It's All Brandon Marshall's Fault

Kelly Herndon and Babineaux are at best "replacement level" players. (To cop a term used in baseball, a replacement level player is the kind of guy who is freely available every off-season, and frequently during some seasons.) That's not a criticism of Herndon or Babs. They are who they are. In the salary cap era, every team must play replacement level players at multiple positions. The way they play is often the difference in going to the playoffs or going home. (New England has raised coaxing quality performances out of replacement level players to a bona fide art form.) On the other hand, Seattle does have some talent in its secondary. Marcus Trufant, in what is clearly his best season, has shown himself to be a quality corner though not an elite one. Ironically, his biggest asset, one that is almost criminally undervalued in football, has been his durability at a really physically demanding position. Ken Hamlin has "quietly" put together a very solid season in pass coverage and run support. Boulware has distinct strengths and limits but clearly has 2^nd round talent. (Seahawk fans should note that the currently white-hot Philadelphia Eagles also benched their second round safety, Michael Lewis, for giving up too many big plays. It happens. Lewis is a guy I coveted during the round that brought Mo Morris and Anton Palepoi to Seattle.)

The point here is that teams have thrown away from Trufant and Hamlin all season long when they’ve needed a score because that’s where the biggest drop-off is. The Boulware/Babineaux-Herndon combo has given up big plays in all varieties. Part of it is that Herndon is playing far more snaps than last season when the oft-injured Andre Dyson alternated long absences with stellar play. So when analyzing the game-losing pass to Vincent Jackson, consider this. There is NO WAY Boulware, who undeniably blew the coverage, has the luxury of assuming that ONLY a long pass play beats the defense in that situation. One need look back no further than a virtually identical situation on the road in Denver to disconfirm any notion that the long pass is the only dangerous play. Jay Cutler, who looked similar to Rivers for most of the game, which is to say awful, was in desperate need of a touchdown. The Seahawks, understanding this, sat in two-deep zone, customary under the circumstances. The defense is designed to influence the QB to throw the ball short, which is what Jay Cutler did in the situation. Brandon Marshall turned Cutler's 10-15 yard pass into a 71 yard catch and run. It is worth noting that the hesitancy of the defenders in that situation broke down the zone’s integrity. Everyone was in position, but overly-conscious of keeping everything in front and consequently took poor pursuit angles and tackled poorly. Fast-forward to the San Diego game. You could nit-pick about whether Babineaux should have been on the field at that juncture. I would counter, however, that the Denver game provides ample evidence to suggest that it did not necessarily matter. Teams will throw at the Boulware/Babineaux-Herndon combination no matter what, and the Seattle secondary is no better at protecting against the short pass/long run—a potential weakness in any zone coverage—than the long pass.

In my opinion Holmgren failed to coach the game to protect his secondary rather than expose it. For the record, I am a Holmgren fan but frankly as a philosophical matter I do not care for the way end of game situations are often handled in football. Many if not most coaches turn conservatism into a high risk strategy. Yet for some God-unbeknownst reason “prevent offense” never takes its fair share of criticism for leading to game-winning drives for the opposing team. To paraphrase the late great Jim Valvano, “in the last three minutes of a game you win on offense—not defense.” Three tailback dives on the last drive—following an asinine fair catch at the seven by Nate Burleson who otherwise had a fantastic game—is barely better than simply having Hasselbeck take a knee in that situation. I doubt that even last year’s offensive line could just line up and run the ball three times for 10+ yards against this caliber of run defense. (It certainly didn’t happen in the Super Bowl against Pittsburgh.) The West Coast offense, as I understand it, was essentially created to exploit situations like the one on Sunday. Yet Holmgren was afraid to throw—even a bootleg with a run/pass option—when two first downs, perhaps even one, wins the game. Lay all the blame you want on Boulware, but in a scenario where one big play can beat you don’t want this defense on the field.

In a broader sense, I’m not willing to lay the blame all at Holmgren’s feet either. In truth, he has been pretty candid in saying he has no feel for this team and never has. Part of it has been the injuries. Unable to field the same players each week, who knows what this team does well? It changes week to week, quarter to quarter. Last season, 1^st and 10 at the seven with under four minutes to go, I have little doubt Holmgren throws on first down and that Hasselbeck looks for Bobby Engram. This year, when a guy like Deion Branch—this generation’s Henry Ellard—is dropping four passes in a game and Matt Hasselbeck is throwing a flat-footed interception in the red zone (with no real pressure), Holmgren’s guessing right along with the rest of us. He rode the hot hand, which was his defense. Philosophically, I hate that call but as a tactical matter I absolutely can’t blame him. Alexander was the only guy who proved reliable in that game. Holmgren had to give him the ball. Hell, up until San Diego’s final play they looked wretched in the two minute offense themselves. It’s just that kind of year people. And there’s nothing anyone can really do about it at this point. All the players can do is keep playing. All the coaches can do is keep guessing. As fans for the next couple games all we can do is just sit back and take it all in. Don’t let anything take you by surprise. If you ask me—and you didn’t—it’s all Brandon Marshall’s fault. That’s as good an explanation as anyone else can give you.

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