Three Seahawks that deserve game balls in Week 2 victory against Patriots

The Seattle Seahawks are now 2-0 in the 2024 regular season after beating the New England Patriots 23-20 in overtime. New England was better than expected. Seattle was hampered by not having running back Kenneth Walker III available.

The game wasn't one of beauty. In fact, after the game, safety Julian Love called the win "ugly." But a win is a win, right?

Three of the reasons Seattle won are the players that follow. Without any one of them, the Seahawks probably lose. The three are also a big reason that Seattle could have a highly successful season.

These three Seahawks deserve game balls with their Week 2 performances

Wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba

Smith-Njigba had a dropped pass on a perfect throw from Geno Smith in the second half that would have resulted in a first down. Therein ends the only negative from JSN in Week 2. He otherwise had a career game in both number of catches (12) and receiving yards (117). It would still be nice to see him get open deep more, but there is little doubt about his intermediate-route efficiency.

Entering this season, the hope was that the second-year receiver would take the next steps toward greatness. In Week 1, he was a dud with just two catches for 19 yards. He seemed capable of preseason excellence but is not able to duplicate that in the regular season. That might be changing, though.

The issue is that JSN doesn't really take targets away from DK Metcalf as much as he does Tyler Lockett. 12s might see several games of Lockett being good and then JSN being good but not at the same time. All that matters in Week 2 is that Smith-Njigba was fantastic and Seattle likely does not win without him.

Quarterback Geno Smith

Can we finally put to rest the theory that Geno Smith is not a good quarterback? There is no statistical evidence to support that argument. On the contrary, the stats show that Smith is a pretty good quarterback. In 2022, he led the NFL in completion percentage and the NFC in touchdown passes. Last year, he led the league in game-winning drives and fourth quarter comebacks.

He had another of each of those against the Patriots. With no help from the running game and several dropped passes over the second half, Smith was able to keep his poise and bring Seattle back from a late 20-17 deficit to lead Seattle to scoring drives on two of their last series (the other series was when Seattle only had 15 seconds to try to drive down the field for a field goal attempt).

Defensive lineman Leonard Williams

While Seattle was at times getting gashed in run defense in the second half, Williams was not the issue. The defensive lineman proved he was worthy of being re-signed by the Seahawks this offseason by getting 1.5 sacks against the Patriots and four quarterback hits. He also stuffed the run even when sometimes his teammates were not helping that much.

Head coach Mike Macdonald will almost certainly address the tackling problems that pooped up against the Patriots and he will find a way to make the run defense a bit better. None of that would be possible without the presence of Williams, though. He will help make the players around him better.

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