don’t think I’ll be able to.  Seahawks

What I can write is how proud I am to live here.  You can’t drive a block without seeing a ’12’ flag.  You can’t turn on any Seattle radio station without hearing about the Seahawks in one segment.  Our hellos have been replaced with “Go Hawks!”  So have our goodbyes, for that matter.  While I’ve never lived to see one of my hometown teams win a championship until yesterday, I have seen some really good teams.  2001 the town was brought together through the Mariners, but not like this.  2005 brought us the Seahawks and while the crowds were always great, they weren’t like this. Last year started this madness but never quite reached the fever pitch we saw the last month.  All of those great seasons (and a few others) were just warm-ups to this year.

Some people think that it’s dumb to put so much into sports and think it’s ridiculous that sports can bring a city together.  They’re right, it’s a bit ridiculous.  But, I wish those people could have seen what I saw in the last month.  I wish they could have seen it with an open mind because I think they would change their mind.

After the game last night, I sat on the couch with my wife, texting the other Good Guys, and watching the news, with live shots of downtown.  People were celebrating in the streets in several different places.  I flipped over to Sportscenter several times and watched that.  The feeling of my city finally winning a championship hadn’t set in yet (it still hasn’t) but I was so content then.  And while contentment wasn’t a feeling that wasn’t created to last, it was the perfect feeling for that moment.  I listened well into the night as KJR had a radio show going until 5 AM.  The range of people calling in was incredible but that shouldn’t be surprising.  This team is made up of some players who were expected to be great and players who weren’t given a thought by most teams.  The team was Bellevue and Rainier Beach.  It was Renton and Kirkland.  The team embodied the Pacific Northwest sports attitude of ‘It’s us against the world’ and so did the fans.  Now, everyone’s watching us as we celebrate.  All eyes will be on Seattle as several hundred thousand people gather on Wednesday to line the streets of downtown and cheer on this team one more time.

I wish I could tell you the feeling here.  I’d waited all my life to feel it and now have no idea what words to use to describe it.  I just know this city deserves this.  There were people camped out in the airport today waiting to cheer on the team as they came home today.  The team wasn’t even coming in through the airport.  There were people lining the streets from Renton to Sea-Tac as they left.

Last night on Sportscenter, Steve Young said, “The 12th man isn’t a gimmick.  They feel accountable for what happens to this team.”  He’s right.  We do and we’re proud to feel responsible for the Lombardi Trophy being in Seattle.

As I was walking in from work today, I stopped to get the mail.  I looked to my right and there were kids out in the 30 degree weather playing football.  I continued the 100 yards or so to my house and walked past 2 cars with someone inside listening to KJR as the hosts celebrated.  I got a little emotional and I’m not sure why this got to me after all the joy that I’ve felt in the past 24 hours.

I don’t know how to describe what this city is feeling right now, but I know it’s perfect.

– Andrew

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by | October 10, 2013 · 11:12 am

A Q&A At A Square Table

After last weekend’s heartbreaking affairs, the Good Guys felt it was time to gather together and face the hard questions.  Okay, they aren’t really hard questions but there are some answers to a few questions.  Enjoy everybody!

After Saturday’s game, do you think Stanford is a top-5 team?  Does that mean the Huskies are a top-10 team based on their performance?

Dan:  I’m not sure if Stanford is a top 5 team because the offense and defense both seem good but not great. Top 5 teams have an elite “something” and I don’t see it’d on Stanford. I think both UW and Stanford are in the 7-10 range. Look, if your only loss is by 3 points on the road to the #5 team, and you outplay them in nearly all facets, you belong in the top 10.

