There were several bright spots from that bad Seahawks loss
Bright spots, you say? Yes, there were bright spots from the first Seahawks loss on a Monday night in about 300 years. Read on.
Let’s get the disappointment, frustration, and general feeling of doom out of the way. Seattle should have won this game, just as they should have won against the Redskins. The Seahawks should be 8 -2, flying high toward the playoffs even with the losses of Richard Sherman and (likely) Kam Chancellor for the season. But that’s okay, because they still have weapons that other teams don’t. There’s reason to keep the faith.
That head coach is pretty darn good
Yes, I did call out Pete Carroll for a couple of questionable decisions in the game recap. Haven’t changed my mind on those decisions, either. I don’t buy the explanation that the Seahawks could have called a timeout if the play didn’t result in a touchdown, or if Willson didn’t at least make it out of bounds. Great, so now instead of kicking a 34 yard field goal, we kick a 30 yarder. Luke Willson isn’t making it to the end zone against the Falcons defense. Russell Wilson, sure. Not the guy with two “L”s, though. Bad call. The challenge of Doug Baldwin’s non-catch, another bad decision. Yes, I know Baldwin said he had his arm under it, and he’s been right before. Surely though someone on the Seattle staff watched the replay, like everyone else on the planet. Would have been nice to have that timeout on the final drive. I was hardly the only one to question Pete.
So I called out Pete again to say this: there are some teams and some coaches you could run a regular feature about, Coach Butterbrain’s Worst Call of the Week. Not so with Pete Carroll. He rarely makes questionable decisions. When he does, it’s because he trusts his players. That’s a great quality in a coach, and isn’t as common as you might think. Pete got his questionable calls out of his system Monday night. He is a weapon few teams can match.
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That kick return guy, he’s pretty darn good too
That would be Mr. Tyler Lockett, who only returned five kicks for 197 yards. He put the Seahawks in great position all night. After Monday’s game, he has well over 1,000 all-purpose yards again, and is on pace to reach 1,800 for the season. No one realizes it, but he’s fourth in the league in all purpose yards. You’ve probably heard plenty about the three guys ahead of him – Todd Gurley, Kareem Hunt, and Le’Veon Bell. Yes, that’s how good Lockett is.
Even better, he seems to just be getting back to full speed from his injury, so I expect he’ll continue to have games like this one. Again, he is a weapon few teams can match.