PS Game 2 Observations

[RiverDog]

Russell Wilson: Although I'd hesitate to call his passing mid season form, Russell looked pretty good considering it was his first outing of the season. I really liked how he kept the ball on a read option and ran for as much yards as he could on a couple of occasions when his receivers were covered. It appeared as if he's anxious to get things going.

Pass protection: Fantastic, at least through the first half (I haven't watched the entire game yet).

Poona Ford: The one player that really stood out on defense. Looks to be a great run stopper.

Pass Interference: I'm not sure what Pete was thinking when he threw a challenge flag on a 25 yard or so completion to Thielen. He clearly had possession and his knee touched in bounds well before his hand was out of bounds. I felt that he should have thrown a challenge flag on the succeeding play where PI was called as it appeared to be a very ticky tacky call and he might have gotten them to pick up the flag. It will be interesting to see how that rule change plays out in the regular season. As the announcers said, it's going to take a very blatant call or no call for them to change a decision on the field, which is how it should be.

Chris Carson: If anyone's in mid season form, it's Carson. Ran the ball with authority, showed patience waiting for holes to open up, etc.

Rashard Penny: Ugh. I understand that he didn't get a lot of blocking, but there's a huge difference between how he's running vs. Carson. They keep talking how he's going to be getting more touches this season, but he's looking more and more like a 3rd down back vs. a workhorse that can carry the ball 20+ times a game.

Paxton Lynch: Took a step back in his battle with Geno for the backup QB job. I haven't seen the entire game yet, but he looked very indecisive and his throws were off. Russell's more than likely going to get 3 quarters of work this week, so the battle looks to be heading to the wire.

[NorthHawk]

I thought the 1st team Offense looked pretty good considering they didn't play last week.
The Defense has some holes, but would have been better with Wagner playing.
Concerned about Shaquill Griffin being beaten deep by Thielen. I thought he would be a lot faster
than Thielen and easily keep up.
Injuries, ugh. I hate to see them happen to any player on any team, but we got hit on the OL, again, too.
Penny really didn't get much of a chance as he was pressured in the backfield on a few of those plays as well
there wasn't much of a hole to exploit. Carson makes his own gaps, but Penny is a different back.
In all, it was a good barometer when our 1st team went against the Vikings 1st team and we didn't look
that bad.

Edit:
Pocic didn't look glaringly bad, so maybe there's some hope for him after all.

[RiverDog]

Edit: Pocic didn't look glaringly bad, so maybe there's some hope for him after all.

Good call. Considering that Iupati has yet to see a snap and Fluker is injury prone, we're going to need some depth along the OL or a perceived strength could all of a sudden become a glaring weakness.

[obiken]

Wagner and KJ were both out. The defense will get better as the season rolls on.

[c_hawkbob]

Russell Wilson: Although I'd hesitate to call his passing mid season form, Russell looked pretty good considering it was his first outing of the season. I really liked how he kept the ball on a read option and ran for as much yards as he could on a couple of occasions when his receivers were covered. It appeared as if he's anxious to get things going.

I was actually going to say Russ looked in mid season form, but your hesitation is probably appropriate. Certainly nothing to be anything but happy with.

Pass protection: Fantastic, at least through the first half (I haven't watched the entire game yet).

It was better earlier, got a little sloppy late in the game (as you'd expect in a preseason game).

Poona Ford: The one player that really stood out on defense. Looks to be a great run stopper.

Chris Carson: If anyone's in mid season form, it's Carson. Ran the ball with authority, showed patience waiting for holes to open up, etc.

If we'd won the game and I were handing out game balls they would get the Offensive and Defensive ones. With probably Ugo again getting the Special Teams ball.

Paxton Lynch: Took a step back in his battle with Geno for the backup QB job. I haven't seen the entire game yet, but he looked very indecisive and his throws were off. Russell's more than likely going to get 3 quarters of work this week, so the battle looks to be heading to the wire.

Yep, Geno gained ground even sitting this one out. Exactly why I said last week that I'd have to see he and Jazz (another that regressed slightly) against better opposition. Well, it got better and the difference showed.

[jshawaii22]

River,

Don't bother watching the 2nd half. It wasn't pretty and to be honest, I was a little bit disappointed in the play of both O & D.
The two good notes, if any, were the lack of penalties at the line of scrimmage were far less then week #1 and the play of Homer at RB.

