Zem's Chicago White Sox fan blog

The Seahawks are 2-8, if my memory serves me correctly and ever since they were 2-4 I've heard rumblings about how Seahawks fans should root for the Seahawks to lose the rest of their games and obtain a high draft pick.  I consider this notion in the same realm as Holmgren should resign and Hasslebeck should be cut, but since its grown exceedingly popular.  I have decided to address it.

The theory of tanking is to obtain a high draft choice and set yourself up for the future. It seems innocent enough. Until you look at the byproducts of such a methodology.

           1. It fosters a losing attitude on the team.  There is a reason the Cardinals, until this year, have struggled so often, or the Bengals, or Lions lose year after year.  Sometimes its talent, but a lot of it is attitude. If a front office chooses to quit on the season, it doesn't foster a winning attitude. 

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A matter that only holds relevance in the rainy dirth of Seattle is the fact that Rick Neuheisel, easily the most reviled coach to don the purple and gold makes his return to Husky Stadium Saturday night.  I intend to voice my displeasure towards him, although I am less offended than most at his lying and interviewing other schools.  I dislike his principles of coaching.

The problem many Husky fans have with Neuheisel isn’t actually the lying, it’s not the deceit, or the NCAA violations, or his participation in betting pools.   The real issue is that he took the very essence of Husky football, and destroyed it.  The powerful running game, the intimidating defenses, the hard hitting linebackers, all gone. Why? A) He didn’t recruit quality linemen, B) He only recruited skill position players(Kind of like Willingham) and C) Running the ball was an afterthought. When you don’t stress running the ball, you aren’t able to stop the run.  Thanks to two coaches, Willingham and Neuheisel, the Huskies don’t have linemen and are incredibly soft.  The principles that the program was built on for 30 years were stripped away. 

Continue reading "Neuheisel and The Decline of University of Washington Football"

I get tired of hearing about "BCS Busters". They are nothing other than relatively insignificant little teams begging for scraps from the table, despite how undeserving they are. Oklahoma's laziness and stupidity and a wide level of utter bullshit on Boise State's part is the sole reason we still hear about these teams. If they had to play in a major conference, they wouldn't be mentioned. They would be an afterthought on the level of vanderbilt and baylor. One of the good parts of a playoff system would be the fact that it would utterly refute the idiotic notion that these teams have that they are the best in the country. Despite playing a far weaker schedule, they use their record as currency to knock teams with inferior records, but who play in major conferences, out of bowl g

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I missed posting last week, maybe it was depression settling in or something. But it gets hard to write about football when all i see every week is depressing.  However, I did get to watch the UW OSU game from the Don James Center, which I could watch the Huskies lose every game by 60 and the experience would still be enjoyable. Anyways, I thought the Huskies played their second best game of the year, behind only the BYU game. Against Arizona, they were asleep, Oklahoma destroyed them and Oregon redefined the term "men vs boys".  Aside from a couple of breakdowns containment-wise, the defense played relatively well. They did fairly well in gap control and you can certainly tell that the defensive line is improving, they held their own at the line of scrimmage until they wore down in the second half which, despite lots of substituting, they don't have a lot of depth on the line.  One thing this defense lacks, is speed, all of the guys in the back seven are good athletes, but take angles like they are still the fastest guys on the field, which they aren't.

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Here we go...

Saints over the Raiders: The Raiders will score points because their offense, dispute the lazy, overweight and undisciplined linemen, actually has some weapons. However, the Saints are a borderline playoff team royally pissed about last weeks loss.

Colts over Ravens: It will be about as pretty as an eight car fatality accident, but the Colts will scrap and claw their way to victory. Joe Flacco isn't a winner just yet.

Jets over Bengals: No defense, no Palmer, no chance. The Jets continue to inflate their record against sub par competition.

Bucs over Panthers: A ticked off Jeff Garcia starts at quarterback, I still don't know why he was benched in the first place. Would Brian Griese be in the NFL if his father didn't hand the ball off and run bootlegs on the NFL's only undefeated team.

