📅 Published on: 2024-11-23 18:33:38
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Seahawks fans, thanks for joining Bill Alvstad and Keith Myers as we discuss and preview the division match-up between the …
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[Music] Seahawks fans wherever you may be thanks for listening to the show join your host Bill Alstead and Keith Meers as we talk Seahawks [Music] football hey hi Seahawk fans welcome back to another episode of the Seahawks play podcast I’m your host Bill offed sitting down with co-host Keith Meers here to talk Seahawks football got a game to preview for you the Cardinals visit the Seattle Seahawks at Lumen field on Sunday uh really a battle for first place or a tie for first place in the NFC West Cardinals technically I think would still be ahead because of their record in the NFC and the conference as well as the div the division uh but Seattle would be right there put themselves back in the conversation uh that we seem to have uh gotten out of there or very very very close to it losing four out of the last five before the victory against the 49ers Keith how are you doing man I am doing all right uh we have a um yeah last week they saved the season and uh this week they have a chance to um yeah really get make this thing happen and and get them in a position where uh they could be in the driver’s seat going forward so this is a really important game for Seattle it’s crazy to hear you say that because technically when you take a look at the ESPN playoff machine Seahawks went into last weekend against the 49ers with a 4% chance of reaching the playoffs they left that game with a victory and raised their uh chances to 14% now that still seems a bit low given the fact that we’re only one game out um however uh we we win this game and those odds go up I think to like 50% or something like that so it’s um while it looked Bleak before the 49er game um in fact most people in including us posited that you know essentially the season’s over we lose one more game we’re out now that still is true if we lose this game things get a lot more complicated clearly the Cardinals would end up being in the driver’s seat clearly they would be the favorites to take the NFC West and Seattle would two games up on Seattle facing an uphill battle in the NFC in general because the NFC is so competitive in other divisions so you take a look at at Philadelphia and you take a look at the Washington red not Redskins commanders you take a look at Green Bay and Minnesota um there’s just other teams with better records they’re going to get in as wild cards um so things would have to happen in order for Seattle to to get in even if they got to 10 wins it would be iffy at best yeah I mean we’ll see how that plays out there’s um there’s some reason to believe that um you know Minnesota is um a bit of a paper tiger and falling back to the crowd and and and Seattle might be able to pass them and whatever um but when you have um if they had lost last week they’d be going into this game two games back knowing that a loss here would kill them they’d be out um now the win last week now they’re one game back and they’re going into this game with a chance to pull even uh and I know that that you may say oh that’s only 14% because they’ve got uh the Rams and the 49ers that are tied with them so it’s going to be one of those three teams that can tends with Arizona going forward and whatnot um I get all that but I just you look at it from Seattle’s point of you um they if they had lost last week they’d be looking in at being in a situation where they would have to win out they could not falter starting this week um that win mattered it saved like I said it saved their season and um right now this game matters because last week’s win um if they lose this week it they’ll be two games back that makes life really hard for them it’s not that um you know all of a sudden they’re in great shape but they were they’re going from being in at least some contention um if they’ lost last week they would have just they they would have been out it it’s it’s over so um yeah I just think that that it it really did matter that much they dug themselves in a hole that much that they really had to had to have that game yeah and they played they played a good game especially on defense uh they continue to want to uh move forward in that direction on the defensive side uh they’re getting ran Jenkins back um it would be curious to me how the um the Snaps are split between um Cody and ran MH um and we’ll just have to to see um because you know Kobe Bryant’s been playing playing well um overall and the team has improved since Jenkins has been out now I’m not putting it all on Jenkins but you know we’ve had some other moves uh that have kind of I think been very important especially with Ernest Jones but um the middle of that defense is getting some for fortification nonetheless in a rotation um at at a minimum with Jenkins back no fan is questionable in this game although he would be helpful get another pass catcher in there another option for Gino Smith uh in short yardage and moving the chains um let’s talk about the Cardinals for for a little bit so the the Cardinals defense I I want to hit upon first because we all think that that’s the weakness of this team and and it is um it it it was it it was but the Cardinal defense has held the last two opponents to under 10 points now you got to look at who they play Etc but they’ve only allowed 241 yards 207 yards the last two games combined 15 points um they’re undefeated in the NFC West they have solid victories against the Rams the 49ers the Chargers which is a great team especially defensively they their losses have come to really good teams the bills the p ERS the commanders the Lions so how do you look at their defense first and foremost and how does Seattle beat them do they have weaknesses well Seattle’s uh or not Seattle Arizona’s pass defense was not just bad but