There you have it. The refs were in flag-happy mode, which is never good for the Seahawks, but take away the two turnovers deep in Arizona's end, and this game looks more like what it was: an ass-whoopin, on both sides of the ball.

At 4-4, I was optimistic they would turn this around. At 4-5, and after watching the way they got manhandled last night, I think even f4b's 9-7 prediction is at risk. Between the Steelers, the Vikings, the Rams, and the Cardinals, I can much more easily imagine 3 losses than 3 wins.

Between fishing closures and all my favorite football teams looking dead in the water, this Fall kinda sucks.

I'm horse and exhausted this morning.

For awhile last night I almost believed.

Then I left early.

Nothing like a couple Super Bowls and hundreds of millions in guaranteed money to take the chip off a team's collective shoulder... or so it seems.

They're playing hard, but to stam's point, they don't appear nearly as hungry. A season or two on the outside of the playoffs looking in should help them recover their appetite.

Just was looking at the box score, Wagner 19 tackles, that has to be a team record. He did have the bone head penalty (ur). Once we get a new OC and a few OL this team will be fine. I personally think losing Dan Quinn to Atlanta really hurt a lot of the players along with Kam antics. A few tweaks this young team will be in the hunt for years to come.

Chris Matthews released, Kevin Smith promoted; Cowboys cut Christine Michael.

Is John Schneider insane or what? Should have traded for an offensive lineman. WTF is going on with the personnel decisions ?

There is a real lack of OL that are worth a chit.

Kevin Smith doesn't suck . . . it was crazy that they didn't keep him on the active roster after the way he was playing in practice and during the preseason. He is a much more complete receiver and special teamer than Matthews.

Hopefully Bevell will get 86 soon.

Everybody, it seems, is piling onto the OC as the "problem". If memory serves, in all 5 losses the Hawks had a 4th quarter lead, often late in the quarter. Seems to me that the consistent occurrence here is problems on defense. And yet, the offense gets blamed.

Seattle's defense has to be flat out dead by the forth quarter when they never get a break all game.

The score doesn't reflect how pitiful this offense has been for extended periods.

Last year they had red zone problems but still had no issues driving down the field and getting field goals. This year the offense is 3 and out for half the game and more.

Also the time of possession looks bad for the Hawks in a lot of games despite milking the clock on as many plays as possible.

I think the problem is Bevell and Russell. Russel needs to protect the ball, too many plays he is forcing it and nearly getting intercepted.

I trusted Russ, had hundred percent faith in him the SB winning season. I remember thinking how great it was that going into the SB I didn't have to worry about him throwing a bunch of interceptions. Half way through last season and this season suddenly RW is just throwing it up, predictably after a decent play, trying that deep ball again and again. Pete said he hates those interceptions numerous times now and I'm sure he's worried about RWs decision making.

RW is also not going down when he is being sacked. He tries to force the ball out again and a fumble occurs. Just go down!

Bevell is just predictable and uninteresting, I watch enough football to see that. It just plain obvious.

Wilson needs to see a doctor.
That Cialis chick is slowing him down.

for sure... must be hard to run with a perma-boner

I think there have been cases where this is exactly what happened, but there's no question the LOB is not as formidable as in years past. They got absolutely torched for much of the game on Sunday.

That said, I'm back to thinking the offense is the unit that has been most accountable for the disappointing season that's unfolded to this point. If they could stay on the field just a couple minutes longer each game, this team's probably about 6-3 (at worst) right now.

I don't know if any individual is to blame, but I think the organization made a Harvinesque mistake when they traded away Unger for Graham. Nobody thought that was a bad trade when it happened, but for whatever reason, Graham's not performing as advertised, and the loss of Unger from the OL has proved just shy of catastrophic. His absence hasn't only hurt them in pass blocking, but it may also be contributing to Russell's struggles in other ways.

I heard on local sports radio that Unger had functioned as the player calling the audible run and protection schemes at the line while he was here. If that's true, he apparently did a much better job of it than whoever's doing it now. That would most likely be Russell, and if so, the extra responsibility might be affecting his ability to make decisions about what he will be doing after the snap. Furthermore, if the calls being made aren't the right ones, it could do a lot to explain how the line looks so clueless at times. Who knows, but either way, I expect to see Russell emerge from this sophomoric slump eventually, if not soon. We've seen him make too many great decisions, incredible throws, and superhuman plays with his feet for him to simply not be any good.

Bevell seems an obvious place to point fingers when trying to explain how historically bad this offense has looked at times. I think there's probably something to the fact that almost all the offense's big gains have come on broken plays (meaning the results of those plays weren't Bevell's design). That said, it's probably not fair to assess his play-calling ability based on what we see when we have what might be the worst offensive line in pro football history. The game is mostly won and lost at the line scrimmage, after all... which brings me to one final point:

I think the struggles the defense has had getting off the field on 3rd down are largely due to what has been a much less dominant pass rush than we saw in recent years. It sometimes seems like the only way the defense is getting sacks and hurries is by blitzing (not in every game, but certainly in the games they've lost). On 3rd and long, most teams opt to drop all could-be blitzers into pass coverage, leaving the front guys to get to the QB. We've been accustomed to seeing the front 3 or 4 get pressure on a QB before he gets time to go through all his reads more often than not, but there were times on Sunday where Carson Palmer had all day to stand in the pocket and wait for someone to come open. I guess what I'm saying here is that, good as the LOB usually is, they're much more effective with an effective pass rush forcing the QB to get rid of the ball before he wants to.

