12th Man Post Game show: Week 1 Win vs Denver.

Dick Fain and Hugh Millen break down the Seahawks week 1 win at home vs the Denver Broncos.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Your home for the twelfth Man probably presents the twelfth
Man Postgame.

Speaker 2 (00:06):
Show Seattle Seahawk.

Speaker 1 (00:07):
Resented by Sports Radio ninety three point three kjr FM.
Be sure to tune in for the Monday Morning quarterback
Tomorrow morning starting at seven am with Chuck and Buck,
Hugh Miller and coach Mike Holmgren. At nine o'clock. The
twelfth Man Postgame Show is on Sports Radio ninety three
point three kjr FM.

Speaker 3 (00:28):
Nix on his Back Times episode and.

Speaker 4 (00:32):
It is picked.

Speaker 3 (00:35):
Jolliean loove with a snatch for Seattle.

Speaker 4 (00:39):
Nixon third down that Paris.

Speaker 3 (00:41):
It's here with the officials mark here was it a catch?
And now they say Seattle ball, catch, fumble, Seattle recovery
five point thirty five left there down thirteen Nicks, Oh,
no hazard day Bunny Tenny Septon picked off by WiLAN,
second interception thrown by the rookie Knicks.

Speaker 2 (01:08):
Got one little phrase for you, andrews Hurst bowen is
the bow and four I like that bow and.

Speaker 5 (01:19):
Four oh man, he hates playing Seattle, doesn't it?

Speaker 6 (01:22):
Three times against you? Dubb fails every time. One time
it gets the Seattle Seahawks, and boy, oh boy one
hundred and thirty eight yards passing. Here's one I haven't
seen in a while, maybe ever. Three point three yards
per attempt, three look three yards per attempt for bow

(01:45):
and four knicks as the Seattle Seahawks go to twenty
or win at twenty six to twenty over the Denver
Broncos and get a much needed first win of the season,
and I kind of feel I know, you were filling
in for me in the Husky game yesterday.

Speaker 2 (02:00):
I was able to watch it before the Storm game yesterday.

Speaker 6 (02:02):
By the way, Deck Fane here along with andrews Hurst
twelve Man's postgame show each and every Seahawks home game
for you here on ninety three point three kJ RFM
live from Jimmy's On First You're filling in for me
yesterday the Husky game, I felt.

Speaker 2 (02:15):
Like it was deja vu, man. I mean, it was
just the exact same thing.

Speaker 6 (02:19):
Not only were the Husky and Seahawks offenses just totally
broken in the first quarter, and for the Seahawks it
really extended all the way to the first half, not
just the first quarter, but you also had that feeling
because the opposition's offense was doing nothing to take advantage

(02:40):
of your poor offense that you were like right there.
I mean I just felt I felt surprisingly confident to
get wins in both cases after the first quarter, just
because I mean one, the Seahawks defense was just smothering
bon Nicks. Yeah today, and that running game. I mean
you look at the numbers. I mentioned bo Nicks one

(03:02):
hundred and thirty eight yards passing a forty seven point
five passer rating.

Speaker 2 (03:06):
He was also the leading rusher on the team.

Speaker 6 (03:09):
Their leading ground gainer was Jaliel McLoughlin at two point
seven yards per carry. So your defense held an NFL offense.
I mean, I know it's a rookie. I know the
Denver offense is not going to be one of the
best in the NFL, There's no question about it. But
I tell you what, I don't know if I've seen

(03:31):
a time where a Seahawk defense, or any defense for
that matter, has held a quarterback to three point three
yards per pass and are running the leading rusher to
two point seven yards per carry. That defense was the
best I have seen since the tail end of the
lob Era.

Speaker 5 (03:50):
They agree, fantastic, Yeah, yeah, And like, I think that's
not a nothing offensive line either, right, that's like kind
of the strength of their team going into this year.

Speaker 2 (04:00):
And they were just every single play you got so confident.

Speaker 6 (04:03):
It was almost the opposite feeling that we had for
the last really about four or five years since the
Lobo era ended, and we got into this revolving door
of Ken Norton and Clint Hurt and Jamal Adams and
just you know, Bobby Wagner's gone and whoever decides to
play middle linebacker for Bobby Wagner. It was just you

(04:26):
get to that point where you'd get these dink and
dunk teams and Denver, is my god, are they are
gonna be the dictionary definition of the dinking dunk team?
This year you get these dink and dunk teams and
the Seahawks for the last five years couldn't get him
off the field because they couldn't make an open field tackle.
It'd be like, dump it off to the running back
three yards. He'd make one guy miss on third and

(04:48):
seven and go for nine in the first down. And
today I can't remember it happening once. I can't remember
one time that a wide receiver on a short pass
or running back on a short pass slipped out of
a tackle and was able to make a first down
on a pass that he caught prior to the sticks.

Speaker 2 (05:05):
It was absolutely phenomenal.

Speaker 6 (05:07):
Man.

Speaker 5 (05:07):
Yeah, I know, I one hundred percent agree they're tackling.
It seems like every time it was an open field,
one on one situation, the Seahawks made the tackle. And
that kind of goes to my biggest surprise, like pleasant
surprise going into today, and that's the linebacking corps. I
had major questions about them going into this game. About
them during the season. We all knew the secondary would

(05:27):
be good, the revamped defensive line looked good, but that
linebacking corps looked excellent today.

Speaker 2 (05:34):
And these guys we don't really see him during the preseason.

Speaker 6 (05:37):
We saw at the beginning of the game what it
looks like when you don't play your starters the entire
month of August.

Speaker 2 (05:43):
I mean, it's just an absolute mess.

Speaker 6 (05:46):
But I guess if every team's gonna do it, then
all thirty two teams are gonna look totally horrible, particularly offensively,
for at least the first half of the first game
of the season, And I guess coaches are just okay
with that.

Speaker 2 (05:57):
I mean, there's like okay.

