Seahawks offensive and defensive grades from week two victory

Defense

I said it last week and I will say it again, the Seahawks biggest flaw is this defensive line. We do not have a playmaker on the defensive line and it has been evident in the first two games. Outside of the blitz packages, the Seahawks are rarely getting pressure when rushing four. Bruce Irving suffered what appeared to be a non-contact injury and I hope he is not dealing with a serious injury. The Seahawks reeled in one sack that came from all pro safety Jamal Adams.

They had 5 tackles for loss and 5 quarterback hits on Cam Newton. They once again did a nice job against the run as the Patriots only had 67 total rushing yards. They held Cam Newton to only 47 rushing yards. Although he had two rushing touchdowns, they both came at the one yard line. They were able to keep him in tact for majority of the game. They also had plenty of opportunities to bring him down the back field, but missed some chances at getting more sacks. But, they came up with the biggest stop of the game as L.J. Collier came up huge in stopping Cam Newton on the QB run at the end of the game.

Most importantly, prayers go out to James White and his family as he lost his father in a car crash earlier in the day. We all hope his mother is able to pull through.

Bobby Wagner is just fantastic. As a the floor general, he does a great job of assuring that his guys are in the right position at the right time. He was effective in blitzing as he forced Cam to get rid of the ball early. His running mate, K.J. Wright is also spectacular. Him and Bobby have tremendous chemistry as they have been playing with each other for the entirety of their careers.

They were very effective in stopping the run and keeping Cam in tact. Most importantly, they were able to keep the Patriots tight ends in check. While their cover 3 defense can lead to some openings in the middle of the field, the linebackers played a nice game tonight. Rookie LB Jordyn Brooks saw some playing time tonight latter in the game as they added an athletic speedster to the line in trying to slow Cam Newton down. I am excited for him to get more playing time and learn from two of the best in the game in Bobby and KJ.

Overall, I thought the Seahawks did a nice job on defense tonight. Early in the game, our secondary caught some unfortunate breaks with Quandre Diggs getting thrown out of the game for a helmet to helmet hit and shortly after, his replacement, Marquise Blair got hurt. It seemed that Blair got rolled up on by KJ Wright on a tackle and we can all hope and pray that it is not a season ending injury as Blair has lots of potential. The secondary was able to force a turnover as Quinton Dunbar made a nice break on the ball forcing an interception. There was also another chance at a interception earlier in the game, but Dunbar dropped it.

Jamal Adams was all over the place once again. My only issue with the secondary tonight was that they let up too many big plays down the field. Their philosophy is to leave everything in front. Late in the game when the Patriots desperately needed touchdowns to stay in the game, this secondary allowed them to hang around by allowing big plays down the field. Of all people, Julian Edelman beat Jamal Adams twice on two deep routes that set up the Patriots in great scoring position, that later resulted in touchdowns. Being that this secondary is somewhat new, it is going to take time for them to develop chemistry.

Next week, we have another tall task ahead as the Dallas Cowboys are riding the momentum of their lucky victory over our week 1 opponent, the Atlanta Falcons.