Don't call it "Beast Quake II"

Marshawn Lynch's long touchdown run Sunday night ranks among the season's most exciting NFL highlights and rates among the greatest plays in Seahawk history.

Many have likened Lynch's 79-yard rampage to the Beast Quake run four seasons ago. 

Certainly, the two plays share many parallels. Both clinched crucial, high-stakes games with big playoff implications. In both cases, Lynch carried the ball, broke free from early contact, produced an impressive burst of sustained speed, deployed a mean stiffarm, and benefited when from clutch downfield blocks thrown by hustling teammates. Both runs ended with Lynch falling backwards into the end zone, cradling the pigskin in one arm while his other hand clutched his crotch in crude defiance of the defenders he had just dominated.

For these reasons, some have lazily dubbed last night's run Beast Quake II.

That is a misnomer, because no real seismic activity registered in Arizona on Sunday night. The original Beast Quake was an authentic tremor caused by 66,000 fans rocking Seahawks Stadium by jumping up and down in celebration of Lynch's epic 67-yard run. There were plenty of Seattle fans in Glendale that night, but not enough to shake the stadium.

To compound the foolishness, one Seattle newspaper set up an online poll asking readers which run was better; the original Beast Quake, or Beast Quake II?

Of course, it's no contest. Sunday night's run was magnificent, but the original Beast Quake featured more broken tackles, a more vicious stiffarm and a better team effort from a convoy of Seahawks blocking downfield to help usher Lynch into the end zone. Moreover, it took place on a bigger stage and in a more heroic underdog context: the only losing team in history to win a division, host a playoff game and eliminate the defending Super Bowl champions.

So, we need a better name for Sunday night's run. I invite suggestions from the teeming legion of Diehard readers. In the meantime, my own proposal draws inspiration from Michael Bennett, who said, "That's the best run I've ever seen. It looked like he was running for his freedom."

Thus, I propose "The Jailbreak."

Tougher test tonight

Arizona is undefeated at home this year. Bruce Arians has clearly earned coach of the year honors for consistently fielding a competitive team despite a crippling epidemic of injuries to key players.

Yet, Vegas and most analysts give the Cardinals little chance of winning tonight. They fixate on Arizona's dire quarterback situation while ignoring the team's relentlessly excellent defense and increasingly credible run game.

Seattle's defense can probably handle Arizona. The Sea-fence has rounded into championship form in recent weeks, and should be able to stack the box to stymie Cardinal run efforts and dare Ryan Lindley to throw at the Legion of Boom.

It would be lazy to label Lindley as untested; the fact is that he has faced few tests and flunked most of them. His stat line is truly dreadful: one win vs. five losses as a starter, zero touchdowns and seven interceptions.

But all of that happened when injuries pressed him prematurely into service as a rookie 6th-round draft pick back in 2012. Presumably, two years of work as an understudy have yielded some improvement. Arians knows how to coach quarterbacks and how to get the most out of his offense. 

Last week, in the first half, Colin Kaepernick had some limited success throwing against Seattle, completing several crossing routes against Richard Sherman and other defenders. It will be interesting to see if Arizona is bold enough to try to exploit the same apparent weakness, and equally interesting to see how the Seahawks react. Against the 49ers, our defense responded primarily by intensifying the pass rush.

Winning tonight will require another superhuman performance from the Sea-fence to compensate for Seattle's faltering offense. The team's defensive resurgence has helped to mask a dramatic decline in offensive production. After averaging 28 points per game through week 10, the Seahawks have posted just 20 points per contest since then.

Optimists characterize this as Seattle reverting to its roots as a run-first offense paired with a solid defense, an old-school team playing smash-mouth football on both sides of the ball. There is some truth to that, but I would be more comfortable with the small ball approach if it were built on a more solid foundation.

Unfortunately, our offensive line is still a wreck, the team's undisputed Achilles heel. When healthy, they are a serviceable crew, but they are rarely healthy. The chief cornerstones--center Max Unger and left tackle Russell Okung--will not play tonight. Guards Richard Carpenter and JR Sweezy are banged-up and underperforming. Rookie second-round pick Justin Britt is one of the worst right tackles in the league. Alvin Bailey looked bad in relief of Okung last week. The return of backup center Lemuel Jeanpierre is the sole bright spot in this picture.

With the O-line in shambles, Seattle's offense continues to rely on the superhuman talents of Beast Mode and DangeRuss. The offensive line provides sporadically decent run blocking, but Marshawn Lynch can always grind out a few yards by making his own holes.

