GAME REVIEW: Seahawks Beat Cardinals

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2:04Selection bears by location. Program subject to terms and conditions. Seelows.com slash terms for details. Subject to change. Still waiting in line? Again? That's time you'll never get back. Save time and money with stamps.com. Over 4 million businesses have skipped the line with stamps.com. Join them to save up to 90% off carrier rates from your computer or phone right now. Print postage for certified mail, register mail and packages in seconds. Then schedule a pickup right from your home or office. For a limited time, go to stamps.com and use code podcast for a free welcome gift. Tases and fees apply. Good morning, everybody. Welcome to another episode of Hawkblog. Morning, Zai. I'm Brian M. Howzer. You can find me all that we do on YouTube and tick dock on Instagram at Hawkblogger. You can also get our audio versions on Apple Podcast or Spotify. You can get ad free. If you like ad free, you can get it at patreon.com slash Hawkblogger.

3:05I think we've been able to actually make it ad free for folks over there. Excited for all that we're trying to provide and everyone that's been along with us for this crazy, crazy ride. We just finished a press conference with Mike McDonald. I'll share anything from that. This episode is brought to you by Pemko Insurance, who has been supporting Northwest families for over 75 years and for my family for over 25 years. Go to go.pemko.com slash Hawkblogger to learn more there. This episode is also brought to you by prize picks. And first, sorry that it's a little late today. Travel. I'm going to be a little challenging sometimes to figure out when I can do this show. I was able to get morning after written and posted this morning. Had some kind of crazy problems with the hosting site figured that out. So if you tried where you, my morning after column and couldn't get it, it is now fixed. So you should be able to read that. But then had to hop on a flight and I literally just got out of, you know, I got home five

4:06minutes later, was in the press conference. And now going to do this show. I have a four o'clock doctor's appointment. I'm going to be calling into. I think serious. Don't worry. But so we're going to be really, really fast. You know, you know, I like to like, like, curiate in the information and take my time. This will not be one of those. So for the people that really want a fast, quick episode, this one's going to be for you. So I hope everybody's enjoying Monday. Beautiful day. See ox or two and no. First place in the NFC West. First place in the NFL. They did their jobs yesterday really, really well. So I mean, that's the headline that's, you know, what we've talked about in the post game show with Jeff. And I think continues to feel really important, even as you go into today. But there were some things that I found upon looking further into this game that were interesting. Because we are learning more about Brian Flurry, right?

5:07That's part of what we're trying to do along the way. And so I'm going to share some numbers with you guys that caught my attention. And let's start with personnel packages because this is already becoming one of the storylines of the year for me. Not for everybody else, but for me. And why this matters is one of the storylines of last year, really started around week three into week four. And what I started noticing was that the see hawks 12 personnel package, their two tight end personnel package was number one in the NFL and EPA per play. And was top five and EPA per rush and EPA per pass. And it was something they were doing about a 50 50 split run to pass. So there's a lot of really good things going on. And so that turned out that personnel package was an absolute foundational element of what became a Super Bowl winner.

6:08This year, something a little difference going on, not. I'll just explain. So this year, even though the like I have to contrast it with last year, even though the see hawks last year. They ran a lot of 12 very good in their 12 personnel package. They still they still did a lot of 11 personnel. And let me bring it up in my my stats page. And I'm going to go back to 20 25. I'm going to go to personnel and the see hawks. The see hawks ran it's 41% of the time. It looks like here, which was lower than the NFL average, but it still was their dominant personnel package 12 personnel was only 30% of the time.

7:09They ran 13 personnel with three tight ends only 5% of the time. Okay, 42% 11 30% 12 5% 13. We got that 42 35. Okay, now let's fast forward to this year so far. This year, 32% of the time they're running 11 personnel. That is dead last in the NFL in terms of utilization of three wide receivers. 12 personnel has skyrocketed to 53% of the time. More than half of their snaps have two tight ends on the field. And then last that last game this weekend against Arizona all of a sudden 13 personnel popped up 13 personnel was only used 4% of the time against the Patriots. It was used 22% of the time against the Cardinals. Now I think I haven't dug a got into dug that much deeper. I would guess some of this was happening late in the game as they were grinding the cardinals down on the ground.

8:13But it's not nothing Nick Calerap was not active for game one. He was active for game two and I don't think that was an accident. I think three tight ends was part of their game plan. The other part that's interesting to me about this. If you look at the C.O.X. 11 personnel is not doing so hot. They are 25th in the NFL in EPA per play when they have three wide receivers on the field. They're not great passing. They're 23rd in EPA per pass. They're not great rushing 28th in EPA per rush. So that's not so good. When they are in 12th personnel. They are 7th in EPA per play, which is good. It's not as good as last year in terms of ranking, but it's still good. They are 3rd in EPA per pass. They are 18th in EPA per rush. So rush is still not great, but better than 28th, which is what they are in EPA per rush for 11 personnel.

