Hawk Tawk Week 4…All Things Seattle Seahawks
Welcome back 12thmen and 12thwomen!
Let’s Tawk Hawk…let’s Tawk about the offensive line and the John Moffitt trade. Lets Tawk about the Quarterback performance these past couple weeks and what to expect in week one. Let’s Tawk about Darrell Revis Tawking bout “The” Richard Sherman and Sherman’s column on MMQB. Let’s Tawk about the Hawk-Tastic award I won last week for the third edition of Hawk Tawk. Lets Tawk about the Seahawks performance in the game against the Raiders at the “Clink,” and what it may mean to the Seattle Seahawks roster. Are you ready to Tawk Hawk? I am, let’s go.
Let me preface this with the fact that, “Yes, I do indeed know that these are pre-season games.” In last week’s Hawk Tawk, I touched on my disdain for the play of the offensive line thus far. I was still disappointed and disgruntled with the penalties coming into this week along with the mediocre pass protection being provided to the quarterback(s). I have huge expectations, mind you. I particularly name dropped Giacomini, and his penchant for stupid penalties. Then, JR Sweezy came out and took over the penalty king role. Before you get all Hawk-fennsive, let me expand. If an offensive lineman commits a penalty in the process of protecting his field general, I understand. Soldiers have to do things all the time to protect the integrity of the mission. Russell Wilson is the mission and the offensive line are the Soldiers. Are you tracking so far? The penalties we had been witness to leading up to this week were stupid. S_T_U_P_I_D, Junior Varsity BS . By the way, BS stands for Baffling Stuff. False starts and holding by the offensive line are stupid mistakes most of the time. They are two totally different beasts, yet they cost the team regardless. The Seattle offensive line needs to find some discipline. Trying too hard to impress and succeeding in failure are two completely different things my friends. Guess which one I think the offensive line had been doing leading up to this week? I found myself thinking, “Coach Cable needs to get some discipline in those dudes, and fast.” I believe the Seahawks were penalized 6 times in the first half, for like 110 yards last week. Then the Seahawks came out and went the entire first half on Thursday night with only two penalties. They ended up with 8 total penalties for 80+ yards against the Raiders, and that is a huge improvement, but nowhere near “good.” You’ll have to read up for yourself and see how many were on the offensive line. If you do, let me know, unless it was a real bad ratio. I am still very, very concerned with the offensive line. Otherwise the Seahawks are fine.
The Seahawks traded John Moffitt to the Browns for Brian Sanford. The offensive line has been suspect over the past few years and in my not so humble opinion is the most overlooked flaw in the Seahawks armor. They have done pretty well allowing the running game to become an elite asset, however they are still struggling in pass protection. Evidently, Moffitt was outclassed in camp by a developing crew of younger linemen including JR Sweezy, John Carpenter, Paul McQuistan, Alvin Bailey, Rishaw Johnson, and Ryan Seymour. The learning curve needs to be quick and furious for these young SeaHogs, and I suppose we just have to trust in the system Coach Cable has in place. “Hey Coach Cable, break a foot off, and get the line ready to play real football, I will be watching.”
Now I want to Tawk Revis. Instead of Tawking to you about Revis, I am going to Tawk directly to the former owner of the Island.
"“Dear Mr. Revis.Way back in the olden days when I was a young writer, just getting my feet wet, if you will, I wrote about you. I had a vision of the upcoming game this year against your new team, The Tampa Bay Buccaneers. You are NOT the best corner back in football. You used to be. The island is inhabited now, infested with 12thmen and 12thwomen. Millions of them worldwide are waiting patiently in the weeds. Your old island has been purchased, much like the Louisianan territory. The price was $600, 606.00 if adjusted for the salary cap hit. I will need you to go to the dollar store and get yourself a new ball point pen, because on November 3rd of this year, you will sign the deed. Get over it. Did you read “Big Sherm’s” article on MMQB? If you did, you would realize that it was well thought out and pretty objective, considering. You just can’t let it go can you? Go Hawks!”"
Let’s Tawk quarterbacks. Russel Wilson and Tavaris Jackson are the quarterbacks that should take Seattle to the promised land this year. If you are of the persuasion that Brady Quinn has a place on the roster, I am going to need you to Tawk to my friend, Ted. he knows of the dangers of illegal substances usage. He learned the hard way after some in depth research that I asked him to to do earlier in the pre season when trying to figure out why the talking heads thought Percy Harvin’s injury made Seattle a worse team. At any rate, for the most part Russell looked good, but he also didn’t need to win the starting job this time around. He did what he needed to do and worked it out just fine. He made a few errors here and there, and that is exactly what pre season is for. T-Jack looked fantastic in his pre season. I am super excited that he was willing to come back and be the Seahawks back up. I believe he may be the best back up in the league in the Seahawks offensive scheme. That statement would not work if he was backing up anyone else than “Dange-Russ,” or on any other team. I am in no way concerned about the play of the Seattle quarterbacks, actually I am a little more excited than I was two weeks ago.
Tawking about promised land, check this out. This past week I was honored with my first literary award. This was an exciting event in my life, as I had never really won anything before. A loyal reader submitted this on my behalf;
"“ It’s your great sense of humor that stands out the most though, that’s why you are the latest recipient of Ug’s Most Funniest Read of the Year Award! As an UMFRY award winner, you are entitled to many benefits such as watching Seahawk games, adding UMFRY Award Winner to your resume, and deducting five points from your golf handicap (one point for each letter in UMFRY). Good luck!”"
How awesome is that? I have already printed the verbal recognition, framed it and put it on the wall in my Seahawk temple. I used my new UG handicap that very day, and boy was that a lifesaver! I used the award again this week so I could see the last pre-season game against the Raiders. It is the gift that just keep on giving. Thanks, UG, you made my whole week.
Lastly let’s Tawk Traiders, err I mean Raiders. First, let me say that this game was against the Raiders, so most of the things that were good, may really not have been that good. But, at least they were good on the curve, so let’s carry on. Against the Raiders the Seahawks were very obviously focused on a few specific areas of the game. They did not put too much focus on the running effort. The Raiders obviously were dead set on working out their run defense, so I believe the Seahawks simply took advantage of that and used it as an opportunity to flex their screen passes, quick reads, and even a couple deep shots. The penalties were down when the players who are going to see significant playing time were in. Bruce Irvin looks like he is adapting to his new position pretty well. He saw lots of playing time last night, and seemed to do well flying around and making plays. He even looked decent in coverage. Not great, take it easy, but decent, remember this is a new position. We will have to wait until week 5 to see if that holds true though, because he did something really stupid. Here is to hoping that the Seahawks have gotten that JV BS out of their system, there is no place for that garbage in our beloved game. The offense moved the ball between the 20’s with efficiency. Hauschka had a leg on fire. Three field goals of 50+ is good and bad. Good because he made them, bad because that means they were not getting into the end zone. The Seahawks, however, were obviously not too concerned with really establishing a running game when the Raiders were just going to roll over and let them Seahawk down the field through the air. Overall I think they are ready for week one.
There are still some questions that we will have to wait on answers for. Who is our second tight end? Who is going to be charged with protecting Russ and blowing open the opposing defenses for Skittles, Turbo, and CM Hawk? Who is the regular kick returner? Who do we have to say good bye to? Who is going to be kept as a sixth and seventh receiver / special teams gurus? Who wants some of Deboe? We will see fellow 12ers, we will see.
I almost forgot to check in with Ted. That would be bad. “Ted, what do you think about the Raider game?”
Until next week, 12thman now, 12thman forever. GO HAWKS!