Speaker 6 (05:58):
Yeah, you know, we're gonna We're going to sacrifice the
ability to play well offensively for the first half of
the first game, with the benefit being we're not going
to play these starters with the chance to get them
out for the season on an August eighteenth game in
Green Bay, Right.

Speaker 2 (06:14):
So, I mean, I guess it's Rob Peter to pay Paul.

Speaker 6 (06:17):
But I really thought that offensively that was the major
problem going forward at the beginning of the game.

Speaker 2 (06:23):
And I want to ask you about that, and it
really happened for both teams.

Speaker 6 (06:26):
The first forty four plays of this game, there were
one hundred and eleven yards game. Think about that, both
forty four plays for both teams, there were one hundred
and eleven yards gained. And that was right before that
nice Seahawk drive. They got sparked by that one play,
just like the Huskies got sparked by that Giles Jackson
catch yesterday and run. The Seahawks got sparked today by

(06:48):
that one play to get him the first down. And
then Gino Smith closes out the drive with that quarterback
scamper up the middle, and then from there on you
just kind of at least of the building it kind
of felt like a big exhales, like, oh, ok, all right,
we got.

Speaker 2 (07:01):
Whatever crap that was for the first twenty minutes.

Speaker 6 (07:04):
Offensively, we kind of got that out of our system
and we were able to just run the ball to
k Dub.

Speaker 2 (07:10):
He ended up with twenty carries for one hundred and
three yards.

Speaker 6 (07:12):
When he touches the ball twenty to twenty five times
a game, the Seahawks are gonna win a lot of
football games. And he touched it twenty two times a day,
twenty carris for a buck three and a touchdown, actually
had two touchdowns, but thanks Dkno another penalty for DK.
I mean another day where DK's penalty yards almost equals
receiving yards.

Speaker 2 (07:30):
Oh, I'm sorry, is you listening in the background? I can't. Oh,
I better, I better not piss him off. At the
beginning of the game.

Speaker 6 (07:35):
At the beginning of the show, Tyler Lockett six catches
for seventy seven yards.

Speaker 2 (07:39):
He was fantastic. But k Dub also had two catches.

Speaker 6 (07:41):
So twenty two touches for Kenny Walker all positives other
than the very beginning of the game on the offensive line.
And we'll talk to Hubreed love Millan about that coming
up next, let's take a quick time out.

Speaker 2 (07:52):
We'll bring you on right up next.

Speaker 6 (07:54):
Dick Fan with you ninety three point three KJRFM Live
from Jimmy's on first twelve Man post Game Show.

Speaker 1 (08:03):
Now back to the twelfth Man postgame show.

Speaker 4 (08:05):
The Seattle Seahawks on your home for.

Speaker 1 (08:08):
The twelfth Man Sports Radio ninety three point three KJRFM.

Speaker 4 (08:14):
On this offense, headline by Gino Smith is suddenly Rolling
Smith pentomn Light Open.

Speaker 3 (08:20):
It's Saday and a Sunday stroll into the a zone
for Seattle.

Speaker 2 (08:29):
That was the one that sealed the deal.

Speaker 6 (08:31):
Early stage of the fourth quarter wasn't a good start
for Gino Smith, but he once he got some time,
he was actually able to do something with it. Hugh
Millan joined us on the twelfth Man Postgame Show live
from Jimmy's on First. A lot of happy Blue and
green clad fans. There's quite a few Orange fans as

(08:51):
well that aren't so happy. There's a lot of Denver
fans here in this game that you might expect. You know,
still good weather. September, make the trip out to Seattle
to watch your Denver brown Goes play in a former
Denver Bronco.

Speaker 2 (09:01):
Joins us, Hi, you, how are you?

Speaker 4 (09:03):
I'm will good to be one, to know.

Speaker 2 (09:05):
Good to be one and oh just one that you
have to take care of it.

Speaker 6 (09:08):
And really outside the first you know, the first twenty
minutes of the game or so, it kind of went
the way that most Hawk fans were hoping it would go.
But let's start with those first twenty minutes, particularly on offense,
and let's just just dig in deep to what you
were seeing on that offensive line and how much of
it was, you know, just simply first game miscommunications. Things

(09:33):
that are fixable versus things that you think, man, this
could be a problem for a long time.

Speaker 4 (09:39):
Well, I'm not gonna just leap and say this is
all going to be correctable. When you talk about okay,
you got us two guards give up safeties. One of
them doesn't reach enough. In Bradford, he gets a holding
call because he can't reach the man. So hen then
on the other side, you got Tomlinson. He over reaches.

(10:00):
There's a defender in what's called a four eye technique,
which is the inside shade of the tackle. He sparks
to the inside Tomlinson's I'm trying to reach him because
that's a relatively far reach and then he breaks back inside.
So really the opposite of sins, if you will, and
you're taking two safeties. So I'm not gonna just say
that the offensive line is fine because of what we

(10:23):
saw in the third quarter. Now, I think Bryan Grubb
did a good job. Kenneth Walker. They put it in
his hands. They ran to a lot to the weak
side of the formation. They particularly on some key runs,
they built what we call four by one formations where
the defense really has to push to the quad side.
Usually if you're in trips it's three by two. They
created four by one looks and then ran back to

(10:45):
the weak side where the defense had been shaded away
trying to push to the four receiver side. So some good,
good adjustments there in the running game by Grubb. But
I still think that there, you know, Ryan Grubb is
probably like this is clunky, this is not what what
he wants from it. And it really boils down to
an offensive line that was thirtieth in the NFL a

(11:06):
year ago in terms of payroll, in thirty second this year.
And and so I'm not going to just jump and say, hey,
everything's fixed just because we saw a nice third quarter.

Speaker 6 (11:14):
Oh absolutely, And you know I was thinking that in
that first half. I'm like, man, Josh Schneider is such
an elite GM. I mean he is known throughout the
NFL as a top three, top five GM in the league,
and yet every person has their achilles heel, and for
some reason, Josh Seider could not figure out how to

(11:36):
build an offensive line.

