Last Sunday, magic happened at Century Link Stadium. The Seahawks won their first game of the season and shut out their opponent, the now 0 – 3 Chicago Bears. While I’m stoked for the Hawks, we are far from out of the woods. A shut out, is a shut out and while they are incredibly rare, we were playing against a Jimmy Clausen led and Alshon Jeffrey-less Chicago Bears. As of now, most analysts say they are arguably the worst team in the NFL. That being said, we would be in a much larger, dinosaur-sized pile of doo-doo if we had lost that game.
This past Monday, we took on the 0-3 Detroit Lions at home, and we really needed to win (and we did, 13-10, thank god) if we wanted to stay competitive in the NFC West Race. I don’t doubt that the Seahawks can get to another Super Bowl (and win this time, hopefully) and also make the big wins like the away game against the AFC North favorite and possible AFC Champion the Cincinnati Bengals in Week 5. We also need to at least split wins with our current division leader the Arizona Cardinals. May I remind you that one of two teams we have lost to at home was the Arizona Cardinals back in 2013.
The good news is this, Kam Chancellor is back and I am going to set aside all the reasons why I am mad at him for now and be happy we have the biggest safety in the league playing for us again. The biggest threat the Seahawks have is not necessarily the fact that they have the best players (as evidenced by Byron Maxwell and the Eagles) but they have the best team play. It's a matter of all the pieces being together. On top of that, we have a stud punt returner in Tyler Lockett and an emerging Thomas Rawls in the backfield.
Now on to what we need to work on, which is quite a bit. The biggest things that hurt us against the Packers were carelessness. Several penalties were called on Michael Bennett in the first half for jumping off sides, which made it hard for Sherman to keep good coverage. On top of that, last Sunday we saw Jimmy Graham’s first touchdown score. It takes time to develop chemistry, but Wilson needs to trust Graham on the 50-50 in the air throws.
Finally, our offensive line needs to step up and protect Wilson. This year, Wilson has been tackled or sacked for more yards than any other year up to this point. The silver lining here is that Wilson is smart, and unlike some other mobile quarterbacks, he makes sure to reduce his risk of taking big hits and sliding when he needs to when he makes plays with his legs.
The Lions are an especially very physical team, even without Suh, and they put a lot of pressure off line, making Wilson throw hurried passes. Detroit also boasts arguably one of the best one-two punches in Calvin Johnson and Golden Tate at receiver. We ourselves need to start forcing the Stafford to make bad throws.
In the end, we beat the Lions, but now it's on to the Bengals.