Joe:  I agree with Dan that Stanford is a top 10 team, and that UW could be a top 10.  The problem I have is Stanford hasn’t been tested on the road yet, with two home games vs ranked teams, and in both cases, ASU and UW moved the ball just fine on their defense, out gaining Stanford in both games.  But I understand a win is a win, so I’ll let that sleeping dog lie.  I think Stanford is a very good football team, very well-disciplined, they just don’t beat themselves, and that’s why they are undefeated right now.
Matthew: I think Stanford is capable of beating anyone in the country, but I don’t think they’re good enough to go undefeated and win the championship.  I don’t know if that puts them in the top five or not, but I imagine they’ll hang in that range most of the year.  I see them losing to Oregon and maybe one more team. I would have the Huskies in the 10-15 range right now.  If they keep playing like they have been, however, I don’t see them losing many more games.  They could easily be a a top 10 team, and I think they’re playing like it right now.  It’s just a matter of keeping it up.
Andrew:  It appears that I’m in the minority here but I do believe Stanford is a top-5 team.  Outside of Alabama, I’m not sure that anyone has a better resume than Stanford right now.  I think their front 7 is elite and is probably the best in the country.  As for the Huskies, they really do look like a top-10 team to me.  I think they can play with anyone because of the weapons on their team and because of the growth on the coaching staff.  This weekend will go a long ways in showing whether the Huskies are or not.
What was your favorite play from Saturday’s game?

Dan:  I thought the 3rd and 1 stop with 2 mins left was amazing. Peters was off-balance and Hogan appeared to have an easy path to getting a yard or 2 outside, but Marcus recovered and made a phenomenal play that only elite D’s pull off.

Joe:  Any play that involved Bishop Sankey doing something awesome, and then seeing Grandpa Sankey go nuts.
Matthew: I’ll second both of those.  Grandpa Sankey was great, but that third down stop by Peters was incredible.  I’ve been raving about it ever since.  It came out of the same formation as Stanford scored (I think) their last touchdown: 8 lineman, shotgun, two backs beside the quarterback.  It’s very symmetrical and looks like a goal line offense.  Because of that, UW got sucked into the middle on the touchdown, and Tyler Gaffney was untouched going off-tackle to the right.  There are so many different plays that can be run out of that alignment. They can hand off either direction, go right up the gut, slip the tight end or a back out for a pass.  This time Hogan kept it, Peters mostly stayed home and then closed and made a difficult tackle.  Given the circumstances and level of difficulty, that was one of the better defensive plays we’ll see all year.
Andrew:  I can’t disagree with the Peters play.  It would have been my favorite UW play, maybe ever, if the Dawgs had pulled the game out.

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Aside

Happy 2013

Happy New Year! 2013 is a little odd for me because it reminds me that I’ve been out of high school for a decade now. It’s probably about time I move on. Ya right! On the other hand, I am welcoming 2013 with open arms. I’ve patiently waited for 2013, and if you’ve read this blog the past couple years, you may have seen my occasional 2013 references. So what’s all my excitement over, you ask? Well, in December of 2011 I had an epiphany about the year 2013, which was that ALL 5 Seattle teams (the ones people care about), could be in position to make a run at a championship.

I surmised that the UW football team, fresh off a Holiday Bowl win, would be entering year 5 under Coach Sark, and opening up new Husky Stadium, led by senior QB Keith Price. The Mariners would be in year 5 under Jack Zduriencik, and the young nucleus he was building would be established. Coming off a promising 1st season with Pete Carroll, I figured the Seahawks could be in position to really contend in a couple years, so long as they found a franchise QB—check! Lastly, the UW basketball team, and Sounders FC (entering its 5th season), are seemingly always a threat to have a special season, so across the board 2013 was, and is, looking bright. It even crossed my mind that it might be the year the NBA returns, which it could be.

A large part of my optimism stems from the fact that for the first time in a long time, there appears to be stability with all 5 of our teams. In fact, every coach and GM has been on his respective Seattle team for 2+ years. I doubt many cities can say that, and what it means is that none of our teams are in a true “rebuilding” situation. There is reason for hope with all our teams, though now that 2013 is upon us, I can safely eliminate the Mariners and Huskies from winning it all this year. Still, could all our beloved teams have a winning season, or perhaps make a playoff run? Absolutely. Or, dare I say it, could 2013 be the year a championship is won in Seattle? If not this year, there’s always next year.

