We pick up the action with 11:50 remaining in the first. Jordan Kent hauls in Matt Hasselbeck's touch pass for the score.

• Nate Burleson runs a very tight diagonal left then horizontal into the flat route that causes confusion and hesitation by the safety and corner and allows Kent to get behind both and be open for the easy reception. It's a level of precision and discipline I'm not used to seeing from Burly.
• The closest thing to legitimate pressure by Seattle's front four was accomplished on Minnesota's second play from scrimmage. Bernard, able to isolate Anthony Herrera, wins his matchup and forces a hold before breaking into the pocket. For the rest of quarter, Seattle's pass rush was nearly non-existent.
• Fumble recoveries are luck--not always. The forced fumble and Seattle's subsequent fumble recovery featured that perennial MVP: the team. It's first and 20. Minnesota is set in a four WR,single TE formation. Seattle deploys nickel coverage. At the snap, the Hawks rush three, optioning Brandon Mebane into a short middle zone. Tarvaris Jackson targets Visanthe Shiancoe, a major mistake. Shiancoe is not tightly covered but sits in the middle of three Seahawks zones. After the reception, Hill and Tatupu close in. Hill hitting from the offensive right forces the ball loose. Tatupu, fractions of a second later, hits from the offensive left, forcing the ball out. Mebane strikes from the back, leveling Shiancoe and removing any chance of an offensive recovery. Grant grabs the loose ball, but half a dozen Seahawks could have collapsed on the ball before a Viking was within five yards of the fumble. Over the past two seasons, Seattle's gang tackling has elevated its ability to force fumbles.
• Next play. Seattle breaks with a three WR, single TE, RB set. Minnesota is in a base 4-3. At the snap, Seattle initially creates nice wedge. This is something Steve Vallos can do; he gets off the snap extremely well. Moments later, Vallos is reeling in his own backfield. Rob Sims and Mike Wahle pull to the second level. Wahle is a revelation as a pull blocker and though Sims lacks Chris Gray's skill, he more than makes up for it with mobility. I believe the skills will come. Morris does something even he didn't often do last season: adjust in the backfield to the free defender. He then makes a nice lateral cut right and shoots through the B gap. He's free. 18 yards downfield, Morris displays another lateral cut, doesn't evade Tyrell Johnson but does put him out of position. The effort nets another three yards. Morris not only looked in top form, he looked like another back: bigger, more agile, reading his blockers with aplomb and making smart decisions in the open field. It's fair to say, yesterday's Morris is untradeable.
  
• On the next play, Vallos exploded off the snap, stood his man up and held his block. On the next play, Vallos was tossed on his back by Fred Evans.
• Coutu kicked the ball three times. The second was serviceable. Decent height, decent length: 2 yards into the end zone. The other two were awful. The first landed at the 9, was so low it only briefly traveled off frame and gave his return team so little time to get downfield that Albert Young made it to the 22 before encountering Seattle's frontline coverage unit.
• Coutu was identified in a graphic as either a "ROOKE" or a "RDDKE". I'm almost sure it was the latter.
• Tru had rough quarter. On Minnesota's first play of its second possession his misread his assignment and blew coverage on Bernard Berrian. The play resulted in a 24 yard gain. Trufant runs stride by stride with Berrian, uses a legal pick to chuck Berrian inside and then assumes man off coverage outside right. Brian Russell, perhaps, shares part of the blame, choosing to double the well covered Shiancoe instead of providing inside cover on the much more dangerous Berrian, but with Trufant alone and Berrian his clear assignment, it's hard to excuse the lapse. Tru wasn't beat, he misread the route and misread his own secondary.
• On the next play, Tru nearly loses his footing after a move by Sidney Rice, but recovers to bury a shoulder into Rice's midsection, truncating Rice's route and putting Tru in good position for a pick.
• Berrian is a good receiver, freed from Rex Grossman and in his prime. In the same drive, on Minnesota's 4^th play, he discarded Kelly Jennings, getting 5 yards of separation and then converted the reception in front of Leroy Hill, nearly scoring. Hill made the wrong read, jumping on a double team to his right and ignoring Berrian, but it wasn't Hill's assignment. No, this was all about Berrian looking like a superstar, embarrassing a hell of a young cover corner.
• Tru would blow coverage on the next play. Biting inside on a rollout and finding himself in an inexescapable trailing position against fullback Thomas Tapeh.
• Seattle's third play, third drive: three WR, TE, RB. Minnesota is in a base 4-3. Another nice run by Morris, aided by a good, quasi-legal block by Sean Locklear and a decent pull block by Sims. Sims is much quicker than Gray, but still lacks the skill to engage a blocker on the run. It's coming, and he at least shielded Morris. Morris shows good patience and a nice read, gets skinny at the end for another two yards and again impressed the heck out of me against a top rush defense.
• Weaver threw a real nice lead block on Duckett's 7 yard run that converted the first.
• Is Burleson making the jump? On Courtney Taylor's end around, Burleson made a sufficient but crucial block that allowed Taylor to cut inside for an additional ~7 yards. On the next play, Burleson looked downright savvy. Seattle breaks with three WR, single TE, RB. Minnesota in nickel. Burleson is able to isolate Tyrell Johnson, initiates contact but does not push off, and forces a Illegal Contact penalty while simultaneously creating separation and converting the 15 pass. The sequence looked vintage Michael Irvin.
• I was pleased to see Jennings attempt to jump a route knowing he had deep help by Russell. I was displeased to see Russell run past Rice and turn good coverage into a 9 yard reception.
• On the next play, Jennings put it all together. Matched against Berrian in man coverage, Jennings used his tremendous speed to outpace burner Berrian and then, recognizing a go route, cut off Berrian midstride placing himself as the only man able to catch the ball, should the ball have been catchable.

