Is There Hope?

it's over folks...did anyone REALLY think we were going to drive down the field at the end and get a TD? no, not really...everyone KNEW deep down it would just be another heartbreak..(unlike other championship teams) we just never have got the knack for coming back in big games..we just don't do it..we blow leads, tease the fans thinking we may come back, and then ultimately let us down....

...we have 2 first rounders next year!

But seriously, the Hawks are going to get shelled next week at Indy. Did anyone see Peyton Manning last night? Yesterday, the Hawk DB were running into each other like buffoons. It could get really ugly next week. Sure, the Hawks will win some more games this year, but not at the home of one of the NFL's best teams.

realist, i have to totally agree with you here, and thats why winning this game was so imperative. manning is surgical in his approach, watching last nights game i was so envious of indy for having a QB that could single handily win a game for his team. i have never been one of those guys who was on the seneca bandwagon, and yesterday proved exactly why. sure, his mobility helped in certain situations, but overall his lack of accuracy killed us. he is too short to be a NFL passer, how many of his passes were deflected yesterday...3-4 that i can remember. sadly i think matt and seneca's time in seattle is coming to a close. thanks for being warriors gentlemen, but is time to look forward. LT or QB in the first round next year.

I think there is hope for the season...just not next week. The Colts are an elite team and our secondary is in dire straights. They will pick us apart, much like they did to the Cards. As for the rest of the season, I'm very hopeful. I think we can still come out around 8-8, which is what I predicted at the beginning of the season. With next week a forgone conclusion, in my eyes, I say sit Hass, Tatupu, and the other injured folk for another week to get them healthy.
That said, I'll still wear my jerseys, yell at the TV, and be very disappointed if we lose. You can still hope and root your team on, while facing the reality of the situation.

USA, dont get me wrong, I am in no way throwing in the towel for the season. but you have to admit 2-2 is an easier pill to swallow than 1-3. i am still cautiously optimistic that the playoffs are still well within our reach.

Look, beating Indy next week may be a longshot but worst case scenario we go down two games is the division. If Matt had been playing we would have won this game no question. Seneca, Olindo Mare & the refs gave this one away. There was no conclusive evidence to overturn that fumble, 7 points from the refs for the Bears. Seneca missed two touchdowns, both to Nate, the one that was almost picked and the overthrown touch pass. Either get caught and we win. Two missed easy FGs would have had us in the game.

The point is that we can play, even with a banged up team. Our injuries are minor and we'll be able to compete for the division with most of our guys back. Do we win in the playoffs if we get there? Maybe not but the division title would be a big feat after such a poor showing last year.

I believe there is hope strictly because of the conference we play in. But watching that team yesterday, it is apparent that Matt Hasselbeck is the key to our success.

Seneca Wallace can not and will not lead us to a victory over a descent team. Like was said by Seahawker above, that last drive you just knew he wasn't going to get the job done. He's been like that his whole career.

And before that drive, the missed TD to Burleson, overthrowing Carlson many times, Schmitt in the flat, the lob to TJ, running out of bounds and the underhand INT inside the 20. All INEXCUSABLE. The guy is in his 7th year I believe. Those aren't 7 year veteran plays. Those are plays of a guy who is incapable of doing his job. People say, oh he's the backup. Backups don't make those plays over and over!

And the way Mora just came out and threw one of our players completely under the bus is BS. Kickers are going to miss kicks. What about Seneca? What about the 3rd and 1 reverse? What about being ultra conservative before the half? What about the blown timeout on the TD that was CLEARLY a TD?

Mare kicked kickoffs 9 yards deep consistently and our ST still couldn't get a tackle on the returner. When a guy is coming 9 yards deep out of the endzone, you know they say a weak kickoff team on tape.

I lost a lot of respect for Mora yesterday. I think Knapp is driving most of us absolutely crazy. Hold some accountability for yourselves. Don't blame it all on a guy you asked to kick 6 field goals. Crap now I'm fired up again. Why do we have to be playing Indy next week?

