Seahawks vs Redskins Recap: Wilson Carries Hawks to 27-17 Win

Monday Night Football is always a highly anticipated matchup. Sometimes the two teams aren’t the most exciting but the big-game stage helps create an exciting contest. This week we have both. The Seahawks are arguably the most fun team to watch and they take on a Redskins team that has some offensive weapons in DeSean Jackson and Alfred Morris. It’ll be interesting to see what QB Kirk Cousins does against the Legion of Boom this early in his career.

Just before the start, ESPN analyst Jon Gruden pointed out that for the Washington Redskins to have a chance in this game, they’d have to contain Russell Wilson.

They didn’t get that memo and on the first offensive possession Wilson took off and gained 45 yards on just 2 carries. A deep pass to Doug Baldwin that bounced off the receiver’s chest would have put the Seahawks in the red zone. Instead, Wilson took over and on his second carry took the ball inside the ten yard line.

After a penalty pushed them back, a 15-yard completion to former Washington Husky Jermaine Kearse would give the Seahawks the lead 7-0 just 2 minutes and 16 seconds into MNF.

On the second drive it was more of the same. After a 13-yard carry on the first play, Wilson gained 30 more yards on a fake handoff to Percy Harvin. A fumble by Wilson that the QB recovered and an early snap by Max Unger that was almost lost led to a punt after what was a promising start to the drive.

Wilson finished with 122 rushing yards, 80 in the first quarter alone. In the 45 years that MNF has been on, Wilson is only the third QB to have rushed for over 100 yards.

Defensively the Seahawks were even more impressive. Kirk Cousins was clearly shaken and the Redskins couldn’t get anything going running the ball either. Alfred Morris was held to 29-yards rushing on 13 carries.

At halftime the Redskins had just 118 total yards – 98 passing, 25 rushing. DeSean Jackson accounted for 60 of those passing yards with just one catch, a TD after speeding by safety Kam Chancellor.

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The Seahawks were a completely different story. Russell Wilson completed 11 of 15 passes for 131 yards to go with his 89 rushing yards and 2 TD’s in the first half. Doug Baldwin showed up with 4 rec and 50 yards. Cooper Helfet, who’s seeing more playing time with Zach Miller out after having surgery to remove bone spurs, had a 36-yard catch to set up a score.

Jackson opened the second half with a 57-yard reception, this time over S Earl Thomas and CB Byron Maxwell. Cousins would get the Redskins into the red zone but they’d settle for a field goal and make the score 17-10.

The Seahawks did what they do. They regrouped, the defense held the Redskins offense in the second half and the offense moved the chains to keep the clock going.

Wilson finished 18 of 24 with 2 passing TD’s, 1 rushing TD, 201 yards in the air and another 122 rushing. Marshawn Lynch contributed 72-yards and scored the final TD to make things more comfortable for Hawks fans.

Despite the win, one Seahawk who has to be upset is Percy Harvin. Three Harvin TD’s were called back because of penalties. The last one being a bomb by Wilson to a wide open Harvin that would have given the Seahawks a 24-10 lead with nearly 13 minutes remaining. Percy is still waiting on his first receiving TD of the 2014 season.

The two story lines in this game are going to be Russell Wilson’s amazing ability to extend drives and make something out of nothing, and penalties making the game much closer than it needed to be.

Seattle was penalized 13 times for 90 yards compared to Washington’s 3 penalties for 30 yards.

Seattle improves to 3-1 and is tied for the NFC West lead with the Arizona Cardinals. The Redskins are now 1-4.

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