Speaker 2 (11:37):
It's been a problem for a long long time.

Speaker 6 (11:40):
It was good to see them get a little bit
of that fix, and I think more of it will
get fixed, just with the fact hopefully you get Fat
back healthy, you get Lucas back healthy, and that will
help a little bit.

Speaker 2 (11:51):
But evaluate Geno Smith.

Speaker 4 (11:53):
That's a third string right tackle. I mean, yes, that
point needs to be stated. But you know, one guy
can be the breakdown, right, I mean, that's just the
nature of offensive football. And on defense, ten guys can
be awful and one guy can be great and the
defense gets the stuff and they it's the inverse of that.
On offense, ten guys can be great, one guy blows
his assignment and the quarterbacks on his back, and that's

(12:15):
what you saw on a number of occasions.

Speaker 6 (12:17):
Gino today eighteen of twenty five. So seventy two percent
completion rate, one touchdown, had the interception. You can talk
about that on whether you thought the interception was at
all on him or was it all just a lack
of protection. But you know, a passer rating of eighty
seven nothing to write home about. But did have the
nice read on the run and get all the way
into the end zone for the touchdown. How do you
evaluate the job seven to today?

Speaker 4 (12:38):
Well, I think it was hard to be the sea
how quarterback there in the first half with that was
with the lack of the pass protection, I think you
saw some determination. He caught a cover one which is
man and man with one free safety on his touchdown
run and with everybody, all the defenders covering their man,
all he had to do was beat the free safety,

(12:59):
which she did. So you know, I think there's a frustration.
That was a little bit of a turbo button for
him because I saw some good speed getting into the
end zone. Uh the touchdown there that we had the
highlight opening this segment there to Sarbonne.

Speaker 2 (13:12):
Yeah happened.

Speaker 4 (13:13):
Uh yeah, Well that that was a situation where the
Seahawks are in a two by two formation they have
I believe it was Tyler Lockett was on the the
Z receiver, the flanker to Geno's right. He reduced his split.
And when you're in a two by two. The reason
I mentioned two by two, I think it's important to
the play is that induces oftentimes what's called the quarters
defense of four across split safety four deep defense. When

(13:38):
Tyler Lockett, from his reduced split ran an in route,
then the there's two defenders for the Broncos in the
flat uh and and they on their on their playbook,
they would have what's called c f W, which stands
for Cral flat wheel. So that when when Tyler Lockett
breaks to the end, the guy the flat defender, meaning

(13:58):
the guy closest to line of scrimmage and closer to
the sideline, that's what we call the flat defender. He
has the responsibility not just to the to the the
the flat which is the second letter, but if the
flat becomes a wheel, you've got to carry him.

Speaker 2 (14:13):
And uh and he did.

Speaker 4 (14:14):
They just they just turned it loose as if uh,
they were going to exchange that with a corner deep
and so they busted their coverage and and the CFW
part of his assignment. The W got dropped by the
Broncos the wheel part and Sharbonay turned it into a wheel.
Gino did a nice job of buying some extra time,
getting an easy touchdown out of it.

Speaker 6 (14:34):
Didn't get a lot of targets for DK today. Was
that simply the Patrick certain factor. I mean, he's not
gonna face he may not face another corner better all
season long?

Speaker 4 (14:42):
Well Patrick said, certain just signed the highest contract in
the history of the league for cornerbacks, and and so
he was traveling everywhere with DK. Now, you know, if
you looked, knock yourself out. If you want to just say, hey, look,
Tyler's the guy. Tyler's the guy. He had a freaking
white dude garden him. If you want to put sir

(15:03):
tan on Tyler Lockett and let DK go against Moss.
This happens over and over again. You know, Tyler Lockett
gets two touchdowns against the Lions in their bracket. Everybody's
man and man except one receiver is getting a bracket
inside and out and it's DK. So Tyler gets the
one on one. So Tyler, Tyler, he's gonna have the
better numbers. But uh, if you think, okay, you get

(15:26):
you know you're you're you're gonna surmise, well, let's just
let DK walk. Well guess what if you let DK walk?
Who do you think Sir Tan is traveling with Tyler Lockett?

Speaker 2 (15:34):
That's right?

Speaker 4 (15:35):
Okay, So the impact that that DK is bringing. Now,
the first completion, he had what we call a skid route. Uh.
They they put him in the slot on the left
and let him go against zone will play action and
then knife the ball over. I think there could have
been more of that, but yeah, it's gonna you know,
it's gonna be a tough day if if Patrick Sir
Tan knows that there's a clock that Gino doesn't have,

(16:00):
that's gonna that's gonna limit the route tree for DK
right and and Sir Tan is gonna know that, so
he's gonna be like, hey, I'm gonna be up and
press disrupt this short stuff. And I know that uh,
Gino doesn't have time to hold the ball, So I'll
just limit my my route tree and and and cover
based on on the release and the depth and and

(16:21):
so that's what a good corner does. So yeah, the
combination of Sirtan being really good and the offensive line
for the Seahawks do being very poor in protection made
it for a tough day for DK statistically, but his
impact is there and and all you have to do
is just watch the tape right.

Speaker 6 (16:40):
No, absolutely, and I I anticipate. I think DK is
going to have the best year of his career. I mean,
it's a tough it's a tough draw. Obviously in in
C game number one of the season, He's not gonna
have to face that type of corner probably the remainder
of the season. We'll take a quick time out and
come back with the unit on this football team that

(17:01):
I mean. I can't remember a time where I wanted
to give a unit on the Seattle Seahawks an a
plus for an entire game. But I'm leaning that direction
for the Seahawks defense. We'll see what cut grade Hugh gives.
I'm coming up next on the twelfth Man Postgame Show,
Live from Jimmy's on first after a Seahawk win twenty
six to.

Speaker 2 (17:19):
Twenty over Denver on ninety three point three KJRFM.

