Alexander "The not so Great"

[skinstzar]

I myself am usually not a huge believer in stats, however as I started to look into the season of Shaun Alexander I began to realize why the Seahags haven't been so eager to re-up him and keep him around long term. Alexander’s season totals are as follows.

370 carries
1880 yards
27 TDs

Awesome numbers no doubt. Now let’s look into the defenses that Alexander went up against. Here are some interesting tidbits.

-Did you know that Alexander faced only one of the top 10 defenses in the league? That defense was the Arizona Cardinals. They are ranked exactly 10th in rush defense. Oh, he played them twice.

-Did you know that the average rushing defensive rank of Alexander's opponents is 18th. That right. 18th.

A casual football fan might say so what to the above mentioned stats. Maybe he rushed well against the upper echelon teams that he played against. Well here are his numbers against rushing defenses ranked 10-15

NY- Ranked 11th in rush D. Couldn't find the total number but the entire team only had 127 yards on 34 carries and they played an extra quarter

Wash- Ranked 12th in rush D. He had 20 carries 98 yards

Jax- Ranked 13th 14 carries 73 yards

Dallas- Ranked 15th 21 carries 61 yards

Wow that is impressive right? So where did he get all of his yards? He did play 6 games against the NFC West. In those six games he got 820 of his 1880 yards. Again, this is against teams the likes of SF, ranked 16th in rush defense, St Louis ranked 29th, played them twice. Sprinkle on top a little bit of Houston ranked dead last at 32nd in the league he got 141 of his 1880 right there and 4 touchdowns. Interesting note, Maurice Morris also had over 100 yards in that game for the Seasluts. WHO? Muarice Morris?

I think we can all agree that the Seahawks motor is fueled by Alexander. The pundits sit atop their thrones at ESPN and SI, claiming "Alexander the Great", "Alexander the Great". These pontificators are paid insane amounts of money to do the research, find the facts. Know a bit about what the vomit they spew from their flapping gums. I don't have access to the tools that these fools do. I don’t have all the time in the day to spend on such trivial things. I simply followed the two links listed below to find everything I ever needed to know about Shaun Alexander's magical season. The experts are merely a bunch of sycophants who drool over anyone they deem to be great. It is sickening and it is an insult to good fans. Fans like us fans of the greatest team in the history of sport. Fans who know of what they speak.

http://www.nfl.com/stats/teamsort/NF...G/2005/regular

http://www.nfl.com/teams/schedule/SEA

We should respect the Seahawks, but by no means should we feel like we can't win this game. Don't fall victim to the media hype behind one Shaun Alexander. He is a fraud.

Sorry for the long post.

[PhoenixSkinsFan]

Good post. I think everyone can agree they have benefited from their soft and weak schedule.

Maybe after this week, the mediots will recognize exactly what we have going for us this year.

You can make a parellell to NCAA Hoops and easy non-conference schedules. They'll go undefeated in their easy games then lose to a decent team. UConn and Lville ring a bell.

[NattyLight]

Good facts.

18 Touchdown (7 games). 12 were against the 32nd, 31st, and 30th ranked defense. The other 6 were against the Cardinals.

[bnacpa]

Great stuff ... I never stopped to add up the yards he got against the weaker run defenses .... interesting how about 1,000 of his yards came against the NFC West and Houston. Hopefully we hold him to 100 + 1 TD or less .... I agree with the posts that say that the main concern is Hasselback. He is very streaky and can get over confident ... so if we get him rattled early, hopefully we will have a big day.

The other thing we need to do is stop playing so conservatively. We need to sustain long drives by changing up play calling so that we don't have so many 3 and outs. The thing that really really scares me is how many 3rd and longs we converted against Seattle. It was a fluke for our team to convert so many ... considering that we have struggled for the most part all season unless beating up on a team like San Francisco. I hope that we come out blazing and that we don't let up. Having a very very strong offensive performance (4 TD's or more) would shut up the media and really intimidate the team we face next weekend.

[skinstzar]

The reason I couldn't find the rushing stats for Alexander in the Giants game was because the only mention of Alexander in the recap was this

"In that opening half, the Giants' slanting and scheming defense throttled the Seahawks' top-ranked offense. New York followed Dallas' successful script of last month by shoving as many as nine defenders close to the line of scrimmage against NFL rushing leader Shaun Alexander, daring Seattle to win through the air."

