15-08-2019, 01:32 PM
Game vs ChiefsInjury updates from Seahawks coach Pete Carroll ahead of Sunday night’s game against the Kansas City Chiefs.Tedric Thompson out L.J. Collier Jersey , 2 more Seahawks DBs questionable for KC | The News TribuneFree safety Tedric Thompson is out. Fellow starting defensive backs Shaquill Griffin and Bradley McDougald are questionable, as are the right side of the offensive line and other starters. Sunday night’s task against the soaring Chiefs is getting even tougher.Seahawks have the perfect offense to beat the Chiefs. But......the big question for the Seahawks this week is if their defense can hold up. If the version that faced the Vikings plays, the answer is a definite yes.Sunday Night Football: Seahawks host Chiefs as underdogsTied for the AFC West lead, the Chiefs are 2.5-point road favorites on the NFL odds against the Seahawks with a 54.5-point total in their Sunday Night Football matchup at sportsbooks monitored by OddsShark.com.Keys to the Game: Can the Seahawks slow down Patrick Mahomes at all? Can the Seattle offense keep up? | The Seattle TimesSeattle's defense will have a big challenge in slowing down Mahomes, who leads the NFL with 45 touchdown passe --- 11 more than anyone else in the league.Baldwin still showing up for Seahawks in injury-filled season | Q13 FOX NewsDoug Baldwin knows he's fortunate to have spent eight years in the NFL and to have established himself as one of the better players on several elite teams. He also knows he's fortunate to have gotten this far without having a season defined by obvious injuries affecting his play — until this year.Three Key Matchups: Seahawks vs ChiefsTaking a look at three matchups that could make the difference in Sunday night’s game against the Kansas City Chiefs.Seahawks Host 2018 CenturyLink High School Athletes of the WeekThe Seahawks, CenturyLink, and KIRO Radio 97.3 FM partnered to host this year’s standout student-athletes for a leadership summitCliff Avril Hosts Holiday Shopping Surprise With Jacob Martin And Poona FordAlongside Jacob Martin and Poona Ford, Cliff Avril surprised unsuspecting shoppers at Target and Fred Meyer, covering their shopping expenses and spreading holiday cheer.Rams RB Todd Gurley game-time decision vs. Cards - NFL.comLos Angeles Rams running back Todd Gurley is a game-time decision ahead of Sunday's game against the Arizona Cardinals, coach Sean McVay told reporters.Matt Barkley signs 2-year contract extension with Bills - NFL.comSigned off of his couch by the Bills earlier this season, Matt Barkley can now move the rest of his furniture to Orchard Park. Buffalo handed Barkley a two-year contract extension through 2020 on Friday.Falcons' Julio Jones 'game-time decision' vs. Panthers - NFL.comJulio Jones' availability for Sunday is up in the air. Falcons coach Dan Quinn told reporters that the wide receiver will be a game-time decision against the Panthers.Frank Gore intends to return for 15th NFL season - NFL.comFrank Gore's season might be over http://www.theseahawksfanshop.com/Phil-Haynes-Jersey , but his career is not. The Dolphins running back will not need surgery on his injured foot and intends to play a 15th season in 2019.Injuries: Lamar Miller 'has a chance to play' vs. Eagles - NFL.comTexans running back Lamar Miller (ankle) has a chance to play Sunday against the Eagles. Miller was limited in practice the past two days. Plus, other injuries we're tracking on Friday.Sean Payton wants to increase game-day rosters - NFL.comNew Orleans Saints head coach Sean Payton recently advocated for the 46-man roster on game day to increase. The Saints had two offensive lineman exit with injuries in last week's Week 15 matchup.Leonard Fournette admits he 'could be in better shape' - NFL.comA hamstring sidelined Jaguars running back Leonard Fournette for six weeks. Ahead of Sunday's Week 16 game, Fournette indicated he could be in better shape at this point in the 2018 season.Washington’s Montae Nicholson had previously unreported DUI – ProFootballTalkWashington safety Montae Nicholson, who was arrested in Virginia this week for assault and battery and public intoxication, had a previously unreported drunk driving arrest. FOX 5 in D.C. reports that Nicholson was arrested for driving under the influence in Pennsylvania in 2017.Seahawks won’t back off if they can’t clinch with a win on Sunday night – ProFootballTalkThe Seahawks will be playing to win on Sunday night, no matter what. As if there was ever any doubt about that. A reporter asked coach Pete Carroll on Friday whether the Seahawks would rest starters on Sunday night against the Chiefs if other results earlier in the day would prevent Seattle from ...Geoff Swaim headed to IR – ProFootballTalkThe Cowboys apparently have given up on Geoff Swaim returning this season. The team is expected to place its starting tight end on injured reserve Saturday, Clarence Hill of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports. Running