Well, while my heart was on the Seahawks’ side, and while my head was torn between picking them or the Cowboys, ultimately I didn’t have the stomach to side with the home team and it cost me a win.  The Seahawks dominated in all phases as they never trailed during a 24-13 victory.  Now, after three games, the Seahawks are 1-2 with a road game against the hapless Cardinals coming up next week.

What I’m Geeked Out About After Three Games

First and foremost, the Seahawks FINALLY pulled their stupid fucking heads out of their asses and pounded the rock with Chris Carson!  I honestly didn’t think this would ever happen.  With the way his carries dried up in the second half of back-to-back games, I thought they’d continue to dick around with him and, quite frankly, dick around with the fans by not giving us what we want and this team what it NEEDS to succeed.  No, Russell Wilson CAN’T do everything by himself.  He needs help.  And, the biggest help to him right now is to give Carson as many carries as possible.

Now, obviously, it’s not a great average – 32 carries for only 102 yards – but those numbers can be deceiving.  He was making something out of nothing a lot of the time, and getting us those really tough yards on 3rd & short, and obviously at the goalline with that 5-yard touchdown.

What else am I geeked out about?  How about Earl Thomas?  He can do whatever the hell he wants and I’m gonna love him all the same!  Practice, don’t practice, as long as he’s kicking ass like he is in the GAMES, then cue up the Allen Iverson soundbite, because I could give a fuck about PRACTICE.

(that being said, I still wouldn’t give him a long-term third contract, and if this win doesn’t magically transform us into a Super Bowl contender, then I’d rather trade him for a king’s bounty of draft picks)

Other Things That Caught My Eye (In A Good Way)

Nice job by the O-Line, and I think it’s no coincidence that this was the first game with D.J. Fluker in the fold.  Sure, Hunt was in there for Britt (and he was a little bit of a travelling circus when it came to those shotgun snaps), and Sweezy had to start for an injured Pocic, but Fluker was back at his natural right guard spot and I think that’s going to make all the difference for this line going forward.  I just hope he can keep it going without any injury setbacks.

The defense across the board did a fantastic job.  Bobby Wagner was all over the place.  Bradley McDougald is playing like HE deserves a $10 million per year contract.  I don’t know if they threw on Shaquill Griffin more than a small handful of times all day!  Jarran Reed had a couple sacks and looked really active on those stunts they were doing up the middle.  Mychal Kendricks played through some nagging injuries to get his second sack in two games.  Tre Flowers continues to look like he’s making progress as a rookie starting cornerback in this league.  Barkevious “I’ve Got Every Vowel In Alphabetical Order In My Name” Mingo had a big sack as well.  And, I know I talked about Earl Thomas, but I’m gonna talk about him again because that savage bow towards the Cowboys bench at the end of the game was just *kisses fingers*.

Tyler Lockett continues to impress as this team’s de-facto #1 receiver with Doug Baldwin on the shelf.  He caught his third TD in three games, and had 4 catches for 77 yards overall.  On the season, he has 12 catches for 196 yards as the team tries to pick up the slack.

Nick Vannett had a nice game, as Will Dissly Mania subsides a little bit for one week.  The team is making a concerted effort to get the tight ends involved, and I thought Vannett had a nice game overall.

Finally, I thought Russell Wilson managed the game pretty well.  16/26 for 192 and 2 TDs with 0 picks and 0 lost fumbles.  He also only took 2 sacks and appeared to be much more decisive getting rid of the ball quicker (particularly when there was nothing open downfield and he just had to check it down).

Let’s Talk About Competitions

There’s no real specific positional competitions going on right now, but I want to use this section to focus on the coaches, and how they’re starting to come together on how to best feature the players they have on this team.

I’ll reiterate again with Chris Carson.  He is, without question, the best running back on this team, and it’s really not even close.  Penny had 3 carries for 5 yards.  Davis didn’t get a single carry.  Prosise was held out with nagging injuries.  Even from a snaps perspective, Carson was on the field for 50/69, while Penny was only out there for 10/69.  That is absolutely the appropriate ratio for those guys.

Let’s get back to the defense here, because you can’t talk about them enough when they hold the Cowboys to 13 points and only 168 yards passing.  As I expected, Elliott got his (127 yards on only 16 carries), but we were able to keep everything else about that offense in check.  You force someone like Dak to beat you, and he’s just not good enough.

I think we learned that this Seahawks defense has more talent than we expected coming into the season.  When healthy, this is going to be a formidable unit.  Obviously, Wagner is the straw that stirs the drink.  Obviously, a hall of famer in Earl Thomas is going to be a huge boost.  But, we were wondering where the pass rush would come from?  Well, Clark was all over the place, Mingo got home on a nice blitz.  Kendricks looks like an inspired addition, Reed might’ve had his coming out party.  On top of that, the coaching staff is adjusting, often going with a 3-safety look to try to take advantage of matchups.  It’s not about trying to conform to the same Seahawks system we’ve had in place since 2010, it’s adjusting that system to fit your personnel.  Going forward, I’ll be most interested in seeing how this defense looks as guys come back from injury, and as these young guys start to improve through experience.  I mean, K.J. Wright has yet to play a game, and Dion Jordan really hasn’t been on the field all that much!  We could be just starting to scratch the surface of this unit’s potential, and I find that to be much more exciting than anything the offense has to offer.

Other Things That Caught My Eye (In A Bad Way)

With the win, obviously there’s not a lot to complain about.  I will say that Brandon Marshall looked pretty bad with those drops.  I’m hoping that’s more of a fluke, because when you age your speed will slow, but that shouldn’t affect your hands.  Here’s to a bounce-back next week.

Tough day for Michael Dickson in his home debut.  A lot of low line drives, not the usual hangtime, and the ones that went out of bounds certainly had plenty of room for improvement.

Overall, the coverage on punts and kicks has been VERY mediocre the entire season.  I was really hoping this part of our game was going to be special, but it’s just meh.