Looking Ahead To The Opener

[RiverDog]

We're 2.5 weeks away from our regular season opener at Indianapolis and I'm bored as hell of trying to digest information coming out of training camp and watching these meaningless preseason games.

As some of you may be aware, our opposition QB for the Colts game, Carson Wentz, suffered a foot injury earlier this summer and underwent surgery on August 3rd, and with a recovery time of 5-12 weeks with the earlier part of that estimate called "overly optimistic", it seemed likely that he wouldn't be available for the opener against us on Sept. 12th. However, Wentz has started practicing this week and HC Frank Reich characterized him as doing "exceedingly well." If Wentz isn't ready, we'll be looking at either 2nd year QB Jacob Eason, a UW product, or rookie 6th round draft pick Sam Ehlinger, both of whom have struggled in preseason and neither of whom have taken a snap in a regular season game.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nfl/is ... uxbndlbing

Regardless of the status of our left tackle situation, you have to like the odds of Russell Wilson against any of the three possible Colt slingers.

[NorthHawk]

We always suck against backup QB's so I would expect it to be a shootout if we have a chance.
I think we will see some or most of the starters this week and maybe more of a glimpse of what our Offense will look like this year.
Last game we saw some motion, some underneath passes, and some up tempo. I hope to see more plays run from the same formation
this week in addition to the above.
Quentin Nelson, their All Pro Guard had the same injury. I haven't heard if he's closer to being ready as well, but I expect not considering
he's much heavier and by nature of the position puts more pressure on his feet than a QB would.
In all though, not having seen the starting lineup play I have no idea yet how they will look but it's apparent we are pretty thin at most positions
when the injuries hit.

[RiverDog]

We always suck against backup QB's so I would expect it to be a shootout if we have a chance.
I think we will see some or most of the starters this week and maybe more of a glimpse of what our Offense will look like this year.
Last game we saw some motion, some underneath passes, and some up tempo. I hope to see more plays run from the same formation
this week in addition to the above.
Quentin Nelson, their All Pro Guard had the same injury. I haven't heard if he's closer to being ready as well, but I expect not considering
he's much heavier and by nature of the position puts more pressure on his feet than a QB would.
In all though, not having seen the starting lineup play I have no idea yet how they will look but it's apparent we are pretty thin at most positions
when the injuries hit.

Nelson is back on the practice field, too:

“You’ll see him (Wentz) out there on the practice field this week. He’ll be out there tomorrow (Monday). He’ll be out there tomorrow taking some things,” Reich told reporters Sunday. “He’ll be out there, he’ll be limited. He’ll be out there. It’ll be limited, he’ll be limited but he will be participating – as will (Ryan) Kelly and as well Quenton Nelson.”

That was from Monday, but since Nelson didn't show up on the Colt's injury report from yesterday, I assume that he's been practicing this week.

And I hear ya about our propensity to make backup quarterbacks look like HOF'ers, and we need to look no further than last year's game vs. the Giants and Colt McCoy for evidence. But there's a difference between an experienced backup like McCoy and one that hasn't so much as taken a snap in a regular season NFL game.

So I'm of the opposite opinion. If we lose, it will be in a close, low scoring defensive struggle. I can't see the Colts putting up more than 25 points.

[Hawk Sista]

Indi’s D is LEGIT!

[RiverDog]

Indi’s D is LEGIT!

So is their offensive line.

[Aseahawkfan]

Even it was a scrub game, it was nice to see our scrubs crush their scrubs. Some of the guys looked damn promising. I hope to see some of that promise show up on the field in the regular season.

[jshawaii22]

I thought I'd throw this in, one week before the first game, I think we have all our starters on the field and practicing. Of course the team doesn't know who the starting CB's will be, but they are all practicing.

https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2021/09/06/duane-brown-quandre-diggs-return-to-practice/

On another note, I don't have a link but ESPN ran a computer modeled prediction of the season and I hope they use it as motivation as it predicted we go 0-8 to start the year and finish tied for the worst record the NFL... That is some wild computer prediction.

[RiverDog]

I thought I'd throw this in, one week before the first game, I think we have all our starters on the field and practicing. Of course the team doesn't know who the starting CB's will be, but they are all practicing.

https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2021/09/06/duane-brown-quandre-diggs-return-to-practice/

On another note, I don't have a link but ESPN ran a computer modeled prediction of the season and I hope they use it as motivation as it predicted we go 0-8 to start the year and finish tied for the worst record the NFL... That is some wild computer prediction.

It's good to see that Brown has ended his holdout. Now let's hope he pulls a Walter Jones and plays at a Pro Bowl level having not had one practice in training camp.

I honestly don't have a good feel for this season. There's an old saying, that you're only as good as your last game, and if that's the case, our last game vs. the Rams in the wild card round of the playoffs was one of our worst performances in the Pete Carroll era. If that analogy is true, then we're in for a long season.

But on the other hand, we are the defending division champs, we had our 2nd best regular season record in franchise history, and we return a lot of key players, not the least of whom is Russell Wilson.

