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| Andrew Luck and Russell Wilson Appear to Be the New Guard and Heir Apparent to QB Royalty |
Wilson vs. Luck: Could This Be…
Maestro vs. Maestro Into the
Future?
One important thing that can't be overstated right now is this; Not one team in the NFL wants to get into an alley fight with Pete Carroll's football team this season or in the postseason. They might say something different to the press, because they're football players and they've been programmed since peewee football to fear nothing. Seattle is the most balanced football team in the NFL and they are the most tough and physical roster perhaps in decades. Russell Wilson's offense and Earl Thomas's defense can score at any time, in a variety of ways on both sides of the ball and from anywhere on the field. Seattle's defense has made an art form of taking the ball away from offense, especially when their opponent is threatening to score inside the 'Hawks red zone. They can turn defense into offense from any of the 11 players on the field at any given time. In the NFL, they call it the red zone, the area deep in the opponent’s side of field inside the 20 yard line.
The Seahawks might have the best defensive mechanism in the NFL. You don’t dare get in the red zone and worse, you don’t dare score on the Legion of Boom or you will pay dearly. This is exactly what happened in Houston last Sunday. The Seahawks played what was likely their worst game in their last 12 contests. Seattle trailed the Texans 20-3 at halftime, but that’s the last time they would see the end zone or the goalposts. The Seahawks defense clamped down on Matt Schaub, Andre Johnson, Arian Foster, Owen Daniel, Ben Tate and rookie sensation, DeAndre Hopkins keeping them out of the end zone for the entire second half. In addition to the LOB shutting down the Houston Texans passing offense, the front seven defensive players for Seattle began to wear down Gary Kubiak’s offensive line and it began to be very difficult for Schaub to get off a pass without getting pummeled before and after he threw the football. It was as if Seattle’s defense woke up at halftime.
Because the Seahawks live and train on the West Coast, this was a 10 o’clock start for them. The way that they began the game makes perfect sense… Seattle started playing "Seahawks Football" when there internal clocks realized it was now 1:00 PM after halftime. It was only then, that Clinton McDonald, Chris Clemons, Cliff Avril, Brandon Mebane and safety Kam Chancellor began their assault on the Texans quarterback, so badly that you could swear Schaub was on the sidelines using the telephone to call for a restraining order on the Seahawks defensive front seven. Schaub was clearly rattled by the barrage of hits that he began to take in the third and fourth quarters. Cliff Avril came off the left side and hit Schaub so hard his helmet flew off and he laid on his back in disbelief. Could he have realized that a sleeping dog had just awoken; a snarling, drooling and vicious attack dog? It’s as if, Pete Carroll released his defense from the chains around their necks, allowing them to attack in the manner in which they were trained; attack those who enter their territory.
KJ Wright took a blow to the shoulder, re-aggravating an old injury from his college playing days. After being examined by the sideline trainers, Wright insisted that they tape him up and release him again to attack anyone carrying a football. "This was an important fight for the Seahawks and I wasn't about to miss a minute of this one." Wright said just after the game concluded. Kam Chancellor began to blitz from the safety position, flanking ball-carriers on the right, the left and straight up the gut causing the Texans' offensive lineman to appear surprised and confused on nearly every second half play. Bobby Wagner, a pigskin "seeking missile", disrupted blocking schemes, shedding blockers right and left, until he found the football. Earl Thomas, the best free safety in the game, patrolled the deep secondary like hammerhead shark, searching for anything spilling blood and carrying a football. The Seahawks are definitely creating a reputation as a team that has a pattern of not showing up until the second half. Up until Sunday morning, that pattern of play has been adequate, but the Seahawks didn't train and prepare to become adequate. This style of play must improve if they want to be ready for some of the tough contests they will face throughout the rest of the regular season and into the postseason playoffs. The Seahawks must retake the NFC West championship and secure home-field advantage through the playoffs.. The fans of Seattle deserve this and this football team is far too talented and prepared to do anything less. For the leaders of this football team and the Seahawk fans throughout the world, believe that it is Providence, it is destiny and anything less is simply unacceptable. Failure is not an option…
So,
what did we learn about the Seattle Seahawks last Sunday at Houston?
