Tuesday, October 9, 2007

Seahawks' season unofficially over.

The Seahawks' season is pretty much over. Mack Strong is injured and has retired. Deion Branch is out for a month. We just lost to Pittsburgh 21-0. And the Colts and Pats look unbeatable (except for when they play each other, in which case, one of them has to be beatable).
Does this come as a surprise? If I held the same aspirations now as I did at the beginning of the season, then yes, but since I don't, then no, it doesn't. While our defense has looked amazing at times, we still can't stop the run, which I think is an integral part of defense, since if you can stop the run, you force the opponent to throw more often then they want to. Besides the hope that our defense has given Hawks fans, the offense has looked very inconsistent. Hasselbeck has looked like a sub elite qb, just under Carson Palmer, Brady, and Manning, and at other times he's looked like a rookie QB who gets scared out of the pocket too easily. Is some of it to blame on the line for being young and the WRs for being inconsistent? Probably, but Hasselbeck 2 years ago was the top qb in the NFC, and he sure isn't playing like it now. Perhaps one of the biggest mistakes is Deion Branch, whom many praise as a WR designed for the west coast offense. This may be true, but he's still not worth a 1st round pick, especially when two WRs better than him, Darrell Jackson and Randy Moss, went for 4th round picks. Other flaws are Hackett's supposed breakout year taking a falter due to injury, and Burleson's failure to step up and be a consistent wideout. So far he is the same as Koren Robinson, talented in both the receiving and returning game, but has shown too many mental lapses.
Lastly, a lot of people have been down on Shaun Alexander, for both his inability to hit holes fast enough, his lacksadasical effort as a pass blocker, and his medicore receiving ability, but I think this is partly the organization's fault. We knew that he was a question mark, yet we didn't take a chance on a free agent or a draft pick. We could've traded our 1st round pick for Michael Turner instead of Branch, and that would've been a better move. Perhaps next year we'll draft a rb who is a fairly good runner, but more importantly, a good pass blocker and receiver, since this is what will best complement Alexander's weaknesses.
Is this news dissapointing? Yes, but barring an injury to Tom Brady or Peyton Manning/Bob Sanders, the Colts or the Patriots will be the Superbowl champs irregardless of who the NFC champion is.

1 comment:

Jon said...

irregardless, not a word.

And somehow the Pats lost in the SB, tho i didn't watch, so I can't say as to why that is.