Tam, I didn't mean to suggest otherwise. I agree with everything that you wrote. Ditto with Billy...I agree with you. I'm actually encouraged by the fact that we were in that game despite our mistakes, the refs crappy call on the fumble, and our injuries.

By the way, can anyone explain the call on the punt where we had a holding call and they had a procedure call and they didn't offset and redo the down? I'm still confused about what happened and the announcers didn't seem to have a clue either.

I'm gonna feel better next week if Walt is in. We need to run the ball. Jones and the line looked good yesterday against the bears. Indy has a very soft defense, lets pound the rock. Even if Matt and Walt are both in there we should only throw about 50% of the time. Indy is very vunerable to the run, and we can limit the time that they have the ball. Time for some of Knapp's famous run game.

Oh, there is always hope. Just so long as we get our guys back and they stay back this can be a very good team IMO. Add Tru, Hass, Walt and I think those last two games turn out with a win. Add Wilson and I think we win this one, he would have helped on D and special teams. Jones is a baller regardless of what ESPN, Walterfootball, Jerry jones or anyone says. Is he a long term answer? No, but I think we can put off drafting a RB in the top 2 rounds and live with Julius. IMO guard or LT is a more pressing concern anyway.

Next years draft we need offense. LT, QB and G with our top three picks. Beef that line up, Unger was a great pick but if we let Spencer walk we are going to need a new guard or center, I don't trust Vallos. Jury is still out on Sims, I like him but if a better player comes along...

We need to adress the future at QB ASAP. I took crap everywhere I suggested we draft Sanchez, but now I bet most will be singing a diffrent tune. Now i'm not gonna say "i told you so" because I loved the Curry pick, I just didn't think he'd be there at #4. But next year is deep in QB and so long as they aren't neamed McCoy or Tebow, I'm fine with any of the top prospects. Snead, Clausen, and Bradford will all make good pros, and that needs to be our priority. Even if we have to give up both first rounders to move up for our guy so be it. We don't want to settle when it comes to the most important posistion on the team.

Hi there fellow addicts. Though I am disappointed with the loss, I am a true believer that our Hawks are foundationally a solid team. We need to focus in on eliminating as much of the untimely mistakes as possible. We need to make kicks when presented with the opportunity. We need to make the throws when our WRs are open. We need to make that tackle when it is there. The good thing is, we are in position for all of the above to happen - now to focus on the excellence of execution.

I won't whine too much about the brutal call that was a reversal of the fumble - I really didn't see conclusive evidence of Forte being down prior to the fumble. At any rate, this was a game that we should've won. We put ourselves in the right place and situation to win. We did it with our second stringers against predominantly their first stringers. A healthy Hasselbeck would've meant a win.

I saw the Colts game last night and man, did they look impressive. I think we can keep it close and maybe pull it off if we have Hass, Walter, and a healthy Lucas/Wilson. I'm assuming that all of the other players who have already made it back remain back in the line up - ie. Mebane.

Other things that we need is for all of our players such as Housh to practice during the week so that we can ge some timing and chemistry going.

I am a believer....

"Is There Hope?"

If, after next week's loss, everybody gets healthy, they hold serve at home, and pull off a surprise in Dallas, then a playoff berth is conceivable. But even in that unlikely scenario, if they are anything short of 95-100% healthy for the three game road trip then no, there is no hope.

I'm still thinking that the Colts are one of the top overrated team in the NFL (for years).
If we can recover Hass, Lofa, Walt and few corners, I put my money on the table, we will be a strong contender next week. Colts D is full of weaknesses, just press the point. Upset incoming

There are still 13 games! Let us just be realistic and come out happy with 8/8.

Olindo Mare should have been thrown under a bus. We lost by 6. He missed 2 FG. That's our 6. He is the goat of the game. And I have no problem with Mora calling it out. We were in this game. We out played them much of the time. The difference was the field goals.

It is time to move Seneca to receiver, let Teal move up and get some change here.

