These three Seahawks need to play big versus Falcons in week 8

The Seahawks will have no excuses for not beating the Matt Ryan-less Falcons on Sunday. But to do so these three players will need to be good for Seattle.

The Seahawks need a win on Sunday. Not that their playoff hopes would be done if they don’t win, but I mean, come on. Atlanta will be without Desmond Trufant and Matt Ryan and the Falcons already have a bad defense. If Seattle doesn’t win, that would be very bad.

Besides the Falcons injuries, though, Seattle still needs their players to step up and do well. For once, Seattle needs to take the action to the other team instead of figuring out the pace halfway through the first quarter.

Here are three players who need to do well for the Seahawks on Sunday.

Russell Wilson

I get it. Like duh and stuff, right? The quarterback for Seattle needs to play well for them to win. But in fact we saw what happened when Russell Wilson doesn’t play well against the Ravens in week 7: Seattle loses.

Against a really bad Atlanta secondary, Seattle needs to use the Wilson to Tyler Lockett combination a lot. Sure, the Seahawks offense isn’t designed for Wilson to throw for 400 yards easily, but today might be that the best thing to do against Atlanta’s 28th ranked pass defense.

Shaquill Griffin

Seattle has gone back to having their cornerbacks play on side of the field. Griffin is having a good year and might not matchup against Atlanta’s excellent receiver Julio Jones much. But when he does, it could be special. And that could go either way. Jones might get the better of Griffin but Griffin might also find a way of getting his first interception of the season.

Whomever Griffin is matched up against when Jones is not on Griffin’s side of the field, Griffin just needs to shut them down. Against backup quarterback Matt Schaub, Griffin needs to be the number one corner the Seahawks hope he will be.

Marquise Blair

Mr. Blair, this is your game to shine. Seattle’s future long-term safety was good in his first start of his career last week, but this could be the week he imposes his will on the game. The Falcons are likely to throw a bunch and they know Seattle has gotten beat a few times this season, especially Tedric Thompson.

Blair could get beat deep too, but he could also change the game with one or two Kam Chancellor-type hits. If Blair can bring the boom back to Seattle, the defense will take a big step forward. This kind of game is the reason Seattle took Blair in the second round of the 2019 draft.