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| See the Chargers fan? / Seahawks.com |
The Seattle Seahawks defeated the San Diego Chargers easily
31 – 10, displaying their very talented deep roster for all to see. Seahawk
fans drooled; Charger fans cried, but probably drooled in jealously. One thing
became very clear throughout the game: making the roster cuts down to 53 is
going to be very challenging and I do not envy Pete Carroll for having to
deliver the bad news to the men that have been giving it their all in camp.
For all that was good during the first preseason game, there
were also a few negatives which I will cover first.
Negatives
The “Starting” Offense
Our first couple offensive drives were very underwhelming. I
realize that the offense was very vanilla, but I was still hoping for the Hawks
to march down the field and get in the end zone. Russell Wilson made some nice
scrambles, escaping some close encounters that included nearly getting sacked
by his own offensive lineman, J.R. Sweezy. However, I am not worried about the
offense at all, especially considering that our true starting offense was not
on the field.
Winston Guy
Seriously, Guy looked defeated out there on the field. I was
not impressed with him whatsoever. The Chargers scored a late touchdown on the
Seahawks and I recall Winston Guy standing out like a sore thumb. Dating back
to last year, I have personally not seen much from Guy other than some attitude
and physicality which has been on our own guys during camp, like the Stephen
Williams hit during a non-tackling drill a week ago. I know it might be too
soon, but I do not think Guy will make the final roster this season.
TE appears to still be the weakest position on our roster
The rookie Luke Willson had a couple of catches for 16
yards, but he also had two drops, one of which came on third down during the
first drive, and the other was a simple catch that had me shaking my head. It
appeared to me that nerves got the best of Willson, so hopefully he will show
us more next week. Cooper Helfet had a very nice diving snag for his one catch
of 23 yards, but he also had a drop. We should all send Zach Miller a “Get Well
Soon” card!
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| DangeRuss is back! / Seahawks.com |
Overall, the negatives really are not a big deal at this
point. If this were week one of the regular season, I would be a little more
worried. Plus, the negatives were blanketed by all that went right for the
hawks!
Positives
Backup QB battle between Quinn and TJack
Brady Quinn did a good job running the second team offense. Overall
he was 6/11 for 59 yards, connecting with camp star Jermaine Kearse for a TD.
For as good as Brady Quinn looked, Tarvaris Jackson looked better. TJack was
8/9 (one dropped pass) for 128 yards and had two passes for touchdowns, one of
which was to…
Stephen Williams
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| Soon to be TD / Seahawks.com |
Is this guy fast or what? He had two catches on deep balls
and appeared very good in the process. Our receiving group is pretty loaded,
especially once Percy Harvin comes back, but I really liked what I saw from
Williams yesterday. In total, he caught two passes for 83 yards and a TD.
Rookie running backs
Nothing made me happier than Christine Michael and Spencer
Ware! I saw Ware make some nice blocks on blitzes from the defense, and Michael
looks like a solid fit in the zone blocking scheme. Both ran the ball very
well. Christine Michael ran the ball the most for a total of 89 yards on 16
carries (5.6 avg) while Spencer Ware had 32 yards on 7 carries (4.6 avg) and a
touchdown to boot. I do recall Michael having a nice hole open up on the right
side, but he was not patient enough and ran into the back side of his own guy,
but he will learn and get better. Overall, the rookie running backs were
fantastic!
Allen Bradford and Byron Maxwell
Seriously, Bradford was all over the place and very quick on
the trigger! He has been working hard transitioning from running back to
linebacker the past three seasons and he looked like he belonged starting this
game. I was very impressed with Bradford’s overall ability to perform and lead
the defense. Byron Maxwell made less of a statistical impression, as
cornerbacks often do, but he did have a very nice interception and seemed to be
doing a great job covering the receiver the entire time he was on the field,
which is his job. Maxwell looks like he could be a starter for a lot of other
teams in the league.
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| LOL / Seahawks.com |
Special Teams
Drool.
The Defensive Line
Pressure, pressure, and pressure! Despite not getting to
Rivers (who would be the sacked-master if not for Aaron Rodgers) the first
series, the Seahawks continued to make whichever QB who was on the field
(mostly Clipboard Jesus) very uncomfortable. Michael freakin’ Bennett looked
unblockable at times and very fast off the snap, which makes me even more
excited that we signed him during the offseason! Benson Mayowa was very
impressive at DE; he never stopped pushing for the QB. Talk about a guy that
appears to be a steal early on! Other rookies such as Jordan Hill and Ty Powell
also got me excited. Jesse Williams looked slow off the snap, but the guy is a
wall. As I am writing this, I take back what I said earlier about Michael and
Ware; it was the defensive line that got me the most excited!
Other guys fighting for a spot to note: Jaye Howard, John Lotulelei,
Derrick Coleman, O’Brien Schofield looked awesome. The biggest surprise to me,
however, was Alvin Bailey (who?) on the offensive line at LT. The guy just
looked like a straight up bully out there. Having a quality backup at LT is
very rare, but we just might have that based on what I saw yesterday. I am so
very impressed right now!
Overall I am very happy with our performance. Preseason is
the time to get the sloppiness out of the way, but we did not seem to have much
of that. Despite some key injuries, I am very confident that we will be ready
to go week one. My biggest concern is the cut down to a 53 man roster because I
feel like so many of our guys deserve to make the team, and I will absolutely
hate seeing them being picked up off the waiver wire by other teams. With that
being said, it is part of the game and if that is your biggest concern then you
should be very happy. It was not too long ago that our biggest concern was who
would be the starting quarterback – that was dreadful. Thankfully, it is the New York Jets’ problem
now, and not ours. Go Hawks!
Game MVP
TJack! Seriously he looked like a man among boys out there,
but that is what I would expect from a veteran going against guys fighting to
make the Chargers’ roster. Nevertheless, he did a great job running our offense
and I would personally like to see him run the second string offense next week
to see how he performs.
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| UNITTYY / Seahawks.com |
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