GO Hawks.

on 3rd and short. A gimmick play could have picked up good yardage. It didn't work this time, but another result from that call might be to soften up the middle on future 3rd and short plays. An opposing DC won't know what the bleep those crazy Seahawks might do. When the Colts, etc, watch the game film from this week, they may have to keep a linebacker or a safety in place to watch for that type of play. The throws out into the flat on 4th down may have the same effect.

There are still 13 regular season games. A three or four game win streak later in the season could more than make up for a shaky start. The fat lady isn't singing just yet.

Wouldn't exactally call us beating the cowgirls an upset. They are not an elite team, and have not been since like 95. Dallas' defense is among the worst in the league. 0 sacks on the season, they made the Bucs look like a juggernaut, allowing almost 500 yards. Romo continues to show why he was an undrafted free agent, and Wade Phillips is looking like hes already lost his job.

Just saying, we are not that bad of a team. Colts are very overrated and are very beatable. Jax is a pretty mediorce team outside of Mo-Jo. Don't know what Kurt Warner will show up against us, but I'm liking our chances at home. I see us heading into the BYE week at 3-3.

luvchikn, here is my problem with throwing mare under the bus. you are the coach, you take some accountability of your team, you are the leader. i agree, that mare might have cost us the game. but you wait behind close doors to call him out. also, personally i think some of the blame has to be put on Wallace too. one person doesn't lose you a game, but in his case, it was obviously the pt difference of the game. for example, in basketball a player at the free throw line misses his foul shots to win the game. do you put the lost entirely on his shoulder? how about all the miss opportunities through out the game that lead up to him needing to sink those free throws.

the bottom line, as i coach you need to take ownership of the losses, as well as the wins. King Leonidas would have shoulder the blame for the loss.

Look, we can and we will beat the Colts. This is the attitude we need to have and it needs to start NOW! A Goreless 49er team gives the Rams a chance to win, especially the way Jackson has been running. If the Rams help us out and we do our part, we'll be in good shape.

If you really wanna hope it up, hawks are #5 for Defensive points allowed and #5 for 3rd down conversions allowed.

1-3 get used to it now!

What about Housh's fumble & Seneca's play being at fault as much as Mare missing the field goals. Or what about the coaching staff playing for field goals instead of touchdowns

Tam, fair enough. But, the whole stadium and I think a lot of fans felt the same way. 2 missed FG=6 points.

We are paying these guys to execute in pressure situations. Mare knows he blew it, I heard him say it. The accountability is super. I don't mind that the coach called him out. I will hold my cry for "CUT HIM!" for another week. The accountability buys my loyalty for now.

Ok, guys, did nobody notice that Seneca was running for his life the whole game? That will screw up ANY QB's game, and hitting 60% of your passes for over 200 yds just ain't a bad game. Had Matt been throwing some of those passes that Seneca missed, he would have sailed them into the stands just to get rid of it.
And on the Housh fumble, did anyone bother to notice that he caught the ball a couple yards short of the first down marker, got hit right away, and refused to go down...got hit by another player (while dragging the first) short of the marker still, and wound up dragging BOTH players past the first down marker...that's EFFORT! When you put that much effort into dragging 2 guys downfield, fumbles sometimes happen. Would you really rather have him go down with the first hit? I'm not gonna call a guy out because he was giving his all, even if something bad happened because he was giving extra effort...
You bet there's hope for the playoffs...and hopefully, by then we'll be healthy AND we'll have gelled as a team. Yesterday was the first day in just such a gelling...

Tam, Your basketball analogy doesn't work because there are several guys shooting free throws all night long in basketball so you can't blame any one of them for missing. Sure the last guy to miss two free throws didn't cost you the game if there were five other players who missed free throws too during the contest.

What if you had a designated free throw shooter who shot all the free throws all night long and who missed more free throws than the difference in the final score? Could he be to blame there? That's more like football.

