Football stuff

We are three games into the Seahawks season and they have finally won a game. And in a pretty solid fashion, beating the Chicago Bears 26-0 at home.

Through the first couple games I would yell at the TV every time the commentators talked about how great the Seattle defense is, I mean, I yelled at the TV for a lot of reasons, but that was one of them, they were not showing much of an example of skill those two games, but they shaped up today.

There are excuses to be made for the previous games, Green Bay is really damn good, and Aaron Rodgers is a contender for best quarterback to ever play the game. St. Louis is not a historically very good team, but they always seem to have the Seahawks number when they play, so it isn't terribly unexpected that they lose to them, but Seattle was not really showing that they could finish a game even so.

That did change today, Kam Chancellor is back in the lineup after his ill-conceived holdout for a new contract, and while he didn't make many plays himself, the defense did look sharp, shutting out the Bears and really preventing them from getting anything going on offense at all.

The Seahawks big weakness last year was the Offensive line, and that has continued into this year as well, though they looked surprisingly decent against the Packers last week, they fared miserably in  St. Louis, and the best you can say about today is they kept Russel Wilson from being sacked just enough for him to complete passes, which I guess is good enough, but they have got to get better. This problem is related to another one the Hawks have had this year, and that is Jimmy Graham.
They made a shocking trade with New Orleans for Graham, sending probably their best O-line player, Max Unger, to the Saints in return for him, some draft picks were swapped as well.

On paper this was a great deal, Russel Wilson is really good, but he lacks a great receiver to target, Graham is big, strong, and surprisingly nimble and it was thought he'd fit right in with the Seahawks, but that never really happened until today, he caught about 7 passes in the first two games, including a touchdown, which is fine but doesn't really rate the big money they are paying him, and it wasn't his fault at all, they just weren't throwing to him.
That did change today, he caught something like 8 passes, got another touchdown, and ended up with a few key first downs, getting him involved was a great way to show improvement, and more things to worry about covering means less direct pressure on the quarterback, which helps the weak Offensive line to figure out what it is doing.

Marshawn Lynch was injured today, probably not terribly, but they only played him for about a quarter and his backup, rookie Thomas Rawls came in and showed what he can do, getting over 100 yards on less than twenty carries, if he is able to keep this up Lynch will become far less of a requirement for the Seattle offense, something which I am sure has worried the coaches, Lynch is an amazing runner but I think the dude should retire before he permanently cripples himself.

Also showing off today was another rookie, Tyler Lockett, who returned a kickoff 105 yards for a touchdown, the second time this season he has done similar. Having a good return game is all that has kept the Seahawks close in their games this year, and while they didn't need this one to win, it is sure fun to see, that dude can move.

All in all, I haven't quite joined the doom and gloom crowd, but I can't exactly say the team looks like championship material this year, we'll see I guess, the games are fun to watch anyway.