Seattle Seahawks Report Card: Week 15

After a dominating road win over a pretty good Chicago Bears team, its tough to complain about the performance by the Seahawks. But when I looked at the game film this morning, I was surprised at the mistake made, especially in the first half. Even the 31-0 second half was far from perfect. The Seahawks were lucky that they were playing Caleb Hanie, and not a competent QB, or this game could have turned out really differently.

Tarvaris Jackson: B

Jackson final stat line was decent: 19/31 227 yards, 1 TD. What’s missing in that line is the difference between the first half and the second. At halftime, his QB rating was in the 50’s. Jackson’s performance had a lot to do with why the Seahawks were down at halftime. Jackson was also a big piece of the reason why the Seahawks were up by a lot at the end of the game.

Marshawn Lynch: B – 

It was really tough going for Lynch for most of the game. Lynch finished with just 42 yards on 20 carries. While the line struggled to open lanes for Lynch for most of the night, there were also plays in which there were running lanes and Lynch was tentative and didn’t get through the holes while they were there.

Offensive Line: B

This is tough unit to grade. Sure, they gave up 2 sacks, but both of those were really caused by Jackson holding on to the ball too long. The running game struggled, but part of that was because Lynch was really slow to the line at times. The Bears also have one of the best front 7s in the NFL.

Run Defense: B-

I wouldn’t say that the Seahawks run defense got “gashed,” but they did give up 132 yards and a 4.3 yard average. That just isn’t what we’ve come to expect from the Seahawks defense.

Pass Defense: A

Caleb Hanie had only 111 yards passing on passes caught by players on his team. There was also 79 yards in the other direction on passes caught be Seahawk defenders. The Seahawks also had 4 sacks and were pressuring Hanie all game.

Special Teams: A

It doesn’t really matter that the Seahawks special team didn’t make any big plays in this game. The very dangerous Bears returners didn’t get a chance to make any big plays, and that is more than enough to get an A grade here. Other teams had failed to do that, and gotten burned. Luckily, the Seahawks didn’t make that mistake.

Coaching: A-

The coaches almost get a A just for being smart enough to kick the ball away from the Chicago returners. I also have to get them a ton of credit for the halftime adjustments made that allowed the Seahawks to outscore the Bears 31-0 after halftime. My only complaint is that the initial offensive gameplan was clearly flawed. The Seahawks can’t keep waiting till halftime to figure out how to beat teams.