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In terms of the 2019 season, the Seattle Seahawks blew out the Philadelphia Eagles. An eight-point win might as well by 40, and since the touchdown Philly scored was in garbage time, I’d consider that a win that Seattle never really needed to sweat out.
A couple of weeks ago I said that the Seahawks could not sustain playing terrible defense and special teams every single game and hope that Russell Wilson would eke out a heroic victory with MVP-type numbers. Well this is two straight games in which Wilson and the offense as a whole did not play well, but the defense and special teams were net positives. That’s the making of a legitimate Super Bowl contender if you ask me.
Let’s get to Winners and Losers from the Seahawks’ 17-9 road win.
Winners
Penny has been a lightning rod for criticism, but on a day when Chris Carson was ineffective, Rashaad was terrific. He was decisive with his cuts, dangerous as ever in the open field, and even breaking tackles. That 58-yard touchdown run was essentially the dagger through Philadelphia’s season. 129 yards (on 14 carries) is a season-high for any Seahawks RB, so it wasn’t all just on that one carry. That’s the best game of his young career and perhaps this could be a turning point for Penny in terms of his involvement in the offense.
Defensive Line
Hot damn that was a beatdown! Yes, the Eagles o-line is banged up, but I don’t care. Ziggy Ansah had 1.5 sacks and by far his best day as a Seahawk, Al Woods was a destructive force clogging up running lanes, Poona Ford was Poona Ford, and Rasheem Green notched another strip sack. They harassed Wentz all day and kept the big running plays to a minimum. Even without Jadeveon Clowney and half the game without Jarran Reed, this is a unit that appears to be peaking at the right time.
I’m spotlighting him specifically because he didn’t have a single pressure against the San Francisco 49ers, but I counted at least three pressures from him and he’s the one who blew up the Miles Sanders handoff that turned into a fumble recovery. That was a disruptive showing from Shaquem, and just sentimentally it’s great to see him ball out with his brother playing at an elite level at CB1. So happy for both of them and I foresee more playing time for Shaquem on defense.
Secondary
Where do I begin? Tre Flowers, who has been picked on quite often this season, played like a shutdown corner to the tune of three passes defensed and an easy interception to put another miserable Eagles drive out of its misery. Shaquill Griffin’s only blemish was a needless holding penalty that negated a Wentz fumble. Bradley McDougald had a pick and was flying to the ball. Quandre Diggs had a fumble recovery, Griffin had a forced fumble, and the Eagles’ makeshift receiving group had trouble getting open. Needless to say, the two games with Diggs at safety and the one game sans Jamar Taylor have improved this secondary substantially.
I’m putting them in tandem because they both were responsible for pinning the Eagles inside their 5-yard line. Dickson had a shank into the wind for his first punt, but he was very good the rest of the game. Amadi, Seattle’s new starting nickel corner, twice ran down the field from his gunner spot to flip field position.
I swear he didn’t miss one tackle, which is a miracle in itself. Bobby Wagner and K.J. Wright are always going to do their jobs, but Kendricks was solid in coverage and run support.
He’s been due a touchdown and he got one on his only catch of the day. I’m lukewarm at best on David Moore and I’d like to see Turner get more targets as a WR3.
Losers
I’m not going to write another “Chris Carson’s play is bench-worthy” article but I do think he needs some form of discipline. These fumbles are unacceptable and while he’s been charged with seven, the one that the Eagles recovered was only attributed to Wilson because Carson didn’t know the play had changed from pass to run. Between that and some of his lackluster work in pass protection, he should be on thin ice moving forward.
He needs to be better at hands catching. Two drops, one of them a touchdown, and another in which he dove for the ball but it just went off his fingertips. Not one of Metcalf’s better days, but he still gave us a highlight in the form of hurdling an Eagles defender on a quick screen. We’ll take the bad with the good only up to a point, but down the stretch he has to be better.
Offensive Line
Some poor pass blocking throughout the day and a particularly frustrating one for Mike Iupati, who racked up two more false starts. Not all of the six sacks were on the OL, but there was some obvious miscommunication and blown assignments that made the offense look lackluster.
Russell Wilson’s MVP chances
I don’t think Wilson had a bad game and in fact his stat-line would’ve looked better if not for a couple of drops. That said, the Jacob Hollister blown TD was terrible and he could’ve run that in himself anyway. If Lamar Jackson dominates the Los Angeles Rams on Monday, Wilson probably won’t have the MVP lead anymore, but really I don’t care anymore. Lamar is fun, we know what we have with Wilson, and Russ could end up on the Madden cover if he’s too good, so that curse best be dodged.
Pre-snap discipline
These pre-snap penalties have got to stop. The Seahawks got flagged 12 times to Philadelphia’s 2, but a lot of Seattle’s penalties were legitimate. There were three false starts and a delay of game on offense and two neutral zone infractions on defense. They ought to be cleaning this up because it’s going to be more costly versus better teams.
Final Notes
- Tyler Lockett was probably not 100% but even at 80% he can still haul in a long ball from Wilson on his only official target.
- Charles Davis was irritating me with his ramblings on about how football is just like so many other sports. The Seahawks have a bunch of NBA small forwards at receiver, Russell Wilson DID play baseball, and man oh man was he carrying water for Carson Wentz nonstop. Wentz was awful and it was not entirely because of the injuries.
- Josh Gordon seems to be money on those slant patterns and I am hopeful that he’ll pick up more of the playbook as time rolls along. I suspect a lot of the passing game struggles involved guys not getting open. It was cool when Gordon blocked on that one Wilson scramble, though!
- Bring on the Vikings! And go Not 49ers later tonight!
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