I hope Mike trgovac,carolina defensive co ordinator is reading this.

August 30, 2007

This is how home-game Saturdays go for Seattle’s three-time Pro Bowl quarterback. His wife, Sarah, takes the kids out of the house. Hasselbeck hits the playbook and watches the opponent’s recently televised games, looking for clues not found in the snap-to-whistle clips NFL teams assemble from elevated sideline and end-zone cameras.

Right away Hasselbeck noticed something he only could have seen on the televised version.

Carolina tended to open games in the “Bear” defense made famous by Buddy Ryan. The opposing offense would adjust, and someone on the Panthers would call an audible.

Move!” the defender would yell, and the Panthers would get into their preferred defense, leaving the offense at a disadvantage. This is when the team-shot video would normally pick up, but the broadcast version exposed the Panthers’ tactics.

“NFC Championship Game, first play, I couldn’t believe it, they lined up in a Bear defense,” Hasselbeck said. “And in that same voice I heard on TiVo, I go, ‘Move!’ “

The Panthers moved. And we lost the fucking superbowl.

I think tom brady is doing the same thing.

Oh and why ken lucas is so good…

The Seahawks acquired Hasselbeck from Green Bay in 2001, the year they used a second-round draft choice on cornerback Ken Lucas. Both players struggled at times early in their careers, and Hasselbeck wanted to help. But he nearly came to regret taking Lucas into the video room for a detailed look at which pass routes to expect from specific formations and personnel groupings.

“One of the things that I had shared with him was, ‘Here’s how you can know 100 percent of the time when we’re running a slant with that receiver,’ ” Hasselbeck said. “The reason I showed that to him is because there are teams around the league that do the same thing, so if you learn our offense, you learn other teams’ offenses in the process.”

Hasselbeck was having second thoughts about his approach to mentoring when preparing to face Lucas and the Panthers in that NFC title game. “I’m a little nervous about this,” he told Zorn before the game.

Zorn talked it over with Holmgren and offensive coordinator Gil Haskell. They decided to replicate the conditions Hasselbeck outlined to Lucas, with two significant twists. They would have backup quarterback Seneca Wallace line up as the primary receiver, and they would have Wallace run a slant-and-go, hoping Lucas would jump the slant.

The result was a 28-yard completion to Wallace, a pivotal play in Seattle’s first touchdown drive.

The Seahawks’ victory left Carolina’s John Fox and staff to coach Hasselbeck and the NFC squad in the Pro Bowl. Someone should have bought them a TiVo subscription instead.

Oh we will be waiting for you Seattle Seahawks. we will be waiting for you.

From Espn.

Posted in Julius Peppers, Mike Trgovac, Zone blocking scheme, panthers Defense