9:1513th personnel. Three tight ends, which we've got our first real look at. They are 6th in the NFL in EPA per play with three tight ends. Hmm. They are 4th in the NFL in EPA per pass with three tight ends. They are 10th in EPA per rush. So all of a sudden, 13 personnel has started to poke up as a personal package that the SEAC did not really use last year very much. And when they did, we're not very good. I will mention that they're like their full back package, not used as much either. And so this is something I'm going to keep looking at. And I will admit one thing here that I think part of what might be happening is a mislabeling in the data of what Brady Russell is.

10:15If they are considering him a tight end, then this could be false info or at least misleading info. So that's that's kind of I'm just telling you hot off the presses stuff that I've been pulling and things that I have questions about, but regardless. Even if it is a full back that's in there, the sea hawks are increasing their utilization of heavy personnel and they are using three receivers less than any other team in the league. That to me is a big deal. So that's something to watch. They are also better when they're doing it so far. But it is worth noting that like you don't want to be bad in anything. And the sea hawks have been bad with three receivers on the field. And I think they've got to figure that one out. So that's that is one thing that that kind of caught my attention. Another thing that I shared online before I got on with you guys that kind of caught my eye was that the motion rates we talked about motion and Brian Flurry and he was going to be bringing a lot more motion not only the past game to the run game.

11:32Right. We talked about that. And Jeff was like, I didn't see it in the first week. What's going on? And well, something that's interesting. I compared how Seattle used motion in the Super Bowl clink KUBEAX last game with Seattle to how they've used motion so far this year. And the things you want to avoid as a play caller is a tell, right? You don't want to do whether it's formationally personnel wise alignment wise, whatever you don't want to be to create a tendency that's so clear that opponents can pick up on it. I think KUBEAX was very good at this. I think we'll see if Brian Flurry is good at this. But one of the things that that motion was a little bit of a tell for at least in the Super Bowl was. Seattle motioned on 32% of their running plays in the Super Bowl 85% of their passing place. So that's a huge 50 point gap. That is a tendency when there was motion. It was most likely going to be a pass last year in the Super Bowl for the sea ox. Well, this year.

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14:52Sip the season with 365 brand cinnamon spice coffee and pumpkin spice creamer while you still can spice up fall at Whole Foods Market. Seattle has motioned on 60% of the running place. That's by the way that's double what was the motion rate last year and 55.6% of their passes, which is less than they pat on the past last year. But the important thing there is the difference is less than 5% so motion no longer is a quote tell for what the sea hawks or Brian Flurry is going to call. I have more digging to do on this, but I'm just giving you guys the little tidbits that caught my attention as we learn about Brian Flurry and we learn about this team that is the 2026 sea hawks. So another piece that kind of got my attention in this game is the screen game.

15:54I was like excited about how the screen game was going to influence the offense this season. We saw basically none of it in the first game 3.8% of play calls were screens I think it's like one player two plays whatever it was. It was just as a comparison last year for the whole season the sea hawks had a 7.5% screen rate 7.5% of their their drop backs were screens. This year 3.8% in game one so below last year's average game to 18.5%. So the screen was a bigger part of the game plan will find out if it was specific to the cardinals or not. But I think this is going to be a larger part of how the sea hawks run their offense I think there's work to be done on it it was not a perfect set of play when they ran the screen but there were some promising.

16:55There's promising moments with it specifically the jadeir and price screen I thought was really nice I thought there's a couple others that were promising as well. So big up tick and screen rate in week two. Play action rate. Pretty much what it's been not a real change there last year was 28% this year it's 30% so like you know pretty pretty average above average for the league but but relative to the league. The same to what it was. Another thing I've been kind of on it ring is depth of target why do I care about depth of target for people that don't know depth of target is how long are you averaging what you how long is the ball traveling on average when you're passing the football. Well. Kyle Shanahan was kind of known for being a little bit of an intermediate to short passing guy a lot of screens a lot of horizontal stuff.

17:59But not as much deep balls and part of the reason I'm interested in this is because Sam Darnell is one of the best deep ball throwers in the NFL. So I was like is this one of those things where Brian Flurry is going to force fit Sam Darnell into the Kyle Shanahan kind of offense or is he going to take advantage of what Sam Darnell does really really good at. And Brian Flurry himself has said he really respects play callers that leverage their players strengths so I like I'm hope I'm hopeful that that's what's going to happen. But week one was not a good first indication it was 6.4 yards was the average depth of target that's not good like that's very short passing. I think that is largely because they lost their starting quarterback in the first series and Drew Locke was coming in and they were probably scrambling a little bit New England also played pretty well and you've got Christian Gonzalez and some decent corner so maybe that was all part of it. So in this game 8.7 yards that is a very healthy depth of target to give you an idea last year the average depth of target for the Cocks was 7.8 so this was above last year's average I think that also was good a good sign.

