3rd preseason game synopsis - power outage edition

[Stream Hawk]

Ok I admit I did not watch the game because power was out. tried to bring the family to a local Woodinville restaurant but they didn't have cable. Erg! Regardless, I got some texts and wasted a lot of data on Twitter and the stream. From what I gained, the offense is still a clusterf#~# in progress. It seems Graham will have to be patient; I hope it's not true that he's already showing signs of frustration. What is exciting is our top 2 draft picks are plugging much needed deficiencies. I have always been excited about the Lockett pick and Clark's potential.
Can someone offer any insight they learned that is hopeful? I have heard a lot of negative concerns -- but I remember the same jargon last year.

Ps why is this site so low trafficked? Let's pull it together, 12s!
Go Hawks!

[Oly]

The OL is better, but still looked bad in pass pro. And not so great in run blocking.

Wilson had little time, but was uncharacteristically off on some throws...

...so off that Graham--he of the seeming 15' catch radius--couldn't get them...

...but he dropped a tough-but-catchable ball.

Both Clark and Lockett look great.

Simon looked way better than Williams.

The starting front 7 is so physical it's scary. I would hate to be an offensive coordinator game-planning for that group.

[Anthony]

The OL is better, but still looked bad in pass pro. And not so great in run blocking.

Wilson had little time, but was uncharacteristically off on some throws...

...so off that Graham--he of the seeming 15' catch radius--couldn't get them...

...but he dropped a tough-but-catchable ball.

Both Clark and Lockett look great.

Simon looked way better than Williams.

The starting front 7 is so physical it's scary. I would hate to be an offensive coordinator game-planning for that group.

I agree on Wilson and have to wonder if the issues on the oline are starting to get to him. That said I still think they are holding back on offense and I also think are High School route trees are going to get us into trouble this year. As to Graham being frustrated I did not see or hear that. What I heard was Graham and Wilson talked on the side lines after every series on were and how they can improve. Graham also missed a couple of blocks, but the oline was not great.

[NorthHawk]

So far it's been a sad state of affairs on the Offensive side. Still no Offensive TD in 3 games.
I'm concerned about the OL not only with what we've seen, but also with the lack of quality depth.
Okung didn't play because of a sore shoulder and Bailey was a bit of a turnstile.
With the inevitable injuries, I'm worried about how they will perform this year.
Still, there are 2 weeks to get it together but they have a long way to go, yet.

The Defense played pretty well and should be even better when ET returns to the field.
The Special Teams stole the show and scored all the points. Lockett should be a huge upgrade returning punts and kicks.

[obiken]

IF exhibitions matter the Eagles are the team to beat. However it was still nice to win one. The offense was anemic and the defense is hard to judge till you play all the starters all the time. They definitely hit a homer on new guy. He looks better than Leon and he was our best ever. We'll see.

[Zorn76]

Haven't seen much of the preseason at all, and nothing tonight.

Did read about Lockett. Any increase in field position from punt and kickoff returns is going to be huge (let alone TD's).

Makes such a difference to win the field position battle, especially if offense is struggling early. We were such a 2nd half team a year ago, and may see more of the same this year.

I think I'd start each offensive series with a screen pass. The OL won't have to sell anything if they're letting guys through anyway:)

Really only half kidding there, though. If these guys up front can just give RW some kind of time in the pocket, it'd make all the difference.

Starting the regular season on the road the 1st two weeks isn't easy. Still, the Seahawks are good enough to win both games, though a split may happen. Between the two, I'd rather win in GB if I had to pick. They're the more likely playoff team, and winning that one could help us in the end, just like last season.

[Seahawks4Ever]

Every long pass Wilson attempted the receiver had to wait for the ball to arrive and then it became a jump ball with the defender. The last one was almost intercepted in the end zone but our receiver knocked it away.

CM made a great run and he is looking better all the time. CM took it to the 2 yd. line which was as close as we were going to get to a TD. Then, same thing happened the last game, Bevell called for a sweep to Turbin who took the hand off deep and was stopped for a 7 yard loss. This sweep was to his right, the one in the previous game to his left. It was as if the SD defense knew exactly what play was called and likely did.

There are times when I hate Bevell, and this game didn't help.

Oh, and RW was called for intentional grounding that easily could have been ruled a fumble by some officials. Wilson kept pointing to a possible receiver in the area but the ball came out of his hand and spun side ways. Oh, and the two Hawks in the "area"? One was a lineman and the other wasn't even looking for the ball since he was looking up field.

Wilson looked like a rank rookie on the play and I wish that sometimes he would just eat the ball. Our team can't afford a turn over inside our own 5 yard line. As it was it was 3rd. and 26 from the 3yd. line after the penalty.

[NorthHawk]

You're right. Not really a veteran play by Wilson.
Trying to throw the ball left handed often ends in disaster as the QB looks like Garo Yepremian (sp).
Unless the QB is left handed of course...

[Anthony]

You're right. Not really a veteran play by Wilson.
Trying to throw the ball left handed often ends in disaster as the QB looks like Garo Yepremian (sp).
Unless the QB is left handed of course...

I agree that was a bad play on his part, on the other hand people would have complained if he did eat it. The bigger issue is how the defender got in there untouched. There is no excuse for that at all. I believe it was Graham who missed him and instead went to help in the inside guy who was already blocked.

