Military Sea Hawkers

The Seahawks traveled to Tampa Bay to square off against the Buccaneers, who were fresh from a win in Kansas City. Michael Bennett, DeShawn Shead and Earl Thomas were all missing in this game due to injury. Recently waived defensive tackle Sealver Siliga suited up to play for the Bucs. Three rookies started on the offensive line for Seattle in this game. With Justin Britt out due to an ankle issue, Joey Hunt started at center for the ‘Hawks, and communication problems seemed to be found everywhere you looked. It showed up in the stats sheet, with Tampa Bay totaling 6.0 sacks on Russell Wilson.

With the Bucs bringing pressure on just about every play, Wilson’s improvisation skills were desperately needed, and he finished the game with 80 rushing yards (season high). It also turned into two interceptions, with plaster coverage down field making for little throwing windows. Wilson would go 17 for 33 and only amass 151 passing yards on the day. He wouldn’t throw a single touchdown, or get the offense close enough to run it in either (Thomas Rawls looked good in spurts running the football, but ended the day with 38 yards on 12 carries). The only offensive points came from a Stephen Hauschka FG in the second quarter.

Tampa Bay forced two fumbles, one that Wilson recovered after Noah Spence punched it out during a sack, and another by Lavonte David when tackling Jimmy Graham, which David returned for 53 yards. This wiped out over three minutes of play ,the drive accumulating over thirty yards of scrimmage, including a first down conversion by Graham.

Steven Terrell (in relief of Earl Thomas) teamed up with Atyba Rubin and Cliff Avril to scoop up a fumble forced by the aforementioned two when Doug Martin tried running up the middle around mid field. The defense allowed Martin to tally 87 yards on the ground, and 5 receiving yards. They also conceded 104 yards and the two scores to Mike Evans, but slowed down Cameron Brate, holding him to just 49 total yards. Cecil Shorts, their wideout speedster, was held to only 1 reception for 6 yards, after a pair of incomplete passes (1 deep and 1 short) threatened to give the Buccaneers better field positions.

What is noticeable and worth talking about, is that there were no recorded sacks for the ‘Hawks defense in this game. Try as they might, they were unable to close in on Winston, who eluded coverage time and time again on scramble plays. His 12 yards rushing for the game are a deceiving stat when you consider that Winston went 21 for 28 and 220 passing yards. Lateral movement accounted for his ability to find players down the field. For what it’s worth, the defense did rack up five tackles for a combined loss of 11 yards. When they needed big stops, they again bailed out the ‘Hawks.

The Bucs were hurt big time by penalties (7 for 68 yards), with a Safety early in the second quarter giving Seattle its first points of the game. They also had a touchdown nullified on Cameron Brate due to illegal use of hands to the face by a Tampa Bay O-lineman. Seattle had a low amount of penalties (2-27), with one of them being a chop block by Joey Hunt. Seattle (on offense) was abysmal on third down, converting only 1 of 11 third downs, and 1 for 1 fourth down conversion deep in the fourth quarter. On defense, they only allowed Tampa Bay to convert 4 of 11 third downs.

Ultimately, this game was gut wrenching for ‘Hawks fans to watch, with the Bucs drawing blood on two separate first quarter drives resulting in touchdowns to Mike Evans, one of which was the result of a questionable offensive pass interference non-call. Kam Chancellor picked off Winston in the end zone with just over 4:00 to go. Even with a significant number of defensive players sitting out of this game, the ‘Hawks defense held the Bucs to only 14 points (though if the Bucs kicker didn’t miss a field goal, it could have been 17). They adjusted well for the majority of the game, but overall watched the offense flame out on repeated drives.

It reminded fans a lot of the first game that Seattle played against the Rams this year, and even a little bit of the Sunday Night Football between the Cardinals that resulted in a tie. Frustrating, but the ‘Hawks were fortunate that all of the teams in the NFC West lost this week, keeping the three game lead for the division crown solidified. A surging Dallas Cowboys teams threaten to clinch the #1 seed in the NFC, and a host of teams are now beginning their late season pushes (Lions, Falcons, Giants). Seattle has the slimmest of margins available to try and clinch the #2 seed and a first round bye with five games to go.

After the game, head coach Pete Carroll said that: “It was a really good showing by Tampa Bay today, and they beat us up front… We had a number of chances to get back in the game, and they just didn’t open up the door for us. We did not play like we play, and it starts right with me.” He later remarked that “The defense played great throughout the rest of the game to keep us close, a couple turnovers were huge, because we gave them the ball three times today.”

Next, the ‘Hawks host the Carolina Panthers on Sunday Night Football. The Panthers may not currently represent a playoff threat to Seattle at 4-7, but likely view this game as a must win to keep their hopes alive for a wild card spot, and will bring out the big guns. In their last game (a last seconds loss to the Oakland Raiders), Cam Newton brought the Panthers to within a FG of tying, leading to 25 points in the third and fourth quarters combined.

This Panthers team will take on the role of many teams that Seattle will face over the next few weeks, with a road trip to Green Bay as well; that teams may see themselves as spoiler hopefuls. Michael Bennett, DeShawn Shead and Earl Thomas are all expected to suit up and play this week, which is a huge gain for a defense that could use the ability to buy Wilson and the offense a little breathing room. Sunday Night Football starts at 8:30 on NBC.

-GO ‘HAWKS!

Fresh off of handing the New England Patriots their second loss of the season, the Seahawks hosted the Philadelphia Eagles at CenturyLink Field. The Eagles, led by rookie QB Carson Wentz, had hoped to stop their three game losing streak with an impressive road win against Seattle in the home of the screaming 12s. That wouldn’t happen. Wentz would throw two TDs, two interceptions and get sacked twice, but the Eagles were unable to get a lot of offensive plays going throughout most of the game to bring it close enough.

