Seahawks defeat the Eagles because of the Seattle defense

The Seahawks moved to 9-2 with a victory over the Eagles in week 12. Seattle’s offense overall was not good but the defense was great.

The Seahawks won with a classic Seattle score on Sunday when they defeated the Eagles in week 12 on Sunday. But the way Seattle won was a bit different. The Eagles scored a late meaningless touchdown to make the final 17-9 (Philadelphia went for 2 and didn’t make it) but the game should have never been that close.

Russell Wilson was under pressure all day and then didn’t have a great game anyway. He missed a wide open Jacob Hollister in the second quarter that would have been a touchdown. Then he threw an interception in the second half when he threw into double coverage. Wilson wasn’t good but Seattle won and that is important.

Sure, the Eagles were an injured group with receivers out with injury and missing a couple of defensive linemen. But Seattle was without Jadeveon Clowney. Had Clowney played, he might have hit Eagles quarterback Carson Wentz 12 times. So while Philly was banged up, Seattle was without important players too.

The Seahawks forced five Philadelphia turnovers. Seattle recovered two Wentz fumbles and picked him off twice. Bradley McDougald made a great catch on one interception while Wentz hit a wide open Tre Flowers on the other. Flowers got his second career interception in the fourth quarter. Time and again when Seattle’s defense needed to make a play, they did.

The Eagles averaged less than 4 yards a play through three quarters. Philadelphia ended up with 344 total yards but a good amount of that was on the final meaningless drive. Wentz had a quarterback rating of 75.8. Worse if you discount the last minute touchdown pass.

Seattle scored its first touchdown on a flea-flicker from Chris Carson to Wilson to Malik Turner that was one of Wilson’s few perfect throws of the game. Seattle never trailed again. The game should have been 21-3 or 24-3 with any kind of Seattle offensive execution but that didn’t happen.

Speaking of Carson, he fumbled twice in a row. The second visibly upset Wilson which was a muffed handoff. Carson ran for just 26 yards on 8 carries. But his fumbling issues are a huge concern moving forward. Thankfully, Rashaad Penny had the greatest game of his young career.

https://twitter.com/NFL/status/1198699671901704192

Penny ran for 129 yards on 14 carries with a touchdown run of 58 yards. Penny was the Seattle offensive MVP. Seattle might still have won if he had not played, but they also might not have. And that may have never been said about Penny as a member of Seattle’s football team. It might be said a lot more in the coming weeks.

Seattle had several good things happen, though. Ziggy Ansah had his best game as a Seahawk with 1.5 sacks, two tackles for loss and two quarterback hits. Rasheem Green had a forced fumble and two quarterback hits. Overall, Seattle won in week 12 and the defense was the reason. That is a good sign.