December 29, 2025 • 33 mins
In the second hour, Dick Fain and Hugh Millen discuss the Seahawks 27-10 win down in Carolina yesterday including diving deeper into some offensive moments for Seattle and which plays work best then they listen and react to Mike Macdonald’s press conference.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
We haven't really dived in the actual game that happened yesterday.
We have had a lot of big picture Seahawks conversations,
primarily circling around the head of the quarterback. But Hugh,
you know, we learned pretty early on what when Pete
(00:21):
Carroll was the head coach of this team, what was
he going to be really good at, what was he
going to emphasize, and what he was going to struggle in.
We knew that Pete carroll teams were not going to
turn the ball over a lot for the most part,
and partially because he liked to play close to the vest,
but he also really emphasized the turnover. The negative side
of Pete Carroll, we knew that there would be one, two,
(00:43):
maybe three inexplicable delay of game penalties every single game
that Pete Carroll coached. It was just unbelievable how many
times Russell Wilson would walk to the line three two,
one oh delay of game. We haven't seen that under
Mike McDonald. But what we have seen under Mike McDonald
is this maddening just inability to want to use timeouts
(01:11):
in the last two minutes of the first half, and
it seemed like game after game after game, and let
me just reset it. I watched it right before the
coming back on, so I knew I know exactly what
happened here down to the second. So the play before
the two minute warning was the play that should have
(01:33):
been a face mask and a horse caller sending Jackson
Smith Jigma out of the out of bounds, which should
have stopped the clock with about two zero five left,
but instead there was no penalty called and they kept
the clock running. That took it down to the two
minute warning. Seattle has three timeouts left. Zach Charbay gets
the ball in first down after the two minute warning.
(01:55):
He gets tackled with about one fifty five left on
the clock. Now, to me, I'm always, you know, either
sitting watching the game in the stands or I'm sitting
at my house watching the game, and I just feel like, instinctively,
we've all done this right time out. We've all instinctively
said timeout as we're yelling at our TV or yelling
at the clothes. So I was instinctively saying time out,
(02:16):
time out, nothing And instead of calling a timeout, and
instead of okay, don't call a timeout, but at least
hurry to the line and run a play. No, they
take thirty four seconds off the play clock before taking
the snap at one nineteen, in which they nearly throw
a pick.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
I think it was picked off and then it was
said not a pick.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
Then they run Walker on an inside handoff instead of
taking a timeout.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
They take it down.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
To fifty seconds, still have not used a timeout, left
zero sets of urgency. Then the next play, Walker gets
that little catch in the flat and he fumbles, but
he recovers his own fumble that takes it down to
twenty five seconds. They run a sneak for the first
down on fourth down and don't get it.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
They waste all those timeouts. Hugh, my god.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
What is going on not only in McDonald's mind in
that in those two minutes there yesterday, but why is
this a reoccurring theme with this guy?
Speaker 3 (03:22):
Well, I think that he's not going for the touchdown.
I think in his mind he's just saying, I want
three points. And remember Seattle was going to get the
ball start the third quarter, and so in his mind
he's thinking, there's a swing, let me get three points,
and I'm willing to expire the time in order to
(03:43):
just play for three in order to make sure that
they don't get three back. Remember with these kickoff rules,
now the average starting field position has started, you know,
upwards of five yards closer right to the end zone,
right where it was under thirty Now it's you know,
(04:03):
closer to thirty five. Courect I touched back is at
thirty five. Sorry, but I do want to ask this question.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
It's it's it's irrelevant to this particular time in the game.
Why should he worry about the Panther scoring when they
have The Seahawks defense has allowed sixty five yards on
twenty eight plays in the first half.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
You didn't ask me what I thought of that. You
ask me what is he thinking? Goes all right, fair,
fair enough. So those are two different questions. Now if
you want to ask me, do I agree with that? Yes,
I've had a number of times saying, you know, use
the timeout, But I think that that's just it. They're
really concerned about, you know what they Their vision of
(04:45):
how the second quarter ends is that the ball is
going through the uprights as the clock is going to
double zero. Yes, that's their idea. That's his vision, and
as close as he can get to that vision, that's
the way he wants to ex So that's why he's
preserving these timeouts.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
I mean, I think that's fair, and it's happened a
couple of times. It's worked out a couple of times
for him, even though it's been an absolute fire drill.
He has gone to the locker room with Jason Myers
kicking a field goal to end the half. I believe
it's happened at least twice in this situation. It just
always seems like instead of like for me, I like
(05:23):
to take I would like to take the first one early,
like I wanted to take that first one on that
charbona run. Okay, set yourself up, take a breath, you know,
then then maybe call two plays it in the timeout
and then you still got two left. But you're really
in control at that point. And it's just he doesn't
take his first one early enough. That's that's kind of
(05:45):
my thing with with the with the clock.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
Yeah, because I think he just doesn't want to give
He doesn't want to go field goal field goal right right,
like he wants to go field goal clock expire. He
wants to get a three nothing advantage in that very
clear you know, when you're talking about that play, that
was intercepted, thought to be an interception, and then reviewed
not to be an interception. You know, there's something going
(06:09):
on on that play that I think was a key
component to this game and and I think a key
component to the way Seattle needs to operate moving forward.
And if you look on that play, balls on the
left hash this is remember when they remember when they
tried to hit Cooper Cup over the middle. You just
(06:30):
described the play and it was it was punched out
and then they thought the defensive lineman intercepted it. But
was it Zabel or somebody who punched it out? Right
On that play, Darnold is looking left to what's called
an Omaha route, the quick out route, and uh he
(06:51):
you got j C. Horn the corner, just planning and
and what we call squatting, pitching a tent where he's
not honoring any deep ball and there's no safety whoever
twenty one is on that side, there's no safety that
is in a position to be over the top. Help.
So j C. Horn, he's got to back up. And
(07:12):
this was a common theme watching the tape this morning
the game time, like, wow, I didn't pick that up
on TV how much they were squatting, and so I
think that Clint Kubiak and it wasn't just squatting, which
would invite either double move or a go route to
just run by the corner. Yep, right. But it's also
(07:33):
they played a lot of what's called quarters coverage to
one half of the field where the safety the way
you want to attack that. The safety he's looking at
the what's called the number two receiver counting outside in
That might be the tight end, that might be the slot.
So the safety he's looking. If that number two receiver
goes vertical, that tight end tight end is going to
(07:54):
be covered by the safety on that half the field
outside of the safety, the widest receiver there, he's going vertical.
As long as the slot receivers or the tight end
is going vertical, you're going to ensure you have man
to man on the on the corner, on the corner back.
And if you run a post there, that that is
(08:15):
a perfect coverage to run the post. They hit Jacksonville
on a post route against that coverage. They hit the Steelers.
I believe I could be that that might have been
a post safety post, but at an't event, I know
they've hit that a few other times on the quarters
beat or the post, throw it up to JSN. He's
such a great job of finishing. I'm really appalled that
(08:40):
that Clint Kobiak didn't call any go routes or any
post routes to try and get these corners off, because
if you just allow corners to squat like that, right, brother,
you're in for a long ride. You're just you're allowing
them to play unsound. And then so when Darnold, you know,
he's like, damn, that guy's squatting. Any he didn't throw
(09:00):
the home on it was left he comes back. The
concept to it was a four man concept called a
Z spot, actually double Z spot. I don't want to
get too into the weeds on the lexicon, but he
should have thrown outside to Jake Bobo as opposed to
to inside on Cooper Cup. They're both running what's called
(09:20):
spot routes, which are slant and stop, and then you
got to swing in a corner route and he could
have thrown to barner Carolina bust Of The coverage barner
on a tight end corner route would have been an
opportunity for a big play as well. So a lot
of things going wrong for Seattle and that. But a
(09:41):
big takeaway for Clint Kubiak is you got to call
more aggressively. You got to see this squatting action. He's
on the he's on the sidelines, he's got to get
information from the booth saying, hey, these guys are squatting.
