Seattle demolished New Orleans in their Friday night pre-season opener. I watched parts of the game live on the NFL Network's "No Huddle" show (where they basically jump between a bunch of live games) and then a good chunk of the replay on Sunday afternoon. I'm most excited about the defense, which if it can stay healthy, can really be an improvement from last year.
The difference people are talking about isn't the totally revamped linebacker corps or the new starting CB, but the interior defensive line. Where it looks like the starters will be last year's first round pick Marcus Tubbs and former Tampa Bay player Chuck Darby. They seem to be getting along and Darby mentoring Tubbs in a big way. Tubbs is a big guy, at 6-3, 324, and everybody has been talking about his talent since he was drafted. Last year, he was slowed by nagging injuries and missed a few games to be with his sick mother, who died of cancer during the latter part of the season. Chuck Darby isn't built like your prototypical DT at 6-0, 270, but he's been around a few years and has put up impressive numbers as a Buc while being a part of the defensive line rotation. I really like what I'm reading about these two, and some nice pressure up the middle is just what we need to better stop the run, and provide some consistency with the pass rush to allow Wistrom and Fisher to get upfield from the end positions. Not to mention a nice pass rush will take some of the pressure off our secondary.
Seneca Wallace was impressive too, with a nice long 24-yard TD run set up by a few key blocks downfield. And he also had a few pretty nice touch passes, including a touchdown to Pathon. He's locked in to the #2 QB slot right now, and I'm no longer as worried about our season should Hasselbeck get hurt.
Basically, the game went about as well as we could hope for - a convincing win with no major mistakes, and no injuries. Now to keep that up...
I did notice the New Orleans announcers were awful. Not only did they make several mistakes when describing Seattle players, but they made some pretty ridiculous statements that didn't even make sense. The most memorable one being, "Seattle actually has 4 starting cornerbacks." Uhm, what?? Unless they're using some unique defensive scheme with no safeties, I don't get it. Unless he meant that they had 4 cornerbacks capable of starting. Which really didn't make sense either, cause we only have 3 quality CBs. I don't even know who number 4 on the depth chart is. On the plus side, the second half was shown with the Seattle announcers, who were much better (though still below regular season quality).
I like our chances this year, especially since we're not the fashionable pick. Hell, most writers have the Rams finishing ahead of Seattle in the NFC West and some even have Arizona (yes, THAT Arizona!) finishing ahead of them as well.
Meanwhile, my Madden '06 Seahawks are rolling along at 6-0. My defense is frickin impenetrable against the run. My offense varies depending on how tough a D I play, but generally I have at least the running or passing game working well, sometimes both. I might have to crank up the difficulty level soon to keep it interesting.
Did anybody see the interview Chris Berman did with TO and his greedy agent on Thursday night during halftime? Pathetic. They keep talking about how he's not the bad guy, and how he's a grown man, and blah blah blah, but he doesn't shut the fuck up and stop whining for 2 minutes. Jesus H. Christ. Enough already. Stop being a big baby and honor your goddamned multi-million dollar contract. Even McNabb hates your guts at this point. I stole this point from something else I read or heard (I forget where), but during the interview, TO was talking about the Super Bowl game and how nobody expected to play, and how everybody wanted to see him fail. Well, he proved them wrong, because he went out and played and had a decent game! In his eyes, he succeeded, and that right there earned him a new contract. Last I checked though, the Patriots were the Super Bowl winners. Not the Eagles. TO, you failed, chief. Your team lost. You earned nothing. God, these two are really pissing me off, and I'm not even remotely an Eagles fan.
One last note… with the return of the NHL, I was considering ordering the "Center Ice" package on DirectTV, which would give me tons of games to watch. I figured with them coming back after such a damaging strike, it would be dirt cheap in an attempt to win back fans. I just checked the price - $129. Sorry, but I think I'll pass on that one for that much. Cut the price in half, and I might have gone for it. But no way I am forking out over a hundred bucks to a league that totally fucked us over this past season.
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