Edit: The kickers, both of them are going to give us more points and better field position this year and that always is an advantage.

[RiverDog]

Yep, Geno gained ground even sitting this one out. Exactly why I said last week that I'd have to see he and Jazz (another that regressed slightly) against better opposition. Well, it got better and the difference showed.

Rather than better competition, Lynch's poorer play against the Vikings vs. his first game against the Broncos is that he may have been more familiar with Denver's defense than he was last night against Minnesota. Not that it's that big of a distinction as both factors, if they were present, were equalized last night.

[RiverDog]

River,

Don't bother watching the 2nd half. It wasn't pretty and to be honest, I was a little bit disappointed in the play of both O & D.
The two good notes, if any, were the lack of penalties at the line of scrimmage were far less then week #1 and the play of Homer at RB.

Actually I stopped watching about halfway through the 3rd quarter.

And speaking of penalties, it was reassuring to know that there are still a few constants in life. Ifedi hasn't forgotten how to jump offsides.

[c_hawkbob]

Rather than better competition, Lynch's poorer play against the Vikings vs. his first game against the Broncos is that he may have been more familiar with Denver's defense than he was last night against Minnesota. Not that it's that big of a distinction as both factors, if they were present, were equalized last night.

Yeah, and he was more motivated against the Donkeys.

[jshawaii22]

Too many of Lynch's passes were going into the ground.. That has nothing to do with Denver vs Minny or knowing one team better than another. And, of course, we saw a different side of Ferguson, too. And not his best side. Ahhhhh, pre season.

[RiverDog]

Well, what ever the cause, it looks like we're all in agreement as to the result, or to be more precise, we can all see the obvious, that Lynch took a step back last night. But we still have seen him play one good game, something we have yet to see Geno do, at least in our offense.

How many quarters does Russell play this week? 3?

[c_hawkbob]

Game 3 is usually a half plus one drive.

[RiverDog]

Game 3 is usually a half plus one drive.

Kinda what I thought. That limits the competition between Lynch and Smith to a pretty small sampling, at least for Game 3. Plus they'll probably toss Barrett in there for at least one of those series.

The other variable is how they're performing in practice, of which we're all pretty much in the dark.

[mykc14]

Jazz (another that regressed slightly) against better opposition.

I actually was more impressed with Jazz after this game- he catches the ball with his hands as well as any young WR I’ve seen in awhile. The ball doesn't seem to get into his body at all and even though Lynch threw some inaccurate balls Jazz was able to catch them cleanly. He uses his length extremely well he’s open when he’s covered. There are a lot of tall receivers who can put jump guys but they don’t use that length on the short/intermediate routes and he seems to. Obviously the fumble was bad, but even on that he seemed to do everything right- he caught the ball cleanly and tried to protect it with 2 hands quickly, but the DB was able to stick his hands in there and rip it out. He’s been the guy I’ve been most impressed with- even more than DK... I actually really like Ursua- hopefully we can hide him on the PC this year.

[NorthHawk]

Well, what ever the cause, it looks like we're all in agreement as to the result, or to be more precise, we can all see the obvious, that Lynch took a step back last night. But we still have seen him play one good game, something we have yet to see Geno do, at least in our offense.

How many quarters does Russell play this week? 3?

I don't think he regressed as much as he didn't progress against a better Defense. The windows were tighter and he had trouble making some of the throws.
I think we would have seen similar results had the coverage in the 1st game been the same.

[RiverDog]

Well, what ever the cause, it looks like we're all in agreement as to the result, or to be more precise, we can all see the obvious, that Lynch took a step back last night. But we still have seen him play one good game, something we have yet to see Geno do, at least in our offense.

How many quarters does Russell play this week? 3?

I don't think he regressed as much as he didn't progress against a better Defense. The windows were tighter and he had trouble making some of the throws.

I think we would have seen similar results had the coverage in the 1st game been the same.

Perhaps. Point is that there isn't as much of a gap between Lynch and Geno as we had assumed.

Interesting how we all seem somewhat obsessed about the backup QB role when the reality is that who ever wins is not going to see much action in the regular season or if he does, our season is likely toast anyway. There's more significant position battles going on than the one for the #2 QB spot.