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by | January 2, 2013 · 11:30 am
by | September 6, 2012 · 12:31 pm

John Clayton: Legend

This video has gone completely viral. It’s the latest “This is SportsCenter” ad featuring John Clayton along with the west coast SC hosts, Neil Everett and Stan Verrett. I can’t tell you the level of awesomeness this video represents. The most noticeable is the “Robbed” Sonicsgate cap on Neil’s desk, along with the Seahawks Helmet in Clayton’s room. The rest is just fantastic.

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by | August 19, 2012 · 6:24 pm

Seattle Seahawks Pre-Season Game 2 – Thoughts and Observations

Russell Wilson (photo credit: Seattle Seahawks – Rod Mar)

Seattle Seahawks Pre-Season Game 2 – Thoughts and Observations

The Seahawks traveled to Denver for week 2 of the pre-season, and here are my observations:

Matt Flynn – It’s easy to look at the 6 for 13, 31 yards and scoff. But if you do that please add a completion for 46 yards and a TD, because it wasn’t Flynn’s fault T.O. dropped a gorgeous sure fire TD pass (too much butter on Terrell’s popcorn?). Owens was targeted 5 times by Flynn, none were completions, and I’ll leave it to the coaches to decide whose fault it was. My guess it was on T.O., since Flynn knows this offense like second nature. So if you add this all up, it’s hard for me to be down on Flynn when it was obvious Pete was trying to work T.O. into the passing game, maybe against the better wishes of Flynn. Overall I though Flynn looked fine, running the offense without problem. I think Flynn should start next week and start week 1 at Arizona.

Russell Wilson – Wilson, for the second week in a row, played outstanding. He made all the passes, and even scrambled 5 times for 33 yards, averaging 6.6 yards a rush. Add to this his 9.1 yard average per completion, and it’s easy to see Wilson has no trouble running an NFL offense, albeit against Denver’s second string defense. Wilson is supremely confident, and his leadership is apparent. The current debate is whether Wilson should play next week against Kansas City’s number one defense so we can see what he can do verses a solid defensive scheme. I understand the sentiment, and in a perfect world, yes, play him verses KC. But this is not a perfect world. Sept 9 is just around the corner, and Flynn needs all the reps he can get with the ones to build timing. I think the Hawks have a great problem on their hands, both Wilson and Flynn can play, and play well. It’s a far cry from Jackson and Whitehurst. Let’s hope Seahawks fans don’t forget that.

Marshawn Lynch – Lynch played a couple series and looked great. Beast Mode is back. 6 carries for 37 yards for a 6.2 YPC average. The offensive line opened up some nice holes. It is extremely clear the Seahawks love to run the ball. It’s their bread and butter. The ease at which they run left, or run right is fun to watch. The great thing about a solid running game is it translates. Road, away, good weather, bad weather, no matter, just hand off the ball, get chunks of yards and move the chains.

Special Teams – Steve Hauschka was automatic. The Hawks punt protection though? Horrible, two blocked punts by the Broncos. Gotta tighten that up.

Defense – Mixed bag here. The Hawks got very little pressure on Manning, which allowed him to dink and dunk the Hawks to death on a couple drives. The flip side of the coin though was the three turnovers forced. I think this could be the story of this defense all year. Big plays, turnovers, stopping the run, but giving up a few drives here and there. Overall I was pleased with the turnovers.

Breno Giacomini – The dude has a serious mean streak, which I love, but multiple personal foul penalties is just stupid. Those kinds of brain dead moves could cost this team a win in the regular season. I love his passion but he’s got to control it, because we all know defensive linemen across the league will try and bait him.

For the second straight week, I am very pleased with what I saw. The running game was powerful and consistent; the passing game was extremely conservative, but not terrible, while the defense made big plays. Areas to improve, again, are the pass rush which could be a major Achilles heel all year, and punt coverage. Expect the starters to play 3 quarters this week in KC. Much more can be concluded after the next game.

