Seahawks Peaking at the Right Time for the Right Reason

Want to know why the Seahawks are such a dangerous team?

Danny O’Neil at the Seattle Times implies that the Seahawks are playing their best football because they’ve had their backs against the wall the last few weeks:

“‘When it finally came down to that last game against St. Louis, we finally played our best football,’ coach Pete Carroll said. ‘I’m not real proud of that. I would have rather seen that for all the right reasons earlier on, but I’m having fun with it, enjoying it.

“‘We’re going to see how far we can ride it.'”

Julius Peppers would seem to agree (via Sean Jensen at the Chicago Sun-Times):

“’They’re used to being in that spot [in the playoffs],’ Peppers said. ‘They didn’t have a great season recordwise, but they’re used to being in the playoffs.

“’They played like they were.’”

They did indeed.  Seattle played what amounted to their second playoff game in a row Sunday.  They played fast and hard like they knew what they were in for.  They were far from mistake-free and the still need to play better.  But they knew that their football lives were at stake.

This is why fans are underestimating the Seahawks so badly.  Most understand that they are peaking at the right time and that’s what you want to do.  But they don’t account for what’s more important, that the Seahawks are peaking for the right reasons.

The Seahawks are responding under pressure.  And sometimes the more pressure there is with this kind of team, the better they respond.  And going on the road against a Bears team which is decidedly better than the wounded Saints, the stakes will never be higher.  The Bears need to match that intensity or they are going to find themselves sitting and watching TV like the rest of us.

Mike Williams Is a Bad Matchup for the Bears

Fred Mitchell at the Chicago Tribune quotes cornerback Tim Jennings on the problems that the Bears defense face with Seattle wide receiver Mike Williams, who ripped them for 10 catches for 123 yards last time they played:

“For me it’s real tough, a guy like that.  But that’s one thing about this defense. If it was just a lot of man-to-man and no help over the top, it would be a problem. But for us as a defense, we play a lot of Cover-2 and Cover-3, we’ve got guys running to the football.”

This is the obvious problem with Jennings and why the Bears need to be worried about their cornerbacks going forward.  Jennings is good in the Bears base defense but his height puts him at a disadvantage whenever he has to handle anyone one-on-one.  He’s 5’8″.  Williams is 6’5″.

Look for the Bears to have taller cornerback Charles Tillman following Williams around the field and look for the Seahawks to be doing everything they can to get Williams into a mismatch whenever the Bears are in a zone defense.  I’d be surprised if he didn’t spend a lot of time in the slot.  It should be interesting.

Why the Bears Missed Briggs Against Seattle and Other Points of View

Bears

  • The Chicago Tribune‘s Brad Biggs gives insight into some offensive line technique via coach Mike Tice:

“Really, just looking at the footwork of Chris [Williams], there were a couple of times (against the Seahawks) where he spread his feet and never stepped or anything.

“I think it’s that technique ‘A guy is on me real quick,’ instead of him stepping. That takes time and repetition. We’ve had weeks to repeat the technique and do it over and over to where now he’s better. He still has a moment or two, but he’s really improved.”

  • Pisa Tinoisamoa comments on the absence of Lance Briggs from the game the last time the Bears played Seattle.  Replacement Brian Iwuh had a good game with 10 tackles.  Via Sean Jensen at the Chicago Sun-Times:

“You can’t even really say [the Bears lost] because he didn’t play.  But you know if he would have, it would have been a different outcome, at least defensively, because you can count on Lance Briggs for a couple of game-changing plays.

“That’s what we missed.”

  • Trent Dilfer at ESPN says about what the Bears need to do to beat the Seahawks:

Elsewhere

  • The Seahawks might be missing concussed linebacker Lofa Tatupu, who was concussed in Sunday’s game.  Coach Pete Carroll says he’s encouraged by Tatupu’s progress but given the delicacy with which concussions are being handled by the league, I’m going to be mildly surprised if he returns quickly.  If he doesn’t pass the necessary tests, it will be a double whammy as the Seahawks will move David Hawthorn to middle linebacker from the weak side to replace him.  Via Danny O’Neil at the Seattle Times.
  • Eagles quarterback Kevin Kolb wants to start or be traded.  Adam Schefter at ESPN doesn’t sound optimistic either will happen:

  • Mike Florio at profootballtalk.com gives us even more reasons to be grateful that the Bears are owned by Virginai McCaskey rather than Dolphins owner Stephen Ross.  What a mess.
  • Dilfer says that the Falcons need to make the Packers pay for being overly aggressive:

One Final Thought

The Raiders are hiring.  I’ve got this funny feeling that the Raiders are going to be talking to Jon Gruden about returning to the Bay area.  I can hear your laughter.  But it’s still not going away…

A Different Seattle Team Is Coming to Town This Time Around

Mike Mulligan at the Chicago Sun-Times comments on the Seahawk victory over the Saints:

“[Matt] Hasselbeck used veteran guile, sleight of hand and 6-5 wide receiver Mike Williams (10 receptions, 123 yards) to terrorize the Bears. His description of the victory against the Saints could have applied to the earlier Bears game.

