The Seahawks kick off their 2022 season against the best quarterback in Seattle franchise history. Here is how Seattle can win.
The Seahawks will obviously not be expected to beat Russell Wilson in Week 1. I expect a lot of pundits will predict a Denver blowout.
But 12s know better. With or without Russell Wilson, the Seahawks keep most games close since Pete Carroll arrived in 2010. Week 1 will probably not be much different.
So how can Seattle defeat their former quarterback and shock the NFL world on Monday Night Football? Here are three possible ways.
Three things the Seahawks can do to beat Russell Wilson on Monday Night Football
Pressure pressure pressure
12s know that Russell Wilson can be sacked. He holds on to the ball too long and takes more hits than he should. That said, if Wilson has time to throw, he is going to make the young Seahawks rookie pay. Even if Sidney Jones is able to play – he is currently dealing with a concussion – he isn’t so experienced as a starter that he can be counted on to shut down one of the Broncos‘ good receivers.
No matter who is playing CB for Seattle, the pass rush must help them. The Broncos offensive line also isn’t such that they should be able to consistently keep the heat off of Wilson. Wilson doesn’t get rid of the ball that quickly and he isn’t going to suddenly turn into a timing quarterback.
Wilson is great at what he does which is throw the best deep ball in football and create production out of chaos. But he can also make mistakes when rushed, like any quarterback, and Seattle has to find a way to force him into bad throws. If the cornerbacks can play decent coverage for a few seconds after the snap, the rush should get there and Seattle can limit what Wilson is capable of.
Seahawks get off to a decently-sized early lead
Nothing anything the Seahawks want to do will work if Seattle doesn’t get points early and fairly often. Should the offense sputter and the Broncos get up to a 14-point lead, Denver will blow Seattle out. Seattle quarterback Geno Smith doesn’t need to play the best game of his career but he does need to help the offense sustain drives and get at least 17 points before the half.
One thing that created a situation where Seattle went 7-10 in 2021 was that the offense had far too many three-and-outs and the defense couldn’t get the other team off the field. Wilson can complain all he wants about how Seattle did or did not add talent to the team to help him. But he also killed drives with bad sacks.
Smith needs to be better than that. He needs to throw the ball away and not lose yards. Smith can’t try to force throws to try to get 25 yards when 8 will do. Smith needs to be a game manager in the best sense of the word. He needs to pick up first downs on second downs.
But Smith must lead Seattle to points early in the game. 10 points by the end of the first quarter would not only help a 12s confidence in the offense but also allow the young defense to rest and keep up enough energy to (hopefully) keep constant pressure on Wilson when he throws. The game won’t be competitive if the Seahawks have only 7 points by the half.
Russell Wilson doesn’t know how to play against the Seahawks’ rookies
While rookies might still be learning their way early in the season and making some mistakes along the way, a veteran player also likes to have the experience of having played against players before. In 2022, not only will the Seahawks have a different defensive coordinator than they did when Wilson was with the Seahawks, but Seattle will also have a lot of players Russell Wilson has never seen.
Sure, he can watch tape of preseason games and maybe some tape on Coby Bryant and Tariq Woolen in college, but preseason schemes are so vanilla a player can only pick up so many tendencies. Playing against Woolen’s speed and Bryant’s moxie will be different.
I am not saying the Seahawks rookie corners Bryant and Woolen, both of who should see significant snaps against Russell Wilson and the Broncos, are better than Wilson. That would be silly. But Wilson can’t be too comfortable in knowing how Bryant and Woolen want to play either. Especially early in the game, this could create a few issues for Wilson.
Or, you know, Woolen and Bryant could just have so many communication breakdowns that Wilson is throwing at times to wide-open receivers. Let’s, of course, hope this isn’t the case. But anything is possible. And that includes Wilson throwing an interception of two to cornerbacks that he doesn’t know who are trying to prove themselves in their first professional game.