I
think one of the most poignant things we learned was that Russell Wilson has an
innovative, instinctual and unquenchable drive to keep doing whatever is
necessary to win close games, especially when the team isn’t clicking on all
cylinders, sometimes none. One bit of
info that's not a secret to fans of football is that; the Houston Texans
defensive front-seven is extremely talented and stocked with dominant, physical
and grizzly aggressive type players in their pursuit of opposing quarterbacks
and ball-carriers behind the line of scrimmage.
Whitney Mercilus, Brian Cushing and are noted defensive standouts, but
it’s, DE JJ Watt, who currently holds the prestigious honor as the “National
Football League’s Defensive Most Valuable Player. He is a true monster, a man among men, a
beast of NFL defenses, collecting 20.5 sacks in 2012, and I’m sure that he and
the Incredible Hulk have many things in common, skin color notwithstanding;
Although they both turn into “someone or something” you wouldn’t want to meet
on a football field or anywhere when they get angry, and make no mistake -- JJ
was very angry throughout the second half of Sunday’s game and definitely with
the press as they needled him with questions about the Texans loss at his
Reliant Stadium locker stall. He was
restrained enough to avoid a slew of curse words, that he visibly struggled to
hold back, as he explained the intense disappointment he felt losing to the
Seahawks in the Texans own stadium.
His
countenance of the Texans failures could accurately have been described as
fearsome, even frightening, by the time he put an abrupt end to the locker side
interview. A bloody, swollen gash on the
bridge of his nose, which had required six stitches to close, didn’t help any.
“I’m
(angry),” he said, his lower lip trembling slightly. “This sucks.
Nobody likes to lose. Especially
like this. In your own building. This isn’t fun, man. I was sick of it after one loss. I can’t … That’s all I’ve got to say.
Asked
how he sustained the gruesome cut, Watt continued with a glare straight ahead,
wearing a Texans knit stocking cap;
“I
hit people for a living,” he said.
Likely,
an unintentional, funny line. But nobody
in the press corps dared to even smirk.
So,
how did Watt actually sustain the laceration and contusion to his nose? On a sideline hit, after Russell Wilson was
seemingly trapped in the pocket, he scrambled out of a certain Texan melee and
ran down the left sideline, ultimately throwing the ball out of bounds to avoid
a sack. As Watt was quickly bearing down
on him, Wilson took a hard, but legal hit.
JJ Watt may have taken the worst of the collision, however. Wilson somehow managed to avoid a clean hit
and rolled out of his fall, into a standing position. Standing over his attacker at 5’10” 200 lbs.,
while Watt, a hulking 6’5” 289 lbs. of muscle and bone, rose from the white
grass sideline with what looked like a broken nose and a laceration spilling
blood down each side of his nose and dripping from his lips and chin. The replay was broadcast repeatedly all over
the television networks, showing JJ Watt putting a lick on Wilson… But the aftermath may have exposed a
different story. Wilson didn’t get a
scratch, while the “Man-ster”(Watt) from Houston bled the red stuff all over
his face, jersey and several white towels on the sidelines.
