I think Richard Sherman shows impressive awareness of people's weaknesses. He utilizes this to positive effect on the field -- baiting Tom Brady and Steve Smith. I really think that Richard bullies the bully. He fought his NFL drug suspension and won and I think this is why he takes such issue with Jim Harbaugh. You should 'youtube' the interchange between Richard and Skip Bayless, if you haven't see it. Richard reminds me of Muhammed Ali.
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The most dominant Seahawk in my mind was Kenny Easley -- a cross between Kam Chancellor and Earl Thomas. Richard could be better though, hard to say.
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A primary weakness of the Hawks defense is the pass defense of the linebackers against TE, and against running backs to a lesser extent. The pass rush also seems to come and go, not sure why. Didn't seem that the significantly better pressure on Matt Schaub in the second half came from more blitzes, but I easily could have missed them.
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To my eyes, the Texans were the better team yesterday. That the Seahawks didn't give in to the Texans left a very strong impression on me. I haven't seen a football team that tenacious that I actually cared about since the eighties -- like when the Huskies beat Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl or the Seahawks beat the Dolphins on the road in the '83 playoffs.
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Nobody wins 19 games in a row by blowout. I'm not backing up to collect my W in the standings.
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Only 4 of 16 NFC teams are above .500. The other three NFC teams that do have winning records, are no threat. Chicago and Detroit, have you seen their points differentials?
Well, Detroit is #5 in team efficiency; they're playing well. Drew Brees is a threat, I suppose. But you take the point. Where are the 49'ers, Packers, Falcons, and Redskins? All chewing dirt.
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Houston outgained us by 476-270, but we found a way to win. What happened to Houston, happens to me a lot in chess.
Against a much better player, I'll have a good day, he'll have a bad day, and I'll push him all over the board for 30 moves. Somebody at Field Gulls said, "this game is like Gauntlet. Elf Is About To Die."
But then, in that chess game I was gaining 476 yards in ...the Senior Master will suddenly spot his chance, bite like a snake, and beat me with a cheap tactic (or a Richard Sherman interception). The funny thing is, the whole game, he knows it's going to happen, and so do I.
Self-image controls your whole life. Those chess games go by a script -- "Senior Master finds a way to beat Candidate Master" -- and eventually the script imposes itself. Because he believes he should win, he spends 40 moves searching, searching, SEARCHING for that cheap tactic. He doesn't stop until he finds it.
Russell Wilson has beaten Drew Brees, has beaten Tom Brady, has beaten Aaron Rodgers, has won a whole bunch of games he shouldn't have won. Even in last year's Atlanta game, he brought the Seahawks back from 20-0 down to take the lead.
Russell Wilson honestly believes he is entitled to win, and that self-belief would apply just as much in a Super Bowl as it did yesterday.
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Is Richard Sherman a better football player than Walter Jones? Than Curt Warner? Than Cortez Kennedy? Than Steve Largent?
I'm not asking, who has the greatest legacy. I'm asking, have you ever seen a Seahawk play better.
What was up with him getting sick, late in the game? Was that a dehydration thing? ... Anyway. When he picked Schaub off, racing for the end zone, my 23-year-old daughter shrieked precisely as though she were being swallowed by a python. One of the five most emotional moments of her life, I think, as measured in 10-second increments.
Funny thing, the way that struggle creates appreciation for triumph.
And it's a funny thing, the way that sports (which are vicarious triumph) create authentic human emotion. I think it is connected with the fact that the athletes' courage is authentic.
Movies allow us to share in illusory triumph, but sports allow us to share in real triumph. We invest in human beings, become their friends after a fashion, and we sign on to win or lose with those real human beings. Sports may not be as self-deceptive as I used to think.
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Sherman is polarizing. He polarizes my family wayyyy over into the positive end of things. That would be true even if he were a New England Patriot.
I enjoyed Randy Moss, detested Terrell Owens. I love Charles Barkley, am annoyed by LeBron James.
Am not sure what it is about Sherman that puts him firmly outside the "punk" category. Maybe it's the fact that he is about his family, The Legion of Boom, and the Seahawks, as opposed to being all about himself.
I dunno. There is some quality about Richard Sherman that captivates me. The courage of picking a fight, with bigger men, and then showing up for it, maybe? Billy Martin was famous for that.
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Hope Michael Bennett's okay. I don't understand how athletes come back from that to play well. The human mind is hard-wired to learn from injuries like that and to shy away from them in the future. It's part of being homo sapiens.
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Houston gained 479 yards and had 29 first downs (!!). For the first time in a long, long time, the Seahawks defense looked "manageable," not for one game, but for all games. Just do what the Texans did.
I don't know what the Seahawks' defensive adjustments are. Somebody ask Field Gulls. That will be my point of interest this week: what happened on defense. You got 6 days until Andrew Luck.
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This is the Marshawn Lynch era, shortly to be replaced by the Russell Wilson era.
Wilson shouldn't be able to play at all, at his age. He's nothing like the player he's going to be in 2015.
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They said on TV last week that, in Denver, the offensive coordinator does not run the meetings any more. Peyton Manning does. It's a national story now, reporters interviewing Broncos, asking what it's like to be coached by a teammate. It's weird, they say. But it makes us better.
Just a thought, as it pertains to Rauuuulllll.
It's become fascinating to watch Manning at the line of scrimmage -- he goes Hut-HUT hut-HUT to diagnose which rushers are coming, and then he changes the movements of like 10 other players. A film session at the line of scrimmage.
16 TD's in four games for Manning.
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By scoring one of the NFC's two best records, the Seahawks skip the Wild Card round. By scoring its best record, they skip all road playoff games. January football in CLink. San Francisco would love a chance for a return match, wouldn't they? .......
I think the Seahawks have already clinched the division; next up, clinching home field for the NFC Championship. That Houston game was rather nice to win.
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Comments
The Seahawks just don't give in to adversity. If there was a game to drop, this was it. Thee starters on the OL out, their best offensive weapon still not on the field, on the road against a playoff caliber team with a killer defense and down 20-3. Their will is impressive.
And the Hawks went out with the idea that they wanted to prove to themselves that they could take it to a possible Super Bowl matchup (certainly to a contender).
Two different approaches. The Hawks showed exactly how they'd play the Broncos, the Broncos gave them nothing... except for the feeling of "man, we can take these guys" that Pete wanted to be sure his boys would have against this or any other contender.
So far, both approaches have worked for their respective teams. The Broncos waited for the regular season to break out the beat-down stick, while the Seahawks took their self-belief to another level and have both crushed rivals and outlasted teams even while Seattle is suffering through a bad day.
If they match up in New York, it'll be a veeeery interesting day. We'll have different rooting interests on that day, but I would expect a fascinating game - hopefully unspoiled by a messy blizzard.
~G