Seahawks defensive grades versus Bengals: Seattle missed Earl Thomas

The Seahawks defense was both good and bad in week one versus the Bengals but if they still had Earl Thomas they would have been better. Here are the week one grades.

The Seahawks defense was not great in week one against the Bengals. It also wasn’t atrocious. The grades here are going to be a little weird because some pieces of Seattle’s defense, like Quinton Jefferson, were fantastic while other pieces, like Tedric Thompson, suffered. Overall, the defense did enough to win against a not-great team.

As much as I hate to say it and Earl Thomas had to go, if Thomas was on the field for Seattle in week one, the Bengals don’t score nearly 20 points and the game isn’t close. Here are the defensive grades for week one.

Defensive line

The line started the day without Ziggy Ansah but with Jadeveon Clowney. Clowney was very good overall, including a sack and a batted ball. Once he teams with Ansah, the line will be a force. The surprise was how well Jefferson played, getting two sacks, two passes defended, three tackles for loss. Best game of Jefferson’s life? Yep.

Overall, Seattle had four sacks and they all came from the defensive line. But the line also had just 5 quarterback hits on 51 dropbacks. Cincinnati also had just 34 yards rushing on 14 carries.

Grade: B

Linebackers

Bobby Wagner had 9 tackles, Mychal Kendricks had 7 and K.J. Wright had 5. Tackling wasn’t an issue for Seattle and the linebackers had to make a lot of them with all those Andy Dalton completions over the middle. Pass coverage was a different issue, however. Kendricks got toasted on a flea-flicker to John Ross III that went for a touchdown.

Grade: B

Secondary

I get that Tre Flowers made 10 tackles, but he made so many because passes kept getting completed in front of him. Flowers also had a bad pass interference call against him late in the fourth quarter. It was questionable, but it was the right call. Maybe I jinxed Flowers by predicting him to be the MVP of the game. Shaquill Griffin actually looked better than he did in 2018 but that only left him on an island by himself as far as productive cornerbacks.

Bradley McDougald was decent but not a difference maker on Sunday. A big problem was Tedric Thompson who looked silly by jumping for a deep ball too early and allowing Ross to catch a 55 yard touchdown pass before the first half ended, That can’t happen. The problem is that if Earl Thomas were still in Seattle, he would have intercepted the pass and had open field in which to return it. Seattle also wouldn’t have had all those middle of the field completions.

Grade: D