Seahawks offensive and defensive grades from big TNF win

The Seattle Seahawks start off Week 11 with a big win over the Arizona Cardinals on Thursday Night Football.

Coming off two straight losses, the Seattle Seahawks took back first place in the NFC West with a win over the Arizona Cardinals. In what was a huge divisional game for both teams, the Seahawks walked away victorious as they finally got back to their balanced attack on the offensive side of the ball.

The Seattle defense also showed up and showed out under the lights on a nationally televised game that held the Cardinals to season lows. For two straight weeks, the Seahawks had to hear about how bad the defense has been and how Russell Wilson hasn’t made smart decisions. Well, last night, they silenced the critics as they played a very nice ball game.

The last time these two teams met, the Seahawks shot themselves in the foot as they had silly penalties in the 2nd half that gave the Cardinals extra yardage, which ultimately helped them get into scoring position. The Cardinals stole the Week 7 game from Seattle. Wilson was damn near perfect last night and might I also add, he was very effective in using his legs. The Seahawks looked like a championship team last night, finding the balance on offense and applying pressure on the opposing quarterback defensively. After back-to-back sloppy performances, this Seattle team put the rest of the West on notice with the big win over the Cardinals.

The Seahawks are now 2-2 in divisional play. With that said, it is time for the weekly grade report.

Offense

Do you think Russell Wilson had a little bit of extra motivation last night? All week long, not only was he hearing about his poor performance in back-to-back weeks, but everyone was buying stock in Kyler Murray for MVP. Last night, Wilson got back to the basics. Although there was pressure applied on him, he kept his eyes down the field and used his legs when need be. Russ finished the game 23 of 28 for 197 yards and 2 touchdowns.

One of his best passes on the night actually came on an incompletion. Right before half, with 11 seconds when Wilson tried hitting D.K. Metcalf over the middle, he threw the ball so fast and hard that the camera lost it. Evidently, it hit D.K. Metcalf right in the chin. But, that was a great example of how Wilson can make any throw in this game. He also threw a beautiful touchdown pass to Tyler Lockett. Russ looked like himself last night and makes his way back to the typical A+ performance. Also, with the win last night, Russ is now the winningest quarterback through the first 9 seasons in NFL history.

Last night, all 12s were hopeful that we would see the return of Chris Carson. Unfortunately, we did not. But, after the game, Coach Carroll did say that Chris will be 100% ready to go next week against the Eagles. Regardless, we did get Carlos Hyde back last night and he balled out. Seattle focused on taking the pressure off Russ and finding that balanced attack. With no Carson and Homer, Hyde and Scarbrough took some of the load off Wilson’s shoulders as they rushed for over 100 combined yards.

After a taunting penalty on Arizona, Hyde had a mean run that saw him run right through Patrick Peterson. He then followed up the next play with a touchdown. But, they are receiving an A instead of an A+ because of the almost costly bobble by Hyde. Up 25-21, on 2nd and short, Hyde bobbled the toss, but, was grateful enough to recover it., Overall, it was nice to see Seattle find that balanced attack on offense once again.

D.K. Metcalf finally recorded his first touchdown against the Cardinals last night. In fact, it was on the opening drive that saw Wilson maneuver his way through the collapsing pocket to find D.K. running right past Budda Baker. D.K. had the potential of catching 3 touchdown passes in this one. But, he dropped two of them. Right before the half, D.K. dropped the laser by Wilson. Shortly before that, he dropped another one on a play-action fake that saw him doing a crossing route. The Cardinals were in man-to-man and D.K. would have had a lot of space to run with the ball after catching it. In fact, he dropped it because he picked his eyes up before the ball hit his hands.

Tyler Lockett was once again great against the Cardinals night. Caught 9 balls on 9 targets for 67 yards and 1 touchdown. He displayed his great feet work on the TD pass as he dragged that second foot in. Tyler is one of the best at knowing where he is on the field and using his feet to secure the catch. Unfortunately, TE Greg Olsen suffered a foot injury that appears to be serious. We wish Greg nothing but the best moving forward and hope to see him return to the field before this season ends.

I’ve been giving this offensive line a hard time over the past two weeks and rightfully so. Through the first six weeks of the season, Wilson was sacked 19 times. In the two games against the Bills and Rams, Wilson was sacked 11 times. I know they have been dealing with some injuries, but the more Wilson got hit, the worse his decision making became. Last night, once again without C Ethan Pocic and his backup, Kyle Fuller, the offensive line responded. Although the first play of the game was a sack, they protected Wilson pretty nicely throughout the game.

Rookie G Damien Lewis deserves a lot of credit for his performance last night. I think that might have been his first time ever playing the center position and although he struggled early on, he battled all throughout the night. There were two holding penalties called against him (the first one was a bad call). He also fumbled a snap early in the game, but he showed his resiliency by just continuing to play. This offensive line created nice holes for Hyde to run through and got back to protecting Wilson the way they have too.