Speaker 1 (17:25):
Now back to the twelfth Man Postgame Show the Seattle
Seahawks on your home for the twelfth Man Sports Radio
ninety three point three KJRFM.

Speaker 4 (17:36):
Walker's starting to lead on his defense.

Speaker 3 (17:38):
Walker counting funny touchdown, still a home run hitter, Smith
showing the wheels.

Speaker 2 (17:45):
Smith's still going ten.

Speaker 7 (17:48):
Touchdown.

Speaker 2 (17:52):
Den Walker at halftime had seven carries for nineteen yards.

Speaker 6 (17:55):
A lot of those runs were into the middle of
the teeth of the Denver Bronco defense. The second half,
he had thirteen carries eighty four yards for k dub
and by the way, he was asked in the postgame
press conference here if he was all good, because remember
we didn't see Ken Walker in that last Seahawks offensive drive.

(18:15):
We just saw Zach Sharboney and he said, everything's good.
So he kind of went down. It was weird on
that play where he didn't quite get the first down
and his foot kind of slipped out from under him.

Speaker 2 (18:27):
He just walked straight to the side, and I wouldn't
really I was watching him closely.

Speaker 6 (18:30):
He wasn't really limping. He was just walking to the sideline.
I was like, that's kind of weird.

Speaker 2 (18:35):
Is he okay?

Speaker 6 (18:36):
And then we never saw him again, so that's why
he was asked. But so the good news there, he's
he is all good. George Fant Mike McDonald's quote for
George Fan says he has a bit of a knee,
So I don't know that. Yeah, that's well, Pete Carroll's
if it was bad, it was called legit, right that
that was Pete Carroll's. Pete Carroll's terminology for like eight

(18:57):
weeks or more was legit. So we still don't know
the parlance for Mike McDonald yet. So we don't know
what a bit means. But George stant has a bit
of a knee. But we talked to offense. We're gonna
talk defense here in the second.

Speaker 4 (19:10):
But how about yeah, on that note, about just here
a stat for you. Yeah, the the Broncos had seventy
seven yards after contact all ball carriers. The Seas had
one hundred and four, primarily Kenneth Walker. So you saw,
you know, you know, just some really tough running, particularly
in that third quarter, as we said, most often going

(19:33):
to the weak side and away from from the shift
of the Bronco defense. Well you and that yards after contact,
I thought was pivot.

Speaker 6 (19:42):
You and I sit here after every home Seahawks game,
and I bet ten times minimum we have sat here
and said, if we just get Ken Walker the ball
twenty times, we're gonna win a lot of football.

Speaker 2 (19:53):
Games because you and I love ken Walker.

Speaker 6 (19:56):
I mean top five running back Talla Wise in the NFL,
and Ryan Grubb was able to get the ball twenty
two times, twenty on the carries, two on the receptions,
and I think, I mean, Seattle's going to have a
very very good record when Ken Walker carries the ball
twenty or more times.

Speaker 4 (20:10):
Yeah, but I got to respond to that. I think
you gotta be careful with those type of correlations because
that's been going on for forty years, fifty years where
coaches people say, okay, hey, when they run for one
hundred yards, their record is this or blah blah blah,
some variation of that. Well, typically they're running because they're winning.

(20:32):
You got to just think there's some causal fallacies. Sometimes.
I'm not saying it's devoid of correlation, but oftentimes when
you creep over the one hundred yard mark, it's because
you're winning and you're trying to salt the game away
in the fourth quarter. When you're losing, you're passing more
and then you don't run quite as much, so you
don't get over that one hundred yard barrier and then

(20:52):
and then all of a sudden at the end of
the year after two years, you say, oh, look at
their record when they're over on your guard. But and
then and that induces you to say, well, let's just
get him his freaking one hundred. You know, let let's
just run the ball every day in the first quarter
so we can get the hundred, so we can meet
that threshold.

Speaker 6 (21:07):
And you agree, that's not the scenario today though, because
he was almost at one hundred yards the end of
the third quarter.

Speaker 2 (21:14):
No, not not today.

Speaker 4 (21:15):
I'm just saying as a general rule, if you just
if you just say, hey, this is the record when
he rushes for one hundred yards, so let's let's make
a concerted, concerted effort. Well, you know, you know, let
let that flow now in the third quarter due to
again third screen, right tackle and and and other problems,
and you were, you know, getting you know, finding some

(21:38):
some creases on that week's side of the of the formation.
Then then yeah, feed it. I'm not gonna That was
a great three quarter. I mean, they scored the touchdown.
The Charbonney touchdown was the first pass of the fourth quarter.
So if you, if you, if you just kind of
count that as as as the beginning of the second half,
h You know, you go from thirteen to nine, down
to up twenty six thirteen and now you're the fourth

(22:00):
quarter against a ricky quarterback. I mean, if your defense
is anything, uh, that's a yeah, that's gonna be. I
don't know, I don't know. Money in the bank.

Speaker 2 (22:10):
Really special teams.

Speaker 6 (22:12):
I joked on Twitter during the game, I said we
would have been better off rushing eleven guys at the
punter because we would have at least not fumbled on.

Speaker 2 (22:18):
Our own ten yard line.

Speaker 6 (22:20):
How do we just rushed eleven guys and it's not
like Dee Williams did anything punt returning, So you know,
talk about what you saw special teams wise.