The greatest concern is the O-line's inept pass protection. Every week, Russell Wilson faces more pressure than any other quarterback in the league. As the 21st century's answer to Harry Houdini, DangeRuss eludes most pass rushers and takes relatively few big hits, but it is only a matter of time before he takes an unlucky shot and we get to see what our offense looks like with a mere mortal under center. Tarvaris Jackson is serviceable backup, but anyone other than Wilson would get sacked twice or thrice as often under the pressure our offensive line permits.

Offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell and O-line coach Tom Cable have their work cut out for them.

Go, Hawks!

Choke out Oakland

Oakland is a bad team, but they're playing better under interim head coach Tony Sparano.

The Seahawks are so wracked with injuries that any opponent would pose a challenge at this point. Consistent chemistry has eluded Seattle on offense, defense and special teams.

Seattle needs to exorcise the demons of our home loss to the Cowboys and restore the fear to Seahawks Stadium.

Old School Diehards remember when playing the Raiders were our most hated division rivals. Still, inspiration should be no problem today. Seattle honors Marysville pregame and inducts Big Walt into the Ring of Honor at halftime.

Carolina off my mind

Seattle savored a sweet victory after a relatively ugly game last week.

Carolina is not a great team, but everyone in the NFL is a threat every week, and western teams always struggle in the eastern time zone. Seattle came in banged up and underperforming on offense, defense and special teams.

There was no shortage of motivation to win. Seattle badly needed to snap a two-game losing streak. to keep their beaks above water (.500), stay alive for playoff contention, and keep clawing up from third place in the NFC West.

The Seahawks needed no extra motivation, but Cam Newton's antics provided plenty of it.

The Diehard can accept a certain level of celebration in football, but remains uncomfortable with narcissistic displays like Cam Newton's "I am Superman" nonsense.


I knew to expect that. What I didn't expect is that Cam Newton celebrates every single first down.



 First down celebrations are OK when you're a back or receiver who gets only a few touches per game, but when you're the quarterback, celebrating every single first down is.... excessive, to say the least.

Cam Newton has a great smile, but Seahawk defenders must have got tired of seeing his pearly whites.



So Bruce Irvin handled the situation.

Gut check time

In St. Louis last Sunday, Seattle got outcoached and outplayed for the second consecutive week.

There was no shame in falling for that brilliant fake punt return... I have never seen anything like that in my life. St. Louis deserved to reap the benefits of incredible film study, diabolical design and epic execution.

But I saw that fake punt coming at the end of the game. I was yelling "Watch the fake!" at my TV in the seconds before the play. At the snap, all of the Seahawks turned and ran downfield to set up the return. I couldn't believe it.

Russell Wilson returned to greatness in the second half. If it were possible for one man to carry a team to victory, Wilson would have done it.

It will be easier to fix the problems with the offense and special teams than it will be to fix the defense. The chemistry is gone. We made a Rams reserve look like Tom Brady last week.

There are personnel issues. Loss of depth on the D-line, Bobby Wagner sidelined, a rotating cast of #2 cornerbacks, Kam Chancellor hobbled but playing with heart....

Good teams overcome these kinds of setbacks.

But our opponents have figured out our scheme. They have figured out how to use tempo to hinder our defensive line rotations, even as lack of depth has forced us to keep exhausted starters on the field too long. They have worked out how to game-plan around Richard Sherman. It was encouraging to see Sherman leave his side of the field to match up with the Rams' #1 wideout in a few key situations.

Players and coaches need to step up. Leaders need to lead.

At .500, it's time to channel the spirit of Jim Mora the Elder. This is no longer about repeating as Super Bowl champions. It is no longer about winning the division or qualifying for the postseason. ("Playoffs?") It is not even, with all due respect to Jim Mora, about just winning a game. As I used to tell my players, thinking about winning the game is a distraction, for the most part.

Football is always about executing your assignment and winning the current play. And then the next one. And the next one. Until the game is over, by which time the score and the winning and losing take care of themselves.

Carolina is having a bad year, but St. Louis was slumping, too.

The only sense in which our Super Bowl ring is relevant on the field is the fact that everyone wants to give us their best shot so they can say they beat the defending Super Bowl champions.

Feed the Beast. Sack Cam. Go, Hawks!

Lord have mercy, we cut Percy

I still can't believe we lost to Dallas. At home.

