Tag Archives: atlanta falcons

Seattle Seahawks: 5 Stats to Know from Win Over Panthers

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The Seattle Seahawks snapped a two game losing streak with a 13-9 win over the Carolina Panthers on Sunday. It represented the third straight year in which they beat the Panthers on the road by scoring somewhere between 10-20 points. It took a last minute drive to do it, but the team pulled it off. As everyone (team and fans included) gets ready for next Sunday’s home match up against the Oakland Raiders, here are five stats to know from the win.

1. Four and 34

Or, the combined number of catches and receiving yards for rookie receivers Paul Richardson and Kevin Norwood. The two rookie wideouts, who are widely perceived to see major increases in production thanks to Percy Harvin’s departure, had the four catches on only five targets. It’s not a huge output, especially considering it took two players to reach the total, but it’s worth mentioning that in all games, including the playoffs, Harvin only bettered 34 yards through the air three times. Additionally, he only bettered the four catches three times. The point is that his production will be easier to replace then most think.

2. 62

The number of rushing yards racked up by Marshawn Lynch on 14 carries. Since a Week Ten win over the Falcons last year, Beast Mode has topped 100 yards once, occurring during the 36-16, opening game drubbing of the Packers. If you take away a 25 yard run, Lynch’s totals shrink to 13 carries for 37 yards.

There’s apparently rift between Lynch’s camp and the Seahawks, prompting all sorts of talk of the two sides separating. Whether it be by trade, or the team simply cutting the running back, rumors have run rampant. The Seahawks have based a lot of their offensive identity around running the football. Marshawn Lynch is a big part of that. However, the team may be ok with moving on if Lynch keeps posting 62 yard performances.

Just to compare, here are four different running backs in the NFL and their game totals in terms of rushing yards this season-

Running Back One- 3, 79, 132, 107, 6, 25, 49                          Total: 401

Running Back Two- 110, 36, 88, 72, 61, 53, 62                        Total: 482

Running Back Three- 70, 56, 63, 66, 42, 111, 95, 68             Total: 571

Running Back Four- 102, 44, 44, 84, 44, 7, 107, 43                Total: 475

Running back number one happens to be Kansas City’s Knile Davis. Number two is Lynch, number three is former Seahawk Justin Forsett while number four is former Washington State Cougar Chris Ivory.

3. Nine

Number of different receivers who caught passes from Russell Wilson. These included the previously mentioned rookies, Kevin Norwood and Paul Richardson as well as Lynch, Doug Baldwin, Robert Turbin, Luke Willson, Ricardo Lockette, Jermaine Kearse and Cooper Helfet.

4. One

Punt returned by Richard Sherman. In actuality, the cornerback called for a fair catch on the play. It’s only the second punt return in Sherman’s career. His other punt return was scored as a loss of six yards.

5. 58

Kicker Steven Hauschka’s longest field goal on the day. The place kicker made both of his field goals and only has one miss all year. Over the course of his four years in Seattle, Hauschka has only missed 11 field goals, and has only missed six in the last three years.

 

All stats courtesy of http://www.pro-football-reference.com/ unless otherwise noted.

 

 

Optimizing Optimism: Thoughts on the Seahawks Season and Next Year

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Optimizing Optimism

Everyone got their hearts ripped out Sunday.

The Seahawks lost a really tough game.

I’ll admit, I thought the game was at one o’clock in my time zone. I didn’t realize it was on until I saw a tweet about “a nice throw” by Russell Wilson. A couple minutes and choice-y swear words later I turned on the TV to see Wilson score on a rushing touchdown to cut it to a 13-point game. Obviously you know the rest. We lost to Atlanta, but there are a ton of things to take from this. Maybe it isn’t the end of the world.

  • Atlanta was the number-one seed in the playoffs folks. They lost three games by an average of six points, and two of those losses were by only four. Only one loss was at home. Atlanta is really good (offensively.) This is a huge step up from the team’s last playoff appearance. Chicago was a two seed, and we had as much of a chance of winning as the Kings do of staying in Sacramento. A long shot. We did make it close with the Bears, but that was never our game to win. This was different. Yeah, we didn’t play up to par in the first half, but we killed the Falcons in the second half. If the Seahawks had played with half that much gusto and what not in the first half we would be trash talking the 49ers this week. (Inevitably we still are. How ridiculous is Kapernicking? So ridiculous that it’s a rip off.)
  • Yes, it probably hurt more knowing that we had a legitimate shot at the Super Bowl to lose this game than if we lost it as a Cinderella-Wild Card, but the point is that we were a legitimate Super Bowl contender who took the number-one seed in our conference (who, by the way, easily could have been 16-0) to the last second and went on a three-week scoring rampage with a rookie quarterback. I know Russell Wilson is more than most and/or all rookies, but the fact that this is his basement, imagine what his ceiling is. More so, this team’s ceiling could be very, very high. Chris Clemons, 31, and Marcus Trufant, 32, are the only non-specialists, major contributors over 30. In fact, Heath Farewell, who in his own right is a fantastic special teams player, defensive end Patrick Chukwurah, punter Jon Ryan and stand-in kicker Ryan Longwell are the only guys over 30 on the entire roster. This team has a very high ceiling, and to put it in Pete Carroll’s words, “Can be really cool for us in the future.”
  • Did I mention how good Russell Wilson is? Not only did he set a franchise and NFL record for passing yards in a playoff game with 385 (WHATTTT!?!?!), but he also threw for 3,118 as a rookie as well as running for 489 yards. I can’t stress enough, he is a rookie. Imagine him in three years. (I believe, if this were twitter,  #scary would be appropriate.)
  • Pete Carroll had 15 wins (counting the playoffs) in his first two years. He had 13 this year (again counting playoffs) alone. He had 19 losses over that span (first two years) and less than a third of that number (six, again, counting playoffs) this year. This is a tremendous step up for Carroll and the team. It finally seems like he has the personnel he wants to run the kind of team he needs to win. And he is winning.