Speaker 4 (22:26):
Today, Well, I just say d Williams guys are going
to drop the ball. But there was plenty of an opportunity.
Just get on it. Yeah, fall because just fall on
the ball and then the next punt or might have
been two punts later. But I wrote in my notes,
I'll call back and look at the tape to to scrutinize.
But my initial reaction was he should have caught the

(22:48):
next one and h But I think he was just
spooked by what had happened, so he got real conservative. Again,
I reserved the right to revise that. But just just
my initial know in live action, no replay type of
a reaction, I was like, dude, catch the ball. And
so now that ball because you're you're I'm surmising I'm

(23:10):
not between his heads. So I don't know if he
was scared or not, but he showed the signs of
a guy that was reluctant based on what had happened.
So he lets the ball bounce. Now the ball's on
the one yard line again, and so really that play
caused another Safety's right, that's exactly because the first down
following that was was the holding call on the sprint

(23:31):
out by Geno, and so you get a safety. So
so the the poor either poor really poor decisions. Because
I'm not gonna again, I'm not faulting him for dropping
the ball. It's a poor decision to not jump on it,
and then on the next point, it's a poor decision
to not catch it. You're in the NFL, you can't
go you know, zero for two like that, and in

(23:54):
the second quarter of a tight game, so he's gonna
have to pick it up.

Speaker 6 (23:58):
Well, the last twenty minutes of this show are going
to be fun, because we're going to talk about a
unit in the Seattle Seahawks defense that performed as well
as any Seahawk unit I've seen in years. And I
don't think I'm being hyperbolic there. They allowed three yards
per pass attempt. The leading rusher for Denver had two
point seven yards per carry. They did not allow a

(24:20):
touchdown in an NFL game until there was two minutes
and nine seconds left to go. This was just a
flat out four quarter performance.

Speaker 2 (24:29):
By this team.

Speaker 6 (24:30):
I'm gonna leave it open ended. Where do you want
to start throwing your flowers to this defense here?

Speaker 4 (24:35):
Well, I would just say, first of all, I think
the tackling, particularly in the flat, there was a lot
of times Bownicks Boenicks had a problem seeing over the middle,
and he particularly what we call the converging defenders. So that,
for example, if Knix is in the pocket and he's
got his tight end or Courtland set and running a

(24:58):
dig route that's an innerm in route from right to left,
got it right to left, the defender out in front
of him, like Dotson made a play, there was two
or three opportunities. I mean, bo Nix, I know he's
got the big Christian cross on his left wrist and
God bless him. I love how his faith is part

(25:20):
of a very central part of his approach. So I'm
not dogging the guy, but he's living right because he
had two or three should have been interceptions, yes, and
he ended up having the two, but he was having
a trouble seeing over the middle. Again, the converging defenders
a lot easier for a quarterback to see the defender
who's behind the play as opposed to the defender in

(25:42):
front of him. It's just has to do with the
terms called isa kid. I'm not going to get into,
but it's just how the brain processes imagery. And he
was having trouble with the guy in front. But as
he sent the ball to the sideline, he doesn't have
the strongest arm, so there's the balls floating just to tad,
which the that lack of velocity. Choose up your yards

(26:03):
after the catch. But guys were coming and just solid
tackling and flat Julian Love. Now Love did have one mistackle,
but he had five or six open tackles that were
just gorgeous, and as did the entire secondary. And then
Dotson had a third and three a on a on
a shallow cross in the in the second half at

(26:24):
a critical time, uh, third, third, and medium. I believe
he had a tackle in space to force a punt.
A just all over the tape was really good tackling,
and so that probably forced a forefront of my mind
in terms of how the defense played.

Speaker 6 (26:41):
Isn't it refreshing to just see eleven guys tackle in
open space instead of years of having one or two
guys beating their chest when they make one tackle, pointing
at the name on the back of their jersey when
they make a tackle, and then miss four tackles in
a row.

Speaker 2 (26:57):
I mean, it's just so rush not to have thirty
three on this team anymore.

Speaker 4 (27:03):
And I'm not going to mention any names in that regard,
but his initials are Jamal Adams.

Speaker 6 (27:08):
Is that what we're talking That's exactly what we're talking about.
And I think tackling, you know, Hugh, I think tackling translates.

Speaker 2 (27:14):
Now.

Speaker 6 (27:15):
Obviously, you're going to have individual players on other teams
that are going to have better make you miss potential
than like a Javonte Williams and the rest of the
dudes on this team. But I think doesn't tackling translate
from game to game to game just because you're you're
fundamentally sound and doing it well.

Speaker 4 (27:37):
Yeah, I mean, if you have good tacklers and you
take smart angles in the aggression. And Julian Love is
just a high football like you guy. And normally when
you teach defenders in space, you say, okay, break come
to balance, breakdown. And so what that means when I
coached you football, you know, I said low, wide and nasty, right, like,

(27:59):
get your feet wider than your soldiers, gets your ass
down and then face up and then and then close
with some purpose, right. And and yet the very very
very best defenders, I mean Troy Paulamalo comes to mind,
the very best defenders, they they take such good angles
that they don't need to come to bounce, they don't

(28:19):
need to break down. They just they just say, hey,
I'm going to be on this defender so fast he's
not gonna be able to react. And we saw that
on a couple of tackles there with Love and open space,
and and it's just you know, it's a split set.
It's a it's an instinctive decision you have to make
in a micro second. Hey do I break down or
do I just go cut his legs out at full speed?

(28:41):
And he was doing a great and a great job.
And an important point on that, because you have the
disguising that is a hallmark, a trademark of Mike McDonald,
you're gonna have Julian Love in the back. He's gonna
be so on a split safety. And then and then,
like there's a time, for example, where Witherspoon is coming

(29:02):
off the right edge from the slot and Love is
trying to show the disguise as long as possible. He's
trying to stay deep, trying to stay deep. Well, bo
Nick's sixty one starts in college. He recognizes that he
wants to throw to the vacated space. So now if
think of like, we're going to amplify Julian Love's thought process. Okay,

(29:25):
I'm gonna stay back here and confuse this rooky quarterback
because if I get too close to the linescreams too soon,
he'll sniff out the blitz. Let me stay way back here.
Oh crap, he saw the blitz. I better get up
in the flat. Oh damn, I have a lot of space.
Oh you know, how do I make this tackle? You
know what I think I'm on a great track. I'm
not gonna break down. Let me just go saw this

(29:47):
guy down. And you know, obviously I'm interpreting what might
be in his head. I'm just trying to to say,
you know, that challenge of Mike McDonald's saying, hey, let's
be great in disguise, there's a there's a there's a
cost to that. Sometimes it you're out of position. And
Love was technically out of position, but by design, not

(30:07):
a mistake. Let me emphasize that, not a mistake. He's
coming from depth and and now he's forced to be
in a lot of space. And it was just a
tackling exhibition again all but one. He'll he'll cut himself
for one mistackle, but the coaches will sow five or
six other times where he said, hey, twenty, that's beautiful.

