My Sunday hangover was both literal and figurative. It was hard to really get up for this game after what happened in the Husky game on Saturday. There’s no “making up for” a loss to the Ducks (I’ll have more on this tomorrow). So, I sat there, and I watched the whole dominating Seahawks affair, but at no point was I enjoying myself. The wound was still too fresh. Indeed, we’re going on 48 hours after the fact and I still can’t bring myself to dwell on it too much.
The Seahawks beat the hapless Raiders 27-3, and everything is blue in this world.
What I’m Geeked Out Still Numb About After Six Games
The obvious answer is to talk about the offensive line and the running game for the third consecutive week, but I’m gonna zag on this one. The defense REALLY opened up some eyes here. Last week’s overall performance against the Rams was pretty inspired, but the defense still gave up 33 points. Without Earl Thomas, there’s more questions than answers with this secondary, and I wondered – heading into this one – if we’d continue to get scorched in the passing game.
But, this was as dominating a defensive performance as it gets, from soup to nuts! Derek Carr averaged a measly 4.6 yards per attempt, as he looked to be consistently checking down to his running backs, or whoever was within 5 yards of the line of scrimmage. I know we all love clowning on the Raiders under Jon Gruden, but their passing game – and really, their offense in general – has been pretty solid after their week 1 loss to the Rams. Beastmode looks as strong as ever, and while he’s not getting the MOST out of Carr, he’s certainly getting more out of him than Jack Del Rio did in the last couple seasons. But, in this one, the Seahawks had the gameplan to put their offense to sleep.
And hey! What’s that I see? Could it be? A pass rush?!?!
You know it! 6 sacks! 2.5 from Frank Clark, who was a boss all day. Jarran Reed had 1, as did Branden Jackson and Shamar Stephen (Quinton Jefferson had the 0.5, but also had 2 more tackles for loss on the day). Now, I should point out that Tom Cable is the Raiders’ offensive line coach, so obviously theirs is one of the most inept units in the league (probably). But, with this Seahawks pass rush unit, you’ll take what you can get.
The crown jewel of the whole thing was holding Beastmode himself to 45 yards on 13 carries. And, as usual, most of those yards were after contact, as he just wills himself to fall forward on these go-nowhere rushes. That guy is a living legend.
Other Things That Caught My Eye (In A Good Way) (But What Does It Matter Anyway?)
Let’s get back to the running game. All in, we had 37 carries for 155 yards. Carson led the way with 59, Penny got into the mix with 43, and Davis did his part with 21. It’s good to see all those guys participate, as I still believe they’re all going to be vital in making the most out of this season.
Russell Wilson had another fantastic game. He ran for 20 of those yards, looking to run more than he has in any other game this season. He did most of his damage through the air though, going 17/23 for 222, with 3 TDs and 1 ill-advised INT into triple coverage. It was sterling nonetheless.
Doug Baldwin got going, with 6 for 91. David Moore continued to impress, with 2 for 47 and a TD. Lockett caught another TD, as did Jaron Brown. This is a formidable WR unit, and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise!
Also, how about a nice word for the coaching staff? They found an identity for this team and they’re sticking with it! It’s working, after all, so it seems obvious, but how many times did we used to complain about Darrell Bevell out-thinking himself? All too frequently going away from what was working in hopes of trying to outsmart the other team. Sometimes, it’s better to just batter the other team into submission, thereby opening things up later in the game to do whatever you want.
I mean, the Seahawks REALLY looked like the more prepared team, from the opening gun. We had a 14-play, 82 yard TD drive to start the game (the first time in 2 years since we scored a touchdown on our opening drive?) that took up half of the whole first quarter! Then, as a proper bookend, after the Raiders kicked a meaningless field goal to pull the game to its final score, the Seahawks got the ball back with 8:25 left to go, and ran out ALL of the clock in 13 plays! We were 9/13 on the day on 3rd down; we had 19 overall first downs. Just a great, great day all around.
Let’s Talk About Competitions The Black Void Of Nothingness Because The Huskies Lost
Obviously, when you talk about holding a good passing game to next-to-nothing, you’re getting quality play out of your secondary. I don’t have access to the All-22 tape, but I have to believe we saw a much better game out of Tedric Thompson as he continues to step up in Earl’s absence. With nothing deep down field looking even enticing enough to ATTEMPT, I think that’s a great sign.
I saw Jacob Martin get a lot of play at defensive end, and he looked pretty disruptive. Another great sign out of a young player we’re going to need to step up if we want to find a consistent pass rush in the second half of this season.
Finally, I’ll just say that I’m glad Tre Flowers was just cramping up, because for a while there I was worried we had another season-ending knee injury on our hands.
Other Things That Caught My Eye (In A Bad Way) (Because Fuck My Life)
Hard to complain, honestly, when we’re talking about a 27-3 demolition. We continue to get absolutely nothing out of C.J. Prosise and Dion Jordan, who were both inactive. Also, I guess Naz Jones mysteriously lost the will to play competitive football? What happened to THAT guy? He was supposed to be one of our up-and-comers!
Looking ahead, we have a BYE week, before our our 5th road game out of 7 (though, to be fair, London was more of a home-style crowd than we had any right to expect, which is nice).