DVR Run Analysis - Philadelphia @ Seattle; 1-Dec-2011

Note: Click here to find Jon's previous DVR Analysis of the Redskins game.

Here's my DVR Run Analysis for the Eagles/Seahawks game...

* This was the week of the breakaway run. We lost some consistency this week as we had five runs for loses and twelve of thirty planned runs with gains of less than three yards. Half of our runs were for less than four. I attribute this more to an over-aggressive defense than inconsistent play from the offense. Yeah, they stopped us at times, but they also got burned - badly.

* Overall, we got 162 yards on 30 planned carries for a 5.4 YPC average. Marshawn Lynch topped 100 yards for the fourth time in five weeks. Beast Mode accounted for 148 yards on 22 carries for 6.7 YPC and two touchdowns. Yeah, the Eagles got burned.

* Q1 - After an Illegal shift penalty due to WR Golden Tate watching a late 12th Man ceremony, we had only one bad play in eight runs. We got 51 yards for 6.4 YPC, including a first down and one of the sweetest TDs you'll ever see.

Marshawn Lynch gives "Dream Team" future nightmares, Seahawks crush Eagles 31-14

Pete on the hot seat?  Don't make me laugh.

Has there been a season with more unexpected things than 2011?  A lot of fans looked at the schedule before the season began and saw games like Cleveland, Cincinnati, and Washington as near certain wins.  The Falcons, Giants, Ravens and Eagles games were near certain losses.  Seattle very nearly completed a comeback against the heavily favored Falcons, but otherwise, six games- that's half the season folks- has gone exactly the opposite of preseason expectation.

And sure, the Eagles came into Seattle the NFL's biggest disappointment sporting a 4-7 record, but they also led the entire NFL in offense for much of the year, and even after losing Vick, they still hover just behind the #2 team, the New England Patriots. That's due in large part to LeSean McCoy.  As my fantasy oriented brother informed me before the game, McCoy has been the best fantasy running back in all of the NFL this year.  McCoy lived up to that repuation and then some, even earning some surprisingly well deserved comparisons to Barry Sanders.  Like Sanders, McCoy is the master into turning a minus four yard broken play into a big gain.

Seattle's run defense is big, mean and nasty.  And really good, obviously.  But its not terribly fast- something both LeSean McCoy and Vince Young capitalized on all night long.  Thankfully, the Seahawks really came to play tonight.  Marshawn Lynch, Tarvaris Jackson, and Seattle's secondary all played the best games of their young Seahawks careers.  If Seattle had played at the same level as they had in any of the previous games (yes, even the Raven's game), I'm not sure it would have been enough tonight.  McCoy was ballin', and though Young threw four picks, I'd actually put more credit on the Seahawks defense for making athletic plays on the ball rather than blame Young for making terrible decisions (except for the Hawthorne pick six).  The Eagles didn't rack up a ton of yards, but they did lead several sustained, efficient drives.  Seattle's ability to kill drives with interceptions proved to be crucial.


Seattle did more than enough when it was on offense, totaling 347 yards of offense despite running the ball twice as many times as they passed.  It didn't start that way though, very nearly beginning with a delay of game on the very first play, something I've never seen before.  Yet it very nearly did, as a bizarre miscommunication with Golden Tate regarding the raising of the 12th man flag caused Seattle to run up to the line mere seconds before time expired.  The rush to snap the ball (with zeros showing) resulted in an illegal shift penalty, a result of not allowing enough time for players to set positions before the snap. 

Tarvaris Jackson has made good progress this year regarding pocket presence and extending plays, but today he did a nasty backslide, taking multiple sacks a decent quarterback wouldn't during the first half.  Despite those hickups, Jackson finished with 13 completions on only 16 attempts for 190 yards:  good for a completion rate of 81% and a YPA of 11.9.  He also added a sensational touchdown pass to Golden Tate and avoided an interception for what feels like the first time in an eternity. 

