TERRY MOSHER
I have enough worries to never have to worry about worrying. I’m not going to worry about the Seahawks, however. The NFL has worked hard to make for a well-balanced league and make it difficult for franchises to dominate like Green Bay did back in the days of Vince Lombardi. Owners have done that by instituting the salary cap, making it difficult for a team to retain its best players over any length of time.
So I can’t worry about the Seahawks’ effort to get back to a third straight Super Bowl. Chances are good that the Hawks won’t, so if they lose games here and three I’m not going to jump off the Warren Avenue Bridge in despair.
I do enjoy watching the games because I try what teams are trying to do to each other, and that gives me a chance to use my brain a little. For example, Chicago coach John Fox figured out early in the week leading up to the Bears playing at Seattle that they had to establish a running game without regular quarterback Jay Cutler, who was sidelined with a hamstring injury, forcing the Bears to go with little used Jimmy Clausen.
It was a good strategy, but I think Fox also knew that it would only work for so long before the Hawks clamped down on the run and force Clausen to pass. When that finally arrived, the Bears were done. There was no way they were going to win what turned out to be an anti-climatic contest that laid bare the Bears’ problems.
What I clearly have not figured out yet is why the Hawks always seem to start slowly and finish good in the second half’s. My guess right now is that Pete Carroll and his staff does an excellent job of making halftime adjustments, resulting better second-half production.
But that also begs the question as to why opponents can put the clamps on the Hawks first half? I would think the Hawks self-scout themselves so that they are prepared for what they believe the opponent is going to do and have a counter ready for that from the opening whistle.
Maybe now, though. Maybe opponents are better prepared to start games and it takes Carroll and his staff to have a mad genius huddle at halftime to get things corrected.
The thing that I feared (and wrote about earlier) is happening to Marshawn Lynch. Beast Mode already is physically breaking down, and that coupled with a rebuilt and inexperienced offensive line is causing the Hawks to move to a more passing mode. This is exactly what opponents would prefer to see. I don’t believe the Hawks have premier wideouts, although if they can get tight end Jimmy Graham built more into the offense that could be offset a little bit.
Regardless, the Hawks are going to have to find better offensive production, and do it probably without a consistent effort from Lynch. That may mean Russell Wilson may have to do much more than they have asked from him so far.
The bottom line, this is going to make my watching future Hawk games interesting. And that is all I’m asking, because I’m not going to worry rather they win or not.
The following is not a real worry. Ok, it’s a half-worry. I’ve been watching the bombastic Donald Trump closely, as have you and many others, and I find him amusing. I don’t believe I have ever seen anybody with as big an ego. He truly believes everything he has done and will do is great. Not good. Great.
Until last night when I watched him on 60 Minutes I was not worried about him. He’s too much of a joke, too much of an idiot, to be taken serious. But he said a few things on the show that got me to thinking that at his core he’s hard core ad extreme nationalist and I’m half-worried.
Not only would he kick out all the illegals he would put up a big (and beautiful) war along the Mexican border would put a tariff tax on imports, especially those from China, would rip up the NAFTA free trade treaty and impose a tax on American companies building their products in other countries when they tried to sell them here.
This is protectionism and isolationism and would cause all sorts of trouble because countries affected by some of these things would counter with their own tariffs. We would be starting an international export-import war.
I think we are entering into an age when the world is becoming smaller and smaller and we have to balance our own interests with those around us. We can’t isolate ourselves from the world order, and we can’t try to be a bully and expect things will be great, the word that Trump overuses.
I’m half-worried because some of what Trump expounds is hitting a sensitive chord among some of us and if his song becomes a national hit and he gets elected as president I’m afraid the world will soon plunge into chaos and fire.
Half of me, though, think his bombastic ways and his big ego will eventually be his downfall and I and the world will be safe from him. But you never know, and that is a haunting thought.
Anyway, that is enough for today. I’m going to go watch football and see what I can pick up that the two teams will be trying to do to each other.
Be well pal.
Be careful out there.
Have a great day.
You are loved.