I always like to see the media’s reaction after the first game since that’s what 90% of the fanbase will be programmed to believe. The other 10% reads blogs. 🙂
- Seattle P-I ran a lot of stories telling us how this defense “could be great,” and that the Hawks are now a “balanced team.” While I agree the defense looked great, you can not overstate who we were playing, when we were playing (1st game), and past history. You don’t have to look farther back than last year to see a Hawks defense that dominated it’s first 2.5 games (until the collapse against the Giants) and solidly was in the Top 10. Get back to me after 5-6 games and we can start to talk about meaningful patterns.
- It was also noted that Kerney slid inside and played tackle at times. I saw this and forgot to mention it, in part, because it didn’t seem to result in much. It’s nice to write about, but the Hawks did this with Bryce Fisher last year, and his sacks dropped precipitously. Kerney is not Bryce Fisher, but I’m just not convinced that defense is all that compelling.
- There was also mention of a package where Deon Grant plays CB. I admit to missing that, and will watch for it now. I’d like to know more about what that looked like if anyone reading would care to add some details and observations.
- Mike Green did get a lot of playing time. If you read my season preview, you’ll see that I expected to see this in running downs. He’s much stouter against the run than either Grant or Russell. I also saw him inserted in the red zone, which makes sense since he’s not going to have worry about a deep ball in that situation.