Some Thoughts on the Seahawks Win Over Oakland

By Wyatt Lyles


In the Seahawks preseason finale, a 20-3 win over the Raiders, they finally gave us fans something to be happy about. Not only did they not allow a touchdown the whole game, but they actually looked good out there. While the team may not have looked like one of the elites like Green Bay or New England, they looked much better than in previous weeks. At least to me, there looked to be a light at the end of the tunnel. 

Since I’m sure you guys have either seen the game or read numerous full recaps of the game, I won’t bore you guys with a recap on here. Instead, I’ll just give my thoughts and evaluations of what went down Friday night. 

Let’s start with (what else?) the QB. Tarvaris Jackson was in the game for all but the final 39 seconds of the first quarter, and I have to say that he looked pretty good. Well, he looked better than in previous weeks. Offensive line issues aside, Jackson would often hold onto the ball way too long while in the pocket when he was given time by the line. That was not the case on Friday. He actually was getting rid of the ball in a timely manner and making some good throws. On his first drive, he marched the team right down the field to the red zone and was looking like they would get a TD early. That was until he reverted to his old self and made a HORRIBLE decision to try and thread the ball between two defenders to hit Golden Tate in the endzone. This pass was easily picked off and ran back about 20 or so yards. Tarvaris, you were doing so well. He did better on the next drive, and even completed a deep pass to Tate for 43 yards. This drive ended with a FG. All in all, I have to say that it was nice to see him actually have a decent game for the time he was in. I’m pretty interested to see what he’s going to do against the 49ers. 

Charlie Whitehurst played as well. I would say that this was his worst game of the four that he’s played in. Not that he played a bad game, but just that he didn’t do anything to really wow me. He moved the ball pretty good down the field and made some nice reads, but also made some poor reads that showed why he’s still the backup QB for this team. In my mind, Jackson is the lesser of two evils and should be the starting QB for the team at this point in time. 

The offensive line looked better as well. They were actually giving the QBs time to make good decisions. There was no more rushers flying right off the defensive line to sack the QB. In fact, there were no sacks allowed by the line. Well unless you count the one where Whitehurst pretty much ran into a lineman and kind of sacked himself that is. So overall they looked much better than in previous weeks. 

It wasn’t without a cost though. LG Robert Gallery suffered a knee injury early on in the game. It wasn’t just a minor one either. While there hasn’t been an official word on how long he’ll be out for, Pete Carroll said after the game that the injury was significant enough that his status for the season opener is in question. Let’s hope that it’s nothing major. We hopefully will have Russell Okung by the opener, so it’d be a bummer to get him back and then lose Gallery. 

Keeping with injuries for a quick second here, the defensive line also suffered a substantial injury. DE Jimmy Wilkerson also injured his knee during the game, and this one was definitely a major one. He was placed on IR yesterday, which means his season is over. I really hated for that to happen since I liked what I had seen so far from him and was looking forward to seeing what else he had. 

Speaking of defense, they looked pretty darn good out there Friday night. As I said at the beginning, they did not allow a touchdown the whole game, which was nice to see. Now, as a disclaimer, I do want to remind you all that this was the Raiders after all. The Raiders suck. So holding them down to a field goal was nice, but take it with a grain of salt. That being said, however, they still looked good. I do want to point out that there were a handful of pass interference penalties throughout the course of the game that could be a cause for concern, but let’s hope that doesn’t become a trend. 


Just some quick notes about guys that stood out to me. First and foremost, Golden Tate. He had a great game on Friday. He ended with 79 yards receiving on five catches. It was definitely nice to see him finally get things going and show why he deserves a spot on the team. Another guy was Kris Durham. He  had only one catch for 9 yards, but the catch was a nice one. It was thrown a little high, but he used his 6'6" frame to reach up and bring the ball down. This is a guy to keep an eye on throughout the season.

Overall, I think that this game was a perfect one to end the preseason with. The past two games haven’t exactly been confidence inspiring games. In fact, they probably had taken away a lot of the confidence these guys had. So it was nice to see them get a win. Hopefully this shows the team that they do have a chance to do great things this year. 


No time to revel in the win though since the season opener is now just a short 6 days away. I cannot wait. 

Seahawks to face Raiders with questions still looming large

Graphic courtesy of Ryan Gray (@RGray525)

By Wyatt Lyles

The Seahawks will be taking on the Raiders in their final game of the preseason. There will be a lot of things to look out for in this game, so let’s get right into it.