[NorthHawk]

With an extra game on the schedule, staying healthy is even more important than ever.
We don't have much quality depth anymore. In our best years other teams would wait until we had our cuts after TC to poach players.
Now they rarely look at our castoffs. I don't know how well we will do, either and for me the range is from 8-9 as a floor and 12-5 as a ceiling.
My guess is we make a wild card entry but lose again in the first round. I just don't see enough of a complete team to do much damage in
the playoffs unless we stay healthy and get some really big breaks along the way.

[Agent 86]

Here are some moves they made today:

Added to the active roster: John Reid (CB), Penny Hart(WR), Bless Austin(CB)

Placed on IR: Colby Parkinson, Tre Brown, Nigel Warrior (have to miss a minimum of 3 games, but eligible to return after that)

Added to practice squad: Gavin Heslop

Released from practice squad: Mark Vital

[Hawktawk]

It’s all about Russ. Who is he this year . If he’s the guy we saw the first 9 years minus last 4 or 5 last year it’s cool. If he’s the guy that played in the Rams playoff game we are screwed

[RiverDog]

It’s all about Russ. Who is he this year . If he’s the guy we saw the first 9 years minus last 4 or 5 last year it’s cool. If he’s the guy that played in the Rams playoff game we are screwed

I pretty much agree with that, especially now that our defense is so lame. But I disagree that he has to be like he was in his for 4 or 5 years. That was when we had such a great defense that all he had to be was a game manager. Now, rather than playing not to lose like he did early in his career, he has to win games for us.

[Hawktawk]

I feel ok about the d. It really wasn’t that bad last year second half of season . It’s about Russ

[jshawaii22]

I think our biggest issue is going to be the secondary. With Adams playing close to the line and rushing, we absolutely need a good lock-down corners and I doubt we are even close to having one. We don't talk about it much but losing Shaquill Griffin is a big loss and we're going to come to regret not ponying up for him as a FA.

[obiken]

The hope is Wentz maintains dysfunctionalism, at least for this game.

[RiverDog]

I feel ok about the d. It really wasn’t that bad last year second half of season . It’s about Russ

Take a look at the offenses/quarterbacks we faced in the last half of the season and it will sober you up about our defense: The Giants/Colt McCoy, Jets/Sam Darnold, Eagles/Carson Wentz, WFT/Dwyane Haskins, Rams/Goff, Niners/CJ Bethard...

After the first of November, which includes the playoffs, the only time that we faced a top 10 quarterback, vs. the Bills and Josh Allen, they ran up 44 points on us. IMO our 2nd half of the season defensive success had more to do with our schedule than it did their performance.

[RiverDog]

On another note, I don't have a link but ESPN ran a computer modeled prediction of the season and I hope they use it as motivation as it predicted we go 0-8 to start the year and finish tied for the worst record the NFL... That is some wild computer prediction.

Here's the link:

https://www.fieldgulls.com/2021/9/6/226 ... rst-record

[c_hawkbob]

Good on Field Gulls for having gotten the number of sims run and the averages, but it was plainly obvious when I initially read the article on ESPN that this was a single sim that they decided to publish because it had the most outrageous (and therefor response provoking) outcome.

To have averaged 10-7 in the 20000 sims they ran and to be 9th for both making and winning the SB sounds about right. https://www.espn.com/nfl/fpi/_/view/projections

I'm still going with 13-4 though, being a homer and all...

[jshawaii22]

Injury Report for Week #1:

Seahawks at Colts:
The Seahawks did not issue any injury designations for Sunday’s game.

https://www.seahawks.com/team/injury-report/

Damn... maybe there really is something to not playing any starters, for the most part, during the preseason and having far less contact during camp by agreement in the union contract.
Of the players that did go to IR , some brought their injuries with them to camp - Parkinson and Ogbuehi will both be back around game 4 and the two that really got hurt in the game (Ursua and BBK), are good players and I rooted for both of them as one is from U-Hawaii and one from UDub, but I don't think there was any guarantee for either to make the team.

We will know a lot more how this plays out after the game Sunday - how sloppy, how many penalties, turnovers, broken coverages and the most important... how many sacks on Russell can we blame on players not really being in 'football' shape.
If last nights game is any indicator, it looks like about a quarter of play to start making it all work.

[obiken]

On another note, I don't have a link but ESPN ran a computer modeled prediction of the season and I hope they use it as motivation as it predicted we go 0-8 to start the year and finish tied for the worst record the NFL... That is some wild computer prediction.

Stupidest thing I have ever heard, not even I Mr Doom, would have us that bad!
Sunday, comes down to Wentz, IF he plays like he did in Philly before the Injury we could lose this game huge, IF he is like he has been the last few years we win easy. I think it will be an in between thing, I think we win by 3 or less.

[Vegaseahawk]

I really like our chances in Indy. Final Score prediction, 24-14 YOUR Seattle Seahawks. Enjoy the games.

[jshawaii22]

I really like our chances in Indy. Final Score prediction, 24-14 YOUR Seattle Seahawks. Enjoy the games.

you should be a handicapper!

[obiken]

you should be a handicapper!

Thats what I was going to say! Sorry River, I was way off. Colts have Oline problems. As a Duck I am still wondering why the 9ers gave up Buckner instead of Armstead, even at Oregon Buckner was always better.