Again Danny O'neil is the quickest draw in the land, and again that leaves him standing alone.

Seahawks Blog

Kelly Jennings played great coverage on a deep pass thrown to Bobby Engram during a seven-on-seven passing drill ...

This caught my eye because I think Jennings is about perfectly suited to shutdown Bobby Engram. Good cover, good reaction, great speed/quickness and enough strength. Obviously, then, it doesn't take much strength. I'll discuss this in greater detail during the podcast, but whatever Engram did last season, he's not who Seattle want to run their passing offense through.

A pass intended for Logan Payne was defended well by safety Jordan Babineaux. The ball hit Payne's hands, but it was the defense on the play that caused the incompletion. And had it been a game, Payne probably would have gotten clobbered by another safety in the middle ...

Can we call this the perfunctory Payne mention? And sorry Logan, if you can't hold onto the ball after impact, you don't have great hands. With my confidence in Payne's potential at an all-time low and Taylor MIA, I think the time to find depth at wide receiver is now.

Talkin' Hawks

PLAYS OF THE DAY
Offense: Pro Bowl tackle Walter Jones came off his block to chip Pro Bowl linebacker Julian Peterson, which allowed running back Julius Jones to get around the corner and up the sideline.

Sounds like a well executed play. Given that it's Walter Jones and all, that's not news. Actually, I included this quote to applaud Clare Farnsworth. It's nice to see a subtle line-play get recognized.

Defense: Second-year defensive tackle Brandon Mebane got the best of veteran guard Mike Wahle not once but twice on the same play. Mebane blew up a running play by beating Wahle with an explosive inside move, forcing Wahle to grab him. Wahle demonstrated his frustration by slamming his hand on the turf and bellowing an expletive.

Last season, Wahle and Mebane fought to a stalemate. This season, it sounds like Mebane is taking over. I think Wahle will improve some this season, in better overall offensive line, alongside Walter Jones, and another year removed from major shoulder surgery, but recovering, regaining form, is never going to be a match for the natural growth of a young player. Not all young players improve as they enter their prime, but most do. And promising young players who really shined often take a major step their second season. That's how I cast Mebane, young, humble, full of potential, drive and just tapping his physical potential.

QUESTION OF THE DAY
Jim Mitchell wants to know if Charlie Frye can be that third quarterback who will finally allow the Seahawks to use backup Seneca Wallace as a situational receiver/runner/retruner – to the point where he catches 3-5 passes a game?

A: In a word, no. While Frye continues to show improvement in mastering the offense, he also continues to torment the coaches with his inconsistency.

That was apparent Wednesday, when he overthrew a receiver in the end zone – in an against-air drill where there are no defenders. Then, during the scrimmage that ended the morning practice, Frye hooked up with rookie tight end John Carlson for a 17-yard completion, but also threw a pass to Logan Payne that was intercepted by Kevin Hobbs – after not going to his wide-open primary receiver for some reason.

