By Khalid Bennett
The Seattle Medium
In the Seattle Seahawks home opener, they welcomed the San Francisco 49ers but the reception was anything but warm. Coming off a week one loss in Green Bay, Seattle had a great opportunity to silence the naysayers, and get their offense on track after a sub-par performance against the Packers.
Determined to get out to a faster start this week, Seattle opened the game with a 68-yard drive with quarterback Russell Wilson mixing in an array of short passes and timely scramble plays, but just like the previous week in Green Bay, the Seahawks only managed to put up 3 points. In fact, it took over seven quarters before the Seahawks scored their first touchdown of the season which would end up being the game winner on Sunday to beat the San Francisco 49ers for the 8th straight time.
The play of the offensive line has been an area of concern dating back to last season. The only moves made to address this, was the signing of former 1st round draft pick Luke Joeckel, and the drafting of Ethan Pocic out of LSU. Joeckel was widely considered as a failure at left tackle in Jacksonville. He has been moved inside to left guard since signing with the Seahawks. Pocic played center in college and was drafted in the 2nd round. Last season, Seattle moved tackle Justin Britt to center. A position he excelled at and was invited to the pro-bowl. Britt signed a contract extension during training camp and doesn’t look to be relinquishing his spot any time soon.
Adversity hit the Seahawks in the second preseason game when starting left tackle George Fant suffered a torn ACL and was lost for the season. 2nd year lineman Rees Odhiambo now has the daunting task of protecting Russell Wilson’s backside and the whole line seems to be held together with popsicle sticks and duct tape. So far, this season, no other quarterback has been under as much duress as Russell Wilson. His ability to escape the pocket has been on display in the first two weeks of the season considering that he is the 2nd leading rusher on the team, and has only taken 6 sacks despite the relentless pressure he’s been under.
“One of the things about Russ is that he’s not a timing quarterback, he wants to see somebody open and then he throws the ball. To our benefit, the reason we don’t have a lot of turnovers is because of that,” said Seahawks wide receiver Doug Baldwin following their 12-9 victory over the 49ers.
“It was very ugly, but we did enough,” added Baldwin. “It doesn’t matter how we score, it doesn’t matter how it looks, as long as we get the job done.”
Through two games, Wilson’s quarterback rating sits at 76.3, the lowest it has been in his career and 178 yards passing per game in the first two games is also the lowest in his career. The offense is determined to get better and to be on the same level as a defense that currently and historically has been one of the top units in the league.
Receiver Paul Richardson, who was on the other end of Wilson’s touchdown pass, broke his finger earlier in the game so severely, the bone was protruding out of the skin. He was able to return to the game, and eventually catch the game-winning touchdown.
The Seahawks take their show on the road this week as they travel to Tennessee to take on the Titans.
