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New England Graded Its Own Tape and Accidentally Wrote Our Press Release
The Patriots published an after-the-fact film review of the opener on their own team site, which is a normal thing for a team to do and an insane thing to read if you root for Seattle. Large chunks of it are just our defensive line, described in detail, by people who were rooting against us.
Rylie Mills gets named twice. He beat Alijah Vera-Tucker with a swim move, then backdoored right guard Mike Onwenu on a run stuff, and New England’s own analyst concedes that the Mills rep is the one that sticks in your mind. Their rookie center, Jared Wilson, spent his NFL debut trying to move Byron Murphy II and Leonard Williams and mostly just held on, which the review charitably notes is true of most centers. It is, but it doesn’t usually get written down by the other guys.
Then there’s the last line, which I have read maybe nine times. Right tackle Morgan Moses failing to get DeMarcus Lawrence on the ground on a cut block, per their own review, might have contributed to Maye’s final interception. That’s the toe-tap Josh Jobe came down with in the end zone with 26 seconds left.
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Their right tackle couldn’t get DeMarcus Lawrence on the ground, and that is how their season opener ended.
Mike Vrabel sat his starters for the entire preseason and then blew a 10-point second-half lead to a backup quarterback. Now his own website is explaining, block by block, why. Some of us are having a lovely Saturday.
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Depth Chart
Seattle Spent All Summer Shopping for a Third Corner. He Was Already in the Building.
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Consider the summer this team had at that position. Trevon Diggs signed, played eleven days on the 53, got released, and is back on the practice squad. Schneider sent a 2027 sixth to the Chargers for an undrafted rookie. Terrion Arnold signed a contract and is sitting on the commissioner’s exempt list learning a defense he cannot practice in. All of that, and the answer was a guy who played 91 defensive snaps last season while Riq Woolen was still here.
91
Defensive snaps Pritchett played all of last season, before becoming the No. 3 corner on a Super Bowl defense.
Pritchett repaid it with a pass breakup and then the tipped-ball interception that ESPN called the most surprising performance of the night — his first career pick, and the one that handed the offense the tying drive. Rodney Thomas II, a practice squad call-up, tipped it to him.
Roster building is mostly guessing. Occasionally you guess right by not guessing at all.
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AROUND THE COOP
Around the Coop
Sam Darnold spent Wednesday night in the hospital, in part because of how much discomfort he was in, and was back at the facility Thursday. The team doesn’t practice again until Monday. Eleven days between games is the one genuinely lucky thing about opening on a Wednesday. ESPN
Per PFF’s usage breakdown, Emanuel Wilson entered the game once Seattle got inside the 5 — and a delay of game immediately backed them out of it. His hamstring finally clears, he gets handed the goal-line package, and the offense can’t get the play off. Welcome back. PFF
Josh Jobe kept the game-sealing football. He said he’s saving it for his five-month-old daughter, Ami, and talked mostly about getting both feet down. A corner who describes a toe-tap in the end zone as a footwork detail is exactly the corner you want. Seahawks.com
NFC WEST SCHADENFREUDE REPORT
RAMS
Sean McVay’s position, stated out loud after a 27-7 flattening in front of 100,021 people at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, is that the travel plan was not the reason. “I don’t believe that’s why we didn’t play well enough,” he said. Fine. Then we’re left with the other explanation, which is that the Super Bowl favorite flew to the other side of the earth and was simply not very good at football. Pick one, Sean. Both are available.
NINERS
Asked whether nine days of acclimating in Australia was worth it, Kyle Shanahan offered “I mean, the game worked.” Eight thousand miles, a week of jet-lag science, a cheerleading world-record attempt in a public square, and the organizational achievement being celebrated is that they slept better than the other guys. Congratulations on winning the logistics championship. The other one is still in Seattle.
CARDINALS
Arizona hasn’t played a snap yet and has already ruled three starters out of its opener at the Chargers: right guard Isaiah Adams, slot corner Garrett Williams and safety Dadrion Taylor-Demerson. That’s a guard, a nickel and a safety, which is roughly the list of people you’d want available when we come to town on the 20th. Rest up, fellas.
SEACHICKENS TRIVIA
This New Mexico State linebacker was Seattle’s third-round pick at No. 76 overall in 1984, made four straight Pro Bowls, and was traded to the Indianapolis Colts in 1988 for two first-round picks. Who is he?
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Fredd Young. He made the first two of those Pro Bowls largely on the strength of his special teams play, which is a sentence that could not be written about anybody today.
THIS DAY IN SEAHAWKS HISTORY
1976
September 12, 1976
The Very First One, and It Was Against Arizona
Fifty years ago today the Seahawks played the first regular season game in franchise history, at the Kingdome, and lost 30-24 to the St. Louis Cardinals. Same franchise we visit in eight days, back when they lived in Missouri and we had never won anything. Half a century and one Lombardi later, the schedule brought them around again.
Got a Question? Yell It Into the Void.
The mailbag runs on your bad takes, your cap math, and your unresolved feelings about the 2014 NFC Championship Game. Send them in and I’ll answer one, honestly, whether you like the answer or not.
Go watch somebody else lose today. — The Rooster