historically bad for the first five games like it was the worst in the league by a wide margin now if you look at um at them defensively they’re I mean they’re they’re not in the top half of the league but they’re um back closer to the middle of the pack so you don’t go from being that bad for five weeks to being uh in the middle by just being okay you have to be really good for a couple of weeks in order to overcome um those bad weeks and so and we don’t know yet if Darius Robinson is going toh be activated for this game but if he is that gives them another rotation piece in the in the front s big big run Defender and Edge Setter and can get to uh get to the p i hasn’t played at all this season I think we 15 snaps something like that so they may ease him in might not be a factor in this game could be a factor in the next game that we play though for sure but yeah I mean they’ve been they’ve improved and they’ve just done it internally and just played better now you take a look at the opponents and so forth you got to kind of factor that in I think that you know there’s two areas for me that I think Seattle could exploit on their Defense number one is the pass rush they really play it fairly vanilla they don’t do a lot of scheming to get guys um rushing the passer they they usually Rush four they’re one of the lower Blitz teams in the NFL just like Seattle um and they kind of rely on their on their front four to to get it done and they don’t consistently do that um they’re one of the least pressured teams in the NFL and uh in the in the bottom third as far as getting to the quarterback and getting sacks the other part of that would be their back end their defense now they do have Buddha Baker and they’ve got some other pieces Jaylen Thompson U bunting Etc um will got a couple guys out for this game but that’s where I think Gino can really so if if our p p protection is there and we can give Gino time to to really kind of take advantage move around the pocket find open targets I think Gino can kind of pick a pick apart the defense especially down the stretch so we’ll just have to see um and I’d love for Seattle to be able to kind of get their run game going uh they’re a little tougher against the run but I think there’s still some opportunity there so I think Seattle can score and keep up with the Cardinals offense which is really the strength of this team well in terms of um you know like passing yards a game they’re you know bottom 10 in the league um and so there’s there’s reason to um believe that they are um I mean yes it’s the strength but it’s not like they’re they’re running away from people now they’re running very efficient though yeah they’re at a um 100 49.4 yards per game um they’re like the sixth best rushing team in the league and a lot of that comes because of how good Kyler Murray has been um on the ground and play fakes and and that kind of stuff so um that’s a concern especially considering Seattle’s had some struggles uh against teams that run the ball well but the last two weeks like pretty much since the the Ernest Jones trade when things have started to kind of line up for them now suddenly they’re back to being good at defending the run and so I’m very curious like this is this is a game that that um is going to tell us a lot about Seattle’s run defense it will because certainly do that if they if they come up and they hold Arizona uh then we can say that that trade made this uh run defense legit um and I think if they do um uh that with Arizona they’re going to win this game because if you hold uh down Arizona’s Run game and you make Kyler Murray drop back and throw it you know 35 40 times a game you’re going to win that’s just not the combination of of Kyler Murray and run pass options uh running uh some some play fakes play action um James Connor back there who has just been a beast this year Trey Benson uh draft pick that they picked up um they can run the ball plus Kyler Murray’s been taking care of it this year you know he’s got three interceptions completing 69% of his passes averaging eight yards per carry himself on the ground you mentioned him as being a factor James Conor gets over 100 yards they win when when he doesn’t they lose you know it’s just pretty much as simple as that they’re one and three when James Conor doesn’t get to 100 yards um if they they average over 140 yards you mentioned that um and and if they do that I think they win the game they they dominate the the clock the time of possession their defense does just enough and Seattle runs out of opportunities you know it’s one of those things where Seattle’s trying to catch up to win at the end um Seahawks were ranked 26 against the run before the Rams game the last two games uh against couple of the top two rushing teams in the NFL both the Rams and the 49ers the sex are ranked sixth if you um just count those two games so they’ve been doing a lot because those are those are two really good running teams it is interesting that you look at the NFC West and you’ve gone to um three of the top running rushing teams in the NFL are Seattle’s Rivals um I I mean clearly that’s probably coincidental but it is it is interesting to me that that all three teams have put a um emphasis on improving their running games over the last couple of years and Seattle wants to do that as well yeah um because we want they want to be physical and and um you know a lot of passing games there it’s it’s a finesse approach you want to be physical you want to um dominate the line of scrimmage all of that you you get in there and you run the football um and that is what Seattle wants to do and currently can’t do but um it’s what they want to do and so it’s it is interesting um that that kind of been the emphasis that the entire league had shifted the other direction for a while and now it seems to be the the pendulum swing swinging back towards the importance of the run game again so I kind of wanted to get back to the conversation with um our