Seattle Seahawks: week 17 underachiever and overachiever of the game

The Seattle Seahawks finally came to life on offense with a 51 point explosion against the Lions. There was no shortage of overachievers in this game, and just one underachiever. Kinda one. Okay, there were a lot, but there are some caveats to that.

I have to tell you, 12s, it’s almost as much fun to write about a Seahawks win as it is to witness one. It’s been rare enough this season, after all. You know what’s truly rare? The Hawks rolling up more than 50 points on an opponent, that’s beyond rare. The previous high this season was just 33 points; in fact, they only reached 30 in four other games this year.

The last time Seattle scored over 50 points was on December 16, 2012 against the Bills. They hung 58 on the Cardinals the week before that, and then 42 on the Niners the week after. Not a bad stretch, right? You have to go back to 2017 for the last time Seattle reached 40 points more than once in a season. So the offensive explosion was certainly rarified air for the Seahawks.

Too many Seahawks overachievers to count – well, almost

Let me get the underachiever out of the way. You could say the entire Seattle defense underachieved as they gave up 29 points to a team that was 2-12-1 coming into this game. That’s the most points the Seahawks have given up since 30 to the Vikings back in week three. But things can get out of hand in a shootout. And it certainly didn’t help that eternal Pro Bowl middle linebacker Bobby Wagner was injured on the first snap of the game.

On to the good stuff. You wouldn’t be wrong to say the entire offense overachieved. Yes, we got a huge game from Russell Wilson with four touchdown passes. DK Metcalf had three of those scores. And Rashaad Penny rolled for 170 yards and two touchdowns himself. But Wilson and Metcalf are supposed to do things like that. and after the past month he’s had, we can expect Penny to have huge games too.

My overachievers for the game simply have to be the entire Seahawks offensive line. Consider their reputation coming into the game. Would you expect Seattle to un for 265 yards – no, that is not a typo – and allow just one sack? Bob Condotta of the Seattle Times gave the O line an A for the game. He mentioned Phil Haynes and Ethan Pocic in particular as standouts on the day. Sounds good to me!

As satisfying as it was, the big win over the Lions hardly means the Seahawks have turned things around and don’t need to make any changes in the offseason. As Lee Vowell wrote in his immediate game analysis, Seattle got a look at life without BWags, and it wasn’t pretty. The 51 points was amazing, but one game doesn’t mean everything is fixed, either. I hope we see more of this in the season finale against the Cards.