Gameballs & Goats - Week 3

Written by Chris Sullivan | 29 September 2009

A day late, but I suppose its still better than never, right?

DEFENSE:
Gameball: This is the easiest one so far this year. David Hawthorne put together the best game any Seahawk has thus far this year on either side of the ball. 16 tackles, 1 interception and a forced fumble that was overturned despite almost no evidence suggesting it ought to be. Had the Seahawks won, Hawthorne would almost certainly be NFC Defensive Player of the Week.
Goat: Deon Grant. I don't know that it was totally his fault, but on consecutive plays Grant bumped into Travis Fisher and took them both out of the play. Those two plays? The touchdown to Hester and the subsequent 2 point conversion. Grant played a good game overall, but the touchdown was a very costly mistake. It may have been Fisher's fault, but Grant took credit for it.

OFFENSE:
Gameball: Nate Burleson. Burly put together a great game with 9 catches for 109 yards. He was consistently open and proved himself a reliable target for not-quite-at-ease Seneca Wallace.
Goat: Seneca Wallace. While I am actually quite pleased with how Seneca played -- I think we all agree that you can't rely on your backup QB to put the team on his back and win, which is nearly what Wallace did anyway -- he made a number of very costly mistakes, and missed a lot of wide open players both on errant throws and on non-throws. He also needs to remember to throw the ball away, there were a few times where he took a loss of three by running out of bounds rather than tossing it. Nothing huge, and this isn't really a knock against Sen, but any two of the 10 plays he missed may have been the difference.

SPECIAL TEAMS:
Gameball: Ben Obamanu. What a great run back he had, that 45-yarder. Ben isn't going to show up too much in the games, but if he can prove an elusive return threat he's going to really prove that he deserves the roster spot he earned in the preseason.
Goat: Kickoff Coverage. Whaaaat? Okay, okay, it's really probably Olindo Mare, but hasn't he been dragged through the mud enough the last two days? Mare has been absolutely phenomenal on kickoffs, and we need him to be, as shown on the first kickoff of the game when Johnny Knox returned it from 9 yards deep into Seahawk territory. The person who saved the touchdown? Mare. He was flagged on a phantom facemask call (though Knox did grasp his facemask, for what its worth), adding 15 yards, but that was a bad call and a nice job taking the right angle by Mare. Unfortunately, it also exposed how bad our kickoff coverage team is, and precisely why we need Mare rather than Coutu as our kicker.

COACHING:
Gameball: Zerrick Rollins. Can't say enough about the guy. Rollins has been working hard with Aaron Curry and Curry has gotten better every week. Beyond that though, Coach Z got David Hawthorne and Will Herring ready to play for their second and first starts (respectively). Both were a force, especially the Heater.
Goat: Tie - Jim Mora & Greg Knapp. Mora gets it for the absolutely pointless touchdown review at the beginning of the third quarter. There was no way that sucker was going back, and in a very close game you have to conserve your timeouts. Knapp gets it for a number of silly play calls (though most of the game was very well executed). The big one was that ridiculous reverse to Branch (Branch!) on 3rd and 1 that ended a promising drive.

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