Seahawks vs. Patriots week 2: Preview and podcast

The Seahawks play the Patriots in week two and the first home game for Seattle in 2020.

The Seattle Seahawks began the 2020 season in high fashion with a relatively easy victory over the Atlanta Falcons. Seattle and Russell Wilson were aggressive offensively and threw far more on first and second downs than they did in 2019. Hopefully, due to letting Russ cook, this will continue.

The issue with doing so in week two versus the Patriots is that even with Wilson’s greatness (and he was truly great in week one), New England’s secondary is really good. They might be missing players who opted-out of the season like Patrick Chung, but they still have cornerback Stephon Gilmore.

Gilmore might be the best cornerback in the NFL and he is even better because of the way he fits in Patriots coach Bill Belichick’s defense. That should be worrisome to 12s who want the Seahawks to throw a lot more this season or, more specifically, in week two.

Seahawks offensive scheme in week 2

The truth of the matter is that Seattle should be able to throw against New England because Russell Wilson is Russell Wilson and that is a very good thing. But Seattle is 2-1 (and we all know should be 3-0) against New England since Wilson became Seattle’s quarterback for a big reason. Wilson is accurate when throwing and mobile. And he is mobile in weird ways.

What Wilson’s scrambles and improvisations don’t make much sense to a defense locked in on black-and-white. With Wilson, there is a lot of gray and even the great Belichick cannot account for that.

For Seattle to win, they don’t need to have Wilson throw 40 times. They just need to let Russ be Russ and create chaos for the Patriots defense. If Wilson can do this, he will be 3-1 against New England by the end of Sunday night.