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00:00:01
Knight in Blitzing Armor
24 Plays17 days ago
Tristan and Miles talk about another explosive first-half blowout, career game #6 for Nick Emmanwori, and if Mike Macdonald has invented a term that will spread throughout the football world.
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Transcript
Origin of the Cardinals' Name
00:00:01
Tristan Amundson
What's in a name? In the Cardinals case, a lot. It doesn't matter if the Cardinals were in Chicago or St. Louis or now in Arizona.
00:00:12
Tristan Amundson
When you got a name like that, Miles, you keep it. You might be wondering, and how did they get that name? Well, it starts with hand-me-down jerseys.
00:00:22
Tristan Amundson
In the 1900s, their then owner, Chris O'Brien, received a box of used red jerseys. Chris described the color as Cardinal, Cardinal red, and the rest was
Seahawks vs Cardinals: A Recap
00:00:37
Tristan Amundson
history.
00:00:37
Tristan Amundson
Miles, what did you think of that Cardinal red jersey on Sunday?
00:00:44
M dub
Tristan, great to be with you to discuss the Seahawks. Tristan, I did have an idea for the Cardinals. They might have wanted to transition to More of a white jersey. I know there's white accents, but we they might have gone all white just to just to make it a little easier to raise that white flag this week. I thought that might have helped them out and just kind of get out of the stadium ah sooner before before anybody got injured and in the meaningless second half of this game.
00:01:11
M dub
What do you think about that?
00:01:12
Tristan Amundson
Well, I was thinking red was very um appropriate because the Red Sea certainly parted for the Seahawks on Sunday versus this Cardinals team.
00:01:24
M dub
Tristan, it absolutely did. If I could provide you with perhaps our quickest recap of a game of all time. ah The final score of this game was 44 to 22.
00:01:35
M dub
The important part here, though, is that about 22 or 23 minutes into this game, the Seahawks were up 35 to zero.
00:01:46
M dub
And as has happened now on on three of the nine football games this year, The teams really had to play out the second half due to a sense of obligation.
00:01:56
M dub
The Cardinals did play better in the second half than the Seahawks, and they managed to cut it down from a five-possession game to a three-possession game. But I did greedily ask for a blowout last week.
00:02:10
M dub
It's one of the only times I think I've done that, and I was absolutely delighted that it happened. 35-0 after minutes prettiest down
00:02:21
Tristan Amundson
it's It's incredible,
Tyrese Knight's Standout Performance
00:02:22
Tristan Amundson
man. Yeah. the yeah It's really you don't get a lot of these in the NFL, although we've said this a few times. So maybe we start knocking on wood when we we talk about what we get and what we don't get with the Seahawks team. But you really do not get a lot of these. We're we're not supposed to see in the NFL a blowout the way that we saw And as a fan, you just have to sit back and fully enjoy the experience. you you can't um You can't get distracted. You can't start looking at Twitter or whatever you want to do on your phone.
00:02:55
Tristan Amundson
You have to put the phone away and just watch and enjoy because when your team gets a laugher like this, it's it's just pure enjoyment. Yeah. Miles, do you want to talk about how how this game got out of hand so fast? I mean, where do we dissect? Where do we go from here?
00:03:13
M dub
Well, I do think that the headline from this is going to be two of the most identical, ah improbable and identical and improbably identical plays, which I think turned this game from the Seahawks playing really well, scoring a a touchdown just on straight up marches down the field on their first three drives.
00:03:35
M dub
These two plays took it from having a really great offensive game into historic blowout territory. And I'm talking about two defensive possessions where Tyrese Knight, ah again, two different times, the same thing happened.
00:03:51
M dub
Tyrese Knight comes in with pressure on Jacoby Brissett. Forces a fumble. And both times, but i mean, i know I know everybody listening knows this happened.
00:04:02
M dub
It was was on the highlight everywhere.
00:04:03
Tristan Amundson
But it's it's worth.
00:04:04
M dub
just i just it's It happened two times within the same couple minutes. Both times, the same man, Demarcus Lawrence, picks up the football and walks it in for a touchdown. Two times.
00:04:19
Tristan Amundson
It's worth reliving. i don't think anyone listening is shaking their head saying, i already have this information. I don't need to hear it again. Because again, this is one of those, you have to just stop and enjoy it, right? Because yeah, you, this does not happen. You do not get, if you're Tyrese Knight really, or you if you're Demarcus Lawrence,
00:04:39
Tristan Amundson
this doesn't happen many times in your career. Most folks would say if this happens once in your career, you' you're kind of lucky. like that's a You hit the jackpot. The fact that it happened two times within 20 minutes of each other for both of these gentlemen, i mean, you just got to be happy for them. And let me say this, here's here here's maybe my perspective on those plays. We don't need to dissect them at nauseam.
00:05:05
Tristan Amundson
My perspective was this. And I looked at my wife while we were watching the game and I said, you know what? This is pretty cool. This is a guy that lost his starting job. This is a guy that has been waiting on the bench.
00:05:17
Tristan Amundson
And the fact that he got his opportunity, because Ernest Jones needed to sit this game out and he stepped up. Knight stepped up and he did it in the biggest way possible, the loudest way possible. He had a great game in general. He had some really great stops as well.
00:05:35
Tristan Amundson
But man, he stepped up and put his fingerprints twice on this game. I was so happy for him
Seahawks' Defensive Strategies
00:05:43
Tristan Amundson
as a person that he was able to do it because You know, you're in his position. It would be easy to be, you know, to sulk. It'd be easy not to be preparing the way he should. For goodness sake, he's he's a young guy.
00:05:56
Tristan Amundson
um i was really happy for him. i don't know if proud is the right word, but I think you know what I mean. I was i was i was thrilled for him that he was able to take advantage of the opportunity um and make a massive impact on the game.