We all know that if the Seafairies go to the air against us they are going to get smacked. ST is pissed and we are finally close to healthy at D-back.

[Bigmuss1]

Nice post, however they did finish with 13 wins and that is tough to do in the nfl. I completely agree, we need to go out there with respect, but certainly not fear. They need to fear the white on white!!!

[The Top Cat]

Hawks fan here.

The secret to SA's success is threefold.

1. Walter Jones LT (All Pro)
2. Steve Hutchinson LG (All Pro)
3. Mack Strong FB (All Pro)

SA isn't chopped liver either though, but the left side of the Seattle line is totally legit and Strong is a great blocking back.

[NOVA2Tampa]

Nice post, however they did finish with 13 wins and that is tough to do in the nfl. I completely agree, we need to go out there with respect, but certainly not fear. They need to fear the white on white!!!

True, they did finish 13-3, but the Redskins could have easily finished 13-3...we had the Tampa Bay, Oakland, and San Diego games won, but let them slip away at the end. NFW Seattle goes 13-3 if they were in the NFC Beast!

[PhoenixSkinsFan]

Hawks fan here.

The secret to SA's success is threefold.

1. Walter Jones LT (All Pro)
2. Steve Hutchinson LG (All Pro)
3. Mack Strong FB (All Pro)

SA isn't chopped liver either though, but the left side of the Seattle line is totally legit and Strong is a great blocking back.

SA, 1, 2, and 3 all benefit from soft D-lines also. Keep trying though.

[NattyLight]

Hawks fan here.

The secret to SA's success is threefold.

1. Walter Jones LT (All Pro)
2. Steve Hutchinson LG (All Pro)
3. Mack Strong FB (All Pro)

SA isn't chopped liver either though, but the left side of the Seattle line is totally legit and Strong is a great blocking back.

Agreed. It's going to be hard knock blocking that is going to be the key to Alexanders success. If your O-line can out last our D-line. Alexander will be productive. However, I don't see him breaking many as our LB's are really amped about life.

[Truant]

He did pretty well against us and could have done more if they weren't losing.

He is a quality back behind a great line, so i'm not sure if I see the "not so great" part... but I hope you're right.

[regularjoe]

Hawks fan here.

The secret to SA's success is threefold.

1. Walter Jones LT (All Pro)
2. Steve Hutchinson LG (All Pro)
3. Mack Strong FB (All Pro)

SA isn't chopped liver either though, but the left side of the Seattle line is totally legit and Strong is a great blocking back.

Honestly, if I had to pick one key to the game, it's here.

Daniels/Salave'a/Arrington or Washington must at least be able to battle to a draw here.

I think Jones is the real deal at LT and better than Samuels.

[skinstzar]

Hawks fan here.

The secret to SA's success is threefold.

1. Walter Jones LT (All Pro)
2. Steve Hutchinson LG (All Pro)
3. Mack Strong FB (All Pro)

SA isn't chopped liver either though, but the left side of the Seattle line is totally legit and Strong is a great blocking back.

The left side of your O-line is phenomenal. We just have the guys to fill the gaps. Lavar Arrington will blow up your guard-Tackle gap and our pure speed and pursuit will stop Alexander all day long. Sean Taylor, Ryan Clark, Carlos Rogers, Walt Harris, Shawn Springs. These guys play the run better than any secondary in the league. They are always around the line in support and will make it a very long day for Mr. Alexander.

Keep in mind that Shawn Springs knows Mike Holmgren and this offense in and out. You give Gregg Williams an insider like that and you can forget about it. On to Chicagolina.

[darrell1106]

Hawks fan here.

The secret to SA's success is threefold.

1. Walter Jones LT (All Pro)
2. Steve Hutchinson LG (All Pro)
3. Mack Strong FB (All Pro)

SA isn't chopped liver either though, but the left side of the Seattle line is totally legit and Strong is a great blocking back.

And guess who's side of the field that belongs to................#56 Lavar Arrington....Tell SA to not let up when he sees that train coming because right behind him will be Lemar, than MW and ST will finish him off. I hope he enjoys that left side

[prophet]

any skins fan that says alexander is a joke... is pretty much a football moron.

alexander is one of the top 3 rbs in the nfl. I don't care what schedule he had. You don't put up 1800 & almost 30 tds on acident.