Seattle Seahawks need Russell Wilson more than Rashaad Penny Week 17
By Lee Vowell
The Seattle Seahawks should beat the Detroit Lions in Week 17 but they need Russell Wilson to be great. The Lions are pretty good against the run so this might be a week when Russ needs to get back to cooking good food instead of the slop he has dealt out a lot this season.
And before I go any further, I should note that never did I think that entering Week 17 of the 2021 season I would create a headline that would say the Seahawks needed less Rashaad Penny. If I had fallen asleep in the early part of the year and woke up and read my own headline I would assume I had passed out in a drunken stupor! But no, it’s true.
Rashaad Penny has been the best Seattle offensive player in two of the last three games and appears to be the best going forward for the rest of the season. Penny looks every bit as good as Chris Carson ever did and Russell Wilson has struggled for most of the year compared to how well Russell Wilson normally plays.
The Seahawks need Rashaad Penny to be good but maybe just not this week.
Week 17 needs to be great for Russell Wilson and the Seahawks receivers
Yes, the Lions are 25th in the NFL in scoring giving up 25.7 points a game. But does points-allowed always tell you how good a defense is? No. The Seahawks don’t have a good defense and they are 7th in points-allowed at 20.5. Detroit is 27th in rushing yards allowed per game at 127.3 but, again, that doesn’t tell the whole story.
Detroit is 9th in yards-allowed-per-rush at 4.2. And while they have allowed those yards rushing per game a big part of it is because the Lions have seen the fourth-most rushing attempts against them (450). Detroit allowed just 47 yards rushing in Week 16 against the Falcons.
But Detroit is 26th in the NFL with a 99.1 quarterback rating allowed. They have allowed 24 touchdown passes against just 9 interceptions. They also don’t put pressure on opposing quarterbacks getting pressure just 20.1 percent of the time, fourth-worst in the league. The Lions have just 25 sacks, third-worst in the NFL.
Next. 3 Seahawks who might be playing their final 2 games with Seattle. dark
Basically, this is a game where Russell Wilson and DK Metcalf need to find the old magic. Tyler Lockett should be able to find a bunch of open seams. Most importantly, Wilson should have time to find Metcalf and Lockett. Penny will get some yards but Wilson needs to win this game.