As far as predicting events goes, the last calendar year has been pretty rotten. I thought I had found the love of my life, but I didn’t. I thought Hillary Clinton would win the presidency by a mile, but she didn’t. And I predicted the Atlanta Falcons would win the Super Bowl. For three and a half quarters, I was happy with that prediction. Except one thing kept gnawing at me. 28 points. I had said it multiple times, not…
At the conclusion of the NFC Championship game, the Atlanta Falcons stood victorious, having defeated NFC powerhouses the Seattle Seahawks and the Green Bay Packers in consecutive weeks by decisive margins. Carried by a feisty defense and by far the NFL’s best offense, led by its MVP-caliber quarterback, Matt Ryan, the Falcons final challenge will take place at NRG Stadium in Houston, Texas to face the AFC champion New England Patriots for the Lombardi Trophy at Super Bowl LI. At…
The Seattle Seahawks traveled to the Georgia Dome to meet the Atlanta Falcons. Despite the Seahawks playing in a dome, on turf, and despite scoring an opening drive touchdown, the Hawks surrendered the game, 36-20. Any season not ending in a Super Bowl ends in disappointment and so ended the 2016 season—a season highlighted by a litany of injuries, including Thomas Rawls, CJ Prosise, Russell Wilson, Michael Bennett, Kam Chancellor, Luke Willson, Tyler Lockett, and most of all, Earl Thomas,…
Thursday night, December 7th, the Kansas City Chiefs (9-3) will attempt to break the Oakland Raiders (10-2) six-game winning streak. Owning the superior division record, a Chiefs victory would move the team into either the one or two seed, a title filled with so many tie-breakers that it’s difficult to make sense out of it. Here are four aspects to a Chiefs victory. Houston, We Have A Problem. A pass rushing extraordinary with a knack for deflecting passes and forcing…
A mere fourteen days of rest would not be enough time to return quarterback Russell Wilson to full-health, but he took the field on Sunday a much closer version of himself. Previously, Wilson had been taking almost all snaps out of the shotgun, as playing under center required him to squat for the snap, and then it required him to drop back, either to pass or to swivel on his hips and then extend the ball for a handoff. Still held back by layers of tape around both ankles and a brace on his knee, the signal-caller did not appear much quicker, but his flexibility and range-of-motion was improved.
Wilson took 65 snaps with 24 (37%) of them coming from under center. Christine Michael benefited from the change. Both of his touchdowns came from Wilson being under center, en route to 18 carries for 64 yards. Formerly a second-round pick who became a NFL journeymen and is now back in Seattle, Micheal has earned himself a place on the Seahawks roster, but offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell is struggling to find exactly what it is. During the Hawks first three drives, Michael ran the ball on consecutive plays during an individual set of downs. The result of each set was a punt; however, on the fourth drive, Bevell went to Michael again on consecutive plays, except this time one of the plays was a pass. The result was a touchdown. This is further evidence that Michael is better used as a compliment to the passing game, and leaves the largest question about the Seahawks still unanswered.
Who is going to be primary back in this system?
The Seahawks played a smash-mouth game against the Rams during week two and lost in a fashion only the Rams can create. There were many reasons to ignore this game, especially since every NFL team shits the bed once per season. One could be forgiven for thinking, without Teddy Bridgewater, and in the first week of the Sam Bradford experiment, where Adrian Peterson rushed for only 31 yards on 19 carries, that the Vikings were in 8-8 territory. Fast forward to week 5 and the Vikings are now 5-0 and have won four of those five games by greater than a touchdown. Last year, the Seahawks took the Vikings twice. The first was a 38-7 stomping. Several key Viking defensive starters were missing during the game, and in the post-season, it was a different story with their presence. The Hawks still won, 10-9.
If the Seahawks are due to meet the Vikings in the post-season, this Rams defense might be the only real warm-up they get. So being the glutton for punishment that I am, I decided to watch week two again.
After years of sending the Panthers home in tears, the Seahawks were swept by the Panthers in 2015. It’s a nice chance at revenge, but it is difficult to understand what type of Panthers team the Seahawks will face.