Many expected the Seattle Seahawks (6-3) to win no more than six games all season. They already have six wins and are 1.5 games ahead of the San Francisco 49ers and 2.5 games ahead of reigning Super Bowl champion Los Angeles Rams in the NFC West. What an incredible first half of the season it’s been and I don’t think the Seahawks even played their best football!
It’s time for winners and losers after the team’s 31-21 win and win over the Arizona Cardinals (3-6) of the season.
winner
Geno Smith
If Geno could have had five touchdowns last week, he could have had three interceptions this week. What happened happened, and we saw Smith demonstrate his tremendous mental determination after a pick-6 that was both read well and thrown badly by Zaven Collins. Seattle’s offense was struggling and Smith had just made his worst game-changing mistake of the season. He responded by ending the game 11/13 for 174 yards and a touchdown.
There have been many qualifiers for Geno and what would happen if things didn’t go smoothly; Would he fold under pressure or after a bad play? Today he didn’t, and his post-interception calmness was fully demonstrated as he led the team to three consecutive TDs.
Noah Fant
Finally, Noah Fant is here as a YAC monster. He was tied for the team lead in receptions (5) and racked up 96 yards. For context, Fant had 176 yards all season before putting on the kind of performance that led the Seahawks to acquire him as part of the Russell Wilson trade. Four of Fant’s five receptions were for first downs and that 51-yarder on the bootleg was essentially a dagger for Arizona’s comeback-win chances.
I wasn’t blown away by Fant this season, but in a system where every tight end is festive, Fant had an early Thanksgiving meal himself.
Kenneth Walker III
Not the best start for Walker given the Seahawks’ offensive line struggles to create runways, but in the 4th quarter it was time for K9 to maul a tiring Arizona defense. By my count, he ran for 62 yards and two touchdowns, which gave him half a dozen 4th quarter TDs this season! Walker finished the match for 109 yards for 26 carries and 3 catches for 20 receiving yards.
DK Metcalf and Tyler Lockett
Metcalf wasn’t flashy, but he was effective, catching a difficult touchdown that required him to put both feet down without much room. It’s the kind of TD you’d expect from a top-level receiver, and it delivered. Lockett would be a loser for giving up two yards from a first down in 3rd and 15th place, but he responded with a critical 3rd and 12 grab (while being blasted by Zaven Collins) and caught a touchdown that put Seattle in leadership brought good. Did he get away with an insanely obvious pass error on Budda Baker? Yes. Would I be mad if we saw Seattle being jobbed this way? Yes. But then the Seahawks benefited wheeeeeeeeeeee!
passport protection
Geno Smith was sacked five times and harassed many more times in the first clash against Arizona. In the rematch, Smith was only sacked twice – both in the first series of Q3 – and while there were eight total QB hits, it rarely felt like he was under siege. Lest you think this was a quick pass-centric performance from Geno, it wasn’t.
Geno Smith completed 19 of 25 passes for 221 yards and 2 TD (+10.9% CPOE) in Week 9 when he held the ball for more than 2.5 seconds.
Smith, 2.5+ seconds (2022):
12 TD (1st)
+7.9% CPOE (1st place)
98 NGS passing grade (3rd)#SEAvsAZ | #Seahawks pic.twitter.com/cZenrGYAMc– Next Gen Statistics (@NextGenStats) November 7, 2022
Uchenna Nwosu
signing of the season. Two more sacks to bring his total to seven. You might notice that the Seahawks are getting a lot of their sacks without blitzing, which is so huge compared to previous seasons where it felt like they had to rush extra men to get behind the quarterback.
BRUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCE
He just turned 35 and might as well be 25. Irvin has recorded his first sack since 2019 and his first with the Seahawks since leaving the team in 2015. He was a spark as a situational pass rusher and it’s great that this reunion worked out so much better than his cut-throat 2020 due to injury.
Jordyn Brooks and Cody Barton
Yes, Cody Barton plays well. Brooks has been really impressive over the past few weeks but Barton is the one I want to focus on. He was quick on the ball and didn’t miss as many tackles or get out of position as we saw earlier in the season. The run defense remains robust after five leaked opening games and both have been factors in that department. This Seahawks defense is running like clockwork.
