Gut Reaction: Seattle @ San Diego

Aug 8, 2013; San Diego, CA, USA; Seattle Seahawks corner Jeremy Lane (20) carries the kick off return against the San Diego Chargers at Qualcomm Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jody Gomez-USA TODAY Sports

Football is finally back and like Lazarus, I am emerging from my tomb. Even though preseason doesn’t pack much of an emotional punch, I now have a legitimate excuse to kill an entire day without anybody questioning it.

Ultimately, this game means very little. It did give those who are on the bubble to make a stronger impression and many did. It also exposed serious weakness at tight end. Granted, Zach Miller is slated to return by week one, but Luke Willson and Cooper Helfet have a long way to go.

Here are some reactions in bullet form.

• The first team didn’t look very impressive. Granted Marshawn Lynch and Miller did not play. Russell Wilson was also running the most basic plays.
• Living in Santa Monica, I got the pleasure of watching the San Diego feed of the game which meant listening to Dan Fouts and Billy Ray Smith. It took them approximately .000068 seconds to bring up Golden Tate’s touchdown when Hauschka set up for a 61 yard field goal instead of going for a deep pass. They also wasted no time in making fun of Christine Michael’s name. Fouts and Smith would do well to listen to Sir Sean Connery’s advice to one Alex Trebek.
• I didn’t see much to impress me out of Chris Harper. He seems to block okay, but I didn’t see him open very often.
• On the other hand, Stephen Williams was very impressive. He had two receptions for 83 yards, with a touchdown. He looked very smooth on the field and was able to make himself open.
• Jermaine Kearse also looked good. He got wide open across the middle on busted coverage for an easy touchdown pass.
• Seattle is deep in the back positions. Spencer Ware, Derrick Coleman, and Christine Michael all looked great. Coleman was especially impressive. On one broken play he came back to bail out Brady Quinn by making a tough catch for positive yards along the sideline. Coleman was also strong in blocking and rushing. Michael also showed quickness and the ability to find gaps and react before they close.
• Benson Mayowa was a stud. He looked very good out there. Seattle’s defensive line is going to ferocious. Woe be the man lining up against them.
• The offensive line also looked very solid giving up no sacks on any of the three quarterbacks.
• Both Brady Quinn and Tarvaris Jackson looked solid and capable of running the backup competently. They are different styles with Jackson more similar to Russell Wilson. That being said, I’ve seen Jackson make terrible, rage-of-1000-suns type of decisions too many times. I don’t trust Jackson outside the pocket and I barely do within the pocket. Let’s just hope neither Quinn nor Jackson sees time unless Seattle is up by 50.
• Maybe the most consistently sterling part of the Seattle team is special teams, on both sides of the ball. San Diego’s starting yard lines were the 15, 20, 20, 18, 20, 20, 22, 15, 15, and 20. Consequently, Seattle started at the 20, 14, 9, 14, 15, San Diego’s 28, 50, 45, 17, and San Diego’s 48. Ware, Jeremy Lane, Will Blackmon, and Walter Thurmond all look like formidable kick returners. Oh, and Jon Ryan can still kick the crap out of the ball.

Those were my takeaways. There are still some holes that need to be filled, but overall I was impressed. It’s very clear that Percy Harvin does not need to rush back. I would rather him get completely healthy. No need for a repeat of the Shawn Alexander cluster-f$*@.

My chronic Seattle sports paranoia is starting to subside a bit yet I can’t help but think of Robert Burns’ lines, The best laid schemes of mice and men / Go often awry, / And leave us nothing but grief and pain, / For promised joy!”

Right now things look positive, though. Hopefully next week some of our defensive ends can introduce themselves to Peyton Manning up close and personal.