After a pair of three and outs by both teams, C.J. Prosise ripped off a 72 yard run (on 2nd and 2) that resulted in a touchdown and put Seattle up 6-0. Stephen Hauschka’s point after kick was blocked, and Seattle clung to the 6-0 lead for most of first quarter. Philly actually moved the ball beyond center field and found a way to score at the beginning of second quarter to go up 7-6.

On the next Seattle drive, a pair of false start penalties by the offensive line made the completions come from the likes of 1st and 15 and 2nd and 20. The ‘Hawks benefitted from the return of Thomas Rawls, whose 18 yard run led to a crucial 3rd down conversion on 3rd and 11, in which Russell Wilson scrambled out and found Jimmy Graham on a naked bootleg that went for 35 yards and a touchdown.

The Eagles would seemingly come back and take the lead off of a 57 yard touchdown run by tight end Zach Ertz, but it was nullified by an illegal formation penalty, which head coach Doug Pederson was livid about.  He tried fruitlessly to get his bunched receivers attention to move up to the line of scrimmage before the snap on 3rd and 6. An ensuing punt two plays later gave Seattle the ball back at 5:30 to play in the first half.

On the next possession, Seattle moved 70 yards on two plays, one 44-yarder by Doug Baldwin and a 30-yarder by Tyler Lockett. From the Philly 3 yard line, they were unable to score a touchdown, instead settling for a Stephen Hauschka Field Goal with 3:00 to go. The ‘Hawks would go into halftime with a 16-7 lead.

During the 3rd quarter, Darell Bevell decided to dial up a trick play, having Wilson toss a backwards pass to Doug Baldwin, who promptly found Wilson untouched and running free for a 15 yard receiving touchdown. When Baldwin discovered the call was to toss the TD to Wilson in place of him making an attempt at a receiving TD in the red zone, promptly flipped Bevell ‘the bird’ on the sidelines. The NFL later fined him over $12,000 for what they defined as an ‘inappropriate gesture’ By the time the 4th quarter had arrived, Seattle was holding onto a 26-7 lead.

Injuries, though, plagued both teams throughout this game. C.J. Prosise would leave the game with a fractured scalpula after his day of totaling 76 yards and a score on the ground. Thomas Rawls rushed in relief of Prosise for 57 yards on 14 carries, but appeared gassed out by later in the game. With Alex Collins a healthy scratch, recent re-signee Troymaine Pope rushed for three yards before exiting the game with a high ankle injury. The injuries got to be so bad that backup QB Trevor Boykin came in to rush for for two plays, finishing with -5 yards and taking a massive hit from an Eagles defensive tackle Fletcher Cox as soon as the ball was in his hands. Earl Thomas left the game with a hamstring injury earlier that he would not return from, and DeShawn Shead did as well. Towards the end of the game, both teams were wincing with regards to injury.

Despite injuries to two starters, the Seattle defense came up huge in this game, twice intercepting Carson Wentz (one by Kam Chancellor before halftime and Richard Sherman in the third quarter). Cliff Avril and Bobby Wagner sacked Wentz twice (yet ANOTHER house to be built in Haiti!), and even with Wentz scrambling abilities, the ‘Hawks line was converging upon him just about every play. Wagner tallied 15 total tackles, further pushing his stellar season along. The next Seattle player had 10 tackles, and that was K.J. Wright. Seattle’s defense kept Philly’s offense to convert 6 for 16 on third down, and 1 for 3 on fourth down. Particularly once the injuries caught up to the ‘Hawks, the Eagles found it easier to travel down the field, but even with a touchdown drive at 3:46, they weren’t able to come close enough back into contention.

Seattle was out-gained slightly by Philly in 1st downs (20-18), but Philly was crushed in relation to total yards (439-308), total passing yards (287-195), and barely held on for time of possession (31:06-28:04). Of interesting note, both teams had similar number of penalty yards (48) and no fumbles.

This game seemed to cement a particularly troubling trend of missed PAT kicks and Field Goals. In a time where many kickers are routinely missing kicks, Stephen Hauschka seems to miss at least once a game now. Without trying to immediately place blame, head coach Pete Carroll has said over many postgame press conferences that some kicks “trajectory was too low”, or that an ‘errant snap or hold’ is to blame. Upon further review of the last two games, center Nolan Friese appears to have immense trouble staying upright after snapping the ball, either being bull rushed back into his teammates or thrown to the ground entirely.  In this game, Seattle left 4 points on the board. With Carolina, Green Bay and three straight division games to end the regular season, hopefully this isn’t a trend that continues.

Next, the ‘Hawks travel to Tampa Bay to face a Buccaneers squad that beat the Kansas City Chiefs in their own stadium. While Tampa Bay has a suspect secondary and lackluster running game as of late, they possess big play ability in the Jameis Winston to Mike Evans connection, and tight end Cameron Brate, who has stood out as another viable passing option since the Bucs’ original tight end was released after poor early season play. Earl Thomas, Michael Bennett, and DeShawn Shead lead a list a of doubtful to players listed as out. Though the ‘Hawks have plenty of firepower to outright win this game on offense, their kicking struggles as of late add a measure of uncertainty and a legitimate question mark to see if the special teams unit can stand up to keep the game out of Tampa Bays grasp.

Seattle currently enjoys a 3 game lead on Arizona for the NFC West title, and the Dallas Cowboys are the #1 seed in the NFC at 10-1. In a rather odd turn of events, no team that Seattle faces from here on out has a winning record currently. The resolving of Russell Wilsons health couldn’t have come at a better time.

-GO ‘HAWKS!