00:06:11
Tristan Amundson
good Good for night.
00:06:13
M dub
that's That's a really good perspective. And with in the last couple weeks, we did see Drake Thomas slowly and slowly get more snaps over Tyrese Knight until Tyrese Knight's defensive snaps went to zero a week or so ago.
00:06:28
M dub
This... This wasn't, though, a case of Knight playing badly. I don't think either of us felt um a liability out there on the field. I think this was more just an unfortunate slash fortunate case of of the Seahawks defense really being 16 or 17 different guys who are really making a case to be one of the 11 men out there on the field at a given time.
00:06:43
Tristan Amundson
It.
00:06:50
M dub
So so that's a great point that ah But that yes, Knight was staying focused even during these off weeks, which is a really recurring theme for this team. The the guys who aren't getting the snap counts one week, they're staying ready and and they're making something happen during during this their snaps when they come.
00:07:07
M dub
I did want to point out DeMarcus Lawrence, his 12th year in the NFL, his first 148 games together in the league combined, he scores a total of two touchdowns.
00:07:18
M dub
And in this one, game number 149, he gets those two touchdowns in the first half together. Wow.
00:07:25
Tristan Amundson
and Incredible. Yeah. I mean, it just goes to show there is a random nature a little bit to the NFL, right? I mean, you can do all of the preparation you want. And sometimes you got to be at the right place at the right time. And obviously the preparation allows you to do the right thing when you're there.
00:07:42
Tristan Amundson
But the moment, I guess, ah in life in general, sometimes, right, is is kind of thrust upon you. um You mentioned Drake Thomas. Worthy to note, man, he also had a great game, right? I mean, watching Drake,
00:07:54
Tristan Amundson
play this game another consistent performance I don't know if you can think back right now he had that great stop behind the line of scrimmage where he just absolutely obliterated um what's his name, Bam Knight, the the running back for the Cardinals for a three-yard loss.
00:08:13
Tristan Amundson
I think that was one of the stories of this game. The poor Cardinals could not, you know, third and one, fourth and one, they could not get past that line of scrimmage so often.
00:08:23
Tristan Amundson
Those were big hits on the other side of the line of scrimmage for losses. i think I counted at least two or three times where it was either third and one or fourth and one, and then it suddenly...
00:08:34
Tristan Amundson
was either turnover on downs or, or you know, fourth and three. um Pretty, pretty cool to see. and And Drake had a huge part of that.
00:08:45
M dub
Absolutely. And Tristan, throughout this game, and with with especially with the two, I mean, all these tackles for loss is aplenty. And with Tyrese Knight having these big plays, what I was really thinking about is just how much confidence you feel about Mike McDonald as the defensive play caller.
00:09:02
M dub
And the broadcast mentioned it many times, and it really It really is a valuable stat that does tell the story of the Seahawks season, how infrequently they are blitzing.
00:09:13
M dub
But I really feel like that's part of the strategy here. but Mike McDonald blitzes infrequently, but when he does, he does it in such a diabolical, unpredictable way. The feel of the timing for it is so good that it it really causes a disruptive problem. And we did see the team blitzing more in this game than I think we had in the past.
00:09:35
M dub
I did dial up. There were 11 plays where the team blitzed in this game. The two Tyrese Knight touchdowns were actually consecutive blitzes, right? they They were kind of back-to-back blitzes, but there's 10 minutes of game time in between that. So...
00:09:52
Tristan Amundson
Hmm.
00:09:52
M dub
So Mike like has these cards up his sleeve, but he is very patient in terms of holding on to them and knowing exactly when to do it. The first night play was on a second and 11.
00:10:03
M dub
The second night play was on a third and 11. And with the third and 11, it was a play where there were seven defensive guys kind of crowding the line of scrimmage. And if you're the Cardinals, you kind of know.
00:10:17
M dub
five of these guys are coming and you don't know which five are coming. And sure enough, that was exactly what happened. And it it just, it, it is the best defensive play calling that I can remember seeing.
00:10:25
Tristan Amundson
Thank
00:10:32
Tristan Amundson
Yeah. And to your point, and I i just imagine the flexibility and the luxury that this gives Mike, it's 19% of the time that they are but bringing more than four, um meaning that 80% of the time, four is four is enough. Four has been working. We can rush four and we can you know let everyone else do their job. 80% of the time are non-blitzing scenarios for the Seahawks this year.
00:11:00
Tristan Amundson
um So to your point, that that makes it even harder on a on an offensive line, obviously on a quarterback on protections when most likely they're not going to blitz.
00:11:11
Tristan Amundson
And then 19 percent of the time they do. And we're seeing absolutely
Key Players: Nick Manrory and Offensive Line
00:11:16
Tristan Amundson
massive benefits from it. ah It pretty, pretty fun to watch. It's been pretty cool to see that.
00:11:23
Tristan Amundson
um
00:11:24
M dub
you
00:11:24
Tristan Amundson
And ah and it's it's obviously changing, you know, changing the games on. um on these poor offensive linemen that have to have to account for it. It's been really, really fun. And it goes back to the fundamentals of football, right? When, when four can beat five, you have massive problems and it's it's going to be really, really difficult to to survive on offense. If, if consistently therefore can beat your five and we're seeing it over and over again. um Yeah, man, it's, it's been incredible.
00:11:54
M dub
It is true that four can normally beat five. what What I like about the low blitz percentage, though, is it's not Mike being conservative.
00:12:00
Tristan Amundson
Thank
00:12:02
M dub
It's kind of the opposite. I would say he's he's far from conservative because when these blitzes happen, it can be the cornerback. It can be the safety. It can literally be any of the 11 players, and it it really is so unpredictable. So that that's what I think I like about it is he really uses the blitz as a tool at the right moment to be unpredictable, to give the offense just so many different things to be stressed out about.
