Seahawks versus Eagles: 3 quick concerns for Seattle
By Lee Vowell
Here are three concerns for the Seahawks when facing the Eagles.
The Seahawks would move back into first place in the NFC West with a victory on Monday over the Eagles. Seattle has the more talented roster and there won’t be any Eagles fans in the stands to try to change the outcome of the game. Seattle should win. But here are three quick reasons they may not.
Can the defense play well enough again?
First off, I think all 12s went a bit overboard in reacting to how well the defense did against the Cardinals. Sure, the defense was better but 12s have gotten so conditioned to watching the Seahawks be the Swiss part of NFL’s defensive cheeses that seeing nearly any improvement looks amazing.
This is still the same defense that made most quarterbacks look like future Hall of Famers this year. Sure, Eagles quarterback Carson Wentz is not having a good year but if Seattle’s defense plays anywhere near where it did for most of the first half of the season then Wentz will have his best game of 2020.
And Seattle’s defense still needs to show it can play better than spectacularly awful on defense two games in a row.
Will the rain be a factor?
Philadelphia has had a ton of rain over the last day and rain is Russell Wilson‘s kryptonite. For whatever reason, Wilson has his worst games when there is precipitation falling from the sky. By game time, the rain is supposed to lessen and the temperature is supposed to be near 60 degrees but if the rain continues well into the game, it could affect the outcome.
Can the Seahawks keep Russell Wilson clean?
While the Seahawks do get Chris Carson, Ethan Pocic and Shaquill Griffin back they will also be without Brandon Shell. Shell has been pretty good this year and right tackle could be a problem on Monday. The Eagles have two good defensive ends in Brandon Graham and Fletcher Cox and allowing Wilson to have time to throw is obviously key to Seattle winning.
If Wilson is affected by the rain and/or does not have much time to throw coupled with the unknown fact of whether Seattle’s defense can do decently two weeks in a row is a lot of reasons that 12s have to worry about Monday’s outcome. Yes, Seattle is the better of the two teams but anything can happen in the NFL.