It was only the third time all season that Jackson went without a pick, and only the fourth time all season that he finished with a positive TD/INT ratio.  His game passer rating was 137, more than 40 points higher than his previous Seahawks high.  Rather surprisingly, it was the best passer rating by any Seahawks quarterback going back all the way to the Titans in 2005.  I don't want to make too big a deal out of a performance which only had 16 passes, but writing this post, it occurs to me that Jackson played far better than I thought he did while watching the game.

The storyline of the game was the running backs.  McCoy is having a pro-bowl season, and he's averaging 94 yards per game this season.  Since week nine (Dallas), Lynch has been averaging 118 yards per game.  Not that you would expect Lynch to keep this up forever, but that level of production over a full season would equal 1891 rushing yards and 19 total touchdowns.  That stat line seem familiar to anyone?   I've offered up a full Mea Culpa on Lynch which you can read here, if you haven't already.  Its crystal clear that Lynch isn't the same back he used to be.  A 4th and 5th for Lynch is beginning to look like one of the best trades in franchise history.

Finally, the secondary was incredible today.  Other than a coverage blip by Earl Thomas which helped setup the Eagles first touchdown, they gave Vince Young precious few easy targets, forcing him to dance around and buy time for what felt like forever on many plays.  Chancellor's interception was a thing of beauty.  Browner's first pick was a lucky repeat of his game sealing pick against the Giants, but his fourth quarter pick on a perfectly thrown deep ball was really a sight to behold.  I don't know if Browner could make up for last week's debacle with a single great performance, but I'd say he came pretty darn close tonight.  Its hard to believe he's the same guy who was getting us killed just four days ago.  David Hawthorne isn't part of the secondary, but he joined the fun with the slowest looking pick six I've seen in a good long while, due in large part to LeSean McCoy only jogging in pursuit, clearly demoralized into apathy by that point.  I'm sure he'll be getting an earful from Andy Reid next Monday.

Seattle is now 5-7.  Which isn't a great record exactly.  The 2009 Seahawks were 5-7 at one point.  But its at least respectable, and with two very winnable games remaining on the schedule, Seattle has a real chance to finish 7-9 or better.  That's a big accomplishment considering that Seattle's schedule is much harder this time around.  Seattle is probably out of the playoff hunt, but this season was never really about the playoffs.  It was about building a foundation for the future, namely the running game and the defense.  That kind of outlook makes a win like tonight's that much more exciting.  Seattle has claimed its third "statement win" of the season, and Jackson's performance tonight showed that Seattle is a very good team when the quarterback position produces its share.

• Brad Nessler and Mike Mayock called a great game.  If Nessler's voice seems familiar, its because he covers a lot of college football games, particularly in the SEC.  Its a very good combo and I look forward to seeing them cover more Seahawks games in the future.

• Marshawn Lynch against the NFC East in 2011:  492 yards rushing on 81 carries.  6.1 yards per carry.  5 total touchdowns.  That's a good way of getting national attention, I'd say.

• I wouldn't fret too much about the Eagles carving up our defense for most of the second half.  Seattle was protecting a big lead, and was playing its corners far off the ball to keep DeSean Jackson and Riley Cooper from burning them deep.  Seattle's corners are big and relatively fast, but they gain a considerable advantage from getting a shove at the line of scrimmage.  Seattle played it safe, but in doing so gave up this considerable advantage which helps corners, especially Brandon Browner, play up to their coverage potential.

• I really appreciate the classy gesture by Pete when he opted to kneel the ball inside the one yard line.  Going for the extra score might make Lynch and the fans happy, but it would be a very bitter ending which would stick in the Eagle's memory for a long time.  Seattle may very well face the Eagles in a pivotal game in the next couple seasons, perhaps even the playoffs.  I'd hate for the Eagles to have that extra chip on their shoulder if that happened.

