Why Are the #Seahawks 5-2 Entering Bye Week? | #SeattleSports

Why Are the #Seahawks 5-2 Entering Bye Week? | #SeattleSports

There’s so many things you can point to. They’ve played really well. Like they’ve been a good team. They’ve been more fun than they’ve been in the last few years. Like I’ve just enjoyed watching them more. I think I got to throw a whole bunch of credit at Clint Kubak for that element to just make them more entertaining offensively. And yeah, Darnold plays a role in that. JSN’s growth plays a role in that. But why are they five and two? For me, my answer just be defense right now is just legit. This is one of the best defenses in the league. And it’s been a while since we’ve been able to say that. No, it’s true. And I mean, one of the things that’s just wild about saying that is it was just two weeks ago the defense couldn’t get off the field, gave up 38 points. They’re still sixth in the NFL in points allowed. They’re they’re fourth in the NFL in yards per play. They couldn’t get off the field again. They gave 38 points. So, um, yeah, this defense for the most part has been the one constant of this season. The other thing that’s been a constant, Mike, has been the explosive passing game, the playaction passing game, um, that you kind of referred to from Clint Kubak. But that’s also one of the places where there’s some potential falloff ahead because if you look at the situations where the Seahawks have to pass, they’re not doing so well. Um, in fact, if you look at Sam Darnold’s EPA per play, and I know that’s not the most fun term, but it’s it’s an accepted metric. Even Mike McDonald uses this, right? Can you just give us like a 10-second definition? Expected points added. So, this is basically based on the play you did at the um part of the field you’re on, the yards you gain either uh add to the expected points you’d score or or subtract. Okay. Um so, turnovers factor into this. All sorts of things, but it’s basically this allin metric on your efficiency. And Sam Darnold’s EPA per play difference between when he’s in a nonexpected passing situation and an expected passing situation is the biggest delta of all in the NFL. He when they have to pass this team has not been very good. So is that because of Do you think that’s a Darn I mean now we’re starting to speculate off of the numbers which is cool. Is that a Darnold problem? Is that a Clint Kubak issue? Is that a lack of weaponry problem? Or is that look, a lot of the success they’re having is based off of the threat of running the ball because they’ve committed to it whether they’re successful at it or not. And that is allowing them to have success in non-g guaranteed passing situations. Yeah, it it is it is a combination of I think a few things. one, I think that is where the lack of receiver talent beyond JSN to separate starts to show up, where uh defenses know that they’re going to be having to pass the ball. You’re not getting a ton of separation from Cooper Cup or even Tory Horton. I think that’s where some of the pass protection issues start to show up. If you look at the Seahawks pass protection when they are in these true pass sets where it’s not a quick screen, where it’s a normal drop back, their pass protection grades go way down. So, um I think that plays a role into it. Uh I think Sam Darnold’s a much lesser issue. U I think it’s primarily the pass protection and uh the receiver situation that is going to be a little bit harder to address. It’s interesting. I thought you would say more of the the last thing and just trying to figure out they’ve run the ball a lot. They’ve not been particularly great at it, but they have but they’ve continued to do it. And you know my you know my uh adage, you can’t run the ball if you don’t run the ball. But what’s interesting about this team is it feels like they can’t throw the ball unless they run the ball because it sets up so much of what Sam does really well. And I know I know you hear people say every year that that running the ball has nothing to do with whether play action is successful. I just don’t believe it. And I I I’m sure that there’s numbers that show it. I just I you just you have yet to talk to a single person who’s played the game of football who doesn’t think that that doesn’t make any sense. Yeah. It’s an overly simplified, you know, analytics conversation. Generally I like without getting into the details of it I just say of course it has some impact but it has been proven that you don’t have to be effective at running the football in order for play action to have some value. So you know but if you do play action from shotgun versus under center it’s different like I think that that affects things. So yes I think you’re right they haven’t had to be effective at running the ball but they have had to run the ball in order for teams to honor it. And the story of the season honestly for for what’s going on there, Mike, is Clint Kubak’s use of two tight ends of two backs when they have a fullback