offense against their defense just for a second and I want to talk about this pressure rate so mhm Arizona is ranked 30th in the NFL impression according to Next Gen stats and I think that that’s definitely something that favors Seattle especially since they’ve had a struggle establishing the Run even when they want to they they struggle a little bit and I don’t see them really getting any better in this game necessarily so I think it is going to be definitely on Gino’s arm um and and being able to protect him to get this thing done now I have confidence in that but somehow or another we need to run the ball effectively enough to to where we’re not burning the clock and turning the ball on over on uh third and Longs and giving them more opportunities because that’s not the recipe for success and we’ve seen that over and over again this year but if we get into a situation though where the game is is close and Gino needs to pull it out I I have confidence that that can happen um more confident in Gino than Kyler to be able to get that done at the end of a game um and I think you you’ve got to be able to convert on your Red Zone opportunities you got to you got to score touchdowns you can’t rely on field goals this this Cardinal team can score they got Marvin Harrison Jr who’s having a pretty decent season Michael Wilson a receiver out of Stanford that we both liked in the draft uh was of injured in college but in the pros he’s been everything and then treay McBride converts a lot of third down opportunities for them from the tight end spot um their their offense is legit I mean they’ve got a top top 10 top seven offense combined with that top five rushing um attack the offense has been getting it done for them and Seattle’s really come together last couple games and this is really the true task it’s at home your your season’s on the line you’re a 500 team so far you want to show everybody that you’re better than that uh this is the the opportunity against division rival who really wants to establish themselves as the leader Le in this division we can knock him off and kind of reset this thing um this is a really nice opportunity for this team yeah um I you mentioned the um the the the pass um Rush win rates um Arizona 31st um that is not going to get it done but Seattle’s not a great pass blocking team so um Seattle’s pass block wi race um is 25th um so it’s right you know strength strength against strength this is the opposite of that this is weakness against weak yeah but now we have ol oloa Timmy and um a Lucas in there which I think is a factor I mean they did a great job last game they can continue that yeah y a blucas is and and ol batimi graded out as the highest graded offensive lineman last game which you know it is surprising given um you know he played his way out of a starting job and almost off the roster um in training camp and they went and got a guy off the street because they didn’t have any confidence in him um and then now he comes in and plays and looks good against a really good defensive line too um that San Francisco has and so yeah I mean we’ll see uh what happens this week but I’m I’m intrigued I am very much intrigued cautiously op cautiously optimistic yeah is is the way I would phrase it because you’ve got to see it consistently over time not just one game even though the uh the the team that we played was was pretty decent um I want to see this now um translate the rest of the season because if it does if Seattle can play the run more effectively especially with Ernest Jones in there and they can block and they can get some sort of push in the in the Run game and they can give Gino even an extra half a second this offense goes from middling you know ranked 15th 16th 17th in the NFL and all sorts of different categories to maybe even uh fringy top 10 and then the defense you uh you’re averaging you know dead last in the NFL defending the run if you’re go from that to middling say 15th 12th 13th 14 15th and you’re depending the pass as well as you have been this team could push to do some interesting things uh you know at the end of the season and I’m not saying that’s going to happen but it could happen and it starts this weekend it really does you’ve got to do what you um what you want to do you’ve got to dictate terms against a team that that’s this quality now Arizona is is a a winner of four in a row they they’ve had a decent season they’re playing well together they play well for their coach they play hard they play physical on offense but they have vulnerabilities too they’re not a complete team this is a Seattle team that if they play on all cylinders um can really can really do that we just haven’t seen it on offense at all the defense the last couple games has shown that they can play okay now we need that offense to kind of come along and I’m not sure what’s holding them back and I’ve always assumed up until now it’s been the offensive line and to see that offensive line play a little better last game and the offense still kind of stumbled a little bit um I’m not sure if there’s an answer this year or not what do you think Keith well it is I mean it is really the offensive line and part of it is also um scheme and coaching and and who’s calling the players because um you know when the when the offensive line did play better did they go to the running game more no they didn’t um and that is uh a problem and so I think that as team like they need we may see things shift as the offensive line play is better for more than just one game like the game plan may be around hey this offensive line can actually you know do some things now and so now we might the game plan going in might be to run the ball a little bit more um because the well going against that going against that San die or San Francisco game you know Keith we really didn’t have an opportunity to win that game statistically over say 50% for almost the entire game until the very end um and I know that puts a lot of pressure