-Joe-

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by | August 13, 2012 · 8:53 pm

Seattle Seahawks Pre-Season Game 1 – Thoughts and Observations

Richard Sherman (Seattle Seahawks – Rod Mar)

Here are my thoughts and observations from the first pre season game of the 2012 Seahawks season.

The uniforms are sharp, I love them. The blue is vastly better than the multiple blue tones they’ve had for more than a decade. The gray and green ascents really popped well on TV. I love the fact the Hawks really took a chance with the uniforms, it gives them a unique identity that fits well with the whole 12th Man motif.

The starting defense looked tremendous. The eleven that started will (Lord willing) be the eleven who start in Arizona on September 9th. Outside of the obvious pick six by Browner, I was immediately impressed with Red Bryant who just seemed to be everywhere, and that’s impressive for a guy who’s 6’4′ 330 lbs. He swatted a pass down and got in a few good licks, all the while giving the Titans o-linemen and earful. Jason Jones made his presence felt, getting decent pressure on the QB. Bruce Irvin was boom or bust, but when he boomed, it was fun to watch. The stunts the Hawks ran were successful and caused Hasselbeck to be flustered when he threw. No sacks were recorded but there was pressure. Baby steps. I liked what I saw from rookie Bobby Wagner, he looked comfortable and ok with being a leader in the linebacking corps. Only time will tell how he grows into the role. On a very good note, I was glad to see Marcus Trufant running with the second team and embracing the role, looking fresh and excited to play. I think it’s vital Tru hangs around, he’s a great leader and could be a very nice nickel back.

You can probably tell I love what the Hawks are doing on defense. This crew has all the makings to be a top five defense. Teams will simply not be able to run the ball, forcing them into the pass, which will play into the hands of an extremely aggressive and confident secondary. Will those guys make mistakes at times? You bet, but they don’t string them together, and recover quickly with big play ability. Pre season games are traditionally marked by defenses who are way ahead of offenses, and that was on display Saturday night. But even in light of that reality, the Hawks looked ready to rock. I only see upside with this crew. They are the foundation Pete and Co. are building upon.

On the offensive side of the ball, I literary had no idea what to expect. Unlike most folks, all I cared about seeing Saturday was the defense because, well, I love defense, so when the offense finally took the field, I just tried to keep an open mind. Matt Flynn had a very thin wide receiving corps running routes, and no Beast Mode behind him, so what conclusions can we draw? He had one terrible pass (the INT to the LB), and a bad sack, but over all he looked solid. He got the ball out and on time to the receivers. He seemed comfortable running the offense. His best play was the roll out completion to Zach Miller, (who then promptly got blown up and received a concussion, not good). I was pleased with what I saw. Regarding Russell Wilson, I was equally impressed. Being a rookie, you simply take the good with the bad and roll with it. His athletic ability was apparent from the start. Bevell rolled Wilson out A LOT, which I think was designed to ease Wilson into his first pro game. He ran a lot of roll outs at Wisconsin, so it was only natural to keep him in that comfort zone. His arm strength was solid. His speed was great. His worst play was the red zone INT, which to my eye looked like jitters and nerves. His best play could have been the TD pass to Edwards or the TD run, but for me I can’t really grade at this point. Just seeing him out there looking comfortable was enough.

I was impressed with the starting offensive line’s run blocking. Washington and Turbin (The Turbinator was putting on a gun show, I’m pretty certain he lifts weights…) had gaping holes to run through, and Flynn had time to pass. Good to see considering the plethora of injuries that unit has seen the past two years. Michael Robinson was dominant run blocking, no surprise there. I wish I could say the same for the second unit offensive line. The Hawks don’t have any depth up front, so if further injuries rear their ugly head, they could be in a world of hurt.

Overall, it was a great night of football. There is a lot to be excited about with this team, especially on the defensive side of the ball. If they can identify a clear starting QB and develop some semblance of an aggressive passing game before week 1, I like their chances to get off to a good start in the division and then make a playoff push. But if a passing game is not developed, the upside this team could achieve will be stunted. The next three weeks are vital.

-Joe-

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