I think we can safely say Frye is a requisite third string quarterback who must improve to be serviceable. Unlike Hasselbeck, who can produce through inferior weapons because of a great read and good accuracy, Frye will produce slightly below the level of his weapons. In Seattle, that's bad.

Update:

I wanted to point out some really good work being done by Eric Williams over at Seahawks Insider. It's good to see that blog with a pulse again. I think a healthy Seahawks Insider is good for the entire Seahawks blogosphere.

I really like the Holmgren transcript. A couple quotes stood out to me.

(On Branch’s return date…) “You don’t [know]. It’s—when we get into the injury things—and I’ll say it now, and I’ll say it after game six, and I’ll say it after game twelve during the season—we’re hopeful that we will have him for the first regular season game. And we’ll see. We’ll see how that goes.”

You might notice that this quote doesn't make sense. Holmgren kind of hems and haws and then says "and I’ll say it now, and I’ll say it after game six, and I’ll say it after game twelve during the season—we’re hopeful that we will have him for the first regular season game."

Why would you say "after game six" that "we're hopeful we will have him for the first regular season game"? You wouldn't. Nor would you say it after game twelve. Game six, not coincidentally, is the game players can come off the PUP list. You can book it-- that's where Branch will be.

(On the kicking game…) “I’m always concerned about the kicking game. I believe we have a great snapper, a young guy who can really snap the ball. And last year, it was like Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, the wind blew us. You never knew what was going to happen. So, that’s an encouragement to me.

...And

(On Herring…) “Well, he’s got a little bit of a sickness that we have to kind of, we have to do some more work on. It’s causing some of the things that are plaguing him right now, the pulls and different things. It’s kind of a little different deal. So we have to play it that way with him, see if we can, he’s got to do some more testing and things like that.”

Don't know what that's about, if Holmgren is being colorful or if Herring is suffering something more serious, but it's not an encouraging quote.

. . .

Not much to report, really.

Here's the quick hits:

Dave Boling at Seahawks Insider is reporting that Kelly Jennings made a nice leaping interception. This matters for one reason: Kelly Jennings needs to develop something in the way of ball skills to take the next step as a corner. At the moment, he's very good in coverage, but without the threat of an interception, quarterbacks will eventually target Jennings man regardless whether he's covered. An incomplete just isn't so bad. A couple picks and Jennings will be not just sound, but fearsome.

Danny O'neal at Seahawks Blog is reporting that Seattle's goal for Marcus Tubbs is for him to be back by the regular season. That probably means he'll be held out of preseason. With a player as injury prone as Tubbs, it might be smart to save his snaps for when it counts.

Mike Sando of ESPN is reporting:

Rookie Lawrence Jackson blew up one play in the backfield. After practice, he said he thought getting into camp on time was important because it showed veterans he was serious about his job. It's always refreshing when the rookies know their place.

That's a good attitude. And if you read between the lines, it's not just about knowing his place, Jackson is after respect.

The overlap on these three training camp reports is...curious. As they're all reporting almost the exact same information.

With the 53rd overall pick in the first ever Seahawks All-Time Fantasy Draft, the Skid Row Sliders select...

  
via Seattle PI

Defense/Offense

Free Safety	Strong Safety
Brian Russell MikeGreen Jordan Babineaux	Deon Grant CJWallace Jordan Babineaux

Right Cornerback	Dime Back	SLB	MLB	WLB	Nickelback	Left Cornerback
Kelly Jennings Josh Wilson Jordan Babineaux	Jordan Babineaux Kevin Hobbs Rich Gardner	Julian Peterson Leroy Hill	Lofa Tatupu DDLewis Julian Peterson	Leroy Hill Will Herring Lance Laury	Josh Wilson Jordan Babineaux Kevin Hobbs	Marcus Trufant Kelly Jennings Josh Wilson

Right DE	Right DT	Left DT	Left DE
Darryl Tapp LawrenceJackson JasonBabin	Brandon Mebane Red Bryant Howard Green ChrisCooper	Rocky Bernard Marcus Tubbs Craig Terrill Larry Tripplett	Patrick Kerney Baraka Atkins Nu'uTafisi