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My opinions on the Seahawks defensive coordinator has changed over the years. In 2005, his first year on the job, the Seahawks were all about simplicity, lots of young kids and solid veterans, the scheme was simple, a lot left over from the days of Ray Rhodes. Rhodes tampa two scheme was pure, for better or worse, there wasn't a lot of adjustments or attemps to trick the opposition. It was about discipline, gap control and quality tackling. Go back and watch those games, they were smart, not extremely talented, but very physical. After playing the Seahawks in 2005, Tiki Barber, having spent his life in the "Toughest division in the NFL", declared that it was the most physical game he'd ever played in. This coming from a guy who played the Eagles twice a year and went against the greatest defense of the last twenty years in the Super Bowl in 2000. Coincidentally the Seahawks took this solid defense and made its way to the Super Bowl. John Marshall's scheme in the NFC title game was nothing short of incredible, but, as I mentioned in my previous post, even the worst coaches have their moments.

Continue reading "The Excoriation of John Marshall"

Okay, so I was wrong about the Skins, Jim Zorn's ultra simplistic west coast offense is catching on and maybe that defensive strategy isn't as bad as I thought. Then again, every D Coordinator has a good game every now and then(See Steve Sidwell's demolition of Michael Vick game plan in 2002). The Skins have the right personnel to deal with the Cowboys, physical, big, strong corners that excel in man coverage. In their previous scheme, due to all the blitzing and crowding the line, they were often left on an island with very little help. Now, with timely blitz schemes, they are getting help from linebackers and safeties that they didn't have before.  The Cowboys game plan wasn't the best, but the Skins did a good job of disrupting their rhythm. Regardless, Jason Witten is the best patch catching tight end in years, and yes he's better than Tony Gonzalez.

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Today the sports media is utterly baffled by USC's defeat at the hands of the Oregon State Beavers. This is surprising, no doubt, and the media is chalking it up to USC not being ready to play. They were ready, I think, but ready in a different way, I think the energy level was there, but they weren't ready for a battle. They were eager to go in, blow this team that can't even handle Stanford out and go back home. Oregon State parlayed the emotion of a desperate and hungry team into a 21 point lead. What people fail to realize is that in their own stadium, when they are ready and confident, Oregon State is very good. This has been the case for almost ten years. They play physical, and fast, and downhill. USC just got beat.

 I'm not convinced Mark Sanchez is a good quarterback. He is wild, but not wild in the wild gunslinger mold, but wild in the Mike McMahon mold. Once it became apparent that USC would have to win by throwing every down, I was sure the game was over. He isn't a grip it and rip it quarterback. He's a seven step drop off  of a play action pass and hit the Z on a deep post on a cover two zone cause the safety bit kind of quarterback. If he calmed down, stayed in the pocket, he'd be a trent dilfer. His arm will not win you games, they can't put too much on this kid.

Continue reading "Thoughts"

Tonight, the NFL Season kicks off with their annual thursday night game, which is usually sloppy and poorly paid, much like the thursday night games later in the season. But I digress...its time for some weekly predictions...

           Redskins over the Giants: The Giants have lost a lot, including most of their pass rush and I like the Redskins this year, although I never thought I'd ever see Jim Zorn as a head coach of any team. The Redskins have always had a solid physical defense and now they have an offensive system that won't be as conservative as Gibbs and Al Saunders system the last couple years. The Giants will struggle early in the season and get their act together later, I don't forecast a terrible season for them, just not an exceptional one.

Continue reading "Week 1...let the fun begin"

If Tavaris Jackson ever really learned how to play quarterback, I would find the Vikings absolutely terrifying. Granted I wonder about their team speed, especially in their linebacking corps, but they are a tremendously solid football team put together perfectly to defeat the Seahawks. Power running football teams gives the Seahawks fits and the Vikings are just that. Even if Jackson learned how to manage a game, do I consider them a Super Bowl caliber team? Probably not, but I wouldn't put it past them to roll into Seattle in the playoffs and punish the Seahawks into submission. Their offensive line is huge, their d line even bigger, their corners are big and physical and their receivers, although lacking in skill have good size. If you look at every team that beat the Seahawks, and I'm not taking about games the Seahawks blew, games where they got beat, their opponent has most of those components.  Teams that could physically beat up the Seahawks concern me more than a team like Dallas, who you can punch in the mouth a few times and they will fold like a cheap lawn chair, the Seahawks can beat them on coaching and prowess, but the Vikings, they could just flat out beat them.

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