The 12th Man—December 10, 2007
HOW THE WEST WAS WON. AGAIN.
Five weeks ago Seattle had dropped to 4-4 after blowing a 15-point lead at Cleveland and looked nothing better than the default leader of a weak division. Sure, Seattle would probably win the NFC West, but whom in that division was truly capable of challenging them? Legitimate playoff teams didn’t blow games like that and didn’t look as inept while doing it. A season filled with so much promise was just turning out to be another mediocre, 9-7-type year capped off by a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it playoff appearance a la 2004.
Five weeks later? The Seahawks are roaring into the playoffs on the strength of a five-game winning streak and look nothing like the team that took the field in Cleveland last November. They’ve won the easy games, they’ve eked out the tough road victories, and they just invited the only other contender in the division into their house and beat the snot out of them for 60 minutes of football in a game that was as fun as any that Seahawk fans have seen all year.
This is more than a team with a winning record. This is a team that has rediscovered its swagger, a team that takes the field KNOWING that they are going to win and that their opponents really don’t have much say in the matter. This is a team that is capable of going toe-to-toe with the Packers, the Cowboys, and—dare I say it—even the New England Patriots. This is a team that has a legitimate shot at a Super Bowl for the first time in two years.
So what happened? What turned a collection of pretenders into bonafide contenders in just over a month’s time? How can this team possibly be playing so well after playing so poorly in the second lap of the season?
On offense, credit Mike Holmgren. This Seahawks offense was too good to be sputtering as badly as it was five weeks ago. The offensive line was too good to be playing so poorly. Holmgren recognized these problems and took steps to fix them. He took the offense out of the hands of his former league MVP and put it in the hands of his quarterback who is having an MVP-caliber season of his own. He started putting in Floyd Womack in at left guard occasionally to spell a struggling Rob Sims. Holmgren made changes until he found something that worked; Seattle’s offense just put together their best performance of the season and shows no signs of slowing down any time soon.
On defense, credit the linemen. This group looked flat-out pathetic in the Cleveland loss: the pass rushers never sacked Derek Anderson and rarely got near him, while the run stuffers let Jamal Lewis run over them for four touchdowns. Since then, the difference has been night and day. Patrick Kerney has 10 sacks over the past five games; to put that in perspective, Seattle hasn’t had a defensive end with 10 sacks in a SEASON since 1998. The run defense hasn’t surrendered on a goal line stand since the Browns game. Put that effort together with the re-emergence of playmakers such as Lofa Tatupu and Marcus Trufant, and you have one of the best defenses in the National Football League. It will give up the big play occasionally and may not look so impressive in terms of yards allowed, but when the game is on the line has there been a defense that has played so consistently well over the past five weeks?
In the offseason most of the “experts” figured that San Francisco would win the NFC West. Earlier in this season many of the same “experts” thought that Arizona could go on a run and steal the division. Given Seattle’s struggles late last season and earlier this year, they can be forgiven their mistakes. But this isn’t the same Seahawks team that dropped three out of their last four in 2006, or even the same team that was 4-4 after a heartbreaking loss to the Browns five weeks ago. Most of the “experts” have now declared that the NFC will either go to the Cowboys or the Packers, but the Seahawks are playing just as well as those teams. Most of the “experts” are talking about how dangerous Minnesota has become, but the Seahawks are even more so. And while the country at large continues to write off Seattle, the Seahawks are quietly playing their best football since 2005. That’s how they won their fourth straight division title.
That’s how, if this success continues, the Seahawks could win a lot more than that before this season is over.
Random Thoughts on Week Fourteen
• It’s high time that some of the fans cut Shaun Alexander some slack. Is he running as well as he did two years ago? Of course not. But since Mike Holmgren publicly committed to a pass-first offense last month Shaun has done nothing wrong. He isn’t whining to the media, he isn’t a problem in the locker room, and—most importantly—he’s running harder on the field. Shaun Alexander is a player in decline, but if the last few weeks have shown anything, they’ve shown that he is also a TEAM player. He doesn’t deserve the boos.
• On a similar note, it’s high time Boone Stutz was cut. Not slack, just CUT. His erratic snaps have been having a detrimental effect on Josh Brown and Ryan Plackemeier (the problems in the kicking game aren’t all his fault, but he’s been a factor) and it’s going to bite Seattle before too much longer if the problem isn’t corrected now. Stutz’s blown snap on the PAT Sunday was largely irrelevant in a game Seattle had already sewn up, but imagine a similarly bad snap in a playoff game when Josh Brown is lined up to kick a potentially game-winning field goal. Sunday’s game should be Stutz’s last in a Seahawks uniform.
• Marcus Trufant is playing himself into a big-time contract next season. While the “contract year” phenomenon cannot be dismissed, Trufant is playing too well to be allowed to hit the free agent market because some team will inevitably throw Nate Clements-esque money at him. Don’t be surprised to see a franchise tag on “Tru” next spring.
• Sunday’s game was only the second time in team history that the Seahawks clinched their division with a home victory, with the first coming in 2004 after a nail-biting victory over Atlanta. It’s also the second-earliest that Seattle has ever clinched their division, with the earliest coming in 2005 when Seattle clinched the day before their Monday Night beatdown on the Philadelphia Eagles.
• Could Hawks-Cards be the up-and-coming rivalry in this division? The Cardinals do have a lot to build on and these teams don’t seem to like each other very much. This could be a fun series to watch next season.