Another
thing I think we learned about the Seahawks after Sunday’s game in Houston is
that the “Legion of Boom” is as lethal as advertised. It’s true that, the feared LOB and the rest
of the Seahawks defense gave up more yardage in the first half to the Texans
offense than they did any of their previous opponents in the entire game. It’s also true that quarterback Matt Schaub
seemed to have his way with the Seahawks secondary, (31/49 355 yds., 2 TDs)
throwing strikes to wide receiver Andre Johnson (9 rec. 110 yds.) and to tight
end Owen Daniels seemingly without any trouble whatsoever, allowing the Texans
an eight minute advantage in time of possession (39:53 to 31: 48). It really seemed like the Seahawks defense
was confused in the first half. As they
came out in the second half, it didn’t seem like any real adjustments were made
by the Seahawks to improve on those horrendous numbers. Andre Johnson continued catching passes and
Matt Schaub continued to enjoy several seconds each passing play to go through
his "check down sequences" and picking apart the best defensive
secondary in football. Seattle's front
seven failed to put any real pressure on Schaub threw three quarters of
football. But it’s the timely wisdom by
Richard Sherman, Earl Thomas, Kam Chancellor and Brandon Browner that makes the
Seahawks D so bloody dangerous down the stretch. Finally, Pete Carroll's "Skeleton Crew O
line" began to wear down the Texans' sack masters; Watt, Mercilus and
Smith. Meanwhile defensive lineman;
Brandon Mebane, Red Bryant, Cliff Avril, Clinton McDonald, Tony McDaniel and
Chris Clemons (freshly back from ACL rehab assignment), began to seriously beat
up the Texans offensive line, putting tremendous pressure on Schaub. What was most important and what began to
slant the momentum in the Seahawks favor was definitely the pressure of the
defense on the Texans passing game. The
Seahawks did give 20 points to the Texans in the first half, but after the
break, Schaub and his offense never scored another point. The defense kept the game score close and
manageable for Russell Wilson and the rest of the Hawks' offense. Statistics don’t always tell the true story
of every game. In this case, statistics
only told half the story and it is true that the Texans dominated the first
half, in statistics and on the most important statistic. Statistics only really have two applicable
uses in pro-football, I think. One; to
make assumptions about individual performances and what will likely work and
what won’t work as you develop a game plan against your next opponent, and two;
for those who enjoy playing fantasy football.
In every other situation, you can throw out every statistical category
except for one… The scoreboard.
This week, the Seahawks face one of the better AFC football teams,the Indianapolis Colts. Andrew Luck has been the epitome of what you would expect from a first overall selection, at quarterback, in the NFL draft. Luck, just like Seattle's Russell Wilson, is in his second year and will constantly be under a microscope for signs of a sophomore slump. Last season featured five high profile rookie quarterbacks, starting for their respective teams and all full of high expectations. Luck was selected 1st overall, Robert Griffin III was 2nd, Ryan Tannehill was 8th, Brandon Weeden went 22nd and Russell Wilson was selected in the third round, 75th overall. Each of these young gunslingers had outstanding debut seasons in the toughest football league in the world. Some better than others, Andrew Luck, Robert Griffin III and Russell Wilson all had outstanding rookie seasons with all of them leading their team into the playoffs. Wilson was the only rookie quarterback to collect a victory in postseason, as the Seahawks defeated, RGIII and the Washington Redskins, in the NFC wild-card game in Washington DC. Seattle would go on to play the first seeded NFC playoff team, the Atlanta Falcons, at the Georgia Dome, but faltered in the final seconds of regulation, losing by a field goal after trailing by 20 points at halftime and taking a one point lead with just 31 seconds to go.
This should be a very exciting and competitive game full of a variety of subtexts and interesting side notes.
Note: After the record-breaking noise fest earlier this season in CenturyLink Field, when the Seahawks throttled the San Francisco 49ers, in front of 68,000 screaming Seahawks fans, when the 12th man roared for the Seahawks at 136.6 decibels, Colts backup and former Seahawks quarterback, Matt Hasselbeck, has been coaching the Indianapolis fans on the art of creating disruptive crowd noise for their home game at Lucas Oil Stadium. Lucas is a covered stadium and regardless of how loud the fans are in Indianapolis comparatively to Seattle, it will still be a noisy and disruptive environment for second year quarterback, Wilson. Should be an interesting contest and challenging task for the Seattle Seahawks to contend with. The Seahawks are the better team on paper, and with a much deeper roster. However, this game is a road game against a quality opponent, and it will not be an easy game to come away with a 5-0 record best for Seattle.
*****