This team's still very good and competitive, but they need to shore some things up to get back over the top.

Unger has missed a lot of games the last two years. P/C/J/S wouldn't have traded Unger if he was able to stay healthy. I love Graham, we need a blocking TE to free Jimmy up. Zach Miller....cough cough.

No doubt, were letting teams run 80 plays on us. I'm convinced that losing Dan Quinn and Ken Norton is turning out to be a huge factor. Norton would get that defense stoked up before and during the game. Russell needs to pull his head out. He took a trip to Mexico during the bye week with his new hottie. Last year he would be here studying his skill sets. I'm not worried about him in the future, I think we set the bar pretty high for a young player at the hardest position. You can bet in the off season we will be drafting a lot of OL and some vets through FA. Kam really fcked his teammates during his hold out.

If they get more OL (or anything of any quality, anyway), it will be in the draft or through trading people they don't want to trade. This team has little money for proven free agents, and they will have less next season.

I like Jimmy Graham in any offense with a pass-first philosophy, but he's not worth close to what he's being paid in this offense. For some reason, this team seems to be a bad fit for offensive superstars. Trade him to someone who needs him for a stud lineman (but please don't trade him to a division rival; our defense hasn't been good against tight ends of late).

It is still the defense that does not stop them. Tired? The get 3 and outs in the first three quarters. If both teams do that both defenses play the same amount of time.

Not saying that the offense does not need help but they're not the ones giving up all those first downs and points.

I generally agree with that sentiment, Carcassman, but when the other team holds the ball twice as long as your team, it's because your offense couldn't sustain drives. I love Russell Wilson, and I'm confident they'll get better, but right now, it's the offense's inability to pick up a first down in the 4th quarter that's killing them.

Back to Graham, I just heard an interview with Doug Baldwin, and when he was asked about whether trying to work Graham into the offense might be disrupting what the offense had been doing, he answered that they aren't using him any differently than any other tight end, and that in this offense, he just isn't going to get a huge number of targets, so no, it's not affecting them. I think he made my point pretty well for me with that statement. "This offense" has been perennially weak at offensive line, and they've counted on their tight ends to pick up slack for their garbage linemen in pass blocking schemes. Graham is known to be a terrible blocker. What he does is catch passes (when they are thrown at him), and that's why we were all so excited to see him added to the team. So far, it looks to me like Baldwin's assessment is dead on, so while Graham has made some nice plays, he's probably making the OL look that much worse when he's out there to block. Great talent, bad fit. Trade him now, while he's got great value.

How many times against The Cardinals did the defense stop them? The first half, when they were rested (the D) they were getting torched.

I just find it interesting the the O can get blamed for essentially everything when, like I said, the team had the lead in every game.

seems to me it is kinda like blaming the M's offense for Rodney's blown saves. If they'd have scored more, he'd have held 'em.

Doesn't sound right, does it?

There should be no question this defense isn't what it had been the previous 3 years. Considering how young most of the players are, one would think they would still be improving, but they aren't. There may be something to the speculation over all the players that just signed big contracts, but I think a lot of what we're seeing has more to do with other teams around the league figuring out how to exploit the weaknesses (which aren't many, but are being exposed frequently). I remarked earlier that, while they're still making plays every game, the defensive line doesn't seem to be getting pressure on QBs as quickly or as often as what we've seen in the past, and that always makes even the best secondaries look pedestrian at times. I think this is what has made it so easy for teams to pick on Kerry Williams. He's pretty good at initial bump and run coverage, but he can't seem to maintain coverage very well. I think that's been true of every guy who's played opposite Sherman. The difference might just be that the pass rush was getting there more quickly and more regularly, forcing QBs to throw too soon or take sacks.

Whatever it is, it's on the defense (the coordinator, specifically) to figure out what teams are doing to them and fix it. I'm sure they know what's been hurting them, but the answers don't appear to be coming easily.

Likewise, teams seem to have figured out how to defend Russell Wilson. You're right to point out that the defense has given up the leads late (and in some cases early). Actually, that happened many times during the past few years. The difference in past years has been that Russell's been able to pull off late drives to win more often than not. This year, not once so far (though he hasn't had real opportunities to do so in most cases).

I whine a lot about the appearance that the offensive strategy doesn't seem to match Wilson's game. When this team makes a big play, it's usually when the called play gets blown up. That's when Wilson is most dangerous and makes the plays that we've grown accustomed to seeing. We talk about how he's not a good pocket passer. We also see the offensive line getting beat on almost every play, and that certainly hasn't helped, but in many cases, it looks like Russell just holds the ball too long. The one skill all the best veteran QB's all have is the ability to get the ball out quick. This is more a function of trust in the receivers than it is of the QB's throwing skill. That Russell often holds the ball too long suggests that either his receivers aren't getting open, that he doesn't have enough confidence in their ability to "win" close plays, or that he's nervous about making mistakes. It's probably all three. I'm sure it's not this simple, but it seems like the Seahawks just need to get past their conventions about how they want to play offense and let him take over. The more Wilson runs around, the more big plays happen. That much is certainly true.