So there's a communication breakdown as led Zeppelin would describe it.
(10:03):
And they've got to they've got to take advantage when
a team is playing unsound. In that one man.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
You mentioned the Z spot, I actually wrote that down
during the game because it seems like the plays that
work the best for Darnold that I've noticed are he
had a couple times where he was in shotgun and
it's just a it was a shotgun, it.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
Was a quick one, two, three, get it out of
his hand.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
And a lot of times it's that slant and stop
route that you talked about. Another time that it seems
to work a lot is when he is under center,
he fakes the run left and he boots back to
his strong side, he boots back to his right hand.
But what we saw yesterday three different times when they
(10:45):
go opposite, when he fakes the run to the right
and he boots to his to his left.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
All three of the.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
First time three times that were runs, they were negative plays.
It was a battered down play if I'm not mistaken.
A sack on the second drive, the ten yard sack
on the second drive, and then the third one was
a JSN kind of a throwback thing where he got caught.
He caught the ball and was like a loss of
three or four on the play. So what's going on
when he's booting to the left, because it seems like
(11:15):
frequently disasters happening when that happened.
Speaker 3 (11:18):
Well, they've got some big plays with him going to
his left. He has the ability to do it. I
scouted him at Minnesota and he showed that and hitting
that over route where he fakes the run to the
right and he comes around to the left. He's a
good athlete, and he's got the over route. That's the
intermediate crossing route coming from the other side, and guys
(11:39):
usually on the dead run. But because you're running as
a quarterback, you don't have to lead him as if
you were stationary in the pocket. So as long as
you feel comfortable throwing to your left, it can work.
I just think that more often than not, the ratio
should be at least sixty forty seventy thirty right handed
(12:01):
bootlegs to left, and I feel like this season there's
been more boot lefts than there have been boot rights
that you mentioned when he came out early the first series,
because he hasd to turn his hips to get around
to throw, and he was gonna throw that that that
crossing route that I described, the defender gets an extra
split second to time up when he wants to bat
(12:23):
the ball down, and then the other time the ten
yard sack. The they were in an odd front with
I don't mean odd in the sense of peculiar, that's
just odd in the sense of odd number. And that's
that's the vernacular when you know when you're in a
thirty front, you know, nose tackle and then and then
two four eyes those are outside inside shade of the tackles.
(12:46):
But then the end man online scrimmage was I would
call it a wide nine nine technique. Wide nine is
like way way to the outside. But it was a
double wide, double wide nine, you know, And so the
inn man was so far removed from the ball based
on the formation and the front that darnold, you're never
(13:09):
gonna get that in man crashing in. He was just
straight up the field and there was just nowhere to go.
So I think against that front, you got to get
out of that play, gotcha you get you know, you
got to get out of boot left. But that involves parameters.
I'm not just hanging that on the quarterback. That involves
parameters where you say, okay, I'm going to give you
(13:29):
this boot. But if they're in that front, you know
a lot of times you boot away from the tight end,
they're booting to the tight end, which widens the defensive end.
I mean, there's all these little nuances that can make
or break a play. It's all the precisions in the details.
You get a couple of these details wrong. In the
National Football League, you're going to have you're going to
(13:50):
take an l on that play, and you know, a
ten yard loss early on when you're kind of struggling,
you know that that's basically taking you out of a drive.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
We got a couple of minutes left.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
I want to break down the interception that Darnald did throw.
There were others that could have been interceptions, but the
actual one that was thrown twelve twelve left to go
in the third quarter, still very much a football game.
It is three to three, second and ten at the
Carolina eighteen, and at first glance, it looks like Mike
(14:23):
Jackson the corner is actually in better position to make
the kid like it was almost like Darnald was throwing
to Mike Jackson the corner. I wasn't sure Jackson actually
caught the like, secured the ball and got two feet in.
But they said that maybe the shin went down before
the second foot. Why was that one so badly missed?
Was what was the cause of that?
Speaker 3 (14:44):
Well, second ten in the red zone, it was three
to three at the time, correct, And so obviously the
points are very paramount. And so you go a double move.
And here I had just said, I don't want to
talk out of both sides of my mouth. This is
the frustrating part for me as a Seahawk fan is
to have watched the tape and see all these plays
(15:06):
in the first half where you go, You're going, Clint,
don't let them squat on you like that, don't you know,
double move them, don't double move them, and or just
run a go route. And so then when they finally
ran the double move, it was a slant and go.
That's a double move where you know, three steps up
by Jackson, Smith and Jigba he's on a line on
the far left, three steps up, three steps to the
(15:27):
slant and then on go vertical. That's a double move.
But the look that you would have wanted to really
get a good double move is the times when they
were in off coverage and that's where that you have
to snap the ball. They at about seven eight yards
with their you know, bent down looking and and you
(15:48):
know hips and pair and shoulders parallel to the line
of scrimmage. That way when you run the slant. They
triggered to the slant from their off position and they're
driving downhill and then you got run in behind him.
That's where you get the nice easy touchdowns. They ran
it and they got to look what's called press bail
the corner. Mike Mike Jackson, he used to be a seahawk.
(16:10):
We remember him, right, He's he originally while while Darnold
starts his cadence, he's in a press position up bump
and run, but then he bails out with his ass
to the sideline, knees in in an outside leverage so
he can with his peripheral vision, he can see the
(16:30):
receiver and the quarterback and now but he's fading away
from the sideline. So so now he's not gonna triggers
hard on a slant because his momentum is taking them
away and and he's outside leverage and so uh so
it's just a bad look, roll of the dice, bad look.
(16:50):
And and so now when Jackson Smith and Jigba he
runs the slant, he goes to take it vertical, and
he's like, oh, I'm never going to get on top
of him, Like he's way too deep for me. So
Injigba starts to throttle down, turn like hey, in essence,
his body language is is stabing on my outside shoulder.
Just just laser that thing on a back shoulder. R
(17:14):
that was the best chance for it. And Donald was
throwing to the back shoulder in part or to the
back of the end zone, not the back shoulder, excuse me,
back of the end zone. He was trying to lead
him beyond, uh beyond Michael Jackson. There's no way that
Injigma was ever gonna get on top.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
Now because Jackson had a yard and a half, you know,
I had.
Speaker 3 (17:36):
Two and a half yards two and a half. Yet yeah,
and and one of the big problems on the play
was the protection you had Canine, who was on the
right side of of Sam Darnold in shotgun. He is
gonna pass right in front of Donald's face and block
a totally unblocked man and man online scrimmage coming from
(18:00):
an open edge. What does that mean to tackle? There?