• You really have to feel for Vince Young.  This game wasn't just a game for him, it was an audition for the rest of the NFL on national television.  Young made a few poor throws, but he was dealing with a very under-rated coverage group in Seattle and did a very impressive job extending plays.  In the end, he wound up with 4 interceptions which doesn't do his performance any justice at all.  After his Heater pick six, Young was visibly fighting back tears as he realized where his NFL career is heading.  After his fourth pick (on a great throw no less), I just felt terrible for the guy.  Here's hoping he works things out down the road. 

• Golden Tate continues his impressive progress at receiver.  He needs to work on his touchdown dance though.

• Today's win was not cheap- Russell Okung left the game late in the 4th quarter with a pectoral injury of all things.  Pete Carroll said the injury "doesn't look good," and with only four games remaining, there is a very real chance that Okung could be on the IR tomorrow.  If that happens, that would mean 3/5 of our line hit IR this year.  In a move which looked stupid at the time and looks even worse in retrospect, the team released Tyler Polumbus a few weeks ago, and he's now a member of the Redskins.  Seattle has no real depth at left tackle, so it should be interesting to see how they handle this situation.

DVR Run Analysis - Washington @ Seattle; 27-Nov-2011

Here's my weekly DVR Run Analysis for the Redskins/Seahawks game...

* The good news is that the consistency was back in the running game. The bad news is that the defense, a weak passing game, and penalties let this game slip through our fingers.

* Overall, we got 121 yards on 29 carries for a 4.2 YPC average. Marshawn Lynch got 100+ yards for the third time in four weeks. Regarding consistency, we were never tackled for a loss and were held to no gain on a single running play. 18 of Lynch's 24 runs (75%) were for three or more yards. (14 were for four or more.)

* Q1 - The quarter was weak, but not due to the running game. 20 yards on three runs and a first down. 6.7 YPC.

[7:05] 1st and 10. Power run, splitting the D at the center. Center Max Unger gets the NT, releases to go upstream, and FB Mike Robinson cuts the NT down. Lynch hits a free ILB for a gain of five.
[6:35] 2nd and 5. Slash right (the line goes right while the TE, Anthony McCoy, pulls to split the left side.) TE Zach Miller and LT Russell Okung seal perfectly. Lynch hits the hole and makes a LB miss, getting ten yards and a 1st down.
[:39] 1st and 10. With 2 backs and 1 TEs, the D loads the box. Zone right. Excellent push by Unger, RG Paul McQuistan, and RT Breno Giacomini. Robinson leads Lynch to the RG but is too late to get the LB at the next level. Lynch gets five and could have had a few more had Robinson made that block, but there was just too much ground for Mike Rob to cover.

Deadly secret agent Brandon Browner strikes, kills Seahawks season

I'll keep this write-up short.  This game kind of sucked to watch, and I know if you're like me, you probably aren't exactly digging for Seahawks reading material after a loss like this.

Its not accurate to boil this game down to one player.  Rex Grossman had his token interceptions, but other than those two passes, he was killing it today.  Grossman is not a good quarterback, but when he's having an "on" day, he's scary good, and today was one of those rare occasions.  He extended plays by moving in the pocket.  He executed screens and short passes to perfection.  He was very accurate on his throws, completing a whopping 74% of his passes for a highly impressive 9.0 yards per attempt.  Roy Helu also had a terrific game, totaling 162 yards from scrimmage and a highlight reel touchdown that sparked Washington's impressive comeback.

But I'm guessing people won't remember that.  They'll remember Browner for his drive extending hold (which later resulted in a touchdown instead of a punt), his blown coverage/PI that resulted in a game winning hail mary touchdown on 3rd and 19, and last but not least, a boneheaded 15 yard penalty in the game's final minute when Seattle could absolutely not afford it.  Its so much self-destruction that I wouldn't blame you if you had forgotten that Browner also had a terrific interception earlier on.

So, Seattle lost.  In the end, Washington beat Seattle soundly on the stat page in just about every category.  They deserved to win, even if it almost felt like they didn't.  Washington is not even close to being as bad a team as people think nationally (just like the Seahawks).  They are far and away better than teams like the Cardinals or Rams.  They have the best pass rush in the NFL, a very good new running back, and a quarterback who may not be good, but can still be dangerous.