19:12Now another thing I'm giving you guys a bunch of stuff I told you to be rapid fires hopefully you're keeping up. We'll see and I see there's some news coming out we'll talk about that as well. Another thing I've been paying attention to is shotgun versus center under center let's say that again. Part of what I'm interested to hear again is Sam Donald is one of the best under center quarterbacks in the sport Kyle Shanahan heavily utilized shotgun like relative to Clint Kubiak. I wanted to see how Brian Flore is going to handle that well through two games. Last year the Cocks average 55% under center 42% shotgun 55% under center and by the way there's some other formations that is why it doesn't add up exactly to 100 but anyway. So 54 55 to 42 was the split last year under center shotgun so mostly under center this year through two games 61% under center 33% out of shotgun.

20:21It is the lowest shotgun rate in the NFL through two games so that's pretty big. And the other one that's kind of interesting here is that the Cocks EPA per per play per attempt is actually better when they don't use play action that's usually not the case with almost any team so that's probably just early season noise but it is something that's kind of. Of interest to me alright there's some news let's get to that and then I've got some other stuff to share with you guys oh wow there's a few different things so it is looking like. Pukka Nakua is officially in active tonight with a hip injury no Pukka Nakua tonight that is going to be interesting Aaron Donald's getting his first game Aaron Donald must be wondering what the heck is going on came back to play with miles Garrett and the super team.

21:28One week into it no miles Garrett no Pukka Nakua. Yeah we'll see man so big loss for the Rams we'll see what happens for them in this game coming up here in a couple hours so that is interesting and not great news for the Rams. Other news that is probably not what you guys were thinking about but will Johnson the corner back for the Arizona Cardinals has a neck injury and could potentially miss the rest of the season that's awful terrible news there so hope will Johnson comes back he's a good player even though he had a tougher up against against JSN yesterday. So that's interesting also news Dallas Goddard the tight end for the Eagles who's going to be out for a while with a sprained MCL has led to.

22:30Zach Hertz coming back signing with the Eagles practice squad so the Eagles have added one of their older tight ends. To go with. To go with one that is injured okay as far as the sea ox news goes one of the things we got from Mike McDonald in this press conference was that. Sam Donald they're expecting him to practice this week in some capacity that's where he was so he's gotten a little more bold with what he's willing to share. So the planet sounds like as of now is that Sam darn old will practice in some capacity this week whether that means he will play or not do not know but that is the plan I hear people that are like a. Drillocks playing fine the the commanders are going to be without Jay Daniels your way better just let him sit trust these folks over there they will not play Sam darn old if they think that he is at risk of making himself more hurt or re-endering himself they're not going to rush him back but if he's ready to play they're going to play him and so I think you know I think it's it's reasonable to trust the people there who are making these decisions because they have a.

23:50A lot more riding on it than any of us realistically so that is some news there. I asked Mike McDonald some questions I don't know if he liked any of them to be honest that's okay you don't you don't win them all but I I did ask him. Like he is not see someone who's never really wanted to be the center of attention and yet he's done a lot of these interviews including that really great one with Graham recently and I just ask him why he said yes and and you know I'll let you guys listen to his answer I don't have a cute up here but essentially just said that if you know someone wants to have an honest conversation he trust the process for how they're doing it that. You know he wants to you know why not why not and I think the reason I asked that question is because. I think it's just an opportunity to learn more about the thought process Mike's going through I do think this is quite the metamorphosis in terms of his media availability and his demeanor and how people think about him and so.

25:05You know there are coaches that are just like screw it I do not want to talk to any of you I don't want want to do any of that I'm not going to give you any interviews Mike's choosing a different route which I respect. I thought it's kind of interesting to hear him he thought about it a while I was not a trap question I was not trying to trap I was genuinely curious why and I think we learned a little bit I asked him also like and what is it felt like to go through it I think that didn't get worded well enough because I don't think he understood my question but. He's like nothing's really changed for the same here and I'm like well. But I have to think that that he had a vision in his head of what it was going to be like to be you know NFL head coach and how much visibility that was going to entail I was just curious how it's compared to what he expected and so I didn't ask the question very well but. Anyway there's a couple interesting things in there a couple other numbers I will give you guys that I just also recently shared.

26:10I think I can pull these let me see if I can pull these up so you can see them and not just hear them let's do this share that's but then we're going to. Share this instead there are moments that define who you are and who you're becoming and when those moments arrive what you drive should rise to meet them the range over sport commands attention from the very first glance every line every detail engineered for impact inside refinement takes over with sculpted 22 way heated seating with available massage and a 13.1 inch touch screen that puts everything with an easy reach but the range over sport isn't just about luxury it's about uncompromise performance to delivering a powerful agile drive that feels as confident as it looks and with nearly endless ways to personalize from interior finishes to wheels to unique colors and accessories your range over sport becomes unmistakably yours.