Josh Jones feeling in for uh for Charles Cross The
n man was right on the edge of the tackle,
coming hard, right at the quarterback's chin, and Canine's got
to get over from the opposite side. And and that's
his blocking assignment. Well, he took on the block too
(18:21):
close to Donald, and now this collision is right in
Donald's lap, and in fact, you look at it, Donald's
arm get he gets his arm hit like he can't
even follow through and and and it accelerates his processing
like oh crap. I mean, it's unnerving when you're looking
to your left and there's a there's a h N
man online of scrimmage come right coming right at you,
(18:43):
and you kind of know you're like, well, I hope,
I hope Canine didn't blow as assignment. I hope he
gets here at some point because he's he's coming at
you untouched, Charles Cross blocked down inside towards the center. Sorry,
Josh Jones, the left tackle blocked down inside, so that
in man is coming got free right at your chin,
and so he's accelerating what he's processing. And so the
(19:06):
protection scheme, you know, was a huge part of the
breakdown and and why Darnold had to make a decision
so soon. Uh, you know, you could just say, hey, dirt,
it just kind of throw it out of bounce. That
would be the one thing. In hindsight, obviously he'd say, well,
there's a lot of things I'd do other than throw
the damn pick, right, But you know, it's just kind
(19:29):
of one of those things. It's it's a variety of factors.
What did I just mention. It's the it's the press bale,
not off coverage, it's the it's the the protection scheme
coming where with a halfback going coast to coast to
the opposite side right in your lap, losing the block.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
It's the same page with JSN stabbing it.
Speaker 3 (19:52):
Yeah, you know, had he had just a split second,
the NFL calculate that at exactly two point five seconds
on his release and you know, had he just even
you know, two point eight, two point nine would be
an eternity for a quarterback to process. Oh that's what
jsn's doing, okay, and so you know that's the anatomy
(20:16):
of an interception. But everybody's well, it's it's all on
the quarterback. The quarterbacks trash on that play. Well, you
know what, there's a lot of dudes that if they
were the quarterback of the Seahawks on that play, given
what I just said, on all those parameters, there's a
hell of a lot of guys that would have thrown
an interception as well.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
Four twenty four gets stuff from here. We'll hear from
the head coach, Mike McDonald coming up right after the
timeout on ninety three point three KJRFM from.
Speaker 4 (20:42):
The R and R Foundation Specialist Broadcast Studio. Now back
to SOFTI and Dick on your home for the Huskies,
Kraken and the twelfth Man Sports Radio ninety three point
three kJ r FM.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
Softian Deck without the soft one today, Tomorrow and Friday.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
We will have Wednesday and Thursday off for the turn
of the new year. But a lot to get to
and Mike McDonald took the podium less than an hour
ago over at the vMac, and this press conference started
with our old friend Curtis Crabtree asking him about the
slow starts for the offense.
Speaker 5 (21:18):
Another bit of a sluggish start for the offensively yesterday.
There's been in a few of those here in the
second half of the season. Is there anything you kind
of see as a thread kind of through these games?
Obviously each one's a little bit different, but what collectively
as a as an offense early in teams, what are
you seeing as to being a little bit slow out
of the gates.
Speaker 6 (21:34):
Yeah, it's like it's kind of like our run game,
you know. It's we've had We've had some games where
we've started really great. We've had some games that we
haven't and we've been able to rebound. I think it's
hard to attribute it to like.
Speaker 7 (21:45):
Just one thing. If not, I think we would have
probably found a solution by now.
Speaker 6 (21:49):
But I'll tell you what I mean. Our guys were
into it. I mean, you know, it's not easy getting
up and having your energy ready. I mean, I mean
you have to do it, you know, going east and
things like that. But it's you know, you have to
be very intent about it, and I thought our guys
were ready to go. You know, I thought our thought
our guys prepped really well. I thought they had great
energy before the game. That's easier said than done, you know.
And uh so I think we just got to keep
(22:12):
keep attacking it, you know, keep looking at the openers,
keep seeing the X you know, who's executing what how
we want to attack their structures.
Speaker 7 (22:19):
Making sure our operations right. That's going to go a
long way.
Speaker 6 (22:22):
So I don't know, I wish I had a single
answer for you, but I know our I know our
guys are are doing the inputs that we want.
Speaker 7 (22:28):
I think we're just not getting the results we want
right now.
Speaker 5 (22:31):
Have you seen teams make an adjustment as the season
has gone along about how they're trying to play you
defensively with with your offense Now that you what you
guys are doing is out there a little bit more,
have they fundamentally kind of changed the way they're attacking you.
Speaker 6 (22:43):
I think I think it's kind of individual observations. And
like I can speak for this coming from a defensive perspective,
Like a lot of times you're going to a game saying, hey,
I think we're gonna I think we're gonna end that
these are gonna be.
Speaker 7 (22:53):
Our major calls.
Speaker 6 (22:54):
These are going to be kind of our secondary calls
based on situation and the game unfolds in a way
that you don't expect. So it's hard to attribute what
a team is initially planning. It's hard to be you know,
you're not and you can only go by what they
ended up calling and what situations. There's sometimes where teams
are calling different front structures that maybe we anticipated as
(23:15):
like lead structures and coverages, and sometimes you know, they're
doing the things that we assume that they were going
to do too so, but that's the NFL. You know,
they're allowed to game plan, they're allowed to you know,
they're allowed to run whatever they want on defense, and
it's our job to kind of diagnose it and apply
our rules and go play high level football.
Speaker 3 (23:33):
And how have you felt about the way that Josh
Jones has played these past two games, stepping in for
Charles Cross putting the run game.
Speaker 8 (23:40):
It's looked like he had a really nice block on
Sharp's twenty five yard run of that third and fifteen play.
Speaker 7 (23:46):
Yeah, Josh has done a great job.
Speaker 6 (23:49):
Really excited to see how he's played, stepped in and
been ready to play, and she played hard, played.
Speaker 7 (23:54):
Simon sound, playing our style ball. So really happy for him.
Done a great job to hold an opponent without a
pass play longer than eight yards for an entire game.
Speaker 3 (24:04):
Like, what does that tell you about what you guys
were doing while in past defense?
Speaker 6 (24:08):
It's funny, you didn't really I didn't. You didn't know
that until they they told us after the game. I'll
just I'll say this, our guys, our guys played a
great game. You know, they played really hard. Our communication
was on point. I felt like we were ahead of
plays just in terms of being ready to go, like
cleats in the ground, making our calls, looking at the
right stuff, and then just playing really hard to the
(24:29):
echo of the whistle. And and that's that's DB's and
front guys included. You know, there's a couple of rushes
that you know that Bryce was able to extend plays
and he's a really good player and he's gonna that's
gonna happen.
Speaker 7 (24:38):
But there's some rushland things can clean up. But for
the for the most part, our guys rushed really well.
Speaker 6 (24:44):
And then and they rushed and they played off one another,
and I think that that really helped, you know, the
secondary also you know, come to life as well.
Speaker 3 (24:51):
Any better sense of Rasisi he eat and what his
situation might be.
Speaker 6 (24:55):
And I'm gonna be I'm gonna be very disappointing in
this one. But I really don't have any updates. It
seems seems like it's going well with with with Rashid,
with those other guys right now. Honestly, we just we
just don't We don't have any like update on like
time frames or anything like that. So we're really going
to be playing that throughout the week.
Speaker 5 (25:13):
I'm not trying to get you in trouble, but what'd
you think of the play that he got hurt on?
Speaker 6 (25:18):
I'll just say that there's some there's some plays throughout
the game that that we're going to follow up with
and but that that's that's par for the course. I mean,
it's just just trying to understand what's getting called, what's
not and why, and obviously we want to defend our
guys and make sure that that they're not putting in
harm's way.