Speaker 6 (30:25):
And three of the top five tacklers today were brought
in in the offseason. I think this was obviously because
nobody plays in the preseason. This was Seahawks fans first
real opportunity to see what Tyrrell Dotson is, what Rayshawn
Jenkins is. Keavon Wallace had a pope free Jerome Baker
was in the top five in tackles today.

Speaker 2 (30:44):
And so these new guys, let's start with Dotson. I mean,
to me, he looked like he was in on every play.
It was crazy.

Speaker 4 (30:51):
Yeah. I like his awareness, I like his transition, how
how he swivels, turns his hips. You got you gotta
be a playmaker in the passing game. A lot of
guys that we've seen here, you know, are good coming downhill,
the Cody Barton's and you know Ratigan's and you know
a lot of guys I like between the tackles, but
in twenty twenty four, you got to be a lot

(31:12):
more than that as a middle linebacker. So so I
think his is his movement in space is really good.
I think his identification is good. He shows signs of
good communication. He's a green dot guy. I mean, I'm
really delighted with his acquisition.

Speaker 6 (31:28):
Now.

Speaker 4 (31:29):
They were gassing a little bit in in that first
half up the middle. A lot of just blast plays
and and what's called duo where you're getting double teams
right at the A gap. And so I'm gonna have
to watch the tape, particularly the end zone copy, and
give it a report tomorrow morning. So it's possible that

(31:52):
Dotson might have got rooted out of there a few
times in the first half. But but you know, just
just going at action, a lot of things I like
from number zero, and we got our first look at seventeen.

Speaker 6 (32:05):
Yes, yes, we did Jerome Baker out there. Five tackles
for Jerome Baker in this game, number seventeen, as you mentioned.

Speaker 2 (32:12):
And then you know the pass rush.

Speaker 6 (32:15):
It's a lot of rushing with four and it seemed
like they were rattling Bonnicks. You look at the numbers,
you see two sacks. That's not all that impressive. But
the nine quarterback hits, five of them coming from the
big Cat. We've been waiting to see Leonard Williams do something.
Five quarterback hits for Leonard Williams today. So talk about
that pass rush and if you think the pass rush

(32:36):
will translate going forward or was it a lot of
it just facing, you know, in an inexperienced quarterback that
was holding on the ball.

Speaker 4 (32:45):
Yeah. I think there was a couple of times. I
think Mafe certainly had a couple of pressures there off
the edge of that. That's the thing that I want
to see. The thing that gets me the most excited
about pass rush is a four man rush and a
defensive van and uh turns you know, closes the circle
runs the hoop fast in the down like that's the

(33:07):
most coveted skill you can have on an individual visual level.
In the passing it now, there was times, look, a
lot of blown containments. Mike McDonald likes to have a
lot of stunts. Uh, and and games were called and
that's where the defensive end goes in the defensive tackles out.
Particularly on that drive where the last touchdown drive by

(33:29):
the Broncos, that that got us biting our nails.

Speaker 3 (33:32):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (33:33):
Big contained breakdown to the left, the touchdown pass where
Nick's scrambled contained to the right. I don't there was
a there was a big body guy on the ground.
I don't know if it was ninety five. I'm not
gonna say who it was, but just just looking at
his body, I think it was a defensive tackle. Like again,
if you're gonna have the stunts, you gotta get outside

(33:55):
those inside that guys have to get out. And there
was another one one of one of Nick's best plays
in the first half. He was flushed forward and then
right as he got to the line of scrimmage. He
threw the ball for it, I believe, seventeen yards to
Portland Suttland, and we were doing the Seahawks were doing
an inside twist and the stunt that I'm describing really

(34:17):
opened up the middle and it invited Nicks to step forward.
So I think that's going to be an aspect where
McDonald goes in. He says, hey, guys, we're going to
be putting you in situations a lot of stunts. I'm
not just going to ask you to beat the man
in front of you, but we have to honor our
contained responsibilities. And if you have the contained particularly with

(34:38):
an athletic quarterback like Nicks, who as a rookie is
going to be inclined to try and use his legs
because he has legs, that's something they're gonna have to
shore up.

Speaker 6 (34:48):
Let's hear from the head coach who got the game
ball today his first ever victory in the NFL for
Mike McDonald, Seahawks head coach.

Speaker 2 (34:57):
And here he was after the game, all.

Speaker 8 (34:59):
Right, well, fast, good to see everybody at mean, yeah,
it's a great win. Started just like we wanted at
the start, drew it up that way, just wanted some
adversity there, but yeah, I'm also going to clean all
that stuff up in the first half. But tell you
what I mean, just being on the sideline, being with
our crew, the guys were poised.

Speaker 7 (35:17):
Nobody bat it an.

Speaker 8 (35:18):
I knew what we need to do to win the game,
stuck to the plan, made some adjustments, and just kept playing.
You know, it's a long game. These games go sixty
minutes down to the wire. And just proud of our
guys in the effort, the attitude, that togetherness, and I
thought they played really, really hard.

Speaker 7 (35:34):
So I'm proud of the guys.

Speaker 8 (35:35):
There's a lot of things that obviously we're gonna want
to attack over the next week getting ready for New England,
and we'll do that, you know, so hopefully we'll make
a huge jump from game one to game two.

Speaker 4 (35:45):
You mentioned the adjustment, So what did you think about
what Ryan did with the run game opening of the
second half seven years four of an episode of the Gap.

Speaker 7 (35:52):
Scheme out there.

