Seattle Seahawks 12th man flag (photo © Philip Bebbington III Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SA 3.0)
The Seattle Seahawks showed that “having a team around you” isn’t as great as Russell Wilson thinks. The Seahawks also proved me right in saying that this would be the best opportunity they’d have to pull off an upset. To some fans, this game was the equivalent of the Super Bowl.
Regardless of how the rest of the season unfolds, claiming victory over Wilson is glorious. To his credit, Wilson was nothing but professional after the game when he spoke. Is anyone surprised by this, though? We’ve seen it all from him before. He knows how to say the right thing on camera. What he told privately is a different story and up for your speculation.
Let’s get to the fun and grossly overreact to this week’s game. Most of these statements have a bit of truth to them but mostly won’t be true for the course of the season. Or, at least, let’s hope not all of them.
After years of watching the inept play from offensive linemen who shouldn’t be starting or whose skills are declining. It is refreshing to see an offensive line that was able to keep their quarterback’s jersey clean (at least as realistically clean for an NFL game).
Geno Smith was sacked twice and hit only four times. This is outstanding, especially considering Denver has Bradley Chubb and Randy Gregory coming after him.
The O-Line, however, needs to do a better job in the run game. Monday night, the Seattle Seahawks gained a total of 76 rushing yards. Of those 76, Rashaad Penny had 60.
On the bright side, Penny averaged five yards a carry. This is even more impressive when you realize he had a 23-yard run called back due to a holding penalty on rookie right tackle Abe Lucas.
Penny’s longest run of the game was a 26-yarder, which he subsequently fumbled. Give the Denver D a little credit; they made a great play by the safety to set Penny up so the cornerback could punch out the ball.
There are not a lot of Seattle Seahawks who have a ton of faith in Geno Smith. Regardless Seattle fans want to see him have great success. Unfortunately, this game will go down as his best this season.
Smith will have games where he throws for more yards and/or touchdowns. However, the production will most likely come with more than the zero turnovers he had in Week 1.
Don’t forget how efficient Settle’s quarterback was. He only missed on 5 of his 28 pass attempts. And as previously mentioned, he was sacked only twice. There will be plenty more games where fans are talking about Smith, but not in such a positive manner.
Most experts expect D.K. Metcalf and Tyler Lockett to have down seasons this year. That prediction held in Week 1. The duo led the Seattle Seahawks in targets, respectively, Metcalf with seven and Lockett with four. Neither one led the team in receiving yards or touchdowns.
It was tight ends Will Dissly and Colby Parkinson who led the team in yards and touchdowns. Both had 43-yards and one touchdown in the game. Last season’s passing tree was very consolidated to Metcalf, Lockett, and Gerald Everett.
If game 1 is the blueprint of Seattle’s passing game this season, it showed that they will routinely spread out the production. As a result, no receiving option will gain over 70-yards in a game.
Let’s jump in our time machine and travel back to 2011. It was the year 12s experienced the “Beast Quake,” and the Seattle Seahawks were the last team to have a losing record and still make the playoffs. It has been widely thought that this feat will never be accomplished again.
Well, this Seahawks team is getting ready to say, “catch my fish.” It’s like“hold my beer,” but with an Emerald City spin. After Week 1, the team finds itself all alone atop the NFC West.
There is only one other division that is actually worse. That is the AFC South, where they have a two-way tie atop the division, with Indianapolis and Houston being 0-0-1.
But back to the Seattle Seahawks and NFC West. Let’s quickly assess the rest of the division.
The Rams look like they’re still hungover from their Super Bowl victory in February. They also look complacent and are expecting opponents just to let them win.
In Phoenix, the Arizona Cardinals looked completely lost. The team appears to be following their quarterback in that they’ll just show up to the game and play. They showed no game plan and hoped their aging players could still get it done.
Meanwhile, San Francisco starts a quarterback in 2022 who looks much worse than their 2021 starter. You know the guy who took a pay cut to ride the bench.
All of this sets up for the Seahawks to beat all of their division foes in Seattle. And the Seahawks also beat both New York teams, Atlanta and Carolina, at Lumen Field. This gets them to a record of 8-9, a division title, and a return trip to the playoffs.
Also, in a great display of karma, Denver misses the playoffs. Wilson gets to watch his former team play an extra game of football from the comfort of his living room couch. And everyone gets to watch Penny do his best Marshawn Lynch playoff run. Let’s fly!
What are some of your reactions to the Seattle Seahawks’ win on Monday Night? Let us know in the comments section below.