Seattle Seahawks: The Dud and Stud of Game 2 – New England
Ed Stein
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Marquise Blair, Seattle Seahawks.
2nd Dishonorable Mention – The Knee Reaper
Even before kickoff of the league’s Sunday finale, it was a tough week across the NFL for injuries. Knee issues were the main culprit. Among those who left their games with knee injuries were New York Giants running back Saquon Barkley, San Francisco defensive linemen Nick Bosa and Solomon Thomas (within two plays of each other), and Indianapolis receiver Parris Campbell. At this point, only Campbell looks like he could return sometime this year.
Unfortunately, the Knee Reaper didn’t quit when the sun went down. The Seattle Seahawks lost two important defensive players due to torn ACLs.
The first was safety Marquise Blair. He came into the game as a replacement for Quandre Diggs when the starting safety was ejected in the last minute of the first quarter. Blair didn’t even make it to half time before getting carted off.
Irvin went down with his injury in the second half. Initially, his damage didn’t seem as bad compared to Blair. It was. Per Seahawks.com, head coach Pete Carroll announced Monday that both players needed surgery and wouldn’t play again in 2020.
“Both Bruce and Marquise are going to have to have surgery, so that means that they will be done for the season, which is really a big blow,” he said. “We’re going to miss those guys, I feel terrible for them.”
1st Dishonorable Mention – New York replay officials
If you read our Chip Clark’s article last night, you know that the decision to eject Seattle Seahawks safety Quandre Diggs was controversial. Without rehashing the entire article, the hit Diggs put on New England receiver N’Keal Harry was definitely a personal foul, but it didn’t rise to the level of disqualification.
The decision to toss Diggs came from replay officials in New York. It cost the Seahawks dearly, considering that shortly after, they lost Blair for the rest of the season.
Related Story: Quandre Diggs didn’t deserve ejection
Dud of the Week – Seahawks pass rush
Maybe we should rephrase that to, The Seattle Seahawks’ lack of a pass rush was the Dud of the Week. Really, there was no pass rush to speak of, all game. As mentioned earlier, Cam Newton picked apart the Seattle defense.
He was able to do it because the Seahawks couldn’t get to him. When they did manage to put a little pressure on him, Newton was easily able to slide out of it. Granted, the New England signal-caller uses his feet as well as any quarterback in the history of the game, but Seattle couldn’t even force him into a couple of bad throws.
Jamal Adams is the best example to sum up just how bad the Seahawks pass rush was on Sunday. The safety had his team’s only sack and led Seattle with two QB hits (out of five total).
Career high in receiving yard for Julian Edelman in just his 2nd game with Superman 👀🔥
pic.twitter.com/mjAzItVHQX— PFF NE Patriots (@PFF_Patriots) September 21, 2020