Seahawks versus Eagles: 3 quick impressions from week 12

The Seahawks moved to 8-3 in 2020 with a victory over the Eagles in week 12.

The Seattle Seahawks are back in first place in the NFC West after a 23-17 win in week 12 over the Philadelphia Eagles. Seattle still has three extremely winnable games ahead and should be 11-3 by the time they face the Rams in week 16. Here are three impressions from week 12.

Russell Wilson isn’t perfect but Jason Myers might be

Russell Wilson was incredible the first five weeks of the season but hasn’t been exactly right since then. Maybe it is all the hits he is taking. It seems weird to nit-pick at Wilson but he is making un-Wilson-like mistakes. He made a completely unneeded throw away that was thousands of feet above Jacob Hollister which killed a potential Seahawk touchdown drive and Wilson was penalized for intentional grounding. Wilson was efficient again in week 12 but not anywhere near his level the first third of the year.

Kicker Jason Myers, however, is having a First-Team All-Pro season thus far in 2020. He is now 15 for 15 on field goals this year (Myers was 3 for 3 on Monday) and has missed just two of 40 extra points. And his field goal attempts aren’t chippies. He has made a 61-yard kick and 10 of his attempts are 40 yards or longer. I guess the Seahawks finally fixed their kicking problem.

The defense might be better but we don’t know that for sure yet

The Seahawks defense was better in week 11 against the Cardinals, though they weren’t great in the second half. On Monday against the Eagles, Seattle had statistically its best game and Philadelphia started with five straight 3-and-outs and had fewer than 200 total yards until late in the fourth quarter. But the Eagles are an abysmal offensive team against everybody so I am not sure how much we learned about Seattle’s defense.

And Seattle likely won’t be tested again on offense until week 16 when Seattle plays the Rams for the second time this year.

D.K. Metcalf is the Seahawks best receiver

Tyler Lockett might be Seattle’s most dependable receiver as he tends to catch everything thrown his way, but there should be no mistake that D.K. Metcalf is the first receiver the Seahawks have had in many years that can control a game by himself. His talent is freakish as is his athleticism.

One big question is why Metcalf simply doesn’t seem to be targeted all that much in some games. Three times in the last six games, Metcalf has five targets or fewer. This isn’t acceptable. Sure, Metcalf needs to work on catching passes better (imagine if he had Tyler Lockett’s hands!) but he is still learning. And he now currently leads the NFL in receiving yards with 1,039.