Misery loves company, and so misery may never have found a better match than these two teams on Sunday. By my own calculations, these are the 27th and 32nd “best” teams in the NFL. One team is not shocked to be 0-2 as much as they are shocked by the extent of their ass whuppings. The other team slid so far, so fast that Disney is considering featuring them in the much anticipated sequel, Cool Runnings II. One team is already shoveling dirt on its season, while the other is quite possibly playing the role of Bruce Willis in The Sixth Sense and does not know it is already dead.
And now the bad news…
The Seahawks are not likely to be favored in any of their next five games.
@ NY Giants
Green Bay
@ Tampa Bay
San Francisco
Philadelphia
Where I once saw a real chance at a 7-1 start, we are now facing the possibility of the opposite. Unless, of course, we start to see some significant changes in all three phases of the game.
OFFENSE
Running to setup the pass is a foreign concept to Holmgren. I hope he saw what I saw last week when the Seahawks best drives were sparked by methodical 3-7 yard runs and the occasional pass to our only receiving threat, John Carlson. We are the Baltimore Ravens without the good defense, Todd Heap-wannabe and all. The only hope for our offense is to prove that we can force our will in the running game. Holmgren blinked last week and possibly cost us the game by calling a pass play on 2nd & G from the 6 in the 4th qtr after we had been consistently getting positive yards on the ground. The pass was nearly intercepted and left us with a long third down that eventually turned into a FG when we really needed a TD. We need to stay with the run.
People are putting too much hope in the return of Engram and Branch. Who knows what we will get from those two and whether they will stay healthy? We need to become a ball control offense starting tomorrow. I’d love to see how we look with Sean Locklear back in the lineup since I thought the line was pretty good last week without him.
DEFENSE
The defense has stuffed the run well in the first two games, allowing less than 100 yards/game and 3.8 YPC. That is a great sign. We got a ton of sacks last week, but the 49ers had a field day passing against our secondary. The Seahawks are allowing an average QB rating of 107.6 in the first two games. 107.6!! Thankfully, the Rams are allowing an average of 129.2. We need to stop the big plays. If we can do that, we might actually start to see the defense we all thought we had entering the season. Any letup against the Rams RB Jackson would be a bad sign.
SPECIAL TEAMS
Punt the freaking ball! Just punt it and make it go far. Don’t get it blocked. Don’t shank it for 20 yards. Don’t force me to keep talking about Ruben Rodriguez, the only guy I have ever seen get negative yardage on a punt before. As Tim Gunn would say, “Make it work.”
Most folks are assuming we will win this week since the Rams stink so much. Let’s not forget we are the worst team they have faced this seasons, and it’s not close. The Giants and Eagles are in a totally different class than the team we’ve put on the field in the first two games. As much as I’d love to see a blowout, expect a dog fight tomorrow.