‘‘’We got a rhythm going, with pass protection, and I was using my cadence pretty good, and quick counts and sort of quick counts, normal count, hard count, double count,’ Hasselbeck said. ‘Using all those things in our toolbox.’’’

The difference is, of course, that Seattle is now bringing a running game to town in the form of Marshawn Lynch.  The Seahawks have the look of a much more balanced team this time around – the type of offense that often gives the Bears trouble.  The Bears are going to have to adjust if they want to win in the playoffs as pointed out by defensive coordinator Rod Marinelli via Brad Biggs at the Chicago Tribune:

“The pace and tempo are going to pick up now.  That’s a fun part of this thing. They understand it. They know the importance of details and execution. We’ve got some elite players who play as a team.”

Nevertheless they lack playoff experience on the offensive side of the ball.   While we sit and sounder whether the Bears can adjust, we already know that they Seahawks can.  They dialed it up and played noticeably faster Saturday.

The Seahawks still don’t exactly execute like the Patriots.  And the Bears will be a lot different offensively compared to the last time they played them, as well.  But nevertheless the Seahawks are a dangerous team.

I’m not saying the underdog Seahawks will win.  But I’d take the points.

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Browns Provide Blue Print to Beat the Patriots

A friend (who is rather anti-Bear) and I were debating the merits of the Green Bay Packers when he brought up this observation:  the Packers are team in the NFC playoff picture with the best chance to beat the Patriots.  An anonymous quote from the Audibles feature at Pro Football Weekly reminded me of his comment:

“If you want to beat the Patriots, you need to look at the job Cleveland did on them. The one thing (Eric) Mangini definitely knows is how to beat New England. They had a phenomenal game plan. I’ve never seen Tom Brady so confused. They had 11 guys standing, and (Brady) had no idea who was coming and who was dropping. No team is good playing from behind, especially if the offense can run at you. Colt McCoy made a few plays early, and (Peyton) Hillis ran at them. That is the winning formula to beat New England. It’s a copycat league, and you have to know where you could pull from.”

Defensively this is exactly what the Packers did to the Patriots and they almost beat them.  They run a look with only two down linemen and everyone else stands around so you can’t tell who is coming from where.  It’s problematic but it also looks to me like the type of defense that you could beat with the run if you had the right blocking scheme.

Frankly I don’t see anyone in the NFC beating the Patriots in a Super Bowl matchup.  But I said that the last time they were there and they lost.  It will be interesting to see if more teams do, in fact, copy the Cleveland game plan and what the Patriots do to try to stop it.

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Packers Rip Off Shareholders and Other News

Bears

“I don’t know why they keep bringing up me. This was 38 years ago that I played.”

“We have the best offensive line coach in the league, period.”

‘‘’If I look up right guard in the dictionary, I see a picture of Lance Louis,’ Tice said in August.”

“Tice proved adept at not only acknowledging a mistake but correcting it — both rare commodities at Halas Hall in recent years. It took the Bears four years to realize Mark Anderson wasn’t a starting defensive end. It took Tice four games to realize Louis wasn’t a starting right guard.”

“I never thought anyone would say this, especially in Chicago, but go Pack go!”

Elsewhere

  • Tom Kowalsi at mlive.com breaks down the Lions roster.  Big needs in the back seven of the defense should tell us what direction they’ll go in free agency and the draft.
  • Here’s the Detroit Lions season wrapup with Brian VanOchten and Bill Simonson at mlive.com.  Some good points made here including the fact that the Cleveland Browns ended on a winning streak last year (though the Lions are probably different):

  • This week’s Audibles at Pro Football Weekly was particularly good.  Here’s yet another astute observation:

“Coaches remember what a player did. Personnel guys are supposed to be on top of coaches to remember what (players) can do. Every team has different power structures. What you have to realize with coaches is that very few of them can separate the emotion.”

  • Baltimore head coach John Harbaugh gets a few warm comments from the Kansas City fans  yesterday after their win:

“You can put Aaron Rodgers in that elite quarterback class. He’s got his first playoff victory.”

  • Mike Lupica echos my thoughts on Jim Harbaugh‘s hiring for ESPN:

One Final Thought

Another reason to hate the Packers as they blatantly rip off loyal shareholders:

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Eagles-Packers Illustrate the Bears Long-Term Predicament

Neil Hayes at the Chicago Sun-Times elegantly drives what is perhaps the most important point for Bear fans about today’s Packers-Eagles matchup home:

If the Eagles beat the Packers in today’s NFC wild-card game at Lincoln Financial Field, they will take on the Bears in the divisional round next Sunday at Soldier Field. If the Packers win today, they’ll head next to Atlanta — and it would keep alive a possible meeting with the Bears in the NFC Championship Game.

That’s the short view. The longer view is more sobering.

The Packers and Eagles not only have elite quarterbacks but were the third- and fourth-youngest teams in the NFC at the start of the season and have only gotten younger as injured veterans have been replaced by backups. The Bears are the third-oldest team and likely will have to fight through these teams again and again if they hope to remain competitive in the NFC in the coming years.

