Russell Wilson, Seattle Seahawks.
D.K. Metcalf, Seattle Seahawks.
Every week the Seattle Seahawks play, Pacific Northwest Sports will present our Dud and Stud of the game. It’s a way to pay tribute to those who performed well and call out the players who didn’t.
Sunday night, the Seahawks improved their to 2–0 on the young season with a 35–30 victory over New England. Seattle’s offense was incredibly balanced. According to teamrankings.com, their play-calling was 50 percent run and 50 percent pass. They effectively moved the ball both on the ground and through the air
Chris Carson had 108 combined yards and caught his third touchdown pass of 2020. D.K. Metcalf and Tyler Lockett once again showed why they are among the best receiver tandems in the league. The duo teamed up for 11 receptions, 159 yards, and a pair of trips to the end zone.
Seattle’s defense is another story. New England quarterback Cam Newton worked the middle of the field all game. Additionally, they were one Julian Edelman drop away from yielding 400 passing yards in back-to-back games. Speaking of Edelman, aside from that drop, he had a fantastic day with 179 yards on eight catches.
It was a back and forth game in the first half. Seattle played a little better, but an early pick-six by the Patriots kept them step-for-step with the home team. The score was 14–14 at the midway point.
For the second straight week, the Seattle Seahawks offense came out for the second half on fire. They outscored New England 14–3 to establish a lead they never relinquished.
The Pats did their best to erase their deficit which made for an exciting finish. NE had two fourth-quarter touchdowns and almost added a third. The game ended when the Seahawks stopped Newton on the one-yard line as time expired.
Marquise Blair, Seattle Seahawks.
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.”
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.
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).
Ugo Amadi and Lano Hill, Seattle Seahawks.
Since Carroll arrived on the scene in 2010, Seattle has embraced the “next man up” philosophy. It was clearly evident against the Patriots. With Diggs and Blair out, Ugo Amadi and Lano Hill stepped up to replace their fallen teammates.
While he didn’t play near as much as Adams did, Amadi only had two fewer tackles than the All-Pro, which ranked second on the team, tied with Bobby Wagner. The second-year safety from Oregon finished with eight tackles including one for a loss.
Hill, of course, made the defensive play of the night. He was the man who knifed into the backfield on the final play to take Newton’s legs out from under him on the one-yard line and stop New England from winning the game.
Maybe some of the 12s didn’t understand what the Seattle Seahawks were getting when they sent their next two first-round picks to New York for Adams. They do now.
He was magnificent once again. When it came to Adams, Newton had to feel like he was stuck on an elevator with a guy who broke wind. Adams was all over the place, no matter what Newton did, he couldn’t get away from him, and it didn’t end until the game stopped.
Seriously, Adams’ ability to play the entire field, whether its deep in coverage, stopping a running back before turning a corner, or blitzing the passer, is uncanny. Aside from his outstanding play, his energy and enthusiasm motivate everyone else on the team.
How could Russell Wilson not be the stud of Week 2? CenturyLink Field was Russ’, and everyone else just borrowed it here and there. Every time the Seattle Seahawks had the ball, 12s had to think they could move it. Things like down and distance seemed irrelevant. Whatever it took to get a first down, he did.
If last week’s performance was near perfect, what Wilson did on Sunday against New England was just as great. Rarely is a quarterback as accurate as RW3 was this game.
Wilson completed 21-of-28 for 288 yards. Of his seven incompletes, three were drops, and three times he was under duress and got rid of the ball out of bounds. He threw for five touchdowns against one of the best pass defense secondaries in the NFL. That included two deep passes for scores. One was to Metcalf for 54 yards and the other was 38 yards to David Moore.
Also, consider that RW3’s lone interception happened because tight end Greg Olsen let the ball go through his hands, and it was taken back for a pick-six. So the big blemish on his stat sheet was due to an error by a future Hall-of-Famer. Maybe the two of them can joke about it at Wilson’s induction a few years after Olsen gets in.
Next week the Seahawks are home once again. This time they face Week 2’s comeback kids, the Dallas Cowboys.