back Darius Jackson will get the call-up from the practice squad. There’s a fast-developing NFL trend that the Seahawks have suffered from: the crack pitch from the shotgun. Quicker developing than a toss play, the pitch is run similarly to a speed option but without the quarterback ever keeping. Seattle really struggled against the Chargers’ run game and their toss, making Green Bay’s crack pitch last Thursday a smart decision. It was particularly tricky because they did it from the shotgun to the weakside. With a tight end to the left and the running back to the right, The Seahawks aligned off the strength of the front. This was also opposite the side of the running back alignment, because that’s where the ball is most likely to be run from the gun.The Packers made things even tougher for Seattle by following another in-vogue schematic feature of the NFL: tight receiver splits and a bunch formation. Sean McVay’s offense is the champion of this. In the Rams attack it gives receivers a genuine two-way go—with space inside and outside. The alignment also guarantees that the receiver will face outside Ugo Amadi Jersey , off leverage from the defensive back, which frees up space for the terrifying crossers of McVay to run free inside. Finally, McVay benefits from tight splits in the run game as he breaks force defenders and narrows a defense.For Green Bay, the 11 personnel (1 running back, 1 tight end and 3 wide receivers) trips bunch formed a significant part of their gameplan and really benefited their crack pitch. Aligning the receivers like this to the boundary created a smaller, easier area for the receivers to make their crack-back blocks to secure the edge. It also gave the running back more room to get outside. The trips bunch in this area created three extra gaps to the right of the right tackle: essentially a d gap, an e gap and a f gap. With Shaquill Griffin joined by Tre Flowers and Justin Coleman, plus Bradley McDougald aligning in press over the tight end on the other side of the field, it was clear to Aaron Rodgers that the coverage was man. This saw Rodgers audible at the line of scrimmage. Sure enough, the corners were all forced to align off and outside their receivers. As the ball was snapped, the crack-back blocks of Marquez Valdez-Scantling and Equanimeous St. Brown took Coleman and Griffin inside.The force defender Mychal Kendricks Jersey , the man tasked with turning outside runs back inside, was Barkevious Mingo. Mingo found himself down at the line of scrimmage facing the double team of Valdez-Scantling and St. Brown. They attacked Mingo’s blindside. In zone coverage with a safety as the secondary force player, Mingo could have assumed a “crack replace” call. This is where the force responsibility is replaced by a box safety who reacts to the issues a crack-back block on the edge represents. Instead, the man coverage saw the secondary force player, nickel corner Coleman, get run out of the play inside. Worse, contain defender Griffin was out-leveraged by his coverage inside. As the outside corner, he was forced to overcompensate due to the inside tight split. The Packers managed to stop the run-through of middle linebacker Bobby Wagner by having their left guard Lane Taylor fold block. They were able to do this as Seattle’s bear/double-eagle/46 front let them take backside 4i Jarran Reed with backside tackle David Bakhtiari.Meanwhile, on the frontside, Green Bay was able to run two fold blocks behind the pair of crack-back blocks, with inside receiver Davante Adams and right tackle Bryan Bulaga pealing out to the perimeter. Bulaga managed to slow Mingo Steve Largent Color Rush Jersey , who did a good job getting off the double team crackback, Adams managed to kick out his one-on-one Flowers.The interior defensive linemen always get caught in the middle trash on plays like this. Unsurprisingly, deep safety Tedric Thompson was the only free player. His run fit tasked him with filling the alley. But Thompson took a very shallow angle that isn’t aggressive enough given the situation. It was a near-impossible task anyway. Aaron Jones surged into the endzone untouched.You may wonder what would have happened if Seattle had played zone coverage rather than man here. Though the defensive backs wouldn’t have been disadvantaged to the point of out-leverage by their coverage assignment, the Seahawks would likely have had one less player on the playside edge. As underwhelming for Green Bay fans as Mike Leach’s Air Raid in the snow, Mike McCarthy didn’t call this concept again. This was despite most of the Seahawks’ coverage being man defense. Heading into the crucial match-up with the Carolina Panthers, Seattle’s play on the perimeter of runs must be far better. Force and contain play have been huge weaknesses of the defense. That’s strange given how Pete Carroll stresses stopping the run, plus how well his teams usually execute that task.