Q.  Scholastically?

A.  There is no Bill James in football ... or maybe there are 1,000 of them, who knows which.

Anyway, John Madden provided a reasonable facsimile, and we agree with Mr. Madden about 98% of his football philosophy. 

Football, sez Madden, starts with the left tackle and with the cover corners:  a team can either protect for a given pass play or it shouldn't have the play called on the field. 

If you can pass-protect, you're okay.  If you can't, as the Seahawks noticed in St. Louis, turn the game off in the first quarter.

Earl Weaver taught Dr. D to watch the way the starting pitchers throw in the first two innings.  John Madden taught him to watch whether Matt Hasselbeck has a bubble around him when he plants that back foot.  Against Da Bears on Sunday, you'll pretty much be able to gauge the game by watching Cutler's and Hasselbeck's first-quarter bubbles.

Julius Peppers vs Russell Okung?  Get you yer second blocker every play there, Pete.

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It's a grass player you want, quoth Madden, not a turf player.  You need tough guys.

One thing Carroll has done, is get the Seahawks some 330-lb. grass players.  Well, Red Bryant, Colin Cole, Brandon Mebane, Chris Clemons, Earl Thomas, and David Hawthorne might not be Carroll imports, but he pointed his finger at them and designed a defense around them.

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Q.  So now we're into actual Seahawks analysis?

A.  Seattle Sports?  Vot Next? 

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Q.  Will the defense hold up?

A.  As mentioned above, the first things that Dr. D axs about an NFL defense is whether it has cover corners, and whether it has grass players in the front 7.

In 2009, the Seahawks defense started strong, but melted under exposure.  This has Seahawks fans worrying that the same will happen again.

They need not worry.  This defense will be sturdy yearlong, unless Lofa Tatupu, Earl Thomas, Marcus Trufant and Red Bryant all get T-Boned in taxicab rides to the airport.

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Q.  How good are the corners, really?

A.  In Strat-O-Matic in the 1970's and 1980's, your defensive players had four possible rankings.  If the red die came up 1-3, you checked the offensive game cards (say, Da Bears', Cutler's, etc.) for results.  If 4-6, you checked the defensive cards (say, Seattle's, when Cutler & co. are on the field Sunday).

If a particular play required you to check the quality of a defensive corner, you checked the already-thrown red die (which had come up 4, 5, or 6) against a defender's rating, to see whether the pass was (say) incomplete or +15 yards.

So the current Seahawks' CB's rankings would have been:

• 5 - Trufant - GOOD - you win 2/3 of his matchup checks (Trufant used to be a 6 for a year or two)
  
• 4 - Jennings - FAIR - you win 1/3 of his matchup checks (Jennings might be a 5 on a good day)
  
• 0 - Milloy
• 0 - TERRIBLE - All the nickel backs

The Seahawks' secondary is weak, but not such that it will decide a game, unless you're up against Peyton Manning.

In nickel sets, the Seahawks' matchups at WR's 3 and 4 are constantly annoying, which is why you'll see 3rd-and-12's converted all year long.

But it's not like they're highway stripes.  Trufant and Jennings cover well enough to work with a nasty front 7, which the Seahawks do in fact have in 2010.

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Part 3

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