Mike Shanahan drew up the perfect passing attack before the game, finding soft spots in our coverage on almost every snap right from the get-go.  By the 3rd drive, Pete Carroll made coverage adjustments which in part helped keep the Redskins scoreless for two full quarters.  But in the fourth quarter, Shanahan made a new set of counter adjustments and Grossman became unstoppable once again.  The game might have been a brutal snoozer, but its not often you see a chess match like that.

• I don't know if teams give out game balls after a loss, but if they did, it should probably go to Marshawn Lynch.  Washington entered this game with a slightly above average rushing defense (14th in DVOA) and a top 10 defense overall.  Seattle once again had outstanding run blocking, but unlike the previous two weeks, Lynch brought his A-game and wasted no time hitting the holes and maximizing yardage.  Sure, his longest run of the day was only 12 yards, but he had multiple runs near 10 yards this time.  The result: a much more impressive 4.65 yards per carry.  If this is the Marshawn Lynch that shows up every week, Seattle is set at running back.  I never thought I'd say this, but fantasy football teams might want to give Marshawn a look on their waiver wires for the rest of this season.

• No one is talking about it, but Golden Tate has quietly made huge strides this season.  He runs much prettier routes and his hands seem to have improved.  In just a couple months, he's gone from, frankly, a terrible player who many wanted to cut during the preseason to a quality #4 who is still trending upward.

• Red Bryant has now blocked an incredible four kicks on the season.  I could be wrong, but if I recall correctly, Jim Mora was present in the broadcast booth for all four of them.

• Speaking of which, I have no fondness for Jim Mora, but he's turned into a surprisingly good commentary man.  He was right on top of everything today, including the play in the endzone where he noticed the hat on the chalk.

• I'm guessing the laundry guy for visiting NFL teams can't be too happy about the blue endzones coming back.  Those things stain white road jerseys like crazy.

• Seattle was once again killed by penalties, but so was Washington.

• Its hard to judge Jackson's performance.  He suffered at least 5 drops by my count in only 30 pass attempts.  On the other hand, he also had about 4-5 terrible throws.  But then again, he was playing with a very sore throwing arm which is certain to have an impact there.  My initial feeling is that Jackson played like usual today, but the drops and the rusty arm caused a lot of noise which made the performance look much worse than it really should have.  Regardless, its very hard to watch today's game and somehow still imagine the Seahawks leaving the 2012 draft without a talented quarterback somehow.  I can stomach another year of T-Jack just fine, but only if its clear that a sane long-term plan is in place.

• If Hawthorne's injury is even semi-serious, might we see the return of Lofa Tatupu?  He's still out there, and Seattle does not have any depth at linebacker.

• Regarding the secondary, it didn't feel like they had a down performance today, Browner exempted.  Further DVR study could prove otherwise, but watching the game, it just felt like Shanahan had an outstanding game plan, and both Grossman and Helu played terrific games.  Another huge factor was that despite pre-game reports, Trent Williams was able to play and his presence had a massive impact on Chris Clemons and Seattle's ability to finish the job on its pass rush.  Had Sean Locklear started instead, I doubt Washington wins this game.

• I've said before that I'm no longer rooting for draft position, and I've made several arguments, including an essay recently at Seahawks Draft Blog, that winning could actually have some hidden benefits come draft day.  Losing today, which probably cut our slim playoff chances in half, doesn't change that.  However, its worth noting that if Seattle had to lose to a single team in our final six games, Washington would have been the best team to lose to.  Unlike the other five teams, Washington is desperate for a quarterback, and is looking for a somewhat similar mold of quarterback as we are.  This could very well be a loss that we'll look back on in 5 months and say "thank God we lost to the Redskins."  Losing gave us a game up in the draft standings against a prime competitor (meaning we are now "tied" with the Redskins).  Idiots note:  Please do not construe this comment as me rooting for draft position.  I would have much rather won and be on a 3 game winning streak heading into a nationally televised game against the Eagles.  The draft position is nothing more than a silver lining to a dark cloud.  Its just something to make us feel a little less crappy about a suffering a painful fourth quarter comeback.

