Seahawks offensive and defensive grades from week one victory

In the Seattle Seahawks season opener, they did not start sluggish nor did they need to pick up the pieces before it was too late. Here, we grade their Week 1 performance.

The Seattle Seahawks started off their 2020 regular season with a 38-25 victory over the Atlanta Falcons on the road. With this win, the Seahawks increased their east coast streak to 9 in a row. The Seahawks looked sharp in this game; Wilson made smart reads, the defense showed up when needed. They were in control from the first play to the last.

While they were impressive, they still have some flaws they need to work on or do a better job of covering up. Here, we discuss each position grade and evaluate how they did in the season opener.

Quarterback – A++

Russell Wilson was magical yesterday. He was literally almost perfect. With only four incompletions, Wilson was precise in his throws, sharp in his reads, and showed aggression when need be. In the opening drive of the 3rd quarter, the Seattle Seahawks were winning 14-12 and after Atlanta’s defense made a stop on 3rd down and began to celebrate, Wilson tapped into his alter ego, “Mr. Unlimited”, and wanted to go for it on fourth down.

On 4th and 5, Wilson dropped a beautiful dime to DK Metcalf who caught it and took three steps into the end zone. Wilson was 31-35, threw for 322 yards, 4 touchdowns, 0 interceptions and had a 143.1 passer rating. The future MVP put the league on notice with his week 1 performance.

Running Backs – B-

The Seahawks are known to be a run-first team, but that might change this season as Seahawks fans want to see Russ cook and I think Seattle’s front office is beginning to realize that they need to “Let Russ Cook” in order for this team to win the super bowl. Now, that does not mean abandon the run game, but utilize Wilson’s passing skills over Seattle’s philosophy of run first. The Seahawks lead rusher yesterday was Russell Wilson, who took off with the ball 3 times for 29 yards. One of them being on a trick option play, where Wilson kept it and gained 20+ yards.

Hyde and Carson spilt carries, with neither one of them being able to establish a rhythm. I was going to grade the running back position as a C, but Carson was effective in the passing game with 2 receiving touchdowns and Carlos Hyde recorded his first rushing touchdown as a Seahawk.

Wide Receivers/Tight End – A

Russell Wilson is known for spreading the ball around to his wide receivers and yesterday, 9 Seahawks had at least one catch. Tyler Lockett led the way with 8 receptions for 92 yards, followed by DK Metcalf’s 4 receptions for 95 yards and 1 touchdown. As mentioned earlier, Carson recorded two receiving touchdowns and in his debut as a Seattle Seahawk, Greg Olsen recorded 4 catches for 24 yards and 1 touchdown. Outside of two drops by Metcalf, the Seahawks wide receivers played nearly a perfect game. Going up against a weakened Atlanta secondary, Wilson took advantage of the situation and gained an early lead for this team.

Offensive Line – C

Coming into this season, it was no secret that the Seattle Seahawks offensive line did not improve that much. It is known that Wilson is able to mask their weaknesses with his playmaking ability. Yesterday, on the first play of the game, the Seahawks did a play-action fake that resulted in a sack for loss. It seemed as if the game was heading in the wrong direction.

The Falcons ended up with 3 sacks, recorded 10 hits on the quarterback, and made three tackles for loss. Rookie G Damien Lewis struggled with penalties and blocking, but he is very young and will learn as the season progresses. Outside of the sacks and penalties, which can be fixed, the Seattle offensive line played a decent game.

Defensive Line – C

The biggest weakness of this Seattle team is their front 4. Outside of Jarran Reed, the Seahawks do not have a lot of playmakers on the defensive line. After losing Clowney in the offseason, many felt this would be a glaring problem for the team and numerous different rankings had this defensive line ranked as the worst in the league. The Seahawks defensive line recorded 1 sack, with the other one coming from Jamal Adams.

It was obvious that the Seahawks did not trust their front four as they brought a lot of pressure in their zone scheme blitzes. Although they did a good job against the run, they were not able to apply enough pressure on Matt Ryan. But, the big stops on fourth down resulted in them getting a C grade.

Linebackers – B

Bobby Wagner is the best linebacker in football. His instincts in the run game can mask the struggles of this defensive line. There is no better tackler in the game. Wagner tallied up 7 total tackles, with one of the biggest ones coming on a fourth-down play when he emerged up the middle and stopped Gurley from gaining any yards.

The depth at linebacker is impressive with Cody Barton, KJ Wright and eventually Jordyn Brooks (when he returns from injury). This linebacker group did a nice job of containing the run and preventing TE Hayden Hurst from having a big game. Overall, it was an impressive performance from this group and one we can continue to expect as Wagner leads them.

Secondary – C+

This one was tricky as the Seattle secondary did not play great yesterday. Alone, Jamal Adams recorded an A+ grade from me as he was all over the field. He is another great player with great instincts and can sniff out any play from a mile away. He was in the backfield stopping the run, applying pressure on Matt Ryan and using his coverage skills in one on one situations.

But, the rest of the secondary struggled. Julio Jones recorded had 9 receptions for 157 yards with no touchdowns. Calvin Ridley had 9 catches for 130 yards and two touchdowns. Lano Hill struggled in coverage yesterday, and this defense which is known for creating turnovers, only had one interception. I expect them to have a nice bounce-back game next week against New England.