Three things Seahawks must do to beat Jets
By Lee Vowell
The Seahawks need to beat the Jets in week 14 to have a chance to win the NFC West.
The Seahawks play the Jets in week 14. New York isn’t going to the playoffs this year, clearly. But Seattle has a lot to play for, including still having a chance to win the NFC West. And Seattle must defeat the Jets on Sunday to try to keep pace with the Rams as Los Angeles already won on Thursday.
For Seattle to win, they must do these three things.
Score 17 points by halftime
For all the points Seattle scored in their first 8 games, Seattle rarely scored 17 by halftime. In fact, this happened just three times and Seattle should have won every one of those games. The only one they lost was to the Cardinals in week 7 when Russell Wilson threw 3 interceptions. And the jets aren’t quarterbacked by anyone close to the talent of Arizona’s Kyler Murray so the Jets aren’t going o make a comeback if down a bunch early.
One of the more frustrating things about Seattle’s offense lately is settling for field goals or not scoring touchdowns in the first half of games. Seattle needs to set the pace of this game and get the jets down early by scoring touchdowns. If Seattle can score 17 or more by halftime, this game won’t be close in the second half.
Get the tempo up
Who else is tired of seeing the Seahawks get the play clock down to under three seconds seemingly every play? One aspect of the Seahawks offense early in the season that was working well and should continue to do so is being aggressive.
Russell Wilson has not lately been changing many plays at the line of scrimmage. This means every time Seattle approaches the line the opposing defense gets a long look at what alignment Seattle is in and attacks accordingly. Seattle simply needs to not have Wilson have to think so much. Maybe go no-huddle or, worst, get the ball off early after getting to the line.
Aggressiveness is a good thing for Seattle so Brian Schottenheimer needs to let Wilson and company be so.
Win the third quarter
Early in the season, the Seahawks had one of the highest-scoring third quarter offenses in the NFL. In three of Seattle’s losses, they have lost the third quarter to the other team. Seattle hasn’t scored more than 7 points in the third since week 9 and has been shutout in the quarter twice in the last four games.
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If Seattle makes this game a blowout, they need to have 17 by halftime and score 10 points or more in the third. There is no reason with Seattle’s ability to throw the ball versus the Jets inability to defend it that Seattle should not have at least 27 points by the end of the third quarter.