The DVR Run Analyst Joins 17 Power

Since 2007, I've been reviewing almost every Seahawks run play in slow motion on my DVR over at the Northwest Sports Talk Forum under the alias, CamasMan. (I just posted my analysis of the Rams Game there.) Brandon invited me to join this blog and I immediately accepted. Is there a better title than 17 Power for a blog analyzing the Seahawks' running game?

Here some background. I'm the height and weight of a wide receiver, have the hands of a linebacker, the speed of a nose tackle, the tactical savvy of a long snapper, and the toughness of a place kicker. So, in organized sports, I'm a breaststroker. I was never meant to play football.

I first became an obsessed fan back when Bill Walsh first became the 49er's head coach. My best friend's dad had been Walsh's roommate at San Jose State. So here we were, a bunch of young guys in LA, rooting for San Francisco. Hey, timing is everything. A few years later, my young family moved to Grass Valley in Northern California, and the ride continued. In '96, we moved up here to Camas, and watched more High School ball than the pros. I happened to catch Game 5 of Seattle's 2005 season, and quickly became hooked. Again, timing is everything. Screw the '9ers!

Winning by Reputation vs. Just Beating Bad Gameplans

It's being said that the Seahawks' defense is now shutting down teams by mere reputation.

In the last two weeks, Seattle has beaten two teams - Baltimore and St. Louis - who abandoned the run very early on after a token showing, then turned around and placed the game on the shoulders of their QB. Word is that their offensive coordinators, aware of Seattle's ability against the run, were planning a pass-heavy attack for that reason even before the game began. If opponents are smart enough to throw out entire facets of the offense before the game even begins, then hey, we must be pretty good.

There's a massive assumption in there: that relying on the passing game made sense for those teams. It's a faulty assumption. It actually made even less sense than trying to run against the brick wall of Seattle's defensive line. If you're going to kill the run, not only do you have to be craftier about it then giving Ray Rice only five carries, but you had better have a quarterback who can carry the team. Otherwise, the results write themselves.

Seahawks smack hapless Rams, win 24-7

I'm Good Enough, I'm Smart Enough, and Doggone It, People Like Me!

Well that was interesting.

Okay, not really.  But as Bryce Fisher once said, an ugly win is "like an ugly baby- you never see one."  I've seen my fair share of both, but his words are wise in spirit.  Seattle did not prove they were a great team today, but they did prove that regardless of what their record says, they are easily a cut above the worst teams in the league.  This game was a long overdue reminder that the Seattle Seahawks do indeed still play in the NFC West.  Its easy to forget, given that Seattle only played NFC West opponents twice in the first nine games, which non-coincidentally resulted in the Seahawks boasting the toughest strength of schedule ranking in the NFL up to that point (.598 opponent win %).  

So it should come as no surprise that today the Seahawks dominated the Rams.  Or did they?  Honestly I'm not sure.  I mean, did they really finish with 5 sacks?  Is that a typo?  That seems unbelievable given how absent the pass rush felt in the first 3 quarters.  The Seahawks had a highly impressive 95 yard touchdown drive in this game, yet only finished with 289 yards of total offense.  And the Seahawks averaged 4.2 yards per play!  For comparison's sake, they had 3.5 yards per play in a shutout performance at Pittsburgh in week 2.  Taken out of context, that number looks pretty pathetic.  Put into context, it looks even worse, as the Rams defense (as measured by yards) ranked in the mid-twenties before this game.

But even that seems pretty kick ass compared to the Rams, who had 3.0 yards per play today.  And though I'd like to compliment the Seahawks defense here, I think a lot of that was just the Rams being the Rams.  It wasn't hard to find insightful analysts who predicted that Sam Bradford would have a sophomore slump while Josh McDaniels installed his notoriously high learning curve offense, but it seems they still stopped well short as doomsayers.  Sam Bradford only rarely attempted passes beyond 15 yards, despite having a ton of time to throw for the first three quarters.  His performance was lethargic if not pitiful, sort of like Matt Hasselbeck for most of the last 3 years, if Matt actually had time to throw for most of the game.