Speaker 1 (25:36):
I'm glad Greg asked that question Hugh and Jackson, because
i mean, yeah, an old school football, you know, nineteen
ninety three football, the football that Hugh Millen was playing
in the NFL and is not even nothing. There's nothing
on that play when he got spun out of bounds.
But in twenty twenty five football, I mean he was,
he was contacted, he was drive driven out of bounds,
(25:59):
and he.
Speaker 2 (25:59):
Was six feet out of bounds.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
When he was spun and ended up on his head.
I was kind of surprised there wasn't a flag there, guys.
Speaker 3 (26:06):
Yeah, and I thought the coach should have got the
heck out of the way because I thought he was
hurt on a leg whip where he went shin to
shin with the guy. You know how that is when
you know in the dark and you hit the coffee table.
So I know, when he got up and he was
walking fine, I thought, all right, well that was probably
just a shin thing. But the protocol that scares the
(26:27):
heck out of me because you just don't know, you
don't know what if he's going to pass it or not.
But I just feel like this he has become a
really needed guy, and particularly watching that tape offensively, you
know here I'm talking about how I think a big
part of their failures yesterday was that they didn't throw
the deep ball, either the post when they got the
(26:50):
quarters covers of that side, or a go route on
almost anything that wasn't covered too any off coverage. I
would have thrown the go route, and you know, with
that kind of heat that he brings, he'd be the
perfect guy to throw it.
Speaker 2 (27:03):
Oh Jackson.
Speaker 1 (27:04):
It's I always feel like it's easier for me to
complain about the officials when I win.
Speaker 2 (27:07):
Then it doesn't sound like I'm whining, of course.
Speaker 1 (27:10):
But my god, I mean that the face mask slash
horse collar on JSN. Should the fourth down spot at
the end of the half have been looked at?
Speaker 2 (27:17):
It wasn't.
Speaker 1 (27:18):
Did Mike Jackson really intercept the ball in the back
of the end zone? Did Rashid should Rashid Shaheed on
his concussion play gotten fifteen? I mean, there was a
lot of plays there that all seem like they win
against the Seahawks.
Speaker 8 (27:29):
I don't know if you guys use the same tool
that I do because I'm an instinctively, maybe it's the
soccer in me that just instinctively thinks that all refs
are terrible. But when I get a chance to watch
it around, a lot of people. And I was at
Top Golf on Sunday morning watching the game. I kind
of judge how good a referee is by the percentage
of people around me being angry with the referee. And
(27:51):
if it's like fifty percent of the people being angry,
I'm like, are the rest probably doing a decent.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
Job but they're all Seahawk fans, then well, yeah, that's
the thing.
Speaker 8 (27:57):
It's again, if it's fifty percent of people saying that
this referee sucks, it.
Speaker 2 (28:01):
Means the referee is probably pretty good.
Speaker 7 (28:03):
I got you.
Speaker 8 (28:03):
So there was probably ninety to ninety five percent of
people who were screaming at the TVs what the hell
are the refs looking at while everybody's shooting in golf club.
But I think that that is a good barometer to
say that that was Referees were dog crap on Sunday yesterday.
Speaker 1 (28:18):
Absolutely, Clil Gray Hue overall poorly officiated game.
Speaker 4 (28:22):
I do.
Speaker 3 (28:23):
I think they missed a lot of stuff. I think
one of the things that bothered me was the touchdown
drive that Carolina had to pull them to within a
touchdown and you know, and infuse energy back into that stadium.
There was a third down at a round midfield, but
I think closer to like the Carolina forty ish. There
(28:44):
was a third down. They threw a bubble screen sideways
and Witherspoon was in the alley just in a perfect
position to come inside out and with his speed, and
he had helped to the outside, like like that was
going to be shut down and they were gonna be punting.
And yet the receiver that was blocking Witherspoon just grabbed
(29:07):
him by the shoulder yanked him like his body went
half spun around like that was such a blatant hold.
I don't know how they missed this other than Dick,
I think, you know, maybe Jackson. You know, I'm a
huge advocate and proponent for full time officials and those
officials spending their time speeding up their eyes. If I
(29:31):
was in charge of officials, there wouldn't be one guy
other than the head referee over the age of thirty five.
They'd be a bunch of young guys with flat bellies,
in great shape, and they would spend the entire week
with virtual training. That would have been the thirtieth game
that they officiated that week was on Sunday, and all
(29:53):
this stuff they do in virtual reality would be at
like one hundred and thirty one hundred and fifty percent speed.
Speaker 2 (29:58):
They do it for, should do it for.
Speaker 8 (30:00):
There's just a problem here, guys, because the fact of
the matter is is that there's referee shortages all over
and you're seeing it among the ages of referees too.
And I think it's become almost a product of us
continuing to bash referee. So it's almost a cirt killer
in this. But but yeah, if anything's gonna kill sports
at the youth level, especially, it's the amount of referees
available because they're just there aren't that many anymore.
Speaker 3 (30:23):
That's true. I was on a football board for youth football,
and getting officials is a problem that that Jackson I
do not think is a problem for the NFL. I mean,
these guys, I haven't updated in a couple of years,
but a couple of years ago these got the average
salary is like two hundred and forty thousand dollars.
Speaker 2 (30:39):
There's a lot of guys that would die to be
NFL Absolutely.
Speaker 3 (30:42):
If you said, okay, we've got a new we've got
a new standard where you're going to be a full
time official. Even if you didn't give a raise, you
can make two forty, which is what the medium was
two three years ago. At two hundred and forty, there'd
be a stack of applicants. Is all the way up
to the ceiling for guys to be an NFL rough
even if it was. My vision is like you have
(31:05):
these little portal sites around, you know, let's say like
Denver and Chicago and Atlanta, you know, maybe five regional spots,
and they all you have to go. You gotta go
to work nine to five, and you spend, you spend,
you're in great physical training. Then you you study the rules.
So all these you know, when you see these guys,
(31:25):
uh convene and they have to talk about the rules,
like like that's that just ticks me off because think
of all the time that they're wasting.
Speaker 9 (31:34):
If they are if they are being drilled on the
rules every single day twenty percent of their day, that
way they never have to have these damn lengthy discussions
to figure.
Speaker 3 (31:44):
Out, Hey, what's the rule? Remind me of the rule? No,
they would know it. But most importantly, you got pilots,
you got race car drivers, got the military, you the
virtual reality. And by the way, I know, I don't
play mad at all but my kids do, and I've
seen them in the practice mode. All the technology you
(32:05):
would need to speed up the rise is right there
in Madden. You could just license it right off of Madden.
There's enough technology in that. But the point is you
practice like like and I'll get done talking here, but
you got me rolling. If you put them and take
a dB. What's one of the ones is like block
charge dick in in basketball? Right? What past interference did
(32:27):
the defender get there before the ball or after? If
you get a back judge and he is, okay, we're
going to show you fifty of these at you know,
one hundred and fifty percent speed. You and you got
a button was it ball first or defender first? And
you watch fifty of those and you come say, hey,
you did pretty good. You got you know, you got
forty one out of fifty. Well you keep doing it again.
(32:49):
Well now now a year later, you're getting fifty out
of fifty every time. And the guy saying, crank it
up to one hundred and seventy percent speed. And then
now those guys when they walk into that stadium and
you give me one generation and and you know the term,
uh eyes like an eagle I will have a new
(33:09):
generation of kids saying eyes like an NFL official, so
it will be known to have had the best eyes
in all planet Earth, because they are trained to.
Speaker 8 (33:19):
Have before you break dick. The question then, is is
the NFL just that cheap or do they like the
controversy of us discussing the reference and.
