Seahawks report card: Grades from week one victory over Colts

The Seattle Seahawks looked like a well-rounded and good team in week one in a 28-16 victory. Something about this win just felt different than most of the early wins last year. Maybe it was because not one group, the offense or the defense, had to win the game. Both sides played well enough for Seattle to win easily, which of course they did.

The Seahawks played a complete game on Sunday and to find too much wrong is just being a bit nit-picky and overly critical. Other than the Colts opening drive, this game was never really in doubt.

This was the kind of win that should make 12s hopeful of a very successful season, even if every other NFC West team won somewhat easily as well.

Here is how every unit graded for the Seahawks versus the Colts

Quarterback

Russell Wilson had 4 touchdown passes and 5 incompletions so that pretty much tells you what you need to know. Wilson had a couple of odd throws in the third quarter but never threw a pass in danger of being intercepted.

Grade: A

Running back

Chris Carson was magnificent except for the one fumble which was really a great play by the Colts linebacker. Otherwise, Carson averaged 5.7 yards a run plus 26 yards receiving on 3 catches. I have a feeling Carson is in for a very productive season.

Grade: B

Receivers/tight ends

It was Tyler Lockett and Gerald Everett show in the first half and the D.K. Metcalf and Will Dissly show in the second half. D’Wayne Eskridge flashed some good speed too in limited opportunities before he was hurt. He doesn’t appear to be out long-term though. But Metcalf and Lockett combining for 160 yards and 8 catches and 3 touchdowns is a good day that will not be their best of the year.

Grade: A-

Offensive line

Wilson got sacked 4 times though one was when he was rolling out and had no one open and took a 2-yard loss. Otherwise, the line played very well and the only real hiccup was when Ethan Pocic was in the game early and Seattle had to punt on consecutive drives and Pocic gave up a sack. Kyle Fuller needs to be the starter and get most of the snaps. Seattle averaged 7.2 yards per play which is excellent.

Grade: B

Defensive line

Seattle went with a four-man rush for most of the game and the rotation of edge rushers got consistent pressure on Carson Wentz. The Seahawks had 10 quarterback hits and all of them (if you count Darrell Taylor who was playing end when he got his pressures) were from the defensive line. The Colts also only averaged 3.8 yards a rush.

Grade: A

Linebacker

K.J. Wright was not missed. He hopefully will be good for the Raiders as he is a good person so I wish him well. But Bobby Wagner finished with 13 combined tackles and Jordyn Brooks had 11 combined and there were no breakdowns in pass coverage.

Grade: A

Secondary

Except at the very end when the Colts threw a touchdown pass against Tre Flowers the cornerbacks did well. Indy threw for only 223 yards on 38 attempts. Flowers and D.J. Reed were both solid, Quandre Diggs was flying around the field and Jamal Adams was able to play more in coverage, compared to 2020, and did well.

Grade: A

Special teams

Special teams was very good but not perfect. Michael Dickson appeared to be about to fake a punt which almost ended in a blocked punt but he was able to get the ball off in the end. Dickson averaged 37 yards a punt with a long of 49 and had four of his five punts downed inside the opponent 20. Jason Myers was perfect on his extra points and his kickoffs were consistently longer than last year.

Grade: B+