While the QB controversy had been the biggest question going into games, a new, and perhaps more pressing, issue has come up. That issue is the one of the offensive line. I feel like I’ve been repeating the same things over and over the last couple weeks, but this is a big issue that needs to be worked on. I hope that at least some of the problems will be alleviated once Russell Okung is back into the line up, which looks like may be happening pretty soon here. But until then, there is some major work to be done.

Perhaps the person who’s got the most work to do is rookie right tackle James Carpenter. While he is a rookie and this has been an extremely short off season, there is a big concern with him. I could see if maybe he missed a few blocks here and there, but he got completely destroyed in last Saturday’s game against Denver. Guys were literally just blowing right past him, and knocking him around like he was some skinny kid on the playground. This is something that just can’t happen, an Pete Carroll has recognized this. This week at practice, as reported by Clare Farnsworth of the Seahawks Blog, Carpenter has been splitting reps with Breno Giacomini on the offensive line. This was a smart move as Carpenter just may not be cut out to be a starter just yet. I would say to start him tonight and see how he does. If he shows some improvement, let him start in the season opener against the 49ers. But, if he looks the same as he has been, then it may be time to bench him for now until he’s ready to be a starter. Look to see how the line does tonight. Will our QBs actually have time to throw the ball? We’ll find out soon.

Looking at the QBs briefly, Carroll has said that Tarvaris Jackson will be starting the game, but did not say how long he or any other starter will be playing. It had been speculated that the starters may play longer than usual to get them more reps in preparation of the season opener. Both Charlie Whitehurst and Josh Portis will make an appearance tonight as well, we just don’t know how long.

I won’t go into another discussion of the “QB Controversy” since that’s been hashed, and re-hashed enough already. I will say one thing, though. Some people have been saying all preseason that Whitehurst should be the starter for this team based on his performance in the first two games. When those people were reminded that he had only played against backups, they said that it didn’t matter and that Jackson perhaps wouldn’t be able to do the same against the backups. Well, last weekend, Jackson led a TD drive against the backups, and looked just as good as Whitehurst had against the backups. So some of those naysayers should have been silenced a bit after that.

Also look for what some of the young guys will be doing in this game. There’s a lot of guys, especially at the receiver position (Chris Carter, Patrick Williams, Doug Baldwin, Ricardo Lockette) and in the secondary (FS Mark LeGree, CB Byron Maxwell, SS Josh Pinkard, DB Jeron Johnson, CB Richard Sherman), that will be fighting for a spot on the 53-man roster that needs to be decided on by Saturday. So this is their last chance to make themselves stand out to the coaches. Hopefully they get a chance to play and showcase their abilities in this final game.

Let’s look at some of the injuries this week before we get out of here. Running back Marshawn Lynch (ankle) and linebacker David Hawthorne (knee) did not practice yesterday and have been pretty much ruled out for tonight’s game. The following didn’t practice yesterday, but haven’t been officially ruled out for the game: wide receivers Mike Williams (toe), Sidney Rice (shoulder), Ben Obomanu (head), and Isaiah Stanback (hamstring); defensive lineman Pierre Allen (hamstring), and strong safety Kam Chancellor (foot). We should know more about their official status for the game later on today.

Mainly for tonight, just look for the first team offense to get one last chance to find some cohesion and actually start to gel. This is the last chance they’ll have before the opener to get something going. Let’s hope we see something good out of them today.

Raiders hand Seahawks worst loss of year 33-3

By Kshell

The Seattle Seahawks(4-3) continued their road problems as they were crushed by former AFC West rival Oakland Raiders(4-4) 33-3. In a game that saw the Seahawks offense amount just 162 yards of offense, including a pathetic 47 yards rushing most of which came at the end of the game. The Seahawks were sacked eight times on the day and couldn't sustain any drives. The Seahawks defense finally worn down from being on the field all day gave up 20 points in the fourth quarter.

The Raiders led after the first quarter 3-0. The Seahawks offense had negative 14 yards offense in the first quarter and went three and out four times. Midway through the second quarter the Raiders offense who was getting stuffed themselves started to turn the game around. Facing a third and nine from the Seahawks 38 the Raiders called a draw play since Seattle on third and longs likes to play nickel and dime coverages and blitz. Michael Bush ran for eight yards setting up a fourth and one. Instead of kicking the field goal head coach Tom Cable elected to go for it. One fourth and one the Raiders threw the ball to fullback Marcel Reece who played wide receiver at the University of Washington while in college. Reece split out as a receiver and Jason Campbell split two Seahawk defenders somehow as they collided with each other. Reece then ran 30 yards for the touchdown to give the Raiders a 10-0 halftime lead. Seattle had just 46 yards of offense reminding fans of the Washington Huskies yesterday or Washington State Cougars depending who you cheer for.