Speaker 3 (33:26):
Why they would like the controversy.
Speaker 2 (33:28):
It's it's never bausive
We haven't really dived in the actual game that happened yesterday.
We have had a lot of big picture Seahawks conversations,
primarily circling around the head of the quarterback. But Hugh,
you know, we learned pretty early on what when Pete
(00:21):
Carroll was the head coach of this team, what was
he going to be really good at, what was he
going to emphasize, and what he was going to struggle in.
We knew that Pete carroll teams were not going to
turn the ball over a lot for the most part,
and partially because he liked to play close to the vest,
but he also really emphasized the turnover. The negative side
of Pete Carroll, we knew that there would be one, two,
(00:43):
maybe three inexplicable delay of game penalties every single game
that Pete Carroll coached. It was just unbelievable how many
times Russell Wilson would walk to the line three two,
one oh delay of game. We haven't seen that under
Mike McDonald. But what we have seen under Mike McDonald
is this maddening just inability to want to use timeouts
(01:11):
in the last two minutes of the first half, and
it seemed like game after game after game, and let
me just reset it. I watched it right before the
coming back on, so I knew I know exactly what
happened here down to the second. So the play before
the two minute warning was the play that should have
(01:33):
been a face mask and a horse caller sending Jackson
Smith Jigma out of the out of bounds, which should
have stopped the clock with about two zero five left,
but instead there was no penalty called and they kept
the clock running. That took it down to the two
minute warning. Seattle has three timeouts left. Zach Charbay gets
the ball in first down after the two minute warning.
(01:55):
He gets tackled with about one fifty five left on
the clock. Now, to me, I'm always, you know, either
sitting watching the game in the stands or I'm sitting
at my house watching the game, and I just feel like, instinctively,
we've all done this right time out. We've all instinctively
said timeout as we're yelling at our TV or yelling
at the clothes. So I was instinctively saying time out,
(02:16):
time out, nothing And instead of calling a timeout, and
instead of okay, don't call a timeout, but at least
hurry to the line and run a play. No, they
take thirty four seconds off the play clock before taking
the snap at one nineteen, in which they nearly throw
a pick.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
I think it was picked off and then it was
said not a pick.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
Then they run Walker on an inside handoff instead of
taking a timeout.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
They take it down.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
To fifty seconds, still have not used a timeout, left
zero sets of urgency. Then the next play, Walker gets
that little catch in the flat and he fumbles, but
he recovers his own fumble that takes it down to
twenty five seconds. They run a sneak for the first
down on fourth down and don't get it.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
They waste all those timeouts. Hugh, my god.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
What is going on not only in McDonald's mind in
that in those two minutes there yesterday, but why is
this a reoccurring theme with this guy?
Speaker 3 (03:22):
Well, I think that he's not going for the touchdown.
I think in his mind he's just saying, I want
three points. And remember Seattle was going to get the
ball start the third quarter, and so in his mind
he's thinking, there's a swing, let me get three points,
and I'm willing to expire the time in order to
(03:43):
just play for three in order to make sure that
they don't get three back. Remember with these kickoff rules,
now the average starting field position has started, you know,
upwards of five yards closer right to the end zone,
right where it was under thirty Now it's you know,
(04:03):
closer to thirty five. Courect I touched back is at
thirty five. Sorry, but I do want to ask this question.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
It's it's it's irrelevant to this particular time in the game.
Why should he worry about the Panther scoring when they
have The Seahawks defense has allowed sixty five yards on
twenty eight plays in the first half.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
You didn't ask me what I thought of that. You
ask me what is he thinking? Goes all right, fair,
fair enough. So those are two different questions. Now if
you want to ask me, do I agree with that? Yes,
I've had a number of times saying, you know, use
the timeout, But I think that that's just it. They're
really concerned about, you know what they Their vision of
(04:45):
how the second quarter ends is that the ball is
going through the uprights as the clock is going to
double zero. Yes, that's their idea. That's his vision, and
as close as he can get to that vision, that's
the way he wants to ex So that's why he's
preserving these timeouts.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
I mean, I think that's fair, and it's happened a
couple of times. It's worked out a couple of times
for him, even though it's been an absolute fire drill.
He has gone to the locker room with Jason Myers
kicking a field goal to end the half. I believe
it's happened at least twice in this situation. It just
always seems like instead of like for me, I like
(05:23):
to take I would like to take the first one early,
like I wanted to take that first one on that
charbona run. Okay, set yourself up, take a breath, you know,
then then maybe call two plays it in the timeout
and then you still got two left. But you're really
in control at that point. And it's just he doesn't
take his first one early enough. That's that's kind of
(05:45):
my thing with with the with the clock.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
Yeah, because I think he just doesn't want to give
He doesn't want to go field goal field goal right right,
like he wants to go field goal clock expire. He
wants to get a three nothing advantage in that very
clear you know, when you're talking about that play, that
was intercepted, thought to be an interception, and then reviewed
not to be an interception. You know, there's something going
(06:09):
on on that play that I think was a key
component to this game and and I think a key
component to the way Seattle needs to operate moving forward.
And if you look on that play, balls on the
left hash this is remember when they remember when they
tried to hit Cooper Cup over the middle. You just
(06:30):
described the play and it was it was punched out
and then they thought the defensive lineman intercepted it. But
was it Zabel or somebody who punched it out? Right
On that play, Darnold is looking left to what's called
an Omaha route, the quick out route, and uh he
(06:51):
you got j C. Horn the corner, just planning and
and what we call squatting, pitching a tent where he's
not honoring any deep ball and there's no safety whoever
twenty one is on that side, there's no safety that
is in a position to be over the top. Help.
So j C. Horn, he's got to back up. And
(07:12):
this was a common theme watching the tape this morning
the game time, like, wow, I didn't pick that up
on TV how much they were squatting, and so I
think that Clint Kubiak and it wasn't just squatting, which
would invite either double move or a go route to
just run by the corner. Yep, right. But it's also
(07:33):
they played a lot of what's called quarters coverage to
one half of the field where the safety the way
you want to attack that. The safety he's looking at
the what's called the number two receiver counting outside in
That might be the tight end, that might be the slot.
So the safety he's looking. If that number two receiver
goes vertical, that tight end tight end is going to
(07:54):
be covered by the safety on that half the field
outside of the safety, the widest receiver there, he's going vertical.
As long as the slot receivers or the tight end
is going vertical, you're going to ensure you have man
to man on the on the corner, on the corner back.
And if you run a post there, that that is
(08:15):
a perfect coverage to run the post. They hit Jacksonville
on a post route against that coverage. They hit the Steelers.
I believe I could be that that might have been
a post safety post, but at an't event, I know
they've hit that a few other times on the quarters
beat or the post, throw it up to JSN. He's
such a great job of finishing. I'm really appalled that
(08:40):
that Clint Kobiak didn't call any go routes or any
post routes to try and get these corners off, because
if you just allow corners to squat like that, right, brother,
you're in for a long ride. You're just you're allowing
them to play unsound. And then so when Darnold, you know,
he's like, damn, that guy's squatting. Any he didn't throw
(09:00):
the home on it was left he comes back. The
concept to it was a four man concept called a
Z spot, actually double Z spot. I don't want to
get too into the weeds on the lexicon, but he
should have thrown outside to Jake Bobo as opposed to
to inside on Cooper Cup. They're both running what's called
(09:20):
spot routes, which are slant and stop, and then you
got to swing in a corner route and he could
have thrown to barner Carolina bust Of The coverage barner
on a tight end corner route would have been an
opportunity for a big play as well. So a lot
of things going wrong for Seattle and that. But a
(09:41):
big takeaway for Clint Kubiak is you got to call
more aggressively. You got to see this squatting action. He's
on the he's on the sidelines, he's got to get
information from the booth saying, hey, these guys are squatting.