Speaker 8 (35:54):
Yeah, just you know how they were playing their fronts,
made a couple of adjustments on some of those games
that were running, and you know, thought the all line,
we line played well in the second half and you
know ken Ken in particular really mean runs so hard.

Speaker 7 (36:07):
So yeah, they did a great job.

Speaker 4 (36:09):
Like sometimes happening to be able to live this year game.

Speaker 7 (36:11):
One because there's so little in the preseason, Yeah can't.

Speaker 2 (36:15):
What did you think about the way you guys did talk.

Speaker 8 (36:17):
Well, I thought there are some really good open field tackles.
I think we can, you know, adjust some things to
to eliminate some of those that space about getting into
too much detail. Overall, I thought we tackled well. We
felt like we did miss and they got some squirrely
yards there. But you know, when you run to the ball,
you can take shots and if you take good angles,
and like, guys shouldn't be getting out on your defense.

Speaker 7 (36:38):
So again, the effort is is the biggest thing.

Speaker 8 (36:42):
And then I'm sure there would be some things that we,
you know, we want to look at and and try
to make some adjustments moving forward.

Speaker 7 (36:46):
But the guy thought the guys tackled pretty well.

Speaker 5 (36:48):
Tell you about Tyler Lockett he missed and tie up
there we've won leading team receives.

Speaker 7 (36:53):
You may have last catch.

Speaker 8 (36:54):
Yeah, I've been telling me about. I mean, I obviously
know how greative a player is, but guy makes plays.

Speaker 7 (36:59):
Man unbelievable.

Speaker 8 (37:00):
Gave him the closer ball and the in the locker
room right there, So that was pretty cool. Proud of him, man, mean,
he's it hasn't been easy for him with all training camp,
you know. I think he's been frustrated a little bit
with where he's that health wise. But guys ready to play, man,
and he made a lot of a lot of big
plays for us today.

Speaker 6 (37:14):
Mike.

Speaker 4 (37:14):
It was a struggle for the on line there in
the first half to kind of see them even things
out and finding funds and footing to open the running
game up like it did.

Speaker 7 (37:21):
How good was that to kind of see them pipe out?

Speaker 8 (37:22):
Yeah, it's great. We knew they could. We knew they
could do that, you know. I mean, you didn't expect
the game to start the way that it did, but
it did, and you know, you got to keep moving forward.
And we got great guys on the on line, you know,
and uh first game, you know, moving around like I'm
just in a different style of the defense. So definitely
not how we want to start, even though how I started,
you know, the whole uh press are here, but you

(37:45):
know we'll be better moving forward, did.

Speaker 5 (37:48):
You and Rand?

Speaker 1 (37:49):
The offensive staff, the run game after that.

Speaker 7 (37:52):
Frankly, I was with the defense at that time.

Speaker 8 (37:55):
I mean, we knew we wanted to put a more
emphasis on the run game, but they had, you know,
some of some of the game playing stuff. We had
to make some adjustments on without getting into like the
you know, telling everybody what we're what we're thinking.

Speaker 7 (38:05):
But those guys.

Speaker 8 (38:06):
Credit to those guys understood that what we had to do,
made the adjustments. Emphasis more in the run game. You know,
give it to Canine, let him do his thing, and yeah,
I mean that's that's how we're gonna have to operate.

Speaker 7 (38:18):
You know, if we're gonna be successful.

Speaker 8 (38:19):
Teams are going to take things away, and you need
to be able to move and shake in game, you know,
to uh to be able to move the ball on
the ground.

Speaker 2 (38:27):
Spike McDonald one thousand winning percentage for that coach.

Speaker 6 (38:32):
He can retire right now saying he never lost in
the NFL, and he talked to you about the effort
and playing really hard. And I question in the past
few years whether all eleven guys on defense were playing
real hard for the Seattle Seahawks, And I had no
question today they were all playing real hard.

Speaker 4 (38:49):
Well, I uh, just watching training camp. It really struck
out stuck out to me rather that Devin with the
leader of that defense. There's just something about his competitive nature.
That's something that they identified coming out of Illinois. Remember Illinois,
you know, not much history there, but but they had

(39:11):
a really good year his last year. And this guy
is infectious. He demands hyper competitiveness. He brings a lot
of juice and I think a lot of guys respond
to him, and certainly in that back back in and
I felt like that showed today. I mean, he's a
hell of a player and a hell of a leader.

(39:31):
His brand of leadership is you know, it's got a
lot of credibility. And yeah, and it was fun. By
the way, Kenneth walker of his sixty I mentioned one
hundred and four yards by the Seahawks of his. Of
Kenneth Walkner's sixty seven yards after the contact, forty four

(39:52):
of them came in the third quarter alone.

Speaker 2 (39:54):
That was such a great quarter for k and I
no question about it.

Speaker 6 (39:56):
And then you know, Mike's talked about some adjustments they
had to make, like let's, oh translate what he meant
by we have to adjust some things to eliminate space defensively.

Speaker 4 (40:07):
Well, it was what I was talking about with disguising coverage,
being out of position. So think of like this, It's
like goldilocks in the porche, not too hot, not too cold, right,
just something a nice blend in the middle. And what
that means is Okay, Mike McDonald as a general say, okay,
what's an attribute of a Mike McDonald defense. Well, he

(40:30):
wants to disguise a lot. He wants to disguise not
just in the back end because Vic Fangio has been
doing that and having a lot of influence, but he
wants to disguise at the line of scrimmage as well.
Faking blitzes, how they stunt, what have you. There's a
lot going on. But you'd say, well, that sounds like
it's confusing. Why does in every defensive coordinator do that.

(40:51):
When you're disguising, you are at the snap of the ball. Remember, now,
on the average quarterback throwing in all passes, all quarterbacks,
all games last year, the ball was out in two
point four to three seconds, So being out of position
for a half a second can can be a lot.