In fact, it donned on me late in the 4th quarter that we've all seen this game before.  We saw it last year, with the 2011 Rams playing the role of the 2010 Seahawks, and the 2011 Seahawks playing the role of the 2010 Raiders.  For those who haven't purged the ugly memories of that game, Seattle hung with a tough Oakland Raiders team through the first half, but at some point in the 3rd quarter, something snapped (Red Bryant's knee) and then the Raiders delivered a straight up Chuck Norris ass-kicking the rest of the way.  They didn't just crush Seattle on the scoreboard or on the stat page, but on the injury report as well.  It was a brutal loss that would have singlehandedly sabotaged Seattle's playoff outlook if not for the fact that they played in the maybe the weakest division in NFL history that year.

The Rams didn't suffer many injuries, but they took their fare share of big shots, particularly from Kam Chancellor and David Hawthorne.  I think it says it all that the game ended in the "victory" formation, and I use quotation marks because it wasn't the victorious team doing the kneeling.  As Sam Bradford took that final knee, you could just sense that the Rams offense simply wanted nothing more to do with the Seahawks defense.  I'm not going to pretend that the Seahawks have an elite defense, or even a true top 10 defense.  But a top 5 "nastiest" defense?  Yeah, I think its safe to say that.

Its not a perfect analogy statistically, but in terms of personality, the Seahawks have already become the NFC's Raiders en route to becoming the NFC's Ravens.  The Raiders haven't won a lot of games lately, but they've been consistently competitive, they dominate in a weak division, and they are not a fun team to play against.  They also rack up an unbelievable amount of penalties- somehow even more than the Seahawks have. 

Today the Seahawks were the bullies in an elementary school playground who ran across a 3rd grade Stuart Smalley to pick on.  That's nothing to brag about, but it all counts in the standings just the same.

• My eyes were focused today on McQuistan and Giacomini, the two replacements for Seattle's injured rookies on the right side.  I mean this as no slight, but McQuistan and Giacomini are pretty much the definition of "replacement level."  Replacement level means a level of play you associate with a street free agent.  Both Giacomini and McQuistan were free agents of the unwanted variety when Seattle signed them.  Given how those two performed today, I think its safe to say that Moffitt and Carpenter were both roughly replacement level players in their rookie seasons.  Perhaps a little less.  Which by the way, is exactly the level of performance I'd expect.  Its not exactly a well kept secret: rookie lineman are usually pretty terrible, but tend to get much better later.  We need look no further than Max Unger to see that.

• So how did they play?  McQuistan had a few penalties against him, but otherwise I thought he was surprisingly non-terrible.  His run blocking was adequate and his pass protection fell short of a disaster (unlike his previous outings).  You could say he was kind of like a jittery version of Mike Gibson (whom, it should be noted, isn't here anymore).  Giacomini missed a few blocks and has shown himself to be a disappointingly limited athlete at times despite having the look of a rather athletic right tackle.  It was probably a step above what Carpenter was giving us, but Carpenter was one of the worst right tackles in the league.  I think of Giacomini as being a reverse Polumbus, where Polumbus was an acceptable pass blocker but a poor run blocker.  The Seahawks have invested in building a run block oriented line, and even their backups tend to fit that philosophy.

• Marshawn Lynch had yet another mixed day.  In the last 2 games, Seattle's run blocking has ranged from solid to outstanding, and yet in that span Lynch has only averaged 3.36 yards per carry despite getting a tremendous workload in those games.  Those games helped me realize why Marshawn Lynch's yards per carry is low... really why its always been low even in his pro-bowl season.  Lynch is a good athlete, but he tends to slow almost to a stop when waiting for blocks, he doesn't explode out of his cuts, he often misses out on huge cutback areas and on the rare occasion he goes untouched through the first level, his top gear isn't very fast, so he can't really take much advantage of it.  In the last two games, Lynch has carried the ball 59 times and his longest among them was 12 yards.  His second longest was 8 yards.  Justin Forsett is hardly a home run threat, nor is he having a very good season, but even he had a 22 yard touchdown today.  In other words, Lynch is missing big plays, and leaving yards on the field.  Its the absence of the big play that dogs Lynch's average, and even a huge improvement in his run blocking hasn't changed that.