So there's a communication breakdown as led Zeppelin would describe it.
(10:03):
And they've got to they've got to take advantage when
a team is playing unsound. In that one man.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
You mentioned the Z spot, I actually wrote that down
during the game because it seems like the plays that
work the best for Darnold that I've noticed are he
had a couple times where he was in shotgun and
it's just a it was a shotgun, it.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
Was a quick one, two, three, get it out of
his hand.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
And a lot of times it's that slant and stop
route that you talked about. Another time that it seems
to work a lot is when he is under center,
he fakes the run left and he boots back to
his strong side, he boots back to his right hand.
But what we saw yesterday three different times when they
(10:45):
go opposite, when he fakes the run to the right
and he boots to his to his left.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
All three of the.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
First time three times that were runs, they were negative plays.
It was a battered down play if I'm not mistaken.
A sack on the second drive, the ten yard sack
on the second drive, and then the third one was
a JSN kind of a throwback thing where he got caught.
He caught the ball and was like a loss of
three or four on the play. So what's going on
when he's booting to the left, because it seems like
(11:15):
frequently disasters happening when that happened.
Speaker 3 (11:18):
Well, they've got some big plays with him going to
his left. He has the ability to do it. I
scouted him at Minnesota and he showed that and hitting
that over route where he fakes the run to the
right and he comes around to the left. He's a
good athlete, and he's got the over route. That's the
intermediate crossing route coming from the other side, and guys
(11:39):
usually on the dead run. But because you're running as
a quarterback, you don't have to lead him as if
you were stationary in the pocket. So as long as
you feel comfortable throwing to your left, it can work.
I just think that more often than not, the ratio
should be at least sixty forty seventy thirty right handed
(12:01):
bootlegs to left, and I feel like this season there's
been more boot lefts than there have been boot rights
that you mentioned when he came out early the first series,
because he hasd to turn his hips to get around
to throw, and he was gonna throw that that that
crossing route that I described, the defender gets an extra
split second to time up when he wants to bat
(12:23):
the ball down, and then the other time the ten
yard sack. The they were in an odd front with
I don't mean odd in the sense of peculiar, that's
just odd in the sense of odd number. And that's
that's the vernacular when you know when you're in a
thirty front, you know, nose tackle and then and then
two four eyes those are outside inside shade of the tackles.
(12:46):
But then the end man online scrimmage was I would
call it a wide nine nine technique. Wide nine is
like way way to the outside. But it was a
double wide, double wide nine, you know, And so the
inn man was so far removed from the ball based
on the formation and the front that darnold, you're never
(13:09):
gonna get that in man crashing in. He was just
straight up the field and there was just nowhere to go.
So I think against that front, you got to get
out of that play, gotcha you get you know, you
got to get out of boot left. But that involves parameters.
I'm not just hanging that on the quarterback. That involves
parameters where you say, okay, I'm going to give you
(13:29):
this boot. But if they're in that front, you know
a lot of times you boot away from the tight end,
they're booting to the tight end, which widens the defensive end.
I mean, there's all these little nuances that can make
or break a play. It's all the precisions in the details.
You get a couple of these details wrong. In the
National Football League, you're going to have you're going to
(13:50):
take an l on that play, and you know, a
ten yard loss early on when you're kind of struggling,
you know that that's basically taking you out of a drive.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
We got a couple of minutes left.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
I want to break down the interception that Darnald did throw.
There were others that could have been interceptions, but the
actual one that was thrown twelve twelve left to go
in the third quarter, still very much a football game.
It is three to three, second and ten at the
Carolina eighteen, and at first glance, it looks like Mike
(14:23):
Jackson the corner is actually in better position to make
the kid like it was almost like Darnald was throwing
to Mike Jackson the corner. I wasn't sure Jackson actually
caught the like, secured the ball and got two feet in.
But they said that maybe the shin went down before
the second foot. Why was that one so badly missed?
Was what was the cause of that?
Speaker 3 (14:44):
Well, second ten in the red zone, it was three
to three at the time, correct, And so obviously the
points are very paramount. And so you go a double move.
And here I had just said, I don't want to
talk out of both sides of my mouth. This is
the frustrating part for me as a Seahawk fan is
to have watched the tape and see all these plays
(15:06):
in the first half where you go, You're going, Clint,
don't let them squat on you like that, don't you know,
double move them, don't double move them, and or just
run a go route. And so then when they finally
ran the double move, it was a slant and go.
That's a double move where you know, three steps up
by Jackson, Smith and Jigba he's on a line on
the far left, three steps up, three steps to the
(15:27):
slant and then on go vertical. That's a double move.
But the look that you would have wanted to really
get a good double move is the times when they
were in off coverage and that's where that you have
to snap the ball. They at about seven eight yards
with their you know, bent down looking and and you
(15:48):
know hips and pair and shoulders parallel to the line
of scrimmage. That way when you run the slant. They
triggered to the slant from their off position and they're
driving downhill and then you got run in behind him.
That's where you get the nice easy touchdowns. They ran
it and they got to look what's called press bail
the corner. Mike Mike Jackson, he used to be a seahawk.
(16:10):
We remember him, right, He's he originally while while Darnold
starts his cadence, he's in a press position up bump
and run, but then he bails out with his ass
to the sideline, knees in in an outside leverage so
he can with his peripheral vision, he can see the
(16:30):
receiver and the quarterback and now but he's fading away
from the sideline. So so now he's not gonna triggers
hard on a slant because his momentum is taking them
away and and he's outside leverage and so uh so
it's just a bad look, roll of the dice, bad look.
(16:50):
And and so now when Jackson Smith and Jigba he
runs the slant, he goes to take it vertical, and
he's like, oh, I'm never going to get on top
of him, Like he's way too deep for me. So
Injigba starts to throttle down, turn like hey, in essence,
his body language is is stabing on my outside shoulder.
Just just laser that thing on a back shoulder. R
(17:14):
that was the best chance for it. And Donald was
throwing to the back shoulder in part or to the
back of the end zone, not the back shoulder, excuse me,
back of the end zone. He was trying to lead
him beyond, uh beyond Michael Jackson. There's no way that
Injigma was ever gonna get on top.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
Now because Jackson had a yard and a half, you know,
I had.
Speaker 3 (17:36):
Two and a half yards two and a half. Yet yeah,
and and one of the big problems on the play
was the protection you had Canine, who was on the
right side of of Sam Darnold in shotgun. He is
gonna pass right in front of Donald's face and block
a totally unblocked man and man online scrimmage coming from
(18:00):
an open edge. What does that mean to tackle? There?