(41:12):
I mean, how far can you cover right and and
you can cover a guy running full speak and run
cover three or four yards. And so if you're out
of position at the snap of the ball, now there's
too much space. Like what he was talking about, He was, Hey,
I like the open field tackling, but I don't want
to put my guys that out of positions so that

(41:33):
they have to be making all those tackles in space.
Because if you go against you know the best, you know,
the shift to your guys. There's some guys in this
league that if you give them that much space, we
won't be doing a postgame show talking about how great
the tackles are. We'll be doing a postgame show talking
about some other running back And wow, isn't he something

(41:54):
else with the ball in his hand. He's got some shaking,
bake and some juke and and he was making our
guys miss. And so I think McDonald is aware of that,
and he didn't like all the space that his guys
were having to make tackles.

Speaker 6 (42:05):
And then the adjustment talked about in the offense, he said,
we had to adjust to a different style of defense.
Does Denver play something that a lot of teams don't
do defensively?

Speaker 2 (42:15):
Well? They have, They have a lot of.

Speaker 4 (42:19):
Changes in their fronts and what have you. I'll give
you an answer to that after I break the takedown.
You know, in week one you always feel a little
bit handicaped. But but they're they're they're good at getting
up and and on pressure.

Speaker 8 (42:35):
You know.

Speaker 4 (42:35):
They they use Patrick Cirtan to a great effect. I mean,
I played with Deon Sanders in Atlanta. You know, when
you have a great corner like that, it allows you
to wol coverage away from him and and do all
kinds of things. So so I think he's a catalyst
to what they're able to do defensively because they don't
need to expend resources covering on Certan's side.

Speaker 6 (42:58):
Final thoughts on this one, Hugh, before we let you
go and we get the Sunday night football.

Speaker 4 (43:03):
Well, I think a year ago we were expecting the
Seahawks to go in against a young team. The Rams
were rebuilding and rookies everywhere, and they threw up a
stinker right and we were er in one and trying
to dig out of it. There were some of that
involved today, you know, obviously the youth being with Nix
as opposed to Matthew Stafford. But a rookie quarterback is

(43:27):
like having you know, eight other rookies the way the
Rams did.

Speaker 3 (43:31):
Right.

Speaker 4 (43:31):
So, I think that while they had that their problems,
when are you gonna ever have two safeties? That that
was a clunky, choppy first half. I think it's really
nice that they mostly they settled down, they stayed mature,
they made the adjustments that we've been describing, and they
made enough plays and then solted the game away to

(43:52):
make Mike McDonald want to know. So I feel great
about it. From an injury standpoint, I'm very worried about
playing in your third string right tackle, so that might
be the worst news of the day and the biggest
concern moving forward.

Speaker 6 (44:06):
But I would say, all in all, just good to
get the dub great stuff. Man, look forward to you.
What seven am tomorrow, right Monday morning, quarterback.

Speaker 4 (44:13):
I believe am eight am?

Speaker 2 (44:15):
Beautiful? All right? Thanks, thanks, you appreciate it.

Speaker 4 (44:17):
Give me the next an hour to study.

Speaker 2 (44:19):
Yeah, that's right.

Speaker 6 (44:20):
Hugh Millon's gonna be working hard for the next twelve hours,
no question about it.

Speaker 2 (44:23):
He'll join Chuck and Buck at eight am tomorrow.

Speaker 6 (44:27):
Before we wrap things up here and send it to
Sunday Night Football, give you a recap of what happened
around the NFL day. Steelers beat the Falcons eighteen to ten.
Remember Rust did not start in that game. Justin fields
one hundred and fifty six yards passing at eighty five
of them to George Pickens. Bill's beat the Cardinals, So
that's good news for the NFC West. Thirty four to
twenty eight the final score. Josh Allen Can attributed four touchdowns,

(44:50):
two through the.

Speaker 2 (44:50):
Air, two on the ground. Bears win.

Speaker 6 (44:53):
Bears win twenty four seventeen over the Tennessee Titans. Caleb
Williams lot fourteen of twenty nine ninety three yards passing
another fifteen yards rushing, but he is one to ohero as.

Speaker 2 (45:08):
A starting quarterback to the Chicago Bears.

Speaker 6 (45:10):
Patriots beat the Bengals today in the upset of the day,
sixteen to ten. The final score too much. Ramandre Stevenson
twenty five carries one hundred and twenty yards. Good fantasy
day for the running back for the Patriots. Texans beat
the Colts twenty nine to twenty seven.

Speaker 7 (45:25):
C J.

Speaker 2 (45:25):
Stroud two hundred and thirty four yards two touchdowns.

Speaker 6 (45:28):
I hat Joe Mixon on his new team thirty carries
a buck fifty nine and a touchdown. Finns beat the
Jaguars in a surprisingly low scoring game to twenty to seventeen.
Tunguo by loa three thirty eight and one touchdown one
hundred and thirty yards to Tyreek Hill, who actually got
arrested before the game for speeding outside the stadium. He

(45:49):
did a handcuff celebration after his touchdown catch, which is
a fantastic SATs blew out the Panthers hell of a
factor fiction pick I had Carolina play four and a
half that didn't go well forty seven to ten. Let's
hope that's my worst call of the year. Vikings beat
the Giants. Boy, the Giants are bad, twenty eight to six.

(46:10):
Oh man, they are bad.

Speaker 4 (46:12):
They're best.

Speaker 2 (46:12):
Chargers over the Raiders twenty two to ten.

Speaker 6 (46:16):
Cowboys beat the Browns thirty three seventeen as Dak Prescott
gets sixty million dollars and.

Speaker 2 (46:22):
He had one hundred and seventy nine yards and one
touchdown in the game.

Speaker 6 (46:24):
Buccaneers beat the Commanders thirty seven to twenty and coming
up next a good one.

Speaker 2 (46:29):
Go Lions, Lions and the Rams.

Speaker 6 (46:31):
Sunday Night football coming up next right here on ninety
three point three at KJRFM,