With the Seahawks trailing 13-0 they squandered their last chance to make this a game. Facing a third and eight from the 10 yard line Matt Hasselbeck hit Mike Williams who didn't have a reception at the time right in the numbers for an easy touchdown. Instead Williams dropped the pass and the Seahawks had to settle for a field goal. Kicker Olindo Mare hadn't missed a kick in 28 tries but having missed earlier he missed another kick from 31 yards out. Instead of cutting the game to 13-7 in two plays Seattle had nothing. The Raiders would take over.

In the fourth quarter the Seahawks defense was tired and already without Brandon Membane, defensive end and run stuffer Red Bryant was hurt. For the first time all year the Seahawks got destroyed against the run. The Raiders erupted for 20 points in the fourth quarter. After leading 16-0 Jason Campbell hit top 10 pick from the 2009 NFL draft Darrius Heyward-Bey for a 69 yard touchdown pass. Michael Bush added the final touchdown with a four yard rushing score to give the Raiders a crushing 33-3 win over the Seahawks.

The Raiders dominated this game sacking Matt Hasselbeck eight times. Hasselbeck was 13 of 32 for 160 yards, no touchdowns and an interception that hit Deon Butler in the numbers and popped up in the air. His opponent Jason Campbell was 15 of 27 for 310 yards and two touchdowns for a passer rating of 120.9.

The Seahawks couldn't run the ball starting running back Marshawn Lynch was held to just seven yards rushing on nine carries, Justin Forsett wasn't much beter as he had 11 yards on just five carries. The Raiders pounded the ball on the Seahawks with Darren McFadden ran the ball 21 times for 111 yards while Michael Bush had 51 yards on nine carries. All told the Raiders out gained the Seahawks on the ground 239 to 47. The Seahawks were destroyed on the line of trenches.

All in all, the Seahawks must improve on the road if they wish to win the division and win a playoff game. The Seahawks look great at home as they are 3-0 but on the road they are just 1-3 now. The Seahawks offensive line has to get their act together. They have still yet to produce a 100 yard rusher this season. The Seahawks next week face the best defensive line they'll see all year long. The Seahawks must find a way to protect the quarterback better or next week will be a long day.

Observations:

- The Seahawks need #6 pick overall Russel Okung badly. Tyler Polumbus simply isn't getting the job done as Hasselbeck had no time to throw the ball. When Hasselbeck did finally get a pass off it was often the receivers were dropping the passes. Only one time a receiver made a play and Golden Tate hurt his ankle on the play. The defense line can't sustain injuries like that. Both sides of the war of the trenches were dominated by the Raiders.

- Leon Washington was about the only bright spot on the game. Washington led the team in rushing with 29 yards on just five carries. He also had 114 kickoff return yards(28.5) and 81 punt return yards(27.0). He came to play unfortunetly nobody else did.

- The Seahawks defense allowed several big plays. They allowed in total eight plays of 20 yards or more. Seven plays of 30 yards or more and four plays of 40 yards or more. The Seahawks allowed a 30 yard reverse to Heyward-Bey, 30 yard touchdown pass to ex Husky Reece, McFadden busted a 49 yard run, Reece caught a 51 yard pass, Bush caught a ball that touched five different players then scampered for 55 yards, McFadden added a 20 yard run, Heyward-Bey caught a 69 yard touchdown pass then Reece again had a 31 yard run.

- The Seahawks were destroyed by Marcel Reece the former Husky dissapointment. Reece had two carries for 32 yards and three receptions for 90 yards and a touchdown. If only Willingham could have gotton this much production out of him he might still have a job.

- Mike Williams who had 21 receptions the last two games had just one reception. Often times he was standing on the sidelines as he appeared he didn't want to play. That is what separates true #1 receivers from pretenders. I thought Williams got over that but being lazy is in his nature and he didn't want to be at the game. You would think playing a team who left him unemployed for three years he would be motivated but the exact opposite happened.

When you add it all up the teams in Washington this weekend lost 116-3. So if you are a fan of the teams in this state Halloween truly was a scary weekend for you. The Seahawks are better than this though as they were injured all week long. I'm confident we'll see a different team next week as this team is an entirely different team at Qwest Field compared to the road. This isn't just a Pete Carroll thing either they happened under Mike Holmgren. I haven't lost confidence in Carroll he is doing a great job with the Seahawks and still has the team in first place for now.

