By Khalid Bennett
The Seattle Medium
The Seahawks welcomed in a rookie quarterback to Century Link field but Deshaun Watson is no normal rookie. Coming off two consecutive trips to the NCAA National championship game and winning one during his time at Clemson, Watson came into Sundays contest leading the Houston Texans’ 4th best offense in all of the NFL.
Watson’s arm strength was put on display early in the ball game as he uncorked a bomb to receiver Will Fuller who was able to get behind defensive backs Shaquille Griffin and Earl Thomas on the 5th play of the game for a 59 yard touchdown.
After a quick three and out by the Seahawks offense, Earl Thomas was able to get a little payback against Watson as he got his hands on a pass across the middle and took the interception back 78 yards for the Seahawks first touchdown of the day.
Seemingly, for the rest of the first half, the Seahawks and the Texans traded touchdowns back and forth.
Texans running back Lamar Miller scored on a 3 yard touchdown after an 8 play, 82 yard drive. The Seahawks matched with a 75 yard drive ending with a 20 yard touchdown pass from Russell Wilson to Paul Richardson. Deshaun Watson then found Will Fuller once again for a 20 yard touchdown. Seattle answered back after a 53 yard pass completion to Tanner McEIvoy that set up Paul Richardson’s second touchdown of the day, a 7 yard strike from Wilson that tied the game at 21 a piece going into halftime.
Both teams settled down in the beginning of the second half. The offensive explosion that made up the first half, turned into field goals in the third quarter. Seattle kicked two field goals to the Texans one making the score 27-24 Seattle at the end of the third quarter.
In the fourth quarter, both teams once again started to light up the scoreboard. Two more touchdowns including a 72 yard catch and run late in the game that put the Texans in the lead with 5 minutes left in the game, 38-34. Russell Wilson threw a late interception with 2:55 left on the ensuing drive but the Seahawks were not done just yet. After one last defensive stand, Houston punted the ball back to Seattle with 1:36 left in the game. It only took Russell Wilson three plays once the Seahawk offense got the ball. After a big catch by Paul Richardson, who finished the game with 105 yards receiving and 2 touchdowns, Wilson was able to throw the go ahead touchdown to Jimmy Graham giving Seattle a 41-38 lead.
Richard Sherman sealed the win with his second interception of the day and the third for the rookie Deshaun Watson, who had 402 yards passing. It was the most total yards given up by Seattle’s defense during the Pete Carroll era.
“I wasn’t surprised, I think we did a great job of challenging him, we had sacks and he just broke them. Those crossing routes are hard for us to cover when you give him that much time,” was Earl Thomas’ assessment of Deshaun Watson’s play throughout the game.
When Thomas was asked if that was the most any team has challenged the Seahawks secondary deep, he replied with “most times they know not to mess with me like that.”
Seattle will face the Washington Redskins next week in Seattle as they reach the halfway point in the season.
