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Week 2
Twelve Straight, and the Record Isn’t Shared Anymore
Seattle beat Arizona 31-7 in Glendale on Sunday for its twelfth consecutive win including the playoffs, the most in franchise history. The old mark was eleven, set by the 2005 NFC championship team across Weeks 5 through 16. That tie stood for twenty-one years and it is gone now.
12
Consecutive wins including the playoffs, a franchise record. The previous best was eleven, in 2005.
The quarterback who broke it was the backup. Drew Lock, making his first start in nearly two years, went 19 of 26 for 235 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions. “Really proud of Drew, really happy for him,” Mike Macdonald said afterward. “We’re on record about how we feel about him and he backed that up today.” Ten days ago this man was drawing plays on a whiteboard at home that his kid kept scribbling over.
All three touchdowns went to Jaxon Smith-Njigba, who finished with nine catches for 155 yards and the first three-score game of his career. The first went 82 yards on the opening drive. The third came on a post past Budda Baker, after which JSN hopped a sign board behind the end zone, found a Seattle fan in the stands wearing an old number 24 jersey, and handed him the ball like he was passing over a set of car keys.
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Ten days ago this man was drawing plays on a whiteboard at home that his kid kept scribbling over.
It was 7-7 at halftime and it felt tight. Then Seattle scored the last 24 points and the building emptied out with time still on the clock. Nobody in the visiting locker room said a word about the streak all week, and nobody said much about it after, either.
SOURCES →
Defense
Arizona Finished With 151 Yards and Leonard Williams Brought a Reptile Into It
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3.2
Yards per play allowed. Arizona managed 151 total yards and went 3 for 12 on third down.
Leonard Williams had six tackles, two for loss and a sack, and he was ready with the framing. “That’s our identity,” he said. “You hear Coach Mike talk about it a lot, we want to be like a boa constrictor. That’s how we want to win games, meaning we slowly defeat teams, out-physical teams, and towards the end of the game, they’re just going to tap out.” Grim imagery. Accurate, though.
The