The View From Section 333
The Good, The Bad, The Ugly, The Inconsistent and The Silly
After the Seahawks loss to the Cards on Sunday, I wanted to share a few thoughts on our opening game…
The Good: Russell Wilson. Wilson, despite looking nervous in the last drive toward the goal, did show a lot of poise throughout the game. The secondary played well. Our special teams were better than last year. Leon Washington was a definite stand out. And a shout out to our receivers, particularly Braylon Edwards and Doug Baldwin who went above and beyond to catch some of Wilson’s passes when he had to lead the receivers to avoid coverage.
The Bad: The Oline. They were unable to pick up a blitz or even a strong pass rush. This inability lead to over usage of either the RB or the TE to assist in blocking and limited our offensive threat. Further, the off sides calls on Okung were maddening. He’s not a rookie and it’s not excusable any longer. One is excusable, but more than that is just sloppy. JR Sweezy, despite his fabulous preseason did a poor job on game one of the regular season.
The Ugly: Hauschka. Sorry to say it, but missing that first field goal killed us. It may seem unimportant, but had he made that, our final drive down the field would have been for a field goal and we wouldn’t have had to push in for a touchdown to win the game. Granted there were other issues during the game, but this one really stood out for me, as I also saw him miss a field goal in the Oakland preseason game. Hopefully he can recover his equilibrium, because he’s had a rough start this season in my opinion.
The Inconsistent: The Replacement Refs win this award. They are actually better than I thought they would be in many regards. They are getting a lot of calls right. But their calls on pass interference are a challenge for them and I think the one call on Sherman late in the game was a perfect example. Since the strike doesn’t look to resolve soon, hopefully they’re watching a lot of tape this week in an effort to improve this call.
The Silly: Any Quarterback controversy at this point. Yes, the preseason honeymoon with Russell Wilson is over, but that’s no reason to file for divorce. It’s time to get down to the hard work of making the marriage a productive one. If the offensive line comes back together with the exit of Sweezy (who we’re not divorcing either, just taking a break from) and the return of John Moffit, then we’re on the right track. Let’s not make Flynn “the other woman” who always looks better than who you slipped the ring on in the first place.