[NorthHawk]

I'd like to get a backup QB who is in demand from other teams so as to trade him and get a good draft pick or
maybe another player of need. For that reason, I hope one of them sets the league on fire and challenges Wilson.

[govandals]

My 2 cents:
Russ looked very good, not great, but very good.
First team o-line was very good. Pocic more than held his own. Not worried about Britt's false start.
Carson is a stud, looked faster than I remember. Excited to see the backs catch more passes.
TE's didn't pop. Good to see Dissly in limited snaps.
Lockett and Brown were good. Bummer about DK not playing.
Thought I saw Malik Turner with the one's for some snaps. Interesting.
DL was really good. Poona is primed to breakout. Mitchell, Woods were good.
I think Mone makes the 53
No pass rush from the DE's. Green didn't do much, Mingo did less. This team needs Ziggy now.
Need to add a DE via trade or after cutdowns, they just have to...
Barton needs experience, does not diagnose well right now, gets washed out too often, is he too small??
BWagz, Kendricks and KJ will be good to see in the reg. season. They are the best trio in the league, hope they play 16 games each. We are fortunate to have them.
Gonna be hard to cut Calitro
We should be worried about Shaquille...
Flowers needs to trust him game. His coverage on wr's is great and doesn't NEED to be so handsy.
Who will be the Nickel? King wasn't good, neither was Taylor, barely recall seeing K. Reed. I think eventually it will be Amadi.
ST were good. Amadi!!
2nd team offense was bad all around. Marcus Martin and Nkansah were terrible. Paxton Lynch wasn't THAT bad, no protection.
Penny had no chance, I worry he is never gonna be a between the tackles runner, still looks soft.
Homer looks the part.
Jazz had a nice catch on the ball thrown behind him, but 2 catches on 7 targets, one drop, one fumble and the inability to get 2 feet down in the endzone is not good enough.
I liked Jennings a lot pre-draft, but he needs to show something. Anything. Lynch never looked his way. Why?
I thought Ursua's college tape was meh, but he is smooth, savy, looks like he belongs.
Tough decisions to be made in the WR room.

[NorthHawk]

My 2 cents:
Russ looked very good, not great, but very good.
First team o-line was very good. Pocic more than held his own. Not worried about Britt's false start.
Carson is a stud, looked faster than I remember. Excited to see the backs catch more passes.
TE's didn't pop. Good to see Dissly in limited snaps.
Lockett and Brown were good. Bummer about DK not playing.
Thought I saw Malik Turner with the one's for some snaps. Interesting.
DL was really good. Poona is primed to breakout. Mitchell, Woods were good.
I think Mone makes the 53
No pass rush from the DE's. Green didn't do much, Mingo did less. This team needs Ziggy now.
Need to add a DE via trade or after cutdowns, they just have to...
Barton needs experience, does not diagnose well right now, gets washed out too often, is he too small??
BWagz, Kendricks and KJ will be good to see in the reg. season. They are the best trio in the league, hope they play 16 games each. We are fortunate to have them.
Gonna be hard to cut Calitro
We should be worried about Shaquille...
Flowers needs to trust him game. His coverage on wr's is great and doesn't NEED to be so handsy.
Who will be the Nickel? King wasn't good, neither was Taylor, barely recall seeing K. Reed. I think eventually it will be Amadi.
ST were good. Amadi!!
2nd team offense was bad all around. Marcus Martin and Nkansah were terrible. Paxton Lynch wasn't THAT bad, no protection.
Penny had no chance, I worry he is never gonna be a between the tackles runner, still looks soft.
Homer looks the part.
Jazz had a nice catch on the ball thrown behind him, but 2 catches on 7 targets, one drop, one fumble and the inability to get 2 feet down in the endzone is not good enough.
I liked Jennings a lot pre-draft, but he needs to show something. Anything. Lynch never looked his way. Why?
I thought Ursua's college tape was meh, but he is smooth, savy, looks like he belongs.
Tough decisions to be made in the WR room.

Interesting take, govandals.
Regarding Flowers, I'm concerned that teams will be challenging for PI on him when the game is on the line. He just doesn't need
to place hands on WR's when he's got a track on the ball. He's got good ball skills, so he doesn't have to do that.

[govandals]

Agreed, Flowers was right there, good positioning, he would have tipped that ball away whether his hands were on the guy or not. Again, he needs to trust his game. He's right there.