• Which isn't to say that Lynch was bad today.  He fought for some tough yards and for the second straight week felt reliable.  The only thing that separates Lynch from the good backs of the league is that he doesn't have those 20-30 yarders on occasion to pull up his average the rest of the game.  Most of the time, Lynch really is a solid back, and today that was true as well.  Ultimately though, the conspicuous absence of the big play is making its presence felt.  I know some people will want to compare Lynch to late-career Shaun Alexander, but they were fundamentally different in one way.  Even crappy-version Shaun Alexander still had big plays, but was stuffed on everything else.  Lynch is pretty consistent at gaining 1-3 yards, but lacks the big runs to pull up his average, as any franchise running back would.

• Robert Gallery and Max Unger couldn't quite match the ground game dominance they had flashed in the previous two games, but they were still pretty good once again.  You really have to like the left side of Seattle's line right now, especially if they can cut down on the penalties a bit.

• Sidney Rice throws a great deep ball.

• I ragged on Seattle's offense for sucking, but in fairness, a lot of that was from an atrocious dry spell to open the game.  The Seahawks very first play went for 55 yards, but the remainder of their first five drives totaled -4 yards of total offense and two interceptions (on the first two passes Jackson threw).  After those picks, Jackson finished the rest of the game with a 64% completion rate, a 6.72 YPA and a touchdown.  Not a great performance, but after a terrible start, he settled down to be acceptably mediocre.  Seattle didn't move the ball like a well oiled machine, but they did do an admirable job from the 6th drive on at converting first downs and grinding out the clock with a lead.

• There was at least one area though that you won't find me making excuses for Jackson.  While Jackson did flash some good ability to keep plays alive today, he also took several monster sacks.  Losing 3 or 4 yards on a sack is bad enough.  But multiple times in this game, Jackson took sacks in excess of 10 yard losses, which set up down and distances such as 3rd and 25 and 3rd and 32.  When its that bad, you might as well surprise them with a quarterback pooch punt on 3rd down.  

• Fox broadcast color commentator Tim Ryan has a beard imported straight from 1985.  Seriously, look at this magnificent thing.  Given that he just arrived here going 88 miles per hour in his DeLorean, he must be rather disappointed that we still don't have flying cars.

• Chris Clemons finished with 3 sacks and two forced fumbles.  I think its safe to say that Roger Saffold's absence has been felt.  Its hard to believe, but thanks to this game Clemons is now only three sacks short of matching the eleven sacks he had last season, with six games left to go, and with a second Rams game among them.

• Fans of baseball are probably familiar with pitcher's face.  Its the phenomena that occurs to a pitchers face during the considerable full body strain of throwing a major league pitch.  For the uninitiated, here's an example.  Today we got to see Sam Bradford's pitching face, except instead of being contorted from throwing a pitch, its contorted from getting slammed in the pocket by a surging pass rusher.  Quite frankly, I don't know if a more beautiful picture of Sam Bradford has ever been taken.

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• In what might very well be my favorite play of the 2011 season, Red Bryant recorded his first career interception on a pass tipped by Brandon Mebane, who then lumbered up the field, switched the ball to his left arm, then proceeded to stiff arm the daylights out of an unsuspecting Austin Pettis.  After the play ended, you could hear Red Bryant screaming with excitement, on the bottom of a pile consisting of most of Seattle's defense.  If a bible software company is ever looking for a sound effect for the story of Jesus casting a legion of demons into a herd of swine, this wouldn't be a bad place to start. 

 

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