Raiders busters week: Flashback to 2001

By Kshell

When the Seattle Seahawks(4-2) travel down to Oakland to take on the Raiders(3-4) it will bring back memories of the old AFC West rivalry between these two teams. The big dissapointment in 2002 when the Seahawks moved to the NFC West was they would only get to play their AFC West rivals particularly the Oakland Raiders just once every four years. That meant Seahawks fans and plenty of Raiders fans in the Northwest only get to see the Raiders play in Seattle every eight years so we have to wait another four years before the Raiders visit. The Seahawks and Raiders were usually featured on big primetime games whether it was Monday night games in the 80's or Sunday night games in the 90's it was a huge game. The Raiders lead the all-time series against the Seahawks 27-23 but keep in mind as Seattle was entering the league the Raiders were in the middle of a run that saw them win three Super Bowl championships in a seven year span.

The Seahawks-Raiders rivalry reached a peak in the 1980's that the Seahawks probably won't ever experience again with another team. When these teams played the game was usually on a national t.v. setting. In 1980 the Seahawks who finished the year 4-12 took on the eventual Super Bowl champions Raiders and lost 19-17 in the Kingdome on Monday Night football. The rivalry really heated up in 1983 when the Seahawks swept the Raiders that season beating them 38-36 at home in the Kingdome then down in Los Angeles 34-21. The Seahawks would advance to the AFC Championship game down in L.A. and face off the with the Raiders yet again and this time were crushed 30-14. The Raiders would go on to win the Super Bowl that year.

The following season saw the Seahawks exact some revenge on the Raiders. Seattle would beat the Raiders at home on Monday night football 17-14 then face the same Raiders again in the playoffs. The Seahawks offense would continue to struggle against the Raiders in the postseason. The previous year Dave Krieg was horrible and hall of fame receiver Steve Largent was held to just one catch. Well this year Krieg would pass for under 100 yards and Largent was shut out. The Seahawks despite all that would win 13-7 over the Raiders at home in the Kingdome. That would be the franchises last playoff win for 21 years.

In the 1986 Monday night game saw the Seahawks who would eventually go to the postseason shut out the Raiders 37-0 in front of a sold out Kingdome crowd. They held the Raiders to just 138 yards of offense on the day. The following year the Seahawks would beat the Raiders down in L.A. 35-13 but on Monday night in Seattle Bo Jackson came to town. The game was hyped as a Boz(Brian Bozworth) vs Bo game and Bo destroyed the Seahawks. He bulled over Boz for a touchdown then broke another one for a long touchdown run. When it was all said and done Jackson ran for over 200 yards and the Raiders handed the Seahawks a 37-14 blowout defeat at home.

In 1988 the Seahawks were making a late season run and beat the Raiders at the Kingdome on Monday night 35-27. As was the tradition it seemed like the Seahawks and Raiders would play on Monday night football but these two teams wouldn't play on Monday night again for 18 years. The Seahawks in the last game of the season needed to beat the Raiders in Los Angeles to clinch their first ever division title. The Seahawks would win in a wild shootout 43-37 clinching their first division title. The rivalry continued to be on prime time during the 1990's but there wasn't quite the same playoff implications.

In the 90's the Seahawks series with the Raiders shifted to ESPN's Sunday night football. In 1994 again in the Kingdome saw the Seahawks lose 17-16 when John Kasey missed the game winning field goal attempt. That would mark the last season former two time Super Bowl winning coach of the Raiders Tom Flores would coach for the Seattle Seahawks. In 1995 the Seahawks won 44-10 in a blow out that saw former pro bowl runningback Chris Warren run wild. In 1998 the Raiders won again in the Kingdome on Sunday night 31-18. Then in 1999 in a game that would prove crucial the Seahawks won 22-21 as the Raiders missed a 60 yard field goal attempt. The Seahawks would win the division title the following season.

This series returned to Monday night in 2006 when Seneca Wallace who was filling in for the injured Matt Hasselbeck got his first career start at Qwest field. The Seahawks won 16-0 over the Raiders. They sacked the Raiders nine times that game in a game that they also didn't have Shaun Alexander who was also injured. I'm going to talk about the last time these two teams played as AFC West rivals back in 2001 on Sunday night football.