and they’ll get Robbie Utes back after the buy that is forcing defenses to bring extra defenders near the line of scrimmage and often bring guys onto the field an extra linebacker or take off their nickel defender that teams don’t want to do. And that has allowed a lot of these explosive playaction plays in early downs. That’s great. And I think that can continue. And I think also you’re going to see some teams start to do what Texas did, what the Texans did, which is they left their nickel defender on there, Jaylen Petri. And guess what? It might not have seemed like it on the surface, but the Seahawks actually did run the ball better against the Texans than they have for most of the rest of the season. So teams are going to have to try to pick their poison. Do you want the Seahawks to be more effective running the ball? Do you want to risk these explosive playaction passes? The Texans got caught in the middle. They gave up both. So, I think it’s a hard problem to solve for defenses, too. Hawk Hawk blogger Brian Demhouser with me here for a few more minutes. Uh Brock and I debated this yesterday. Are you ready to commit to Sam forever? You going to put a ring on that? Are you Are you ready to say he’s the guy? I am ready to say that forever is a long time, Mike. I only got one. forever in football. Forever in football terms, like the next three or four years, like is he your guy? Are you willing to commit to Sam and say, “I’m not on the hunt for another quarterback. This is my quarterback for this year and moving forward.” Yeah, I think I think it’s it’s it’s a yes on that. And and I would say there were some troubling things that showed up the last two games that he’s got to eliminate and he had mostly done. I think the toward the end of the Jacksonville game where he got hit and decided to try to throw the ball, it got up in the air. He was very fortunate there wasn’t a Jacksonville defender there to pick it off and maybe turn that game over. Um, and then in this game, he made two decisions. You could argue he made three bad decisions on the touchdown, the sack strip, like why he didn’t throw it away initially, why he chose to break the pocket, and then why he chose to hold the football that way. That’s three bad decisions that were really really costly in a game that they had control of. So, it’s it’s less about the fact that he’s got these this amazing ability to play the game in a really efficient and really explosive manner and more you still got to see him eliminate those because against a good team, against the Rams, against a playoff team in a playoff game, any one of those decisions could be the difference between, you know, we’ve seen it in other sports, right? We just talked about it. You You can’t make those decisions and win big. So, that’s the part that he’s got to work on, but give me another guy that you’d rather have at his contract for the next three years than Sam Darnold. I don’t think it exists. No, I think that’s a good point. And and you do have him in that way. So, it’s not like you even really need to make a decision on him. He’s here and then it’s really more about whether you’re searching elsewhere. I think you’re right. You know, I just want to see what he does in those late game situations. Right now it’s one and two. I’ve said it a bunch of times. Whether you believe in quarterback wins or not, those final few minutes do come down to a quarterback’s ability to move his team up and down the field and not turn the ball over in those spots. And unfortunately, right now, one and two. There are 10 games left to play. He’s probably going to have five or six more opportunities in that last minute or two to win or lose games. And by the end of that, I think we’ll have just a much clearer idea of who he is in those spots. Well, how do you square that with like that question with the fact that he’s got as many quarterback wins as any quarterback in football since last season and he has as many game-winning drives as any quarterback in football the last two seasons? Like I I don’t know that you can say it’s some massive question for him that isn’t a question for others, but I do agree with you. His decision-making in general in some of those moments is is still up for debate. And I I think there’s there’s certainly room for improvement there. HB tick and then everything else. Hawk Blogger out there. Brian, thank you as always. Continue. Good luck. We’ll talk soon. Appreciate you, Mike. All right, there he is. Brian Mhouser, hawk blogger. A

Brian Nemhauser of Hawkblogger.com joins Mike Salk (Brock & Salk) to discuss the Seahawks 5-2 record through the first 7 weeks of the NFL season as they enter their bye week.

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0:00 – Defense deserves more credit?
1:00 – Can passing game continue to shine?
2:30 – Run game issues
3:45 – Setting up the pass
5:50 – Sam Darnold long-term QB?
7:40 – What Salk wants to see from Sam

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