The mirage dissolves, revealing the truth: despite new coaches, a thorough roster overhaul, and some early wins, these are the same Seahawks we saw last year and the year before. There's still a lot of quit in this team.
Last week, our defense wore down and gave up the second half. This week, they tucked their tails between their legs in the second quarter. Incredibly, even when New York stopped passing entirely, we couldn't stop their run game.
Our defensive coaches seemed to quit, too. Once the Giants jumped to a lead, they evidently ceased to dial up anything creative.
Even the 12th Man quit.
Note to offensive coordinator Jeremy Bates: When a novice quarterback gets his first start, the defense expects you to run on every first down. If you fulfill that expectation with relentless and stultifying predictability, they will stack the box and stop you, often for negative yardage. In the future, please consider some variety in your playcalling.
Whitehurst played reasonably well, considering the circumstances. Only one interception was his fault; Mike Williams caused the other one by bobbling an on-target throw into the defender's hands.
But Whitehurst belongs on the bench. He throws a nice deep ball, but Hasselbeck remains our best bet. The usual starter's accuracy and touch, his ability to read defenses, and his leadership and veteran savvy all distinguish him over his once and future backup.
Perhaps, after taking it easy this week, the team will show up ready to play next week in Arizona. But that's unlikely: Losing and quitting are habit-forming.
Now hold on a moment...I was at the game, and I can tell you *I* didn't quit...my wife and I stayed until the Giants started kneeling down the ball in the last two minutes of the 4th quarter. So don't tell me the 12th man quit!
ReplyDeleteBut I agree with the KJR sportscasters that hypothesize the players "phoned it in" before they even took the field. It was a disgusting, unacceptable performance, and Whitehurst was TERRIBLE. Terrible. His passer rating was only boosted above 20.0 with that 4th quarter TD. THAT's bad enough...but this was a performance from a QB in his FIFTH YEAR playing AT HOME who faced NO PRESSURE all game. Number of times the Giants sacked Whitehurst? Zero. Number of hits he took all game? One. And he still turned in that garbage performance? Just awful.
The fans deserve their money back for that game. And Whitehurst can ride the pine all the way back to San Diego for all the "athleticism" he gives us!
JB, you're the man. I commend you for staying and cheering until the bitter end. I'm sure there were lots of other true diehards who hung in there, too. But a lot of people left, and the crowd ceased to be a factor pretty early on.
ReplyDeleteSimilarly, I imagine there were individual Seahawks who played hard until the end of the game (Craig Terrill looked like he was trying hard on every play), but as a group, the team seemed to quit.
Whitehurst did not play well. But neither did the rest of the offense. Pass protection was good, but there was no running game, and his receivers didn't reliably get open or catch the ball. Whitehurst isn't hopeless, but we agree that he doesn't look ready to start.
Thanks for writing.