November 11th, 2001: Oakland Raiders(6-1) at Seattle Seahawks(3-4)

This game took place at Husky Stadium as the Seahawks were waiting for Qwest field to open up in 2002. The Seahawks were just hoping to get a win to keep their playoff hopes alive while the Raiders under Jon Gruden had bigger things on their mind. The Raiders the previous year lost the AFC championship at home and were hoping to this year go to the Super Bowl. The Raiders were also hoping to avoid another letdown in Husky Stadium where they blew a 24-13 lead in the fourth quarter to the Seahawks last year. The Seahawks who were just 5-9 entering the game defeated the 11-3 Raiders 27-24 in a rainy soaked game in December.

This year the Seahawks were in middle of a quarterback controversy. The Seahawks started the season off 1-2 then ineffective starter Matt Hasselbeck went down. That allowed Trent Dilfer to come in and the Seahawks won two games in a row to improve to 3-2. When Hasselbeck returned Mike Holmgren insisted that Hasselbeck was the guy. The team then lost two games in a row. The Seahawks this game were going to simplify the playbook for Hasselbeck and feature second year pro Shaun Alexander who was also filling in for the injured Ricky Watters. This was another big game for this rivalry as this game was featured on ESPN Sunday night football.

After a quiet first quarter that saw the Seahawks lead 6-3 with two field goals by Rian Lindell the second quarter featured some scoring. The Raiders scored the first touchdown when Rich Gannon hit Tim Brown for a four yard touchdown pass to take a 10-6 lead. The Seahawks would respond when Matt Hasselbeck would hit Darrell Jackson for a nine yard touchdown pass to give the Seahawks a 13-10 lead at halftime. Hasselbeck would connect with Jackson for more touchdown passes than any other receiver in his career.

The second half would begin terribly for the Seahawks as they gave up a 90 yard kickoff return to Terry Kirby for a touchdown giving the Raiders a 17-13 lead. The game was pretty cold as well in the 40 degrees and the crowd wasn't so confident. Husky Stadium is a loud stadium and Seahawk fans have proven they are loud in the Kingdome and especially Qwest field. For whatever reason the Seahawk fans at Husky Stadium just weren't very loud. That would change later in the game. After a Raiders field goal giving them a 20-13 lead the Seahawks Shaun Alexander would begin to take over the game.

The Seahawks would begin to feature Alexander on the next series and Alexander would tie the game with a six yard touchdown run. Alexander would then get some revenge for Seahawks fans on the Bo Jackson run back in 1987. Alexander would take the hand off cut up the middle then was gone for an 88 yard touchdown run. As he was running he could see himself scoring the touchdown on the giant scoreboard at Husky Stadium giving the Seahawks a 27-20 lead. The Seahawks crowd was going crazy like it was a Husky win going to the Rose Bowl. Alexander in the fourth would add another touchdown run this time being just a 10 yard run giving the Seahawks a 34-20 lead. The Seahawks would eventually hang on for the 34-27 win for the rivals last AFC West game against each other.

That was probably the best game of the year for the Seahawks. Quarterback Matt Hasselbeck who wasn't the pro bowl version of Hasselbeck that would would all enjoy from 2003-2007 enjoyed his best game of the year. Hasselbeck was 15 of 23 for 181 yards and a touchdown. He would also run for 34 yards. The star of the game was Shaun Alexander who set a Seahawks franchise record for rushing yards in a game. Alexander would run for 266 yards on 35 carries for three touchdowns. This was a breakout year for Alexander that saw him score over 15 touchdowns starting a streak that would last until 2005 of scoring over 15 touchdowns or more ever year.

That Raiders team would go on to lose to the Patriots in the famous "tuck-rule" game. Head coach Jon Gruden would leave after the season as the Raiders would finally reach the Super Bowl in 2002. As for the Seahawks they would go 9-7 and finish the year missing the playoffs because the Raiders lost to the Jets on the last day or the Seahawks would have faced the Raiders again in the playoffs. The Seahawks would enjoy great success in the new NFC West reaching the playoffs five consecutive years and winning four division titles in a row.

All in all, this series means a lot especially to the fans. The atmosphere at the old Kingdome when the Raiders came to town was a great feeling and that is the one shame about the Seahawks going to the NFC. I'm still glad the Seahawks are in the NFC though as odds say they wouldn't have achieved the amount of success in the AFC West as they would in the watered down NFC West. The only good thing about the rivalry last every four years is when the Raiders come to town in 2014 you'll hear such stats such as the Raiders haven't won in Seattle since 1998. Anytime you can put a burn on the Raiders I say go for it. On the flip side the Seahawks haven't won in Oakland since 1997. Here is hoping the Seahawks with that same quarterback Hasselbeck who is now a veteran instead of a first year starter end that streak over the Raiders.