Josh Jones feeling in for uh for Charles Cross The
n man was right on the edge of the tackle,
coming hard, right at the quarterback's chin, and Canine's got
to get over from the opposite side. And and that's
his blocking assignment. Well, he took on the block too
(18:21):
close to Donald, and now this collision is right in
Donald's lap, and in fact, you look at it, Donald's
arm get he gets his arm hit like he can't
even follow through and and and it accelerates his processing
like oh crap. I mean, it's unnerving when you're looking
to your left and there's a there's a h N
man online of scrimmage come right coming right at you,
(18:43):
and you kind of know you're like, well, I hope,
I hope Canine didn't blow as assignment. I hope he
gets here at some point because he's he's coming at
you untouched, Charles Cross blocked down inside towards the center. Sorry,
Josh Jones, the left tackle blocked down inside, so that
in man is coming got free right at your chin,
and so he's accelerating what he's processing. And so the
(19:06):
protection scheme, you know, was a huge part of the
breakdown and and why Darnold had to make a decision
so soon. Uh, you know, you could just say, hey, dirt,
it just kind of throw it out of bounce. That
would be the one thing. In hindsight, obviously he'd say, well,
there's a lot of things I'd do other than throw
the damn pick, right, But you know, it's just kind
(19:29):
of one of those things. It's it's a variety of factors.
What did I just mention. It's the it's the press bale,
not off coverage, it's the it's the the protection scheme
coming where with a halfback going coast to coast to
the opposite side right in your lap, losing the block.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
It's the same page with JSN stabbing it.
Speaker 3 (19:52):
Yeah, you know, had he had just a split second,
the NFL calculate that at exactly two point five seconds
on his release and you know, had he just even
you know, two point eight, two point nine would be
an eternity for a quarterback to process. Oh that's what
jsn's doing, okay, and so you know that's the anatomy
(20:16):
of an interception. But everybody's well, it's it's all on
the quarterback. The quarterbacks trash on that play. Well, you
know what, there's a lot of dudes that if they
were the quarterback of the Seahawks on that play, given
what I just said, on all those parameters, there's a
hell of a lot of guys that would have thrown
an interception as well.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
Four twenty four gets stuff from here. We'll hear from
the head coach, Mike McDonald coming up right after the
timeout on ninety three point three KJRFM from.
Speaker 4 (20:42):
The R and R Foundation Specialist Broadcast Studio. Now back
to SOFTI and Dick on your home for the Huskies,
Kraken and the twelfth Man Sports Radio ninety three point
three kJ r FM.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
Softian Deck without the soft one today, Tomorrow and Friday.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
We will have Wednesday and Thursday off for the turn
of the new year. But a lot to get to
and Mike McDonald took the podium less than an hour
ago over at the vMac, and this press conference started
with our old friend Curtis Crabtree asking him about the
slow starts for the offense.
Speaker 5 (21:18):
Another bit of a sluggish start for the offensively yesterday.
There's been in a few of those here in the
second half of the season. Is there anything you kind
of see as a thread kind of through these games?
Obviously each one's a little bit different, but what collectively
as a as an offense early in teams, what are
you seeing as to being a little bit slow out
of the gates.
Speaker 6 (21:34):
Yeah, it's like it's kind of like our run game,
you know. It's we've had We've had some games where
we've started really great. We've had some games that we
haven't and we've been able to rebound. I think it's
hard to attribute it to like.
Speaker 7 (21:45):
Just one thing. If not, I think we would have
probably found a solution by now.
Speaker 6 (21:49):
But I'll tell you what I mean. Our guys were
into it. I mean, you know, it's not easy getting
up and having your energy ready. I mean, I mean
you have to do it, you know, going east and
things like that. But it's you know, you have to
be very intent about it, and I thought our guys
were ready to go. You know, I thought our thought
our guys prepped really well. I thought they had great
energy before the game. That's easier said than done, you know.
And uh so I think we just got to keep
(22:12):
keep attacking it, you know, keep looking at the openers,
keep seeing the X you know, who's executing what how
we want to attack their structures.
Speaker 7 (22:19):
Making sure our operations right. That's going to go a
long way.
Speaker 6 (22:22):
So I don't know, I wish I had a single
answer for you, but I know our I know our
guys are are doing the inputs that we want.
Speaker 7 (22:28):
I think we're just not getting the results we want
right now.
Speaker 5 (22:31):
Have you seen teams make an adjustment as the season
has gone along about how they're trying to play you
defensively with with your offense Now that you what you
guys are doing is out there a little bit more,
have they fundamentally kind of changed the way they're attacking you.
Speaker 6 (22:43):
I think I think it's kind of individual observations. And
like I can speak for this coming from a defensive perspective,
Like a lot of times you're going to a game saying, hey,
I think we're gonna I think we're gonna end that
these are gonna be.
Speaker 7 (22:53):
Our major calls.
Speaker 6 (22:54):
These are going to be kind of our secondary calls
based on situation and the game unfolds in a way
that you don't expect. So it's hard to attribute what
a team is initially planning. It's hard to be you know,
you're not and you can only go by what they
ended up calling and what situations. There's sometimes where teams
are calling different front structures that maybe we anticipated as
(23:15):
like lead structures and coverages, and sometimes you know, they're
doing the things that we assume that they were going
to do too so, but that's the NFL. You know,
they're allowed to game plan, they're allowed to you know,
they're allowed to run whatever they want on defense, and
it's our job to kind of diagnose it and apply
our rules and go play high level football.
Speaker 3 (23:33):
And how have you felt about the way that Josh
Jones has played these past two games, stepping in for
Charles Cross putting the run game.
Speaker 8 (23:40):
It's looked like he had a really nice block on
Sharp's twenty five yard run of that third and fifteen play.
Speaker 7 (23:46):
Yeah, Josh has done a great job.
Speaker 6 (23:49):
Really excited to see how he's played, stepped in and
been ready to play, and she played hard, played.
Speaker 7 (23:54):
Simon sound, playing our style ball. So really happy for him.
Done a great job to hold an opponent without a
pass play longer than eight yards for an entire game.
Speaker 3 (24:04):
Like, what does that tell you about what you guys
were doing while in past defense?
Speaker 6 (24:08):
It's funny, you didn't really I didn't. You didn't know
that until they they told us after the game. I'll
just I'll say this, our guys, our guys played a
great game. You know, they played really hard. Our communication
was on point. I felt like we were ahead of
plays just in terms of being ready to go, like
cleats in the ground, making our calls, looking at the
right stuff, and then just playing really hard to the
(24:29):
echo of the whistle. And and that's that's DB's and
front guys included. You know, there's a couple of rushes
that you know that Bryce was able to extend plays
and he's a really good player and he's gonna that's
gonna happen.
Speaker 7 (24:38):
But there's some rushland things can clean up. But for
the for the most part, our guys rushed really well.
Speaker 6 (24:44):
And then and they rushed and they played off one another,
and I think that that really helped, you know, the
secondary also you know, come to life as well.
Speaker 3 (24:51):
Any better sense of Rasisi he eat and what his
situation might be.
Speaker 6 (24:55):
And I'm gonna be I'm gonna be very disappointing in
this one. But I really don't have any updates. It
seems seems like it's going well with with with Rashid,
with those other guys right now. Honestly, we just we
just don't We don't have any like update on like
time frames or anything like that. So we're really going
to be playing that throughout the week.
Speaker 5 (25:13):
I'm not trying to get you in trouble, but what'd
you think of the play that he got hurt on?
Speaker 6 (25:18):
I'll just say that there's some there's some plays throughout
the game that that we're going to follow up with
and but that that's that's par for the course. I mean,
it's just just trying to understand what's getting called, what's
not and why, and obviously we want to defend our
guys and make sure that that they're not putting in
harm's way.
Speaker 1 (25:36):
I'm glad Greg asked that question Hugh and Jackson, because
i mean, yeah, an old school football, you know, nineteen
ninety three football, the football that Hugh Millen was playing
in the NFL and is not even nothing. There's nothing
on that play when he got spun out of bounds.