00:12:26
M dub
And it it it is ultimately being aggressive instead of conservative.
00:12:30
Tristan Amundson
Yeah. And one of those players, Nicky Manrory has continued. We're seeing him over and over again, stand out. Um, we're seeing him in this game with multiple pass breakups.
00:12:40
Tristan Amundson
Um, to me, that's what stood out the most about Nick's game was what he was doing in coverage and, and just being pesky and, and ruining plays for the Cardinals.
00:12:51
Tristan Amundson
But then on top of that, Nick getting in there with the sack as well in this game, um, it's He's turning out to be the ultimate Joker card, it seems like, for um for Mike, which just seems incredibly dangerous for these other teams.
00:13:06
Tristan Amundson
And every week we're seeing him grow and get more experience. I believe he played... well over, or I should say at least over 90% of the snaps in this game. So we're just seeing the maturation of Nick continue um just to grow over and over again. And and that's been really cool. He's been ah fun chess piece for Mike McDonald.
00:13:27
M dub
Oh my gosh, the trade-up to get this guy. I mean, I was very hesitant about the Seahawks using that draft capital to do it when it happened this spring. It's really hard to imagine that not happening now and for Eman Worry to be on any other team.
00:13:42
M dub
The numbers, he had four of the team's 10 passes defended. passes defended That is a ton of passes defended, by the way. That's almost as many attempts as the Seahawks offense had to break up 10 passes.
00:13:50
Tristan Amundson
Yep.
00:13:54
M dub
He has a big four of those. He also leads the team in tackles with this game in this game with nine. And I had to look at it. I'm honestly forgetting and then re-remembering that this guy is still a rookie every like week or so.
00:14:08
Tristan Amundson
yeah
00:14:08
M dub
This was game number six of his career.
00:14:12
Tristan Amundson
It's unbelievable. Yeah. To think about the upside that's in Nick's game is really, really cool to see. um Or I should say to to think about. Right. It's cool to dream about what Nick is going to look like at the end of the season, what he's going to look like.
00:14:26
Tristan Amundson
With the benefit of an offseason, right? I mean, not that we're here to talk about next year um at at all, but, you know, that he is a young player that's he's in his ascension, right?
00:14:36
M dub
you
00:14:37
Tristan Amundson
um Like a lot of these young players, Gray Zabel is in his ascension. um Byron Murphy, frankly, we're seeing kind of that next level ascension for him. So, so exciting when you have a team full of young ascending players.
00:14:51
Tristan Amundson
um And when you have a guy, I think it's a great thing to bring up, man. The the idea, he does not look like a rookie. And um and that's very, very clear as you're watching these games.
00:15:03
Tristan Amundson
You kind of have to remind yourself, oh, my gosh, he's he's still a rookie. We're still in the very beginning of this whole thing.
00:15:12
M dub
Tristan, there was another position group that was jumping out at me. And I was realizing that I think we talked about this group more last year when they were struggling. But as so happens with the offensive line, when they're playing extremely well, you do tend to not notice them.
00:15:27
M dub
ah Tristan, the offensive line, second best in sack percentage in the NFL across the entire league. That is twice as good as last year when the team was 24th in sack percentage at 8.3%. And then top that,
00:15:44
M dub
and then on top of that the team is actually passing so much less than it did last year. so you're So the percentages are nice, but it's also literally subjecting the quarterback to just way fewer hits. It's 10 sacks total on Sam Donald this year.
00:16:02
M dub
Geno had to take 54 sacks last year. So say we're about halfway through with this 10 sacks, you're projecting to a 20-25 sack season, which is still only half of the hits that Geno took last year.
00:16:16
M dub
That is really dramatic.
00:16:17
Tristan Amundson
Thank
00:16:19
M dub
It's obviously been really nice to have Abe Lucas healthy for the entire year so
Seahawks' Depth and Resilience
00:16:23
M dub
far. And I think everyone agree would agree there's been a really big upgrade at left guard going from Lakin Tomlinson to Gray Zabel.
00:16:32
M dub
That's not really a transformation though. and And these numbers tell the story of a transformation. And to me, I do go back to thinking about Clint Kubiak. Remembering last year with Ryan Grubb as the coordinator,
00:16:45
M dub
a complaint that we kind of had over and over again is that, hey, watching from our couches, we didn't have to be in the team facility all week. Watching from our couches, we really were starting to sense when the Seahawks would run and when the Seahawks were would pass. It was coming quite predictable.
00:17:02
M dub
And especially if the Seahawks were down even three points, even seven points, they were going to pass a lot and really kind of frantically try to make up the losing margin.
00:17:13
M dub
It's just totally different this year. You can't really predict what's going happen next. it it is just we We were talking so much in 2024 and 2023 about, hey, what's the skill about calling a game as an offensive coordinator?
00:17:27
M dub
How do you get better at it? How did the Seahawks get this skill? And I think they absolutely have it now. And it has this this cascading positive effects down. I think it shows that, hey, these are really good linemen.
00:17:39
M dub
they This crew was capable of this type of performance, but you kind of you need everything really working together in this very very subtle symphony kind of a way for for but this type of offensive line performance to to actually come through.
00:17:55
Tristan Amundson
I mean, not to call the boys ballerinas, although it would be high praise. Ballerinas are elite athletes.
00:18:01
M dub
Thank you.
00:18:01
Tristan Amundson
But if you think about a good ballerina, well, it's not going to work very good if the music is terrible and if the band can't play um or the symphony, I guess I should say, not the band, the symphony can't play the right piece. And it's not going to work if there's not the right um conductor. And it's not going to work if you don't have you know, the right prop. So I think maybe to your point, and and maybe that's why the ballet analogy seems to work with football.
00:18:26
Tristan Amundson
So many things have to come together for it to work properly. And and clearly those things have come together. You bring up Clint. I think it's an interesting point.
00:18:37
Tristan Amundson
I was very underwhelmed by the hiring of Clint Kubiak. Shame on me. i thought it was kind of an unexciting hire. It seemed very safe. um And clearly umm an idiot because Clint Kubiak has been any. I mean, he's just been a ah breath of fresh air. and And, you know, going back to your point,
00:18:56
M dub
Thank you.
00:18:57
Tristan Amundson
You really he is able to mix up run pass the right way. It seems like he's able to not expose the players, um ah what you know, from a from a obvious passing situation type perspective.
00:19:13
Tristan Amundson
And then a couple of those key player upgrades. Man, you you put it all together. You're right. It all is working. um and I like the point you just made to kind of, you know, bigger picture, having a deep team like the Seahawks have.
00:19:29
Tristan Amundson
We were even able to watch Jalen Sundell go down right ah now. Obviously, we did have some issues at center throughout this game. I'm not going to pretend like, you know, we didn't have some some fumbles and we didn't have some bad snaps and whatnot.
00:19:42
Tristan Amundson
But to have a guy of Olu's level to be able to come right in and fill that gap while Jalen is hurt. um To your point, to be able to have a guy of Tyrese Knight's capability come right in and fill the gap of Ernest Jones while he's hurt.
00:20:00
Tristan Amundson
um To have a guy the level of Drake Thomas come in and be able to fill. To be able to have the depth we have around this team. I heard Brock Huard talking about this earlier.
00:20:11
Tristan Amundson
um In fact, earlier today on on their show, he brought up Mark Schlereth, a quote that he had maybe a year ago or so, um it sounded like, where where Mark said, it's a very simple statement, you have to have starters and you have to have backups to be good in the NFL.
00:20:28
Tristan Amundson
Um, sounds really simple, but if you take a step back, what, what he's saying is you have to have good starters and you have to have good backups. You can't just have guys off the street that are are backing up. You have to have a deep, you know, was it 71 man roster, whatever the whole thing is with the practice squad.
00:20:49
Tristan Amundson
You have to have a really deep roster to be able to withstand these moments when you have, major injuries. Right. And the Seahawks seem to have built a very deep, resilient roster so that we can make it through some of these injuries without skipping a beat. Right.
00:21:06
Tristan Amundson
Guys can go down. That's OK. We have the depth to be able to withstand that and and fill that in. We have that next man up um capability. which isn't always the case, but, and and Brock mentioned this earlier, and I think it's worth repeating.
00:21:22
Tristan Amundson
That was the case with those Superbowl teams. That was the case um when the Seahawks were at the height of their powers um that, you know, the off season would come and a lot of Seahawks were getting signed by other teams. The the Seahawks would,
00:21:38
Tristan Amundson
Let, you know, have to reduce their number, their roster right before the season. And those players, you know, tended to get picked up by other teams. We had a really deep roster at the time.
00:21:51
Tristan Amundson
And man, for all intents and purposes, it seems like that's happening. Let me give you two other guys that I think are worth mentioning. Reed goes out in this game, right? he He has to get surgery on his hand. So he's on the IR.
00:22:04
Tristan Amundson
Byron Murphy and Leonard Williams end up playing 72 and 71% of the snaps respectively. Actually, not a crazy number, right? we We've seen those guys playing into the 80s.
00:22:16
Tristan Amundson
So not a crazy percentage for them. But who steps up? Well, it's Peely and it's Mike Morris come in. They play 25 and 24 percent of the snaps respectively.
00:22:29
Tristan Amundson
And really, it didn't look like we skipped a beat too much. There was that one big run we gave up um towards the end of the game, which was kind of a bummer. But it really looks like the depth, even on the defensive line, is showing up with those big bodies.
00:22:44
Tristan Amundson
um Really, really cool to see. I know I just talked a lot, but man, a lot of depth across the line of scrimmage on both sides. A lot of depth. Linebacker.
00:22:55
Tristan Amundson
Pretty incredible.
00:22:57
M dub
Yeah, I did. It took me in the in the second half of this game, i was I did start to realize, okay, wait a minute. The the Seahawks defense is actually pretty injured. you just You just don't think about it or talk about it. But depending on how you classify Jaron Reed, who is maybe not a starter, but a heavy rotation player,
00:23:15
Tristan Amundson
Yep.
00:23:15
Tristan Amundson
Yep.
00:23:15
M dub
The team had four starters out on defense.
00:23:18
M dub
In addition to Reed, you have Josh Jobe, Ernest Jones, and Julian Love all out for this game. Four four of your preferred 11 starters is definitely injured. And just this made me think, I wonder if this this depth thing, maybe as the McDonald era continues to roll on, you know, instead of practice squad, he likes to say ready squad, right? Is that the term he uses? Ready squad?
00:23:42
Tristan Amundson
yep
00:23:43
M dub
I wonder if that will catch on just because a Pro Bowl starter goes down for the Seahawks and there's an undrafted free agent who just comes into their place and and the whole thing keeps rolling on.
00:23:57
M dub
They were on the ready squad. They weren't on the practice squad. They were on the ready squad. i wonder if this is an innovation that will well alter this the history of football.
Seahawks' Ready Squad Philosophy
00:24:06
M dub
What do you think?
00:24:06
Tristan Amundson
Well, you know, it's a it's in some ways a silly thing to say, but in other ways, it's a really true thing to say that you you kind of speak reality into existence, don't you?
00:24:13
M dub
you
00:24:16
Tristan Amundson
Right? If I if i kind of, if if you refer to yourself as, oh yeah, I'm um um'm um the backup of the backups of the backups and you know, ho-hum, I'm just lucky to be here, right? Hey, you know, stay in your place, rookie, all that kind of stuff versus no, man, we believe in you. When is your turn? It's your turn. And we know it's going to be your turn eventually, right? We know we're going to need you.
00:24:42
Tristan Amundson
We want you to be ready to go. So much of life is like that, isn't it, Miles? I mean, in our own lives, in our own experience, you have moments where, When you're taking extreme ownership and responsibility and you're really engaged in your future, man, it makes a massive difference. So I think it's actually ah ah a fairly good point.
00:25:03
Tristan Amundson
um You know, it's i think it's more than just a simple name change, right? That's that's the surface. But but the the the deeper meta level of that is what you're communicating to the player.
00:25:15
M dub
I did say it more like a joke at first. I actually do believe in it. And I think there's even just the title of it. With Practice Squad, you're kind of saying your job is to practice.
00:25:26
M dub
but But with Ready Squad, you're saying, no, your job is to be ready. And we went in-depth last week. We had you know Brandon Peely, Cody White, Tai Okada all making gigantic plays.
00:25:37
M dub
And it ah in this game, there were really strong score-affecting plays. We had George Helani come in. he He got more reps in this game. at running back. We've seen him at special teams a lot.
00:25:50
M dub
He got more reps at running back. He cashes it in with a nice strong touchdown from like nine or so yards out. We also had Nehemiah Pritchett make the play of his young career. He does give up a touchdown later in the game, but at one point the Cardinals do, and this is in the second, the blowout's already on, but the Cardinals do have a fourth down in the red zone.
00:26:10
M dub
And he has a pass breakup to to just stop the touchdown and give the Seahawks the ball. I mean, it's essentially an interception. It's a possession-changing play. It wipes a touchdown off the scoreboard for Arizona.
00:26:23
M dub
So, yeah, I mean, i do think this is a real thing.
00:26:26
Tristan Amundson
That was kind of a Superman pass breakup, too. If you kind of remember and you can picture it, they're in midair and the ball has already been caught. And if I'm remembering, i think he's kind of below. They're both kind of flying through the air and he's below the receiver and he just like punches the ball out at the last minute.
00:26:46
Tristan Amundson
It was really a cool play. Good for him. But to your point, you just named a bunch of
Jackson Smith Njigba's Record-Breaking Season
00:26:51
Tristan Amundson
them, right? I mean, we're talking about guys. that have had that are quote unquote backups that are having big impacts on the game, whether it's Peely, whether it's Okada, whether it's Knight, whether it's Thomas, whether it's Pritchett, that's suddenly becoming whether whether it's Oluwutimi.
00:27:07
Tristan Amundson
um You know, that that list is starting to grow pretty quickly. Right. Cody White, to your point last week. These are all names of of guys that are not on the front end of the roster, quote unquote. But um yeah, they were ready. I think it's a ah pretty cool story. And it's it's fun to be able to talk about those guys all within the know the context of a victory.
00:27:30
M dub
Tristan, can I move to the front end of the Seattle roster? And a certain man named Jackson Smith Njigba. He is compelling us to look into the record books because of what just a completely unbelievable season he is having.
00:27:45
M dub
Tristan, in this game, Jackson Smith Njigba has five catches for 93 yards and one touchdown. It is undeniably incredible game. It is below average for him this year. It drops his season-long average from 118.5 yards per game down to 115.7. He is still on pace to beat Megatron's record for the number of yards received in an NFL season.
00:28:12
M dub
it's ah It's a very slight pace thing. He's on pace to break it by two yards. We'll see how that goes. But Tristan, what really struck stuck out to me this week is... JSN is doing this while ah honestly barely playing any snaps compared to a full-time player.
00:28:30
M dub
Tristan, last year, JSN had 1,130 receiving yards. He's about to pass that in the next couple weeks, but 1,130 yards is a really, really good season. It is, in fact, the 12th best season in Seahawks history.
00:28:49
M dub
ah for yardage. So he did that last year in 948 snaps. This year, he's almost there. He's at 1,041 yards, just about 90 yards behind.
00:29:01
M dub
And he's done it in 386 snaps. So he's he's almost equaled his yardage. He's got about 90% of his yardage in about 30% of the
Sam Darnold's Career Revival
00:29:12
M dub
snaps. He he only played 26 snaps in this game. He only played about 30 total last week.
00:29:19
M dub
and He is doing all of this while really not being out on the football field very often.
00:29:25
Tristan Amundson
What do you say about it? I mean, it's just it's it's unbelievable when you watch a game like this. This was a ho-hum game for Jackson Smith and Jigba. This was OK. Yeah, Jackson had an impact. Ninety eight yards, a touchdown. Right. I mean, and, you know frankly, the game was so out of hand that he basically didn't play, you know, i mean, I don't know.
00:29:46
Tristan Amundson
I'm assuming his last nap was around halfway through the third quarter. Hopefully it was. um I did notice that ah Cooper Cup was in there towards the end of the game and I was starting to get a little upset. I was like, hey, this guy's hamstring just healed. let's Let's get Cooper off his feet. where're We're good here.
00:30:03
Tristan Amundson
um JSN has had such an incredible season that 98 yards and a touchdown or whatever it was, 98-93,
00:30:06
M dub
you
00:30:12
Tristan Amundson
Um, is ho hum. It's just, it's unreal. And his running, his running mate, his, uh, his buddy out there, Sam Darnold is, is having a pretty spectacular year as well.
00:30:24
Tristan Amundson
Obviously kind of a funny, um, little game here from Sam from a, you know, uh, some miscues interception, um, fun fumbled snap. So a couple of things that kind of marred the ah the game on him a little bit. But yeah, it's man, what ah what a privilege it is to watch JSN do what he's doing.
00:30:43
M dub
Well, okay, speaking of Sam Darnold, I mentioned it quickly last week, but I wanted to get into it this week. He is also, it's it's not as clear-cut obvious of a record that we're all watching and monitoring, but nonetheless, there is a place in the NFL record book where Sam Darnold is is really making a statement. So in this game, ah by the way, the Seahawks score 44 points in this game, and here's Sam Darnold's line as the quarterback.
00:31:13
M dub
12 passes attempted, 10 of them completed for 178 yards and one touchdown. Seahawks score, again, 44 points of the game. So for this game, that that works out to 14.8 yards per attempt, which is really great.
00:31:31
M dub
that's we'll just see We'll see just how elite that is. So for this season, Sam Darnold has 9.9 yards attempt. per passing it down In the Super Bowl era, that is tied for the very best mark in the whole season.
00:31:50
M dub
He is tied right now with Kurt Warner, who did that in the year 2000. And funny enough, that was kind of a down year. for the Rams. Kurt Warner was injured for several games and they were, they made the Superbowl on either side of that season.
00:32:05
M dub
But for the moment right now, Sam Darnold is tied in the Superbowl era. Number one in yards per pass attempt. The all-time leader, funny enough, well the like top there's four seasons that were way back in the 40s and 50s, and they really just chucked the ball down there. And they also only played 10-game season at that point. So anyway, the football we would know and recognize, this is this is also a record-breaking performance by Sam Darnold in terms of just being efficient.
00:32:37
Tristan Amundson
It's incredible. No, I mean, and again, right. yeah Go back to the the comment I made about Clint Kubiak. A little underwhelming, right? Underwhelming in the offseason. Oh, Clint Kubiak. OK, nepotism. Great. Here we go.
00:32:51
M dub
Thank you.
00:32:51
Tristan Amundson
um Sam Darnold. Oh, awesome. A retread. You know, why couldn't we keep Gino? He's great. um Now that I wasn't necessarily saying that about Gino, but that was the general, you know, ah malaise of the conversation around the city.
00:33:07
Tristan Amundson
um Au contraire. I mean, Sam has been... I mean, everything that he was and more last year, and it goes to show how important it is for, especially for younger players like that, um to to have good structure around them and and to have a second chance and to be able to um learn from mistakes.
00:33:31
M dub
Thank
00:33:33
Tristan Amundson
But also, I mean, frankly, to to be put in a better situation. I heard, i like I mentioned, I was listening to Mike and and Brock, uh, this morning and they interviewed Colin Cowherd. And he actually said something I thought was very, very, um, insightful.
00:33:49
Tristan Amundson
And he just talked about his own career. He was like, I'm an old guy now I'm 60. I can have a bad boss and I can just work through it. I can work through having a bad boss. It's not that big of a deal. He's like, but when you're in your twenty s you really can't work through having a bad boss. You need to have good bosses in your 20s and in your 30s because you you you are still learning yourself. And isn't that a perfect analogy for Sam? And isn't that a perfect analogy for all of these young quarterbacks that are now succeeding?
00:34:18
Tristan Amundson
They had really bad bosses. they They were new in their career. They had just gotten out of college. They got to the office and they had really bad bosses, bosses that didn't know what they were doing um within bad companies that didn't have a plan and know what they were doing.
00:34:36
Tristan Amundson
Of course, they didn't succeed. um and If you look at it from that perspective, it seems really clear. And I thought Colin nailed it with that thought. And I could relate to that. I can relate to having great bosses when I was younger.
00:34:36
M dub
Thank
00:34:50
Tristan Amundson
And and now, um you know, if I have if I'm having an issue at this point in my career, I can weather it a little bit more because I know who I am. But when you're in your 20s, you can't you don't have the margin for error. I thought it was a really good prescient point.
00:35:04
Tristan Amundson
And um and I think Sam is a is a really good example of it. It's been so cool to see his success and to see it continue. And right now it looks like we have, you know, the quarterback of the future for the Seahawks.
00:35:17
Tristan Amundson
And I don't think anyone thought that I, i frankly, I didn't think that at the beginning of the year I was talking about, Hey, hopefully around mid season, we can start working in Jalen Milrow more, right?
00:35:17
M dub
you
00:35:28
Tristan Amundson
Because we got to see what we have with, with Milrow. He's a very exciting player. Um, At this point in the season, I'm not thinking about seeing Jalen Milrow with all due respect, and hopefully he has a great career. But I'm excited to see Sam Darnold.
00:35:42
Tristan Amundson
Excited. Not, hey, he's a placeholder. Not, hey, he's going to be the the Seahawks quarterback for this year and next, but we really we want a real quarterback. But I'm excited to see him play. His play has been exciting.
00:35:57
Tristan Amundson
Miles, that's not something I thought I would be saying um at the beginning of the season at all. I don't know if like i don't know your thoughts on that. I didn't think I'd be saying that.
00:36:07
M dub
Well, it is a great point with ah you know career, life experience, true you know true life wisdom, and so forth. I do think that as a gigantic NFL community, we maybe got too inside.
00:36:22
M dub
i think we might have outsmarted ourselves. i I just threw out a bunch of stats. I'll throw out a very simple one right now, which is last year, Sam Darnold went fourteen and three And ah collectively, we came up with all sorts of reasons why that wasn't real.
00:36:38
M dub
i think John Schneider just said, ah what if that was actually the most important stat of all? 14 wins and three losses for one season is pretty unbelievable.
00:36:50
M dub
And it's within the realm of possibility to happen again this year.
Preview: Seahawks vs LA Rams
00:36:54
Tristan Amundson
Absolutely. Well, what was the number that you gave the beginning beginning of the season? You kind of had your you took the over um from Vegas's Vegas over under for the season was eight, was it not?
00:37:06
M dub
it It was eight, and i predicted that the Seahawks would win 11 games. I thought I was foolishly optimistic, and at this point, I might be foolishly pessimistic. We'll see how the rest the year goes, but I had predicted an 11-win season.
00:37:21
Tristan Amundson
For all of your betting needs, um just go to Miles. He'll help you with all of your bets. um No, you're you but you were totally right and you nailed it. And I think you're right too. Sometimes we outsmart ourselves and we think about the micro and instead just looking at the macro.
00:37:37
Tristan Amundson
He had a great season last year. um Now, it I don't want to transition us to the next game too quickly, but it does seem like a good time maybe to talk about the next game because...
00:37:49
Tristan Amundson
a lot of Sam Darnold's detractors will point to the game against LA and say, yeah, you know that that was one of the games, right? It was l LA and Detroit where where he struggled and that LA game was the playoff game um where he had a pretty rough game.
00:38:07
Tristan Amundson
And wouldn't you know it, we get a chance to play the LA Rams this week. So I don't know if this is the time or not to transition to that, but it's prescient.
00:38:15
M dub
This is the time. This is the time. Yes, Tristan, next week, the Seahawks go down to Los Angeles to play the Rams. This will be a battle for the first seed in the NFC. These are the two best teams in the NFC right now.
00:38:30
M dub
They're both at 7-2. And Tristan, for me, this game will... This will really determine how I truly feel about the Seahawks year so far. I do think there is a case.
00:38:41
M dub
It looks like a weaker and weaker case as these blowouts happen. But there is a case that the Seahawks haven't really been tested yet. You won't be able to say that after this week. This is ah as real a test as it gets.
00:38:55
M dub
Both these teams are positioning themselves to be... the best Superbowl contenders in the NFC and, uh, uh, definitely not expecting blowout, a win by any means necessary would be completely welcome.
00:39:10
M dub
It will be hard fought if it does happen. And, and Yeah, we'll see how this thing goes. I mean, it it i I wonder if you're feeling the same way that I do that. Okay, we're we're kind of turning a corner in our season now. And I think the Seahawks have have really locked themselves in as somebody, a team that's going to be in the playoffs for sure.
00:39:32
M dub
And now we're going to figure out, okay, how serious is is this team going to be inside the playoffs?
00:39:37
Tristan Amundson
Well, and and to me, this game really is going to come down to the protection, right? Everything that you just mentioned, everything, my silly ballet analogy, that whole piece of the play calling and the protection and the quarterback and the receivers,
00:39:53
Tristan Amundson
all working together um to succeed, right? To keep Sam from getting destroyed. He has 10 sacks on the season, to your point. and And this will probably be, i mean, Houston, really, their their defensive line was a great test. um Very, very strong defensive line.
00:40:11
Tristan Amundson
Tampa Bay clearly has a great defensive line. Vita Vea and company. But now you look at this defensive line, Fisk versus young, good, hungry defensive line, great scheme.
00:40:21
M dub
Thank you.
00:40:24
Tristan Amundson
This is going to be a massive challenge. And I really think that, I mean, it's it's not that big of a thing to say, I guess, in football, because most games are won on the offensive and defensive line.
00:40:35
Tristan Amundson
But if you just look at what happened to Sam Darnold last year in the playoffs, and if you just look at his, um the way he was attacked by this Rams defense or last year's Ram defense,
00:40:49
Tristan Amundson
um, in the playoffs and and the amount of sacks that he had to go through. And the fact that you're telling me that a lot of our success is tied to Sam Darnold has only been sacked 10 times.
00:41:02
Tristan Amundson
Well, here we go. Right. I mean, this seems like the crucible moment of, you know, can we maintain that at this point of the year with this kind of competition?
00:41:15
M dub
Yeah, absolutely. I did want to shout out Matthew Stafford being in this division for so long. It's become really annoying. Tristan, there was a light at the end of the tunnel this offseason, a rumor that he was going to retire. That turned out not to be true. There were rumors this preseason that he wasn't going to be healthy.
00:41:36
M dub
That turned out not to be true. Tristan, all time in NFL history, Matthew Stafford is eighth in passes completed, ninth in passing yards, ninth in passing touchdowns, and fifth in game-winning drives.
00:41:49
M dub
It is really annoying to have somebody like that in your division. But funny enough, after all of that, Tristan, with the Rams winning last week, this was the very first time in Stafford's career that he got up to 500.
00:42:03
M dub
He's 115, 115-1, and he's 5-5 in the playoffs. Those early years with the Lions put him down in such a deep hole. Despite being top 10 in all those categories, he is 500 in his career for the first time.
00:42:18
M dub
Hopefully, he's not above 500 with this game. but this game
00:42:21
Tristan Amundson
Man, yeah. I mean, it's dude, it's going to be such a fun game. And I mean, that it has the potential to be the game of the year. It really does. um And if not, the game when we play them again in December has the potential to be that.
00:42:35
Tristan Amundson
I think it's going to be such a fun, exciting game. um SoFi is a great stadium. It's a great venue. It's a great place to to play football. um but I'm very excited to see the result of this game and and to see how how the cookie crumbles. But um Matthew Stafford's having he I mean, you you talk about MVP type years. He's having an MVP type year.
00:42:35
M dub
Thank you.
00:42:58
Tristan Amundson
um that This will be an unbelievably great test. But I'll tell you what, another great test was Tampa Bay, and that was a fun game. So hopefully we have another one of those.
00:43:09
Tristan Amundson
Be great if we come out on the the victor side. um But yeah, it's it's going to be an incredible matchup. Great defensive line, strong defense, really dynamic offense.
00:43:21
Tristan Amundson
um They have totally reloaded in a way that none of us expected. They they reloaded very fast. did the Rams and um they look pretty good. So it's it's going to be a fun matchup. Should be good for football ah in general, just a fun football game.
00:43:36
M dub
I did think that this week the Seahawks had some Rashid Shahid plays dialed up. they They had some jet sweeps. I think they had some passes dialed up. And Tristan, I do think they kept it in their back pocket for this week so the Rams wouldn't be able to see it. what do you think about that?
00:43:52
Tristan Amundson
Yeah, no, I mean, I hope they did. i hope they have a couple of tricks. And then, you know, also think about this. This was a really fun. you You want to talk about, you know, the the term revenge games gets thrown around quite a bit um in in sports. But this is actually one of those interesting kind of revenge games. You know Cooper Cup left the Rams unceremoniously and he is one of their best players. what he He was one of their best players.
00:44:21
Tristan Amundson
um And the fact that he he left the way he did with I don't think that the best um farewell. I think the Rams didn't really handle that very well. I think they're a good organization that that stumbled a bit that time.
00:44:35
Tristan Amundson
um Yeah, I think I think there's a little extra juice with with Cooper this week, which is interesting. It would be kind of fun to. to hear about um as we as we get his press conference later on in the week.
00:44:46
Tristan Amundson
um Ernest Jones, right? I mean, maybe a little less bad blood, but another guy they they shipped away. So, um yeah, there's a little bit of extra, I think, in this game and ah so plenty of storylines for the media to to cover will be be a fun one.
Reflecting on Seahawks vs Cardinals Rivalry
00:45:03
M dub
Tristan, that is a storyline from the present. Can I take you to a storyline from the past since this is the 50th year in Seahawks history and we take 50 seconds in Seahawks history each episode?
00:45:16
M dub
What do you think?
00:45:16
Tristan Amundson
I would love it.
00:45:18
M dub
ah Tristan, the Seahawks have played 821 games in their history. I recommend been watching binge watching them all. They have won 426. They've lost 394. they've lost three hundred and ninety four And that leaves exactly one tie. It came in 2016 to this same opponent, the Arizona Cardinals.
00:45:37
M dub
After overtime, the score was tied at 6-6, and it was on Sunday Night Football, so the entire country got to watch it. Crazy enough, the teams combined for 700 yards of offense, and the Cardinals contributed 443 yards of offense, zero turnovers across the game. So somehow, I don't know how, we got this incredibly low score,
00:45:59
M dub
The Cardinals were leading 3-0 late in the fourth quarter. The Hawks block a punt. They can't advance the ball, but Stephen Hauschka can tie it up at three three Then in overtime, both teams score another field goal each on their first possession.
00:46:13
M dub
That takes it to 6-6, but we have to keep on going. Then near the end of overtime, Arizona misses just a 28-yard field goal that would have won it. Stephen Hauschka has an opportunity to chip in the victory with a 24-yard field goal.
00:46:27
M dub
yard field goal which he misses, and that leaves us with a beautiful tie. And because of this, the only NFL team that's never tied again is the Jacksonville Jaguars.
00:46:38
M dub
What a moment in Seahawks history against this opponent. A few less points on the field than 44-222.
00:46:45
Tristan Amundson
Yeah, I mean, and you know, there have been a few really good games against Arizona over the years, right? We think about Beast Quake number two. You think about that beautiful. um I can't even remember that the score of this game, but I remember a beautiful period, um insane, classic Russell Wilson game.
00:47:06
Tristan Amundson
ah pass play to Doug Baldwin up the sidelines. That that was really, really fun. um Let's see. You think about ah DK Metcalf running down Buda Baker.
00:47:17
Tristan Amundson
um you know There's been a lot of great moments against this team. and And yeah, man, I mean, this is just the latest. And I'm glad this one didn't end in a tie.
00:47:28
Tristan Amundson
um But it's surprising that we've had so few ties. You would imagine over the course of yeah that many years, you'd have a lot more. um Did that surprise you? That that surprises me that that there hasn't been many more. I know ties are fairly rare, but not that rare.
00:47:45
M dub
Yeah, well, it seems like it's one tie, and it seems like it shouldn't have happened. So I'm not sure what... I'm not sure if that was likely or unlikely, because... It does seem likely that ties would happen, but that has to be one of the most unlikely ties ever for the back-to-back field goal misses and just all these yards of offense.
00:48:05
M dub
ah mean the No turnovers in the whole game doesn't really make any sense. And you only get two field goals in regulation after all that.
00:48:13
Tristan Amundson
Pretty wild. Yeah, that that's really funny. That's a lot of good and mixed memories, I guess, with playing against this Arizona team. um We never played the Chicago Cardinals. That would have been nice. We never got a chance to to to have that rivalry.
00:48:29
Tristan Amundson
um or the St. Louis Cardinals, but we we like the Arizona version. that's ah it's It's a good team, and every time we play down there, it seems very loud.
00:48:39
Tristan Amundson
Seahawks fans travel very well, um and and it was nice, by the way, for us to to get a home win right in this game and put it away. But...
00:48:50
Tristan Amundson
um Another great episode, man. You know, um you know, I heard um that there was a hawk and um a little cardinal that were flying together, which I thought was kind of cute now up in Seattle this weekend. And and the The Cardinal said something really surprising and ah in a very high, squeaky voice. Can you can you venture a guess what potentially that Cardinal whispered into the ear of the Hawk? The Cardinal didn't want to say it too loud because it'd be embarrassing if too many people heard heard what he said.
00:49:25
M dub
Such a harmonious moment in nature. have no idea. What did he say?
00:49:29
Tristan Amundson
um i'm um'm I'm going to do my best to um mimic the cardinal in its natural form. But was something like, go Hawks.
00:49:39
M dub
Kill Hawks!