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