Seahawks grades from week 17 win that felt like a loss

Defense

Defensive line

First, let me say the defense played well enough to win. They gave up just 198 total yards to a bad Cardinals offense. Arizona was able to score 24 points mostly because of two blocked punts and a big return of a punt.

Secondly, it is a good thing the Seahawks have a lot of cap space coming up because they are going to need it to pay Frank Clark and Jarran Reed. Clark and Reed combined for four sacks, four tackles for loss and five quarterback hits against the Cardinals. Each finished with double-digit sacks on the season. These guys need to be Seahawks for life.

Quinton Jefferson and Jacob Martin each had sack against the Cardinals. And the Arizona running backs averaged just 3.3 yards per carry.

Grade: A

Linebacker

K.J. Wright played the best game of his limited season and looks ready for the playoffs. Thankfully. Bobby Wagner was in on a combined 12 tackles, or just a regular Wagner game. It’s great to have these two playing together again entering the postseason.

Grade: A

Secondary

After Shaquill Griffin left the game in the first half with an ankle injury, Arizona started throwing at Akeem King a bunch. At first, it worked, like King getting lost on Larry Fitzgerald‘s touchdown catch. But King settled in and played decently.

It is amazing that Tre Flowers does not have interception this season. Clearly, teams are more and more reluctant to throw in his direction. Maybe he doesn’t have any interceptions because his coverage is so tight that teams just look away from him. Flowers is going to be very good with Seattle.

Delano Hill is proving to be a solid player and with more reps might simply take Tedric Thompson’s position. And Bradley McDougald was great as always.

Grade: B+

Special teams

I cringe when I think about how bad Seattle’s punt team was on Sunday. And Dickson is not without blame. Sure, he had two punts blocked – OK, so one was altered and not totally blocked –  but then on two other punts he simply outkicked his coverage and allowed good returns. Maybe Dickson was rattled by the constant pressure in his face and was just trying to get rid of the ball?

Sebastian Janikowski made both his field goal attempts, including the game-winner, and all three of his extra points. Plus, he nearly always kicked the ball into the Cardinals end zone on kickoffs. So at least Janikowski was decent.

But the Cardinals were able to stay in the game because of their special teams unit and Seattle needs to fix their punt blocking immediately.

Grade: F