Well, that was a superb effort by Geno Smith, Ken Walker, Ryan Grubb and the offense.
The defense? A different story.
Losing Leonard Williams, Byron Murphy, Boye Mafe and Jerome Baker was always going to make life very difficult. Julian Love exiting with a thigh injury in the second half made matters even worse.
Still, it would’ve been nice to see the replacements show a little bit more than this.
Most people anticipated some issues, especially against an opponent with such a strong offensive line and a nice arsenal of skill players. I’m not sure many anticipated Jared Goff having a 100% completion percentage at 16 yards per completion.
Awful tackling on a David Montgomery 40-yard catch-and-run, a Jared Goff touchdown reception and a 70-yard saunter for Jameson Williams immediately after a hard-earned Seahawks touchdown drive tilted things towards farcical.
The score never got out of full control thanks to Seattle’s brilliant offensive display. Yet it also never quite felt there was a moment to get too excited. Any moments of joy were so fleeting, because after all but one of the Seahawks’ offensive series’, the defense would just hand points to the Lions.
It really showed the importance of being strong in the trenches. Detroit bossed things at the line of scrimmage on offense. They had a lot of success with their D-line too — and it’s to Geno Smith’s credit that he still found a way to make so many plays.
On Smith, this was a sensational performance. Without him, it would’ve been a tragic blowout. The Seahawks put so much on his shoulders to try and keep up with the Lions’ easy scoring rate. With even a tiny bit of help from the defense, he might’ve orchestrated a cracking victory. The only blemish was the penultimate redzone series, which was a bit of a mess to end with disappointment.
Ken Walker has played two games this season and has shown in both that he has legit superstar potential. His combination of power, speed, change of direction and rapid acceleration is reminiscent of the greats at his position. If he can stay healthy he’ll be a wow player.
It would’ve been interesting to see this match-up with Seattle’s defensive line at full strength. It also has to be mentioned how banged up Detroit are too. They were missing key defensive players plus their great center, Frank Ragnow.
Mike Macdonald gave a passionate ‘next man up’ message in the week. He’s seen how difficult this is going to be with a weakened D-line. The money spent on Leonard Williams, for starters, definitely seems well invested tonight. He would’ve hoped from more from the fill-ins, who missed an opportunity here. The Seahawks still need to pad out their depth in the next off-season.
A loss isn’t the end of the world. They kept fighting right to the end, which is to their credit. A victory would’ve been outstanding but it never felt that realistic that the Seahawks would march into Detroit and win with so many key absentees. The key is to try and get the missing players back as soon as possible.
If that can’t happen, the Seahawks might have a few issues in the coming weeks against opponents with similar high-scoring offensive units. At least, though, they’ve shown they can be really potent on offense.