on that puts a lot of pressure on grub to put it in Gino’s hands because I think he feels that’s the best way to push the ball down the field and get quick scores to get back into the game it it’s it’s kind of a catch 22 I mean yes and no because you’re in a hole because the offense did nothing for for three quarters um and they and so and the offense did nothing for three quarters throwing the ball all the time so using that as the justification for throwing the ball a lot at the end or you could have run it effectively early and you know done different things one of the things that you look at all of this is the CX are a better run blocking team then pass blocking team if you look at like U Pro Football Focus um rankings but I would absolutely disagree with that they are uh so the sex are um 22nd in the league in pass block win rate they’re 30th in the league in run block win rate they deam does not does not run block well um that’s compared Walker and Ken Walker is dead last in the NFL in runs before contact yes he’s getting hit so he’s getting contacted immediately on more than any other running back in the NFL and I would say I would not put that as a stat on him well the St the stat that’s on him is the blend where he is averaging right in the middle of the pack on uh runs after contact so he’s he’s hit the most earliest but he’s still producing middle of the- pack results so that’s all on him after contact and that’s that’s a tribute to his his fight and his will to get something out of nothing that was one of those things and you go back um to you know the the the Super Bowl seasons and um Marshon Lynch was usually down there was down near the bottom of um yards before contact but he was at the very top of the league in um yards after contact per run and so he was getting hit earlier than anybody else but still pushing guys downfield and was a um well above average in terms of yards per carry despite having bad blocking um K walk so interesting fascinating to me to see an offense completely built around Marshon Lynch like you invested serious dollars into Road grading blockers up front where you were blowing holes open and allow him some room to build some momentum Marshon Lynch my goodness that would have been even Next Level it would have been it would have been a lot of fun it it also might not have looked that different uh because he wasn’t a breakaway guy his the the one um uh really long score that he’s most well known for yeah those are ones when he bounces off people and he um stiff arms guys to the ground and and there’s a lot of contact over the course of it this is not a um Sean Alexander in Arizona um in Tempi when he went wasn’t 96 yards for a touchdown and nobody touched him um right you know that that’s a Ken Walker type of thing where you can just he can get out in front of people and you you’re not catching him um Ken Walker would would I think Marshon Lynch will do way more with less blocking um than just about any running back that is currently playing um Ken Walker could do uh more with more than just about any running back that’s currently playing if you give him some ability to hit holes that exist he’s going to just fly cuz he’s so fast um and they’re just different style Runners I I think everybody can appreciate maron’s running style I mean because he would just would not go down well he was an identity he was it’s hard to put an identity on Ken Walker on the on the offense but there was no doubt whose offense it was when oh it was Maron um Marshon was running the ball yeah and at the time we were like um quack he was he and he was and he was getting starting to get more credit and more credit and at some point like there’s a reason why things kind of didn’t work as well once Marshawn left like Shawn was the guy he was the um he was the tone Setter he was the person that defensive coordinators worried about he’s the one that they designed everything they do around it wasn’t it wasn’t Russ um Russ took advantage of that because he had his own unique skill sets and if you weren’t planning for him he could hurt you um but they mostly planned for for Marshon because he was that that hard to stop so every point of evidence in this game points to a shootout Keith like the their offense is clearly better than our defense even even though our defense is trending up and we’ll see how that plays out our offense is better than their defense and it clearly shows that statistically all the way through how do you see this thing playing out and what’s your prediction um well I don’t know if it’s going to be a shootout because um Seattle’s offensive line holds it back even against Bad defenses um and Arizona is so dependent on the running game they’re not a big play uh offense I think that Seattle can keep the the the ball in front of them and what we’ve seen the last couple of weeks against really good running teams is that they’re capable of getting in and and making life really difficult for those running teams and so I don’t necessarily agree that it’s going to be a shootout so one of the curious things for me out of this game will be another opportunity to see Mike McDonald’s introduction to the Cardinals um in the division uh and how he defends them um and and so that will be a storyline to watch um I I tend to agree with you but also you know there’s some big play opportunities for both sides um I think Kyler Murray represents the the big play opportunity for the Cardinals he can score from anywhere he can make life difficult for a defense that’s over aggressive he can um get the ball out at the last second when he squirrels around he’s just one of those quarterbacks that can frustrate you Seattle’s done a great job over the last several years in controlling the tempo controlling the The Narrative controlling the game and eventually winning against the Cardinals um most most seasons most years and and even though Seattle’s been kind of a a marginal team and so is the Cardinals this