Seahawks report card: The kids are alright in Week 7

The Seahawks moved to a surprising 4-3 with a victory over the Los Angeles Chargers in Week 7 37-23. The game was full of weird officiating, notable injuries and turnovers. But Seattle deserved the win and got it.

Now Seattle somehow sits atop the NFC West for this week. The Rams are 3-3 but had the week off. San Francisco and Arizona are both 3-4.

Still, the Seahawks may have already won more games in 2022 than some national pundits predicted Seattle would win for the entire season. Geno Smith is playing great football and the defense is beginning to play better. Anything is possible still this year for Seattle.

How did the Seahawks grade in Week 7?

Quarterback

Geno Smith started the game by throwing more 50/50 balls than he probably has all season. That’s not a bad thing. One should have been an interception and wasn’t. The pick that Smith did have wasn’t even his fault. Heck, even the fumble he was credited with wasn’t his fault. But Geno was Geno and appears to be gaining more confidence each week. Plus, he threw two absolute dimes for touchdowns to Marquise Goodwin. Geno, simply put, is playing better than Russell Wilson would have if Wilson was still in Seattle.

Grade: B+

Running backs

I mean, what more can be said about the greatness that is this 2022 rookie class? Ken Walker had to take over the RB1 role sooner than the Seahawks would have wanted and has been truly great the last two weeks. His 74-yard touchdown run in the 4th quarterback basically iced the game. He ran with speed and power and proved he was worthy of being a high second-round choice. He finished with 168 yards rushing and 2 touchdowns.

Grade: A+

Wide receivers/tight ends

The most notable thing here is that Seattle lost DK Metcalf to some kind of leg injury in the first half. Seattle will find out more about the injury when Metcalf has an MRI on Monday.

But just when the WR3 options needed to be good, they were. Marquise Goodwin had 2 touchdown receptions and the second of them was an athletic beauty. Goodwin finished with 4 catches for 67 yards and the 2 TDs. Will Dissly has a good game catching all 4 of his targets and picking up several first downs. Dee Eskridge really had the fumble that was given to Geno when Eskridge couldn’t catch a short and well-thrown pitch when Eskridge was lined up at running back.

Grade: B

Offensive line

Geno Smith was hit 4 times and sacked twice. But the sacks weren’t overly costly as Seattle was already in field goal range. The running backs – Walker and DeeJay Dallas – combined for 203 yards rushing on 29 carries. That is 7 yards a rush. Plus, if you haven’t seen rookie right tackle Abe Lucas just basically push Walker 8 yards and turn a 2-yard run into a first down, do it after reading this article.

Grade: A

Defensive line

The Chargers running backs averaged 2.58 yards a carry on 12 rushes. The interior of the defensive line got 4 hits on Justin Herbert and 2 of the Seahawks 3 sacks. Just imagine how good this group has been in the last two games compared to the rest of the season and you have an idea why the defense is suddenly playing much better.

Grade: A

Edge rushers/linebackers

Where the heck was Darrell Taylor before Week 6? He was on the field but just a ghost. Now, in the last two weeks, he looks a lot more like he did early in 2021 and that is a very good thing. He had a strip sack on Sunday. Uchenna Nwosu had 2 more quarterback hits and was near Herbert a bunch. It is telling that the defense looks much better recently but Jordyn Brooks only had 8 tackles. That means he is having to do less since the rest of the defense is doing more.

Grade: A

Cornerbacks/safeties

Maybe Chargers receiver Keenan Allen was hobbling a bit, but rookie Coby Bryant shut him down. Tariq Woolen didn’t have an interception for the first time in 5 games and seemed to get beat on a touchdown, but it also seemed as if he expected to pick up the receiver across the middle so Woolen got a late break. Ryan neal should have been playing Josh Jones’ snaps all season. He just makes plays. In Week 7, Neal had 4 passes defended and an interception to go with 7 tackles.

Grade: B

Special teams

Jason Myers was perfect (nearly literally as it seemed like none of his kicks was anything but exactly straight through the uprights) and made all 3 of his field goals. One of them from 50 yards. Michael Dickson only had to punt once. The kickoff coverage was solid.

Grade: A