What Eagles Must Do to Compete with Seattle….

For starters, build the talent level of key positions on the Eagles defense, and stretch the field more often on offense as Russell Wilson proved he can do…

I don't really have the answer—the above is just a flash impression, a knee-jerk reaction to the domination we all witnessed of Seattle over Denver in SB 48.

To those of you who may have been stranded in Hawaii yesterday without TV or radio contact, Seattle played a mistake-free game and walloped the Broncos, 43- 8. The Seahawks' young defense gave up no big plays, and their offense was diverse as it capitalized on Denver's mistakes.

Russell Wilson will continue to be unfairly classified as a "game manager"— but the simple fact is, the Seahawks' offense does not need a top-level "pure pocket" passer to succeed. Wilson stretches the field with his legs, but stays under control and looks to throw first before taking off downfield. When he does throw, it's usually good enough to be on the mark.

Stopping Peyton Manning? No problem for the extremely athletic and well-coached Seahawks' defense, which took away anything Manning wanted to do deep and tackled everything he tried to do short. Manning completed 34 passes, most under pressure and almost all in the middle of the field, and his receivers were tackled immediately.

You can look at that performance by Manning and quickly understand that any defense that can get great reads from its safeties combined with fast linebackers and a steady pass rush can beat him.  I should also mention the Seahawks defensive front completely shut down Knowshon Moreno and the Broncos' running game.

So how do you guess the Eagles' coaching staff looks at that Seahawks performance in SB48 and attempts to relate it to the Eagles' desired improvement in 2014—or not?

We've already got some great responses to that question from the members of our esteemed Bored here…and due to my Super Bowl hangover, their comments from the previous thread were in danger of being buried in the transition to this new article.

So, I'd like to bring their discussion highlights to this space now. These guys know more about football than I do anyway.

PPW— "Seattle's defense is so damn quick to the ball. Every play, there were 3,4,5 (Seattle) white shirts there…Even their big guys were running down plays with authority. Pretty impressive.."

DUTCH RUBB— "Seattle's vaunted secondary is also proof you don't always have to draft early, just draft well. Yes, Earl Thomas was a first round pick. But Richard Sherman was a 5th round pick, Byron Maxwell a 6th, Kam Chancellor a 5th."

T-BONED— "We need a better receiver that gets open quicker…DJax and Cooper are good, but they can't shed defenders for that quick release.. Maclin isn't much better (at a quick release)…We need a big, strong fast guy that can run a hot route to negate all the blitzing."

 DUTCH RUBB— "What is the best style to attack such a defense as Seattle's? We are not there yet, but I think Chipper's style of offense just may be the way to do it. Big physical O-Line (we can see that coming with last year's pick of Lane Johnson), lots of speedy receivers in a fast-paced offense, run the ball a lot…and a QB who doesn't make many mistakes and doesn't hang onto the ball trying to make sumlin of nothing…"

BROZER—- "You know,….when I see a team dom another team like that….I always dissect it like a mofo, and axt myselve "how'd dey do that ?"  Like the great philosopher once said: "What one man can do….so can a mother."   Seattle's Legion of Boom got all the credit for theirn defensive domming last night,….but in realititties, it was the hectic and non-stop charge of the front 7 that caused all those ducks that the secondary picked off.  That D-line wins the game ball IMO….espesh their interior line.  Their D-tackles are huge….but fast !  One guy is like 6'7 310….the other knob is also over 310 lbs….but boff guys collapse the pocket by themselfs, and stop the run, by themselfs.  Too often last year, our front three just got stood up, and just were not the dominant physical force that the hawks d-front was.  WE NEED SOME PHSYICAL FREAKS ON THAT LINE !!!!!  RASHEEDE HAGEMAN FITS THAT DESCRIPTION !!!!!!!  "

Well, that's a start…. Thanks, gentlemen, now where is that consarned drawing board ?