This is the predicament that GM Jerry Angelo and his front office have put this franchise in and this is why I withhold my whole hearted support.  While the window opens for teams like the Packers, Eagles and Patriots, it is rapidly closing for the Bears and it has been for some years.  The Bears do have a couple of young play makers including the recently drafted Johnny Knox.  But the last Pro Bowl position player they drafted were Tommie Harris and Nathan Vasher in 2004.

The Bears have to do better in the draft if they want to keep up with the younger teams in the NFL.

Thoughts of Bears Game Drives Jets Sanchez to Win Over Colts and Other News

Bears

“Kansas City and Chicago are extremely strong with their coordinators, but the Chiefs’ Todd Haley is unproven as a head guy and the Bears’ Lovie Smith has some game-day inconsistencies. Smith has guided his team to the Super Bowl, though.”

He rates the Bears coaching staff a disappointing 9th of the 12 playoff teams.

  • Milwaukee Journal Sentinel beat writer Bob McGinn gives Bears GM Jerry Angelo some love probably though gritted teeth.  (I had to link to this story through commentary by Tom Kowalski at mlive.com rather than directly to the Journal Sentinel because I didn’t want to become a “Packer Insider”.  It didn’t sound too masculine to me…

Elsewhere

“Sanchez credited his poise and the team’s overall coolness under pressure to the lessons learned in a regular-season loss to the Bears.

“‘The most important thing to me was remembering the Chicago game,’ he said. ‘A field goal … just give us a chance, give us the fourth down, and not turn the ball over like the Chicago game.”’

  • ESPN‘s Merril Hoge makes some interesting comments about what the Jets did to beat Peyton Manning:

  • Seattle quarterback Matt Hasselbeck tells ESPN that the Seahawks took advantage of the Saints defense making “educated guesses”:

Saints defensive coordinator, Gregg Williams, is going to take some heat this week.

  • Ben Maller at FOX Sports Radio reports that the bettors took a bath yesterday.  Seventy-five percent of the action was on Indianapolis.  Sixty-eight percent was on the Saints.  Like Maller, I can’t say I’m surprised.  Bookies aren’t in the business to lose money and when the split isn’t close to 50-50, you can figure that the result is more likely to end up in Vegas’ favor.
  • Williamson rates the top ten NFL rookies this year.  The Super Bowl favorite Patriots have two.  The Bears have zero.
  • Williamson also had this provocative comment:

“If you were not aware, there is an offensive line shortage in the NFL. There are fewer elite lines than in my recent memory. And even some of the best teams in the league are fielding very ordinary units up front.”

I would say that every breathing Bear fan is definitely aware.

  • Dave Hyde and Mike Berardino at the South Florida Sun-Sentinel point out that the Dolphins aren’t the only ones who made mistakes in botching the attempt to hire Jim Harbaugh.  The press had a bad week as well:

  • Darrelle Revis talks to the New York Post about the Jets matchup with the Patriots next week:

The key question is whether the Jets can recover form the butt kicking they took from the Patriots late in the season to play with the needed confidence to win.

One Final Thought

Seattle coach Pete Carroll on their upset win over the Saints (via the Chicago Tribune):

“It didn’t matter what I said to them, or what was said outside, and all of the story lines and all that, they just did not buy it.  Where that came from? If I knew that, we’d have something special here. It came out of an attitude and it came out of a faith in one another.”

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Bears Doing a Better Job of Hiding the Defensive Alignment This Year

Vaughn McClure at the Chicago Tribune interviews Brian Urlacher:

“Others might call the Bears’ Cover-2 defense predictable, but Urlacher thinks it’s simply pretty darn good.

“‘If we’re so predictable, then we shouldn’t be in the playoffs,’ he said. ‘If you look around the league — and most people don’t see the intricacies of each defense for every team — we don’t screw up a lot.”’

In fairness the Bears really aren’t that predictable anymore.  As has been pointed out by several good color commentators over the course of the season the Bears are disguising their converges more than they ever have this year.  They often start in the cover two but switch to a different defense right before the snap.  It’s yet another reason why the defense has been better this year.

Fans Should Be Careful What They Wish For

Mike Mulligan leads his article for the Chicago Sun-Times today with this:

“Welcome to the upside-down world of the NFL playoffs, where even the most ardent of Bears fans will be cheering for the Green Bay Packers today.

“If the Packers pull off an upset in Philadelphia, then the Bears will be hosting the worst playoff team in NFL history a week from today.”

Most Bear fans agree.  But be careful what you wish for.  Though Seattle is very beatable seeing Green Bay go should probably be the number one priority.

The Packers are very inconsistent.  They didn’t play well in either of the games against the Bears with 18 penalties in game 1 at Soldier Field and with quarterback Aaron Rogers not throwing with his usual accuracy in game 2, not to mention the wide receivers dropping balls all over the field.

But if the Packers somehow put together four good games in a row, they are the most dangerous team in the NFC playoffs.  And their tenacious man-to-man defense along with their patience on offense with screens and the underneath passing game make them far and away the worst match up for the Bears in the NFC playoffs.