I asked the question before they released Coutu whether you'd sacrifice that extra 5 - 7 yards of kickoff distance for a few field goals during the season. It was noted that our kickoff team wasn't stopping them inside the 20 even though Mare was booming them past the goal line. I'd rather have had all our kickoffs go to the 5 yard line and got those two field goals and won the game myself with Coutu who was the more accurate field goal kicker. Maybe that's just me.

Even though Burleson caught nine balls, I saw people still bashing him because he dropped a couple. If Burleson can be bitched at for dropping a couple of balls after leading the team like that, Mare can certainly be chastized for missing two kicks that were little more than chip shots and which were the difference in the game scoring wise. Neither was a long shot.

The glass is either half empty or half full. If you're a doom and gloomer than stay the hell off this site. We can beat the Colts, unless we subscribe to the philosopy that we should just mail in a loss and move on. There's a lot of football left to play. Last time I checked the season encompasses more than three games. We have a good team. Believe it or go cheer for someone else. We have no room for pessimists.

Billt--Once again you miss the point. A coach should never, EVER single out a single player in a loss. Certainly not a field goal kicker. Mora showed once again that he will blame coaching mistakes on anyone but himself. Which is part of why he was fired--for not knowing when to keep his big mouth shut.

The reason the Hawks were in the position of clinging to a lead in that game was poor coaching. We beat the Bears all over the field, racked up yards, and couldnt score. We had 7! drives in field goal range not counting our lone TD. Mora and Knapp's poor decisions cost us the game. They froze up once in field goal range, and failed to score a single touchdown in six tries in a row. If they had done thier jobs well, even one TD would have won the game with no need for attempting six field goals.

And no matter what, blaming a single player for a loss during a game where multiple people made mistakes, especially and including the Offensive Coordinator and the Head Coach, is absolutely classless.

Had Holmgren done this, you would have been one of the first to call him out. But Mora gets a free pass because he's Ruskell's pick and can do no wrong in your eyes.

And the reason people are calling out Burleson is because one dropped third down pass is more important than any five first or second down receptions. Whats funny to me is your constant criticism of Darrell Jackson, who was known to drop balls but also could be counted on to catch a ball in traffic on third down. Despite the fact that Nate Burleson has never even had a single game as good as Jacksons top 10, despite the fact that Nate is more inconsistent than Jackson ever was, and despite the fact that Burleson has never even had a 60 catch, 800 yard season as a Hawk, while Jackson had 5 seasons with more than 70 catches and 900 yards, you refuse to hear a bad word about Nate--yet you bashed Jackson mercilessly. Not logical.

The biggest difference between Mare and Burleson is that COACH MORA called out Mare in public, blaming him for the loss--he never said a word about Burleson. So your analogy doesnt work.

As for Coutou, not only were his kickoffs short, they had little hangtime. If you think our Special Teams were Special Bus with Mare kicking off into the back of the endzone, how bad do you think it would have gotten with Coutou's short, no-hangtime kickoffs?! I think we would have been giving the Bears the ball on the 45 every time. Im ok with Ruskell and Mora keeping Mare. One bad game doesnt mean a kicker sucks.

Hawkfan12--Screw you. Just becuase some fans arent happy with the poor showing the last couple weeks, doesnt mean we should leave the site. WHo the hell do you think you are, telling people who can comment and who cant?! Last time I checked the site was called Seahawkaddicts, not Hawkfan12's Happy No Matter What or Else Fanboysite. WHy dont you leave? I have no room for idiot optimists who jump on bandwagons just because we have new coaches who are allready proving new isnt always better. No one is giving up on the team or our coaches, but thus far both the team and the coaches have been unimpressive. For all the talent and money we have, this team is underperforming at all levels. And if that isnt obvious to you, maybe you liked the late 80's or early 90's teams, when we prayed for 8-8 every year. To me, that isnt good enough.

STTBM, thanks for having my back. my basketball analogy was more about trying to blame a single guy for a loss. Football is a team sport last time I check. It is vital at all times to convey a united front. to use a more simply analogy, the same one i tell the kids i coach: you win as a team, you lose as team. plain and simple.

am i happy that mare missed those field goals..hell f'n NO! i wanted to strangle him if i could. but, i have zero respect for a head coach to throw one player under the bus, when they lost as a TEAM. i love the passion and fire of Mora. and i love the statements that those field goal misses were unacceptable. what i would have like to have seen was those statements been made about the entire team and not mare alone.