The Seahawks have nothing to be ashamed about this year. Yes, they lost and that was heart breaking, but I think most people thought this would be another 7-9 transition year with Matt Flynn as Tavaris Jackson 2.0 in terms of place-holding for the TBD “franchise QB.” But we found Wilson; we found an elite defense (Seriously, best in the league. Period.) We found a lot of things to be proud of this year that might not have shown themselves in a few more years instead. The Seahawks are completely ahead of the curve, and they should be a Super Bowl contender for at least a decade. Count on it.

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The Collective Genius of Pete Carroll and John Schneider

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Leon Washington averaged nearly 10 yards per return on punts over the course of his career. That means punts he returns go from the 10 to the 20, 20 to the 30 and so forth. Now, obviously that isn’t going to happen every play, but having someone who can give you an extra 10 yards instead of a fair catch or touchback on a punt/kick return can have its advantages. Especially when that same someone has the ability to return a kick for a touchdown. (Washington is tied for first in freaking NFL history in kick return touchdowns. The magic number is eight.)

The Seahawks’ price of admission: moving down two rounds from the fifth round to the seventh.

Brandon Browner is widely perceived as one of the better, if not physical, cornerbacks in the entire league. He’s a highly penalized player at times, but consistently draws one of the opposing team’s top threats and comes out either on top or close to it. Browner also made the Pro Bowl last year and probably would have this year if it weren’t for his four-game suspension.

Seahawks’ price of admission: paying his contract. They signed out of the CFL, where, to his credit, he was a three-time All-Star.

Carroll and Schneider have also found a countless number of contributors in all portions of the NFL Draft.

Bobby Wagner was originally touted as too small to play linebacker in the NFL. He led the top scoring defense in the league in tackles his rookie year.

KJ Wright was a fourth-round choice who has gradually turned into one of the better young linebackers in the league. He’s shown his versatility on defense, starting at both the middle and outside linebacker spots at certain points in his career.

Kam Chancellor might be one of, if not the best find of the bunch. Towering over opponents (unless of course, Randy Johnson was to suit up) in the defensive backfield, Chancellor is one of the harder hitters in the league and makes you think twice about leaping for a catch in his vicinity. He also went to the Pro Bowl last year. Draft slot 133rd overall. That’s in the fifth round for anyone who isn’t a super draft genius.

Richard Sherman might be the best cornerback in the the league. Period. The Hawks found him in the fifth round.

And of course there is Russell Wilson who not only tied Peyton Manning’s NFL Rookie record for most touchdown passes in a season with 26, but also was the first rookie QB since the merger to go undefeated at home.

The Seahawks’ brass has also found countless gems in the even-later stages of the draft, JR Sweezey, Greg Scruggs, Jeron Johnson and Jeremy Lane all have made impacts at times.

One of the things that makes the Seahawks’ front office tandem special is because of something they didn’t do. They could have easily tried to replicate Carroll’s USC success and go get every USC guy on the open market. While the team might have been good, it would have seemed too easy or just not right at all. Before you would have known it, USC North signs and the like would probably be popping up everywhere here to Omak.

But they did pick and choose their moments with USC players. After all, they probably would have the best scouting report in the league. Malcolm Smith looks like a long-term answer at linebacker as well as Anthony McCoy, who looks to be also in the team’s long-term plans. McCoy was low on draft boards due to off-the-field problems. Talent wise it was there, maybe not off the field. He’s doing great in Seattle with Carroll and looks to, as stated, be with the team for the long haul.

The one name we have forgotten to mention is Marshawn Lynch’s. You can’t forget beast mode. The Seahawks probably wouldn’t be as far along as they are now without Lynch. He was stolen from the Bills for a couple of mid-round draft picks.

Pete Carroll and John Schneider have done an outstanding job. It certainly makes you forget about the down year we had with Jim Mora.

If I missed any late-round gems, or other great acquisitions the Seahawks made, tell me about it in the acquisitions.