team is is a little different this team uh we predicted I think at the at the beginning of the Season that this might be a nine- win team this if they win this game this could be a 10 11 or 12 win team um and if if Seattle wins I think we’re still a 10 11 win team potentially at least in that conversation uh but this roster is built well they’re young they’re hungry they play uh hard for their coach um I’ll be interested to see I I could see the score creeping up close to 30 points each um or I could see a defensive battle where it’s 20 to 17 um I lean kind of right in the middle I’m I lean like 2420 and I I’m gonna say the Seahawks are going to win this game just because of of the Gino factor I think Gino is really uh coming into his own this this at this point in the season really honed in on what the coach wants to do what Ryan grub wants to do uh they start to get the ball going a little bit because of Abe Lucas there over on the right side Abe I saw Abe with a couple of pancake blocks the last game just got me so excited it’s like okay we’re back now if we can combine that a little bit with uh Bradford over on the right side that could be a really nice tandem a game a a gamechanging uh tand that could push the ball I noticed the last few times we tried to run on on third and fourth and short in that 49er game we were trying to run over on the left side behind Tom Linson and Charles cross I think that’s a mistake I think they need to start doing that on the right side yeah and and I think that now that we have evidence to to show that the there’s reason to have faith on the right side until um we had tape of I could see why they would run on the left because you trust cross over anyone you’ve put at right tackle all year so um yeah um looking at at as you’re you’re talking about you know Arizona’s like season and whatnot um they’ve played a really easy schedule um as as far as you know all of this goes the biller and lions are tough teams um but and I guess you could say the commanders are although I’m not convinced um but they’ve they beat the Bears everybody beats the Bears um they beat the Jets the Jets are a disaster um the Dolphins I mean we saw the Dolphins they’re they’re a mess right yeah they they almost got beat by the Dolphins they won on the last second play yeah um they did beat uh the Chargers but they only scored 17 points it was 1715 in a weird game um the hackers like blew them out um they had to last second comeb back over the 49ers like uh and that was in week one too so we um oh no that one wasn’t um line head but um yeah and you know what I mean like they they got blown out by the bills um the Lions won fairly easily um they did blow out the Rams um and so you know there’s you look at at all of this and you’re like I don’t know should have beat that Rams team oh absolutely they should have beat that Ram team so they had that that game and then pissed it away um but I don’t know how good this Arizona team is they’ve played some really bad teams in one um they played some really good teams and lost they’re a six and five team which they are um and SE could easily be six six and five yeah they should be um um but going forward you look at after Seattle they play um the Vikings uh the Patriots the Rams the 49ers Seattle and the Panthers there’s four wins to be had there and this is a team that’s currently at six so yeah they’re probably going to get to 10 because when you get to play the Panthers um maybe the Vikings surprise me and and and are better but you play Panthers and the Patriots um you know the Vikings and then one each against um all the NFC West again like I you’ve got to win this game if you’re Seattle that schedule for Arizona is too easy they’re they’re going to be able to stay in front of you if you lose and you go two games down you’re not catching them so they the see actually need this one and after this game we play the Jets who are falling apart and then we’re back to Arizona at Arizona Seattle really could if they win the next three they’re they’re in the driver’s seat yeah but they to do that they very much could win the next three because these are all three winnable games and you go through and you win these three so okay Mr winable games what’s your prediction on this score so I um kind of agree with you in in the set I think that that it’s a lower scoring game it ends up being like 23 24 Seattle um and I don’t know if that is is a last second score by Seattle or a prevention of a last second score um by Arizona but I do think Seattle pulls this one out yeah interesting I hope so it’ be fun I predicted the 49er win by the way um but it’s it’s tough It’s like uh you know games are close in the NFL they just are they end up being close and uh Seattle’s Seattle’s got an opportunity here to really kind of show that this is Mike McDonald’s team and Gino Smith’s team and Ernest Jones’s team and and uh Leonard Leonard Williams and and they start to play together and they start to play hard and they come out of this game with with a little bit of an identity um especially on the defensive side that would just be be sweet couple turnovers no injuries um that one would be nice yeah a win anyway let’s get out of here Keith um let’s go get a win enjoy the game everyone we’ll come back early early next week and uh talk about it and look look ahead so you can find Keith on Twitter Mars NFL you can find me NW Seahawk also on Blue Sky same uh call tag and then the show is Seahawks playbook podcast on your favorite podcast platform got our own YouTube channel uh hit the Subscribe button uh share it like it leave a comment all that good stuff so until next time go Hawks gohawks Seahawks playbook podcast listeners thanks for joining us for another edition of the show you can find us on Twitter bill is NW Seahawk Keith is at Myers NFL and the show is at Hawks Playbook you can listen And subscribe to the show at Seahawks playbook.com
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