3 IN, 3 OUT – Sweet Home CLink East – Seahawks v. Giants

October 25, 2017 by

by fellow 12 Clinton Bonner

The sun? Check!

The fun? Check!

The grub? Check!

The love? Check!

The 12s? Check!

The start? Well… we'll get to that 😉

The finish? Check!

The big ‘road' W at CLink East? Check and mate.

What can we say fellow 12s… sometimes life hands ya bacon and this past Sunday at CLink East was just one of ‘dem days. With that, let's start with a big thank you to a gaggle of Flockers and let's start this thing off right saying thanks to Brandan and Adam who trekked all the way in from Big Sky Country!

I hadn't met this dynamic duo sans being ‘cyber friends' for a time now and I do want our world to know they are who you thought they would be! Genuine good dudes, genuine passion… Brandan a bit more cerebral, stoic, dare I say calm in the face of 12-dom and most often with a satisfaction laden grin across his bearded mug with just enough snark to let you know he's listening … Adam-isms you hear on the pod aren't just his ‘pod life', that's him! He's fired up, fast talking, opinionated, really sports hates Bruce Arians, mentions Jared a good bit, and would make for a perfectly good East Coast Italian-American if he would just learn to wave his hands around a lot more. It was fantastic to get to hang with these dudes, so thanks for putting it all in motion.

Of course there is the Flock who came out and were equally amazing to hang with including Stephanie and Cameron Cole, MK and Josh, Gary Blum and his awesome daughter Jenna, Jon Wondrack, Kofi Poku, Christian Tjessem and Mary (all the way from Norway so they did better!!!) and many others throughout the day including the boys, Stuart and Adam from the Pedestrian Podcast … or as I like to refer to it, the Seahawks pod across the pond!

And I have to give some love to my cousin Joel and our boy Hot Rod, two Giants fans who not only endured being surrounded by 12s all day, but also cooked us steak and provided us with the foodvention of the year … the CLink East Burger aka charcoal grilled cheeseburger with tri-tip steak and loaded potato salad on a bun of goodness.

the CLink East Burger

Sometimes, life hands ya bacon.

You know the drill by now … when we win, we start with an IN, so let's do exactly that.

IN – Sir Mix-A-Lot

You may think I'm foolish… but upon re-watching, I looooooooved what this offense did to open up the game . The very first play in fact was 5-wide, motion Rawls to the backfield, read-option run to the right, Rawls gain of 6.OMGosh, just what Dr. Bevell, Medicine Woman ordered. The offense in our 2-first series was a 9 outta 10 great. We saw Rawls & Lacy with gains of 5+ yards on the ground. We saw an early deep shot to EDB (that's Elite Doug Baldwin for ya n00bs) as well as a classic Doug 3rd down conversion as he found a soft spot in the middle of the field. We saw consistently good run blocking and good enough pass protection… and heck, we even saw a Jet Sweep and a key completion to Darboh.

They call this something in sports and no, not just a functioning NFL offense… but it's called being dynamic. Like any good Nirvana tune (or heck even a copycat Nirvana such as Oleander), our offense had a great mix going early of power running, quick hitting conservative passing, and stretching the field with shots over 20 yards.

Baby got back alright … Me likey where this offense is growing.

OUT – Can't Stop the Feeling

Those first two drives we relished in just above resulted in about 100 yards of offense and our ‘Hawks dominating time of possession with around 10 minutes of clock earned. But, it also netted exactly zero points.

Loved going for it on 4th and 2 (or so) from the G-Men 2, it was the right call.

What wasn't right in those first two drives were un-timely unforced errors in the form of false starts, blocking whiffs, and a case of the ‘Mamma Dropsies'.

Ifedi's offsides on drive 1 to take us from 2nd and 5 to 2nd and 10 killed that drive's ‘mo.

We suffered another offsides on the following drive deep in Big Blue territory… Que Lastima!

With Britt out (injured a few plays previous), on 2nd down from the Giants 1.5, we suffered a jailbreak as Lacy was met 3.5 yards in the backfield for a huge loss… and finally…

Jimmy. Jimmy, I love ya … c'mon man, been defending you since the trade, you've GOT to make red zone catches for us!!!

2 B+ drives that are A's if we just execute. Frustrating.

Flocktimus Prime had this squared up from jump street, well done Keith.

IN – Jarranimo

Faithful flock, if you dig #3i3o, we're grateful and we hope we provide some extra love, extra value, extra spicy sauce to our collective ‘Hawkra that makes ya smile. So, for the faithful readers, you'll remember that our pre-season post discussing 3 unsung Seahawks that would make or break our year, we dedicated 33.33% of that article to one Jarran Reed.

Now you read (from the aforementioned article of destiny):

“Our Run D was OUTSTANDING in 2016 and very often it was due to players like Reed filling their role – and their gaps – professionally and allowing others like Wagner, Clark, Wright and more to make big plays. Reed was more than above average last season against the run and on a line with the likes of Avril, Bennett, Clark, and now Sheldon … so what if he records only a few sacks?

While Nazair Jones was one of the darlings of pre-season – and deservingly so – Reed enters year-2, nearly as a forgotten man.

There’s no metric here to follow, this one is all about your gut. Watch the trenches with intent. If Reed is being consistent up the gut, consistently clearing lanes for our LBs and DEs to make big plays, consistently non-flashy but darn effective … our Seahawks will be marching on to Minnesota come February.”

This wasn't Jarran's only impact play, but it's the one we'll all recall, and with great reason!

