As the world awaits the outcome of the presidential election Tuesday, Pete Carroll is prepping to answer questions from players Wednesday. Even then, it’s not over ’til it’s over.
Author: Art Thiel
Art Thiel
Never having met a metaphor he could not twist beyond recognition, Art has been illuminating, agitating, amusing and annoying Puget Sound sports readers for a long time. Along with Steve Rudman, he co-founded Sports Press Northwest because it didnt seem right that the Google monster should aggregate daily journalism into oblivion without at least a flesh wound from somebody. Thiel and Rudman labored under the Seattle Post-Intelligencer globe until the print edition died an undeserved death in March, 2009. Art continued on at its online successor seattlepi.com while working on SPNWs creation. His radio commentaries can be heard Friday and Saturday mornings and Friday afternoon on KPLU-FM 88.9. In 2003 he wrote the definitive book about the Seattle Mariners, Out of Left Field, which became a regional bestseller. In 2009, along with Rudman and KJR 950 afternoon host Mike Gastineau, Thiel authored The Great Book of Seattle Sports Lists, a cross between historylink.org and Mad Magazine that has become mandatory reading for any sports fan who has an indoor bathroom. A graduate of Pacific Lutheran University as well as two dead papers and a live one, the News Tribune of Tacoma, he has become a fan of entrepreneurial online journalism because it allows him to continue a lifelong passion to take the English language to places it rarely visits willingly, and does not involve the cleaning of kennels or stables.
In rookies and newbies, the Seahawks found help where they needed it to pull away from the 49ers, 37-27. They also may have discovered the makings of a credible defense.
Aggressive at the start, offense faded vs AZ. Same thing vs. 49ers on the final drive Dec. 30. With a bad defense in the NFC West, Seahawks have no choice but to go full blast.
Benched in Cincinnati, DE Carlos Dunlap, one of the NFL’s top pass rushers, was available for cheap. The Seahawks made a deal for a fix desperately needed. But not for Sunday.
Seahawks’ top three running backs came up hurting after the Arizona loss. Another talent shortfall that might inspire Russell Wilson to over-compensate? Nah, says Pete Carroll.
Seahawks can’t live on pyrotechnics alone. The Arizona Cardinals exposed that truth when they put up 196 yards and 13 points on their last four possessions to shred Seattle’s defense, 37-34.
With no positive tests, Seahawks so far have averted trouble. But discipline is harder to come by in college football, where Florida coach Dan Mullen wears the national dunce cap.
Antonio Brown said all the right things to Russell Wilson. But Amazon would have to clear a warehouse to handle Brown’s baggage. This season is too fragile to add tension.
Former Huskies star Budda Baker is helping make Arizona’s defense among the best in the NFL. He could have done same for Seahawks, but in 2017 they thought they had a better idea.
Given the meagerness of the Seahawks’ five victims, the case can be made that the regular season begins Sunday in Arizona. The last Cardinals matchup did not go well.