The recipe for a Seattle loss is clear: Fail to feed the Beast, and let the opposing offense hold the ball twice as long as your offense.

I can't believe Darrell Bevell couldn't figure out how to integrate Percy Harvin into the offense. As a coach, I never had the problem of too many weapons, but it seems like it would have been a nice problem to have. For example, when Dallas showed they would swarm Harvin every time he touched the ball, I would have used him as a decoy while feeding the Beast and other playmakers until the defense adjusts.

Of course, the offensive coordinator is not to blame for Harvin's attitude problem. Picking fights with fellow receivers and your quarterback is bad enough, but refusing to enter the game in the 4th quarter was beyond the pale. Pussy Harvin now gets what he deserves: exile to a program of perennial losers, the dysfunctional New York Jets.

Bevell still has his work cut out for him. Future defenses will follow Dallas in modifying their pass rush and deploying a spy to contain Russell Wilson in the pocket. We need an answer for that, and it must involve 1) running the ball well and 2) receivers getting open. Neither task is easy, given the injuries to Pro Bowl center Max Unger and our top two tight ends, Zach Miller and Luke Willson. Doug Baldwin and Jermaine Kearse need to establish that they are credible starting NFL wideouts.

We can't blame Harvin or Bevell for Seattle's defensive struggles. We're giving up too many yards and too many points, generating too few turnovers, and giving opponents too much time of possession.

We have generally stopped the run (except against Dallas), but the pass rush needs to put more pressure and punishment on opposing quarterbacks.

Richard Sherman and Earl Thomas continue to play reasonably well, but otherwise, the secondary has become the Legion of Meh. We've been unlucky with injuries at nickelback and the other cornerback position. At strong safety, Kam Chancellor is playing hurt and it shows. I generally doubt that hurt starters can outperform healthy reserves.

It's gut check time. We're 3-2, just one win above mediocrity, holding third place in a four-team division. We can't afford to drop our first division game. The Rams are having another bad year, but under Jeff Fisher they generally put a good fight, especially at home.

Seattle needs to make a statement to exorcise the demons of last week's loss, get the season back on track, and remind the Rams that we still own them.

Go, Hawks!

Keep Ricardo Lockette!

I feel bad about having hate against Ricardo Lockette as the top story on this blog during its many months of dormancy.

Lockette was cleared of legal wrongdoing, though consorting with Colin Kaepernick still constitutes ethical misconduct in my book.

But Ricardo Rocket has won my heart. He is the most imposing gunner I have ever seen, the way he flies downfield like a molten bullet on punt coverage. It no longer seems possible for Jon Ryan to outkick his coverage because Ricardo Rocket runs so unbelievably fast. Opposing punt returners are quick to call for a fair catch because they've seen Lockette unload with Kam Chancellor-like brutality on the hapless fools who fail to seize that lifeline. (He runs hard on kickoffs, too, but Stephen Hauschka rarely kicks it shallow enough for the returner to catch the ball in the field of play.)

I appreciated the good personnel decisions the team made in the offseason. Losing Red Bryant was sad, but understandable. It was disappointing that the low-stakes Terrell Pryor gamble didn't pay off. I rued our failure to draft more O-linemen, and was really bummed about the injuries to Lemuel Jeanpierre and Michael Bowie and the latter's loss to Cleveland.

The O-line seemed improved through the first three games, but their play last week was disgraceful, and the loss of Max Unger hurts. Expect Dallas to try to confound the backup center Schilling with bizarre shifts, stunts and blitz packages.

Still, the first quarter of the season went well, marred only by the loss to San Diego.

Our run defense has improved, but the pass rush and the secondary haven't quite rounded into form. The potent Cowboy offense should pose a challenge, but the 12th Man might amp up the Legion of Boom and turn this into a repeat of the season opener where we made Green Bay's great offense look lame.

Future posts will likely continue to be sporadic. Personal and professional pressures have left me with very little time for anything. Not that it matters. Seattle is so good now that there is no shortage of coverage from local and national publications and blogs. I used to read almost everything published on the Seahawks, but my available my time and energy have dwindled as Seattle football coverage has exploded. I can't keep up with it. I barely find time to watch the games anymore. I certainly don't feel informed enough to attempt original commentary, even if I had time to do so.

I really appreciate everyone who used to read the blog sometimes, especially JB, who was kind enough to post comments on several occasions.

But when your mom is a hardcore Seahawks Diehard and even she won't read your blog, it is probably wise to conclude that you're wasting your time.

Go, Hawks!