Seahawks week 8: underachiever and overachiever of the game

The Seahawks cruised to an easy win Sunday. There were no shortage of overachievers, and yes, we did have an underachiever as well. There’s always one, right?

It’s pretty nice when we can bask in the glow of a big win, isn’t it 12s? I believe I’ll blow my own trumpet here, as I predicted the Hawks would crush the Jags. Just ignore the last bit where I chickened out and said it would only be a two-touchdown win. Basically, everything we expected to happen, happened. The Jaguars are as bad as their record and the Seahawks are better than theirs.

Of course, I didn’t predict everything. I didn’t expect some of the top performances we got Sunday. We’ll get to those shortly. For now, I’d like to talk about underachievers. In previous games, we had a few players in each game that didn’t play up to their usual standards. For once, I only have one candidate. That player would be Rashaad Penny. Let’s just say he didn’t have the best game of his career.

Seahawks week 8 standouts

I’ve been a major booster of Penny since the moment the Seahawks drafted him. I won’t bore you with half a dozen links to all the positive pieces I’ve written about the man. My optimism has cooled lately, despite this comment from June of last year: “Despite all the challenges, I still have faith in Penny. His career isn’t off to a terrific start, true…Penny will be just fine, and so will the Seahawks.” I have to say that optimism is now gone.

Penny now has 24 yards on 15 carries. That, 12s, is not good. Sunday’s performance should be the last time he sees the field as a member of the Seahawks. Yes, the Jags are decent against the run. But Alex Collins picked up 44 yards on 10 carries. Penny had seven yards on seven carries. At this point, Seattle would be lucky to get a Hostess Twinkie in trade for him.

On to the happier prospect of the overachievers of the game. I have to start with free safety Quandre Diggs. He broke up two passes – nice – and with his pick of Trevor Lawrence in the first half, Diggs became the first player in the league to have at least three interceptions in five straight years. Considering that Diggs has pulled down a pick in nearly 40 percent of his games with the Seahawks, I can’t say he was actually overachieving. We’ve come to expect that level of performance from the man.

Those same lofty expectations apply to the Hawks excellent duo of wide receivers, Tyler Lockett and DK Metcalf. DK pulled in two scoring passes, but while that’s a great game, it isn’t exactly overachieving for him. While Lockett has been very quiet for the past few weeks, I can’t say 142 yards on 12 catches can be considered as overachieving for the man. I mean he’s had a dozen games with a 100+ yards before this. It was a great performance, but the word is overachiever.

For that, I have to go with backup QB Geno Smith. After holding himself responsible for the Seahawks losses during the absence of Russell Wilson, Smith had a most DangeRuss performance. All he did was complete his first 14 passes. That’s pretty good, right 12s? Smith finished the game with 20 of 24 passes for 195 yards and two touchdowns. He also opened the Hawks scoring with their only rushing touchdown of the game. Oh, and this was Smith’s first win as a starter since….drumroll please…2014.

I don’t know about you, but this game practically screams overachievement. Granted, the yardage wasn’t great, but the scoreboard only shows the points. When the team has been starved for offense for weeks, 24 points looks pretty darn good. No, Geno doesn’t get credit for Travis Homer’s sweet kickoff return. But he does get credit as my overachiever for week 8.