But in twenty twenty five football, I mean he was,
he was contacted, he was drive driven out of bounds,
(25:59):
and he.
Speaker 2 (25:59):
Was six feet out of bounds.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
When he was spun and ended up on his head.
I was kind of surprised there wasn't a flag there, guys.
Speaker 3 (26:06):
Yeah, and I thought the coach should have got the
heck out of the way because I thought he was
hurt on a leg whip where he went shin to
shin with the guy. You know how that is when
you know in the dark and you hit the coffee table.
So I know, when he got up and he was
walking fine, I thought, all right, well that was probably
just a shin thing. But the protocol that scares the
(26:27):
heck out of me because you just don't know, you
don't know what if he's going to pass it or not.
But I just feel like this he has become a
really needed guy, and particularly watching that tape offensively, you
know here I'm talking about how I think a big
part of their failures yesterday was that they didn't throw
the deep ball, either the post when they got the
(26:50):
quarters covers of that side, or a go route on
almost anything that wasn't covered too any off coverage. I
would have thrown the go route, and you know, with
that kind of heat that he brings, he'd be the
perfect guy to throw it.
Speaker 2 (27:03):
Oh Jackson.
Speaker 1 (27:04):
It's I always feel like it's easier for me to
complain about the officials when I win.
Speaker 2 (27:07):
Then it doesn't sound like I'm whining, of course.
Speaker 1 (27:10):
But my god, I mean that the face mask slash
horse collar on JSN. Should the fourth down spot at
the end of the half have been looked at?
Speaker 2 (27:17):
It wasn't.
Speaker 1 (27:18):
Did Mike Jackson really intercept the ball in the back
of the end zone? Did Rashid should Rashid Shaheed on
his concussion play gotten fifteen? I mean, there was a
lot of plays there that all seem like they win
against the Seahawks.
Speaker 8 (27:29):
I don't know if you guys use the same tool
that I do because I'm an instinctively, maybe it's the
soccer in me that just instinctively thinks that all refs
are terrible. But when I get a chance to watch
it around, a lot of people. And I was at
Top Golf on Sunday morning watching the game. I kind
of judge how good a referee is by the percentage
of people around me being angry with the referee. And
(27:51):
if it's like fifty percent of the people being angry,
I'm like, are the rest probably doing a decent.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
Job but they're all Seahawk fans, then well, yeah, that's
the thing.
Speaker 8 (27:57):
It's again, if it's fifty percent of people saying that
this referee sucks, it.
Speaker 2 (28:01):
Means the referee is probably pretty good.
Speaker 7 (28:03):
I got you.
Speaker 8 (28:03):
So there was probably ninety to ninety five percent of
people who were screaming at the TVs what the hell
are the refs looking at while everybody's shooting in golf club.
But I think that that is a good barometer to
say that that was Referees were dog crap on Sunday yesterday.
Speaker 1 (28:18):
Absolutely, Clil Gray Hue overall poorly officiated game.
Speaker 4 (28:22):
I do.
Speaker 3 (28:23):
I think they missed a lot of stuff. I think
one of the things that bothered me was the touchdown
drive that Carolina had to pull them to within a
touchdown and you know, and infuse energy back into that stadium.
There was a third down at a round midfield, but
I think closer to like the Carolina forty ish. There
(28:44):
was a third down. They threw a bubble screen sideways
and Witherspoon was in the alley just in a perfect
position to come inside out and with his speed, and
he had helped to the outside, like like that was
going to be shut down and they were gonna be punting.
And yet the receiver that was blocking Witherspoon just grabbed
(29:07):
him by the shoulder yanked him like his body went
half spun around like that was such a blatant hold.
I don't know how they missed this other than Dick,
I think, you know, maybe Jackson. You know, I'm a
huge advocate and proponent for full time officials and those
officials spending their time speeding up their eyes. If I
(29:31):
was in charge of officials, there wouldn't be one guy
other than the head referee over the age of thirty five.
They'd be a bunch of young guys with flat bellies,
in great shape, and they would spend the entire week
with virtual training. That would have been the thirtieth game
that they officiated that week was on Sunday, and all
(29:53):
this stuff they do in virtual reality would be at
like one hundred and thirty one hundred and fifty percent speed.
Speaker 2 (29:58):
They do it for, should do it for.
Speaker 8 (30:00):
There's just a problem here, guys, because the fact of
the matter is is that there's referee shortages all over
and you're seeing it among the ages of referees too.
And I think it's become almost a product of us
continuing to bash referee. So it's almost a cirt killer
in this. But but yeah, if anything's gonna kill sports
at the youth level, especially, it's the amount of referees
available because they're just there aren't that many anymore.
Speaker 3 (30:23):
That's true. I was on a football board for youth football,
and getting officials is a problem that that Jackson I
do not think is a problem for the NFL. I mean,
these guys, I haven't updated in a couple of years,
but a couple of years ago these got the average
salary is like two hundred and forty thousand dollars.
Speaker 2 (30:39):
There's a lot of guys that would die to be
NFL Absolutely.
Speaker 3 (30:42):
If you said, okay, we've got a new we've got
a new standard where you're going to be a full
time official. Even if you didn't give a raise, you
can make two forty, which is what the medium was
two three years ago. At two hundred and forty, there'd
be a stack of applicants. Is all the way up
to the ceiling for guys to be an NFL rough
even if it was. My vision is like you have
(31:05):
these little portal sites around, you know, let's say like
Denver and Chicago and Atlanta, you know, maybe five regional spots,
and they all you have to go. You gotta go
to work nine to five, and you spend, you spend,
you're in great physical training. Then you you study the rules.
So all these you know, when you see these guys,
(31:25):
uh convene and they have to talk about the rules,
like like that's that just ticks me off because think
of all the time that they're wasting.
Speaker 9 (31:34):
If they are if they are being drilled on the
rules every single day twenty percent of their day, that
way they never have to have these damn lengthy discussions
to figure.
Speaker 3 (31:44):
Out, Hey, what's the rule? Remind me of the rule? No,
they would know it. But most importantly, you got pilots,
you got race car drivers, got the military, you the
virtual reality. And by the way, I know, I don't
play mad at all but my kids do, and I've
seen them in the practice mode. All the technology you
(32:05):
would need to speed up the rise is right there
in Madden. You could just license it right off of Madden.
There's enough technology in that. But the point is you
practice like like and I'll get done talking here, but
you got me rolling. If you put them and take
a dB. What's one of the ones is like block
charge dick in in basketball? Right? What past interference did
(32:27):
the defender get there before the ball or after? If
you get a back judge and he is, okay, we're
going to show you fifty of these at you know,
one hundred and fifty percent speed. You and you got
a button was it ball first or defender first? And
you watch fifty of those and you come say, hey,
you did pretty good. You got you know, you got
forty one out of fifty. Well you keep doing it again.
(32:49):
Well now now a year later, you're getting fifty out
of fifty every time. And the guy saying, crank it
up to one hundred and seventy percent speed. And then
now those guys when they walk into that stadium and
you give me one generation and and you know the term,
uh eyes like an eagle I will have a new
(33:09):
generation of kids saying eyes like an NFL official, so
it will be known to have had the best eyes
in all planet Earth, because they are trained to.
Speaker 8 (33:19):
Have before you break dick. The question then, is is
the NFL just that cheap or do they like the
controversy of us discussing the reference and.
Speaker 3 (33:26):
Why they would like the controversy.
Speaker 2 (33:28):
It's it's never bausive
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