Tariq Woolen and Mike Jackson
Woolen was beaten for a touchdown by Zach Ertz, but he also had a pass that was defended on a throw destined for DeAndre Hopkins and recorded a tackle for loss on a screen. Jackson also kept his starting job over Woolen and both were instrumental in limiting Hopkins to just 3 catches for 14 yards after that cover touchdown blew on Arizona’s opening possession.
Ryan Neal
By far the biggest defensive play of the game was Neal, who forced Kyler Murray to fumble and convert a likely 3-point minimum to zero before halftime. Seattle now has 16 forced fumbles in the season and Neal joins the party to take the ball off.
Josh Jones?!!!
Yes, Josh Jones. He was there for fumble recovery and made some solid tackles on run defense, which is a massive improvement over the horror shows his starts were.
loser
Screen Passes for Seahawks
In practice, what has this team been doing for the better part of a decade that makes it utterly impossible for them to run a screen? If they don’t get penalized or lose yards, they get pick-6’d. That’s absurd! The next one to actually take off for a big win will result in hanging a banner on Lumen Field. You try and try and try and regardless of the QBs or the OL or the OC or the threats received it just doesn’t work.
Coby Bryant
Not that he played badly… but he had a mix of bad luck and some rookie moments. Bryant’s open field tackling really needs some work as he was at fault for a couple of 3rd down conversions that should have otherwise been aborted. He also had an interception due to a Quandre Diggs penalty and a forced fumble on Rondale Moore, which was turned over into an incomplete pass. His day could have looked better, but it ended up being a frustrating day in the office for the tower.
punt return
I would almost prefer that no one is back there at this point. DeeJay Dallas was lucky not to lose a fumble on a musty fair catch for what would have been the fourth fumble lost to the Seahawks punt return this season. To my amazement, Dallas still had a 19-yard return on one of his three returns, so it wasn’t all bad, but I hold my breath when the Seahawks have to put up a punt.
Dee Eskridge
That Marquise Goodwin hasn’t played and Eskridge still hasn’t had catches on two targets and no rushed attempts sums up how unconcerned he is weekly. Is he good at blocking? Yeah, is he a kick returner? I guess. But nothing suits him on offense, and the Seahawks drafted him for that.
Closing remarks
- Shane Waldron seemed to call the game very close to the vest, like he didn’t have confidence in the offensive line to hold up. After the pick-6, the playcalling (particularly the greater involvement of the running game) completely changed, and we saw less of the cute scrimmage-passing attacking line that Arizona kept sniffing out. The scoop pass to Colby Parkinson backfired after a similar play worked the previous week.
- Seven straight third-down conversions for the Seahawks on their last three holdings. What’s it like to have such a great third down offense? We’ve rarely seen that, and it’s a major reason the Seahawks finish teams off in the 4th quarter by maintaining drives and delivering KO’s.
- Just one notable injury from Cullen Gillaspia, otherwise this stadium’s haunted house status didn’t materialize!
- Arizona is ill-trained and disjointed, so I would have been pissed if the Seahawks lost that game. I see no way for their season to turn around. Kliff Kingsbury is someone whose day of genius came far too soon.
- On the other hand, Pete Carroll makes this team buzz. This offensive is pleasing to watch as it doesn’t rely heavily on magic and explosive plays. That’s not to say there haven’t been years under Wilson when one could enjoy typical high-end offensives, but the way this year’s offensive works just doesn’t seem possible with the newer versions of Wilson, at least to be. It turns out that Carroll is indeed still a hell of a coach and he can still adapt and thrive in this league. The apology queue will be very long.
- Get the Bucs who gave us a solid showing by beating the Rams but now it’s time to give Tom Brady an overseas L in Germany. The 2022 Seahawks have defied the critics and are performing like one of the best teams in the NFL, let alone the NFC. Isn’t that a lot more fun than refueling?