Five weeks ago Seattle had dropped to 4-4 after blowing a 15-point lead at Cleveland and looked nothing better than the default leader of a weak division. Sure, Seattle would probably win the NFC West, but whom in that division was truly capable of challenging them? Legitimate playoff teams didn’t blow games like that and didn’t look as inept while doing it. A season filled with so much promise was just turning out to be another mediocre, 9-7-type year capped off by a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it playoff appearance a la 2004.
Five weeks later? The Seahawks are roaring into the playoffs on the strength of a five-game winning streak and look nothing like the team that took the field in Cleveland last November. They’ve won the easy games, they’ve eked out the tough road victories, and they just invited the only other contender in the division into their house and beat the snot out of them for 60 minutes of football in a game that was as fun as any that Seahawk fans have seen all year.
This is more than a team with a winning record. This is a team that has rediscovered its swagger, a team that takes the field KNOWING that they are going to win and that their opponents really don’t have much say in the matter. This is a team that is capable of going toe-to-toe with the Packers, the Cowboys, and—dare I say it—even the New England Patriots. This is a team that has a legitimate shot at a Super Bowl for the first time in two years.
So what happened? What turned a collection of pretenders into bonafide contenders in just over a month’s time? How can this team possibly be playing so well after playing so poorly in the second lap of the season?
On offense, credit Mike Holmgren. This Seahawks offense was too good to be sputtering as badly as it was five weeks ago. The offensive line was too good to be playing so poorly. Holmgren recognized these problems and took steps to fix them. He took the offense out of the hands of his former league MVP and put it in the hands of his quarterback who is having an MVP-caliber season of his own. He started putting in Floyd Womack in at left guard occasionally to spell a struggling Rob Sims. Holmgren made changes until he found something that worked; Seattle’s offense just put together their best performance of the season and shows no signs of slowing down any time soon.
On defense, credit the linemen. This group looked flat-out pathetic in the Cleveland loss: the pass rushers never sacked Derek Anderson and rarely got near him, while the run stuffers let Jamal Lewis run over them for four touchdowns. Since then, the difference has been night and day. Patrick Kerney has 10 sacks over the past five games; to put that in perspective, Seattle hasn’t had a defensive end with 10 sacks in a SEASON since 1998. The run defense hasn’t surrendered on a goal line stand since the Browns game. Put that effort together with the re-emergence of playmakers such as Lofa Tatupu and Marcus Trufant, and you have one of the best defenses in the National Football League. It will give up the big play occasionally and may not look so impressive in terms of yards allowed, but when the game is on the line has there been a defense that has played so consistently well over the past five weeks?
In the offseason most of the “experts” figured that San Francisco would win the NFC West. Earlier in this season many of the same “experts” thought that Arizona could go on a run and steal the division. Given Seattle’s struggles late last season and earlier this year, they can be forgiven their mistakes. But this isn’t the same Seahawks team that dropped three out of their last four in 2006, or even the same team that was 4-4 after a heartbreaking loss to the Browns five weeks ago. Most of the “experts” have now declared that the NFC will either go to the Cowboys or the Packers, but the Seahawks are playing just as well as those teams. Most of the “experts” are talking about how dangerous Minnesota has become, but the Seahawks are even more so. And while the country at large continues to write off Seattle, the Seahawks are quietly playing their best football since 2005. That’s how they won their fourth straight division title.
That’s how, if this success continues, the Seahawks could win a lot more than that before this season is over.
Random Thoughts on Week Fourteen
• It’s high time that some of the fans cut Shaun Alexander some slack. Is he running as well as he did two years ago? Of course not. But since Mike Holmgren publicly committed to a pass-first offense last month Shaun has done nothing wrong. He isn’t whining to the media, he isn’t a problem in the locker room, and—most importantly—he’s running harder on the field. Shaun Alexander is a player in decline, but if the last few weeks have shown anything, they’ve shown that he is also a TEAM player. He doesn’t deserve the boos.
• On a similar note, it’s high time Boone Stutz was cut. Not slack, just CUT. His erratic snaps have been having a detrimental effect on Josh Brown and Ryan Plackemeier (the problems in the kicking game aren’t all his fault, but he’s been a factor) and it’s going to bite Seattle before too much longer if the problem isn’t corrected now. Stutz’s blown snap on the PAT Sunday was largely irrelevant in a game Seattle had already sewn up, but imagine a similarly bad snap in a playoff game when Josh Brown is lined up to kick a potentially game-winning field goal. Sunday’s game should be Stutz’s last in a Seahawks uniform.
• Marcus Trufant is playing himself into a big-time contract next season. While the “contract year” phenomenon cannot be dismissed, Trufant is playing too well to be allowed to hit the free agent market because some team will inevitably throw Nate Clements-esque money at him. Don’t be surprised to see a franchise tag on “Tru” next spring.
• Sunday’s game was only the second time in team history that the Seahawks clinched their division with a home victory, with the first coming in 2004 after a nail-biting victory over Atlanta. It’s also the second-earliest that Seattle has ever clinched their division, with the earliest coming in 2005 when Seattle clinched the day before their Monday Night beatdown on the Philadelphia Eagles.
• Could Hawks-Cards be the up-and-coming rivalry in this division? The Cardinals do have a lot to build on and these teams don’t seem to like each other very much. This could be a fun series to watch next season.
posted at 19:44:11 on 12/10/07
by Shadowhawk -
Category: "The 12th Man" by Will Harrison
Comments
No comments yet
Add Comments
This item is closed, it's not possible to add new comments to it or to vote on it