Seattle Seahawks Blog
"The Good, The bad, and The Ugly for the Hawks on Sunday"
This game has as many highs and lows of any football game I've seen in a while. The Cincinnati Bengals are a GOOD football team, no doubt about it. Their defense is not all that great and I thought we would/should have scored more points, but our offense once again struggled early. Shaun has got to come out the gates stronger or we're going to be down against San Francisco this weekend 24-0 before we know it. Should he stretch more before the game? Should he rep harder in pre-game? Who knows, but something's got to change.
Here are Seattle Sports Blog's +'s and -'s from the game yesterday:
The Good:
1. We have been harping on Matt Hasselbeck not being a clutch QB...well, he proved us wrong yesterday. The 3rd and 10 imprompt roll out to Branch was a gutsy play on his part and it proved to be the needed spark to get us in a position to finish off Cincy. His throw to Burleson couldn't have been placed any better.
2. Deon and Brian: Wow, what a 125% improvement at both safety position for the Hawks this year with Russell and Grant. BIG improvements, and it goes to show that Hamlin and Boulware didn't know what they were doing in our defense. Both safeties never got beat deep yesterday on numerous attempts. That was money well spent this offseason
3. Special Teams: The Josh Wilson opening drive and forced fumble were huge, game changing events.
4. Bobby Engram and Burleson....clutch. How many times has Hasselbeck found Engram over the middle
The Bad:
1. Our "bend but don't break" defense, run by Mr. conservative "I can't disguise blitzes" John Marshall STILL did not impress yesterday. Yes, Cincy is a good team, Yes, Johnson and T.J are amazing WR's, but we need to get more pressure on Palmer yesterday and we failed to do it. Why not do what ALL NFL teams are doing these days and crowd the line with FS/SS and LB's, that way, the offense has no idea where the blitz is coming from. Marshall just doesn't get it
2. Lofa: I love this guy for his leadership and tenacity, but he is still out of position a lot of the time and being bulled over in the middle. Spend less time on the Seahawks cruises Lofa and start hitting the weight room. He had 3 tackles yesterday, which I think was even inflated.
3. Marcus Pollard: in the West Coast offense, our TE is critical and Pollard is not stepping up. Granted, we ran a lot of 3 and 4 WR sets yesterday, however, when the ball was thrown his way, he dropped a perfect pass that turned into a INT. If this does not improve next week, let's get Heller in there...younger, stronger, and can catch
The Ugly: The Seattle Police department vs. "the streaker". Our dounut eating city police has no change against a guy that looked like he was running a 4.4! Sign him up!!
Next up, a pesky San Francisco team that is going to be hungry after getting their butts handed to them vs. Pittsburgh
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