Smoke and Mirrors!

I'm mainly posting this since it's so hard to find a picture of Kelly Herndon for this site, that I nearly wet myself when I saw this on Seahawks.com.

However, it's a good question to ask as our defense seems to be off to another top 10 start, and it remains to be seen if it will continue in the direction that Mr. Herndon is pointing, or if it's just a cruel illusion, like last year.

Frankly, I think that our defense is for real this year, and barring another epidemic of injuries to key personnel, we'll solidify our position in the upper quarter of league defenses.

The next three games will be critical to continue this aspiration, and to assure that our top 10 defense is not 'gone with the wind' by the end of the Rams game!

Owning Your Mistakes

The idea for these Adopt-A-Seahawks pages were to pick a player and then follow him throughout the Season, providing the other fans here at 12 Seahawks Street with insights and updates about your guy.

When I picked Kelly Herndon as my adopted Seahawk, I imagined writing Monday articles about his interceptions, jarring hits and stellar performance. Unfortulately, my guy did not have too good a day on Sunday, getting burned twice for completions of over 20 yards.

But in the interest of full disclosure, I'm going to post a recap of his efforts anyway. This seems to be in line with Kelly's character too, who is not afraid to own up to his mistakes in the game. From the game summary piece on the Seattle Times site:

"You know what's going on, you know the situation," Herndon said. "You just wish you would have made this move or jumped this route or something like that."

After watching the Monday Night Game, my guess is that Mr. Herndon will get his wish as soon as this Sunday, as the Falcons will probably test him every time he's in against their bigger and faster receivers.

It wasn't all bad for Kelly on Sunday either. He and Michael Boulware were the second leading tacklers for the Seahawks, registering 6 each, one behind Marcus Trufant.

He also had what many fans perceived as a boneheaded play on special teams, but in fact was a very heads-up maneuver. Late in the game the Jaguars punted and the ball was touched but not controlled by the Jags. Herndon picked up the loose ball and attempted to advance it, not getting very far.

Uninformed fans were shocked that he would take such a chance deep within our own territory. However, once the ball was touched by the punting team, the receiving team can attempt to advance it, and in the case it was fumbled or "muffed", the Seahawks would retain possession at the spot of the original touching.

I'm looking forward to him building on this kind of heady play, and getting more opportunities against Atlanta to showcase his coverage ability (like the acrobatic interception against the Vikings in preseason) and his hitting prowess, so next week's article contains more highlights than apologies!

And in this CORNER....

Mike Kahn has a nice piece on Seahawks.com titled Battle of the Backfield, on how Kelly Herndon and Andre Dyson are not only battling each other for a starting position on the team, but also encouraging each other to get better at the same time.

Herndon, 28, started all 16 games last season for the Denver Broncos and 11 of his 15 games during the 2003 season. He is listed as virtually the identical size as Dyson, but just plays with a much more physical approach.

“They both play to their strengths – they’re smart football players,” (defensive backs coach Teryl) Austin said. “Andre plays to his quickness and Kelly just plays a more physical game in the way he plays the position. It just shows there are different ways to get things done and they’re both effective, both tough guys, and both get after it.”

This is part of the reason why I decided to adopt Kelly Herndon, which is his physical play and his reputation as a hard hitter. Dyson has a great reputation too so this is a battle between better and best, which should only benefit the Seahawks.

“I don’t know how I’ll feel,” Herndon said. “It’s different after starting my whole career. We’re both competitors, we want to be on the field all the time. Depending on how the situation goes, one of us won’t be. But I’m not worried about it. It’s all about developing this defense and all of us jelling together. With seven new starters on defense, we all have a lot to learn about playing together.

And reading things like this last paragraph really helps put the defense in a whole different perspective over the kaos from last year. I hope this "all for one and one for all" spirit carries through the entire season!