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28:42and coverage very by state and insurance plan and we're going to go to my profile OK so a couple things and this one I think is the I'll start with the one that I think is coolest to me the coolest one. This is a look at the sea hawks run defense they are number one in the NFL in success rate allowed 25.6% of opponent runs are succeeding. They are number one in the NFL in tackles for loss and in fact they're averaging a tackle for loss on every five point for carries. Like that is crazy the next best is green Bay which is every six point five carries and so they're doing that while also having the seventh lightest box in the NFL meaning they have more defensive backs on the back of the

29:44field than the vast majority of NFL teams now this is not like the newest thing this was something the sea hawks did last year as well but they've hit kind of a new rate of efficiency there that is is really really impressive and kind of a fun one to see as you get into it. This one is also crazy so the sea hawks are the first team since 2006 to not allow a single play of 20 yards or more in the first two weeks of the season since 2006 to give you an idea that's 666 possible opportunities of different teams including the sea hawks over the season. And yes they've given up some defensive pass interference penalties that are over 20 yards those don't count and by the way I don't think it really matters because defensive pass interference existed in every season and and still no one has managed to do what the sea ox have done through two weeks not giving up a single 20 yard play and this is a look at their loss and the

31:01play is the longest was a 19 yard play from Drake made it to Mac Holland's the second longest was the 18 yard run by bam night on the second to last play of the game against the Cardinals so like is a remarkable job by this defense the pressure that they are putting on offenses and they're doing it while not having the highest pressure rate. This is another quick look this is Jackson Smith and jigba in the top right where he's going to be in pretty much every graphic. The the horizontal access is receiving yards after the catch the vertical access is receiving EPA look how he is in a class by himself this year in that regard and part of the reason I like this one is there's been a narrative out there that J.S. N is kind of a possession guy and maybe not a deep threat and definitely not a yards after catch guy think about what happened in the first two weeks of this season like the fourth down play where he absolutely just all created after the catch the 82 yard touchdown yesterday most of that was after the catch this is a guy that I still think does not get the flower he deserves for how great he is now this one is not going to look as surprising but it's actually

32:28far more impressive than the one I just showed you this one is routes run on the horizontal access so how many times are you out in a route and then receiving yards on the vertical access now the thing that is absolutely stunning about this chart that would not be obvious if you don't have it spelled out is that Jackson Smith and jigba leads the NFL and receiving yards while having half the routes run of the second place receiver Chris O'Lava Chris O'Lava has run 99 routes Jackson Smith and Jigba has run 55 now that I know that's not exactly half but you guys know what I mean so that is absolutely insane levels of efficiency for jigsaw for jsn to be 55 routes run and 277 yards it is just it's unheard of so fun with numbers I know people like Sunday night stats this is a little bit replacement for some of those but a lot of really cool stuff going on with this team even though we're only two games into this season

33:55and now we got to watch the Rams tonight hopefully they fall in their faces that would be fun I certainly would enjoy it but we'll keep looking and and before I let you guys go there's a super chat here it says Legion 12 you a brine would you ever take on a writer pro bono probably not probably not conversation for another time but more people is not necessarily better and usually honestly the best people the best quality of stuff would want to be compensated for it and I don't mean that as an insult I just mean like folks should should make their make their mark and I'm happy to have those conversations down the road but but that's probably where I'm kind of at at this point all right before we go a few things from our sponsors so let's hear from our sponsors really quick thing we've got a winner of the Cooper Cup signed football it is Donald Hester Donald Hester is going to get a Cooper Cup signed football with his order now this was so fun that coop was willing to do another sign football this is going to run for two more weeks but if you go to do to coffee dot co and you use code

35:23Hawk blogger 12 you will get 12% off your order you will also be given a chance to win a Cooper Cup signed football that will just come with your order with your coffee with your merch whatever it is do to coffee dot co use code Hawk blogger 12 also download the price picks app play $5 get $150 bonus lineups if you win using code HMA make sure you head to simply Seattle dot com use promo code Hawk blogger 15 for 15% off there and then head over to go dot pesto dot com slash Hawk blogger to learn more about pesto insurance insurance just had somebody save 500 bucks switching over to pesto we've had really great experience with them a highly highly recommend it and we are really close to selling out on our event in Vegas this is at the legacy club at hotel circa if you go to Hawk blogger dot com slash event there's only like 20 VIP tickets left there's more of the general admission but we are going to run out so make sure you get your tickets

36:30while you can Hawk blogger dot com slash event is going to be awesome in Vegas can't wait to see you all there okay that is going to do it good luck for everyone tonight we'll talk to you more soon tomorrow we'll have Matt Hasselback we'll go through this game with him and a lot more to come until then have a great