STTBM (Short Temper Tantrum Boy Man)

Screw you! Look you idiot, if this is all you have to get worked up about, go get a life. It takes a while for a team to gel under a new coach with a new system. Throw in 8-12 starters out with injuries and the fact that we’re only three games into the season; I’d say it’s a little early to lose faith. Some of the so called “Hawk Fans” on this site are assuming we’ve already lost against the Colts. This is weak, to say the least. You sound pretty bitter and impatient. If all this gets you that upset, try taking up a new hobby to help take your mind off it. It’s only a game.

Tam--No problem, I thought your analogy made perfect sense, regardless of wether I agreed with it (which I did).

Hawkfan12---I certainly havent given up on the Hawks this year, but I am bitterly dissapointed in many aspects of the team--in fact, almost every facet of this team troubles me. Especially the poor way Mora handled his post-game comments.

You are absolutely correct that this is only a game, and I get very (perhaps overly) excited when a 120 million dollar a year team peforms like a bottom-tier team. But this blog is called SeahawkAddicts for a reason, not SeahawkOptimistsOnly.

Many teams face injuries throughout the season, and while our team seems harder hit than most, I dont feel injuries adequately excuses our poor performance across the board the past two weeks. I see a team that is poorly prepared, and poorly coached. I see confusion and mistakes, admittedly less than the previous week (THank God!) but still too much more comfort.

Anyway, neither you nor anyone else has the right to decide who can post on this blog, or what opinions they can hold. Everyone is entitled to thier opinion--You, me, Billt, and the Steelers fan who posted and everyone else.

If you are going to make statements bossing people around, you better expect to get hammered. If you dont like the fact that some fans doubt we can/will beat the Colts, then argue back with logic or else keep your mouth shut.

I dont think we are going to beat the Colts. I think we have a small chance, but would need a perfect game in all facets of our team, and thus far this year I dont see ANY units firing on all cylinders, let alone all of them. Do I hold out some hope? Oh, sure. I cant get rid of it no matter how hard I try--anything is possible. Thats why it hurts so much to see us play like we did Sunday.

We just got through man handling a team that just beat the Steelers, with our second stringers, no less. The Hawks will be fine, no worries. I look forward to saying I told you so once we beat the Colts. It's not always about logic. Heart and passion can even the playing field as you saw on Sunday.

S.TTBM and DreamTeam- Thank You! You two are fans who get it, and understand what it means to be a fan.

I rarely check this board after a loss because I am sick and tired of the fair-weathered fans jumping off the wagon after every stinkin loss. This week all I have read was people giving up on Mare. Someone who went 24-27 on FG attempts last year, and can kickoff into the end zone almost every time! Everyone wants to ride the nuts of some young kid who was great on FG's but lousy on kickoffs. Why would I want a returner to have the opportunity to run it back for a TD every time? I'd rather kick it out and not give them a chance. What would have happened if Coutu missed those two FG's instead of Mare? Would people want Mare back (if he were cut)??? I highly doubt it. To those above who argued that we lost because of Mare, I say BS! You see it as 6 points, I see it as 12! Those two drives stalled on poor execution by ELEVEN players on that offense, and not solely on ONE player (kicker). Conservative and questionable play calling ended those drives forcing us to kick a FG. Had we scored in the end zone, we wouldn't had to have relied on Mare, who if no one recollects racked up more points that anyone else on that team. He did make FOUR out of six FG's. Including his PAT, thats 13 points by our lowly kicker! Give the man some credit. Ousting a guy after his first bad game as a Seahawk is downright BS, and shame on any "fan" for wanting it that way. BTW, had Mare made those two FG's, guess what? It would have only TIED the game. He didn't lose the game, the entire TEAM lost that game.

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