[c_hawkbob]

We haven't looked great this preseason, barely winning only one of three games but so what? Preseason results are not, at all, the point of preseason games. We're looking at individual performances, personnel combinations, wild hair ideas (that we may never see in an actual game), adaptation to new rules and the like ... we are not trying to win games. We're not game planning or studying the opposition or any of the things you do in the regular season to win games.

Winning is great if it happens, and once the whistle blows the players and coaches should absolutely be doing everything they can (within the construct of the real preseason goals) to do so. And as fans pay good money to see these games they are obligated as a team and as individuals to give it an honest effort, and I believe we do. But I don't sweat preseason losses and I sure don't imagine the preseason results to be a harbinger of what we can expect in the regular season.

Would I be happier if Wilson were lighting things up? Sure.

Would I be more excited about the season if Graham had 8 catches and 3 TD's last night? Of course I would.

Would I have a warm fuzzy if our O-line looked like our 05 O-line? Absolutely!

But the fact that none of those things happened don't worry me. Any more than our front 7 looking like our new Legion of Boom against preseason opposition makes me think it will still look like our most dominant unit come regular season.

I'm not particularly optimistic about our preseason performance, but I am no less optimistic about our 2015 season.

[burrrton]

We looked unstoppable for large swaths of last preseason, then proceeded to lose half our first 6 games.

It's impossible to not have concerns looking at performances, but when it looks like the D knows exactly what's going to be run, remember the playcalling is completely generic, and so on.

Be worried, but don't be *too* worried until game 6 or 7 and we still haven't figured it out.

[Hawktawk]

The line is brutal and its affecting the offense in every way. Ill be interested to see how the addition of Beast Mode may change that dynamic if they can attack instead of being on their heels. The offense is officially worrisome although the over the top criticism of Wilson is way overblown.Russ was under duress all night but he scrambled around and managed to move the offense somewhat. He had a couple of throws that were a little off to Graham but he got robbed of a perfect throw to Lockette on the deep sideline by a midair strip by the DB.The one huge grounding call the guy was completely unblocked. Wilson tried to spin out and the guy got his right arm captured so he flipped it to his left hand and attempted to chest pass it close enough to a skill player to avoid a sack. It was actually kind of impressive that he got it off at all...


The defensive front 7 is going to be ridiculous and it will need to be because this secondary will not be the same without Cam. Way too many guys running free on crossing routes.

Lockette looks like Gayle Sayers so far. He and Russ also seem to be developing a comfort level in the passing game.He and Clark look like the steals of the draft.

I'm fretting a little honestly. The Rams front 7 is 2 weeks away and the line is not nearly ready. I guess we will see then.

[Stream Hawk]

Thanks for all the descriptions and opinions. Wow, an overwhelming theme is the offense of line sucks. I recall Carroll consistently saying it will take all preseason, so hopefully this is their plan and I will be awesome with this new offense!

[burrrton]

Wow. Watching the game. Our line is almost *comically* bad. Holy s***.

[mykc14]

Wow. Watching the game. Our line is almost *comically* bad. Holy s***.

Yeah, Britt had an especially bad game in pass pro. At least when he was heated at Tackle the guy had to take a few steps to get to RW, now that he's on the inside the guy is in RW's face before he can do anything about it. Nothings worse for a QB then interior pressure.

[Seahawks4Ever]

As C-Hawk Bob said, "it is only pre-season". I agree, it is only pre season, the Hawks in the past won all of their pre season games and then come out of the gate flat and have a mediocre season. We have also won only one game in the pre season and then go out and make the play offs.

I actually liked that they won it the way that they did, SH hitting that 60 yd. FG after barely missing that 58 yarder. Archer has proven he can move the ball and I would love to see what he can do playing with the the starters, barring an injury to Russell.

I don't CARE if the Hawks win or lose in pre-season, I DO CARE whether or not they are cleaning up mistakes. or not. They did play better, and I am not just talking about the 2nd. and 3rd. stringers. Lockette is much more than a return man. Wilson to Lockette is going to stretch the field. We have NOT seen all of our offensive weapons on the field at the same time, Pete is holding a lot back, everything is basic and pure vanilla.

Turbin looked really good against Denver, then against K.C. and now SD they ran him on sweeps that just didn't work, those never worked out when Lynch ran those plays either.

C.M. has really impressed me, I would love to see him and Turbin or him and Lynch together in the backfield. I think the potential is there for us to have a very explosive offense, especially after the -Line gells, because I believe that is what the problem is, they just haven't played enough together to be a cohesive unit. But they will, if they all stay healthy.

[NorthHawk]

I think what's partly causing the angst is watching significantly lesser teams Offensive Lines play much better than ours at this stage of the pre-season.

I, too have been hoping that it's just a matter of familiarity, but even if it is, it means we are still a few games behind most of our competitors in OL play as it will take some time before everything works together properly.
The other issue is if this is the best we have, how bad is our depth? What happens if or when one of the starters that is in the unit once it has "gelled" is out with injury, will it put us back to square one until the new guy fits in?
We have superior talent all throughout this team except along the OL and maybe WR depending on how Lockett works out and if they split Graham wide regularly. It seems odd to me that this would be the plan, but I might be wrong.