Sunday, October 21, 2012

Does the road of Russellmania end with another cliff?



I confess it: I’ve lived in Washington for twenty years and it still feels in many ways like a foreign country to me, partly because I’m a native-born citizen who some bigoted types treat like an inconsequential foreigner yet somehow a “threat” to current order of the world, and because the environs outside of narcissistic Seattle seems rather provincial and reactionary, like in the days of McCabe & Mrs. Miller. Maybe it is because it is stuck so far from the cradle of civilization. Consider: Wisconsin, where for better or worse I survived my “formative” years, has roughly the same population as Washington, yet its state university system is one of the largest and most respected in the nation—serving at last count 182,000 students at 13 four-year institutions and as many more freshman-sophomore colleges. Washington, on the other hand, ranks near the bottom in the nation in its financial support of higher education, the percentage of in-state students attending four-year institutions (the University of Washington "system" has the main campus and two piddly "branches"), and is so chronically underfunded that annual tuition hikes are out-of-control and schools actively (even if they say they don’t) recruit swarms of overseas students from Asia at the expense of “native” students in order to overcome budget shortfalls.

One of those students who had the good fortune to take advantage of the University of Wisconsin system was, of course, Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson. Wilson is very fortunate in more ways than one; playing for the Badgers, he was able to take advantage of a stout offensive line and running game, which allowed him to improve his passing efficiency which was clearly pedestrian at North Carolina State, and unlikely to impress if he had chosen to play for Auburn. Wilson was also fortunate in that the NCAA ignored the spirit of its “graduate transfer” rules in granting Wilson a waiver to play another year of college football without sitting out a year. After a series of abuses, the NCAA changed the rule to allow transfers only for academic, not athletic reasons. This was clearly not the case for Wilson, who after a mediocre “career” as a minor league baseball player in the Colorado Rockies farm system, decided to return to NC State to play football for his remaining year of eligibility. But the coach thought it was unfair for Wilson to suddenly decide to return when his replacement had been working all summer preparing for the starting position, and for all intents and purposes forced him out. The problem for Wilson, of course, was that no team drafted him in the 2011 NFL draft. His decision to return to football was an act of desperation, and as Badgers’ basketball coach Bo Ryan legitimately complained, Wilson was not a “student” but the kind of sports “mercenary” that made mock of NCAA credibility.

But I’m not here to critique Wilson just because few people realize how  fortunate he is to be in the position he finds himself in. I’m a life-long Green Bay Packer and Badger fan who suffered twenty years of mostly football futility until the Brett Favre and Barry Alvarez eras. For some reason I just can’t get all that pumped-up about the Seahawks (probably because of its lack of “tradition”), but frankly, if I really hated the Seahawks I would be all in on this Russellmania nonsense, so I can chuckle at this team in devilish delight as it follows the pied piper into football oblivion, after tossing aside a better quarterback, Matt Flynn, like a wet rag. Josh Levin, executive editor of Slate, who despite believing that Wilson may have “potential,” pointed out the we have seen this story before. Remember Rick Mirer? The second overall pick in 1993? Sure you do (or don’t want to). Levin dug-up this golden nugget, courtesy of former Seattle P-I sports columnist Art Thiel, after consecutive victories over New England, Cincinnati and San Diego early in his rookie season:

“Seahawk fans … haven't seen a three-game win streak in three seasons. Then again, they have not seen a Seahawk quarterback like Rick Mirer in 18 years.” As proof, Thiel quoted San Diego cornerback Donald Frank: "It's hard when a quarterback can scramble like that. Right now Steve Young stands out, and the guy who's moving up is Mirer. I think he made all the difference."

Want to know a funny thing? The funny thing is that Mirer “peaked” his rookie season, and was allowed start all 16 games just to prove he wasn’t “the guy” after all. Like Wilson, Mirer’s perceived liabilities were supposedly compensated for by his athleticism and “leadership.” As for Wilson, well, the local media is of hopelessly gaga over him, and it is going to take a sledgehammer to knock some sense into these people. This team has won three of its four games by a grand total of 7 points, despite a stellar defense; this team has won games in spite of—not because of—Wilson. 

Against a bottom-dwelling pass defense like the Patriots, Wilson was mostly mediocre until the Patriots DBs made the mistake of not watching game film and realizing that while Wilson is mostly not very good on short and intermediate routes (because of his height issue?), that doesn’t mean he can’t throw a nifty long ball. But against a superior defense like the 49ers, Wilson was just horrible, and no amount of excuse-making and media apologias is going to disguise that fact. I don’t care if a couple of balls were dropped; that is part of the game, and not all balls that look “perfect” are: The pass that Robert Turbin “dropped” off his fingertips was not a well-thrown ball, and brought back memories of Joe Kapp. The Golden Tate drop was not a “game-changer,” considering the inability of the Seahawk offense to move most of the game. Every quarterback is hurt by drops, and some more than others—just ask Aaron Rodgers, who supposedly has one of the best receiving corps in the game; statistically, the Seahawk receivers have one the lowest drops-per-pass averages in the league. And dropped passes don’t mean that you crawl into a shell; most of those 10 incompletions in 13 attempts that Wilson finished the game with were just plain misfires. When Wilson completed 14 of 16 in the first half against Carolina, what was the excuse for him going 5 of 9 in the second half with 2 interceptions? Much more relevant is that terrible interception Wilson threw in triple coverage; what no one in the local media is talking about is Sidney Rice waving his arms in frustration as Wilson missed him all alone on the play. 

One caller on the local radio station complained that Rice wasn’t catching the balls that he caught with Brett Favre. Well, here is a news flash for you: Wilson is not Favre, and in all honesty it is not being fair to Wilson to make such a comparison, since it only inflates expectations even beyond what they are now. And as long as we are on the subject of Favre, I have criticized offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell in the past, but let’s be fair: The only decent quarterback he has had to work with was Favre, and as I pointed out, the only season he was offensive coordinator that the team finished above 23rd in total offense was in 2009, when it finished fifth in yardage and second in points scored  with a healthy, motivated Favre. The “other” guy was Tarvaris Jackson, and now it is Wilson, who I regard as little more than a “version” of T-Jack. 

And what of Matt Flynn? I again say that Flynn was jobbed by Pete Carroll and the local media. As mediocre as Wilson’s play is, the “best” you can hear from the local media about a Flynn alternative is that “we don’t know” what he will do, and the “don’t know” focusses mainly on the negative possibility. Yet Flynn played lights-out in his two starts with only one week of preparation—and Wilson has shown little real growth, despite what his cheerleaders say. If I were Flynn and his agent, if the Seahawks continue to be mesmerized out of all proportion with Wilson and can’t see their own hands in front of their faces, should explore trade possibilities to a team more serious about giving him the opportunity he has proven he deserves.

No comments:

Post a Comment