For those that can or already have re-watched the game, focus on Reed for a bit, you will continue to see what this man is doing right up the gut. He's progressing and getting even better in year 2. Jarran Reed is a big, big factor for our ‘Hawks and as my brother Scotty likes to say… Love to say I told ya so. Want more proof?

Samuel Gold knows his stuff:

OUT – Sexy Deep Baaaaaaalmost

First He giveth, then He taketh away. Such is life on the roller coaster we call 3 IN, 3 OUT. And while us 12s must be our best Fat Boy Slims and praise Russ like we do, this is the facts of Seahawks life … and they can’t all be Jo’s or Tooties now can they?

Russ has mastered the intermediate – 20 to 34 yard, drop it in the bucket pass. See Baldwin’s beauties if you’re not following the floating ball here people.

One aspect of Russ’ game that is a little askew this season is the really ‘Sexy Deep Ball’. Sure he connected with P-Rich with some razzle-dazzle and one heck of a snag by our decadian wearing Colorado Buffalo, but we’re focused on a slightly different type of SDB.

Multiple times this year, and 2x just this passed Sunday, Russ missed a wide open Baldwin and Lockett, respectively. The good? Baldwin and Lockett are consistently getting behind DBs this year, and even misses on SDBs open the field for later offensive domination. The bad? Russ needs to make some of these opps count.

He takes an OUT in a game where we dominated and he threw for ‘3 and 3’. This is a game that should have been 34 to 7 and in the not-too-distant future we’ll be up against much, much better offensive talent where 24 probably won’t cut it.

IN – Russ to Jimmy… Wait, What!?

I know, I know… I'm a shill for Jimmy Graham, it's not, not true.

We all know about the 2 HUGE drops … they are deserving of an OUT unto themselves, so we’re not sugar coating it here peeps. What excites me is the way Jimmy is being used over the last few weeks.

When Jimmy dropped what shoulda been his first TD of the day, it wasn’t some fade route that sailed aimlessly over Jimmy’s head (though we had one of those too). We love Russ, and we should vigorously defend him to any NFL fan that sees him as some average QB… Trust me, they’re still out there!!!

But Russ is on the struggle bus when it comes to End Zone fade routes. It’s like watching Matthew Broderick’s 1998 Godzilla… it just makes ya ill.

Jimmy’s TD drop and then subsequent TD catch show us that Bevell and co. seem to have learned that we can still use Jimmy in the Red Zone and throw him a different route than the fade… this is VERY encouraging.

Graham’s other big drop might have also went for 6 and surely woulda went for 35+ yards. OK, he beefed it and dropped a wide open delivery from Russ… but where was Graham when he Buckner’d that bad boy? He was wiiiiiide out, streaking down the left sideline on that route. Combine this with the more 5-wide schemes we are seeing, combine this with Russell going for well over 300 yards on the day, with 3 TDs… combined with this true fact:

And this is a big, big IN.

OUT – Ticky Tacky Crappy

Dominating win, on the road, which was quickly followed by a work road-trip of my own. So pardon the easy route here of using an OUT on two types of penalty calls that just bug the snot outta me.

  1. Defensive Holding on run plays – There must've been some committee meeting this offseason to put a spotlight on defensive holding during run plays because, well, I just can't for the life of me remembering seeing this call all that much… ummmm ever. Now, it seems like once a game this dumb-dumb call gets used. Hey NFL, why don't you work on ways so that the Refs are LESS involved and not creating new things to play ‘gotcha' with… ugggh, OUT.
  2. Our ‘Hawks ‘luck' with offensive PI calls … I just re-watched the Lockett TD that was negated and again, the improper insertion of the white stripes to hurt the ‘Hawks is evident. I realize other teams get banged for offensive PIs too, but we just seem to more often AND usually, as was the case here, the calls are pure rubbish.

Bonus IN

We dominated, so a bonus IN, why not?

Quickly, this goes to Justin Coleman and not for covering guys that would otherwise be on a practice squad, but for his abilities making tackles near the line of scrimmage. Justin Coleman for a 7th round pick… we've discussed this before, but my oh my, this is turning out to be a complete steal.

If you have the ability to re-watch the game go to the 12:53 mark of the 3rd quarter and you'll see why Coleman gets the bonus IN!

From the Flock!!!

My favorite segment of #3i3o is hearing it from YOU … so let's see what ya'll had to say this week!

Feeling bad for Ross Bell of the UK Sea Hawkers and the Pedestrian Podcast … he was the 3rd leg of the UK stool, but he couldn't make the trip this time out – we missed ya Ross!

Flocktimus' game was strong this Sunday!!!

Ron didn't specifically tag this #3i3o, nor does he have to 🙂 – I just thought this was a popular opinion that ought to be re-shared:

Ron bringing the Pepper heat on Jimmy

Samsies here, I just loved this post so had to re-share this gem from Erik. While I can't preach for Frank the Tank's grasp of the Laffer Curve or P-Rich's position on legalized pot… I can back this ticket.

1,2,3… What's Next!!!???

Back to CLink West we go. I'm fired up to watch this evolved LOB go up against Watson, Hopkins, Fuller and others. The weather looks pristine as of right now and that matters because Russ ain't great in the rain. I expect our O to keep tightening things up and my spidey sense is telling me we're about to see our best offensive performance of the year.

Let's just see if good ole' Mamma Cleo's crystal ball is crystal clear.

Until Sunday Flockers … see you on Twitter and on the Sea Hawkers Ring of Honor on FB where if you use the tag #3i3o I'll do my bestest to get your account included in the weekly dash of extra Seahawks goodness!

A HUGE Thank you to Brandan and Adam for creating something special here and Go ‘Hawks !!!

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