From
Reddit:
Wonderfully eye-opening analysis of the whole thing by Brock and Dungy on the radio just now. Here's their take after watching the all-22 film:
1. The Seahawks have a coverage in which the outside CBs play man-to-man, and the inside defenders play zone.
2. This coverage has an inherent weakness if the offense clears out the CBs by running those outside receivers to the inside, and then wheeling inside receivers to the outside and then down the sideline.
3. Quinn, obviously knowing this, on multiple occasions ran offense plays that would take advantage of the weakness - if he guessed right on the coverage. This worked (he guessed right) - twice. In fact, according to Dungy on the long TDs Ryan had receivers wide-open down BOTH sidelines, not just Sherman's.
4. Had Kam been playing, it is (more) likely that he would recognize a formation that could take advantage of the weakness (Brock said 3-by-1 sets) and he would have audibled out of it.
5. McCray simply is not as familiar with the defense to the point that he knows to check out of the defense.
6. Sherman, therefore, was upset because that coverage should not be called absent Kam.
I think this explanation is consistent with the evidence. I think I can even recall seeing Chris Richard, in trying to calm Sherman, pointing to himself as if saying "that was on me," and I think I saw a glimpse of his whiteboard showing the route combinations discussed by Brock and Dungy.
When asked if this somehow provides a "blue print" for beating our defense, the answer is obviously other teams will attempt to guess right in the same way, but it can be fixed by simply not making "risky" calls without Kam in there to check out of it when the offense gives unfavorable looks. The real downside is that we may have to play more vanilla without Kam.
My prediction, however, is that if Kam does not play, we will see more straight man-to-man and rushing 5 or 6. It's what worked to a charm against the Falcons in the 4th quarter when we needed stops. It should work even better with Bennett and Clark in the mix rushing Palmer, who is less mobile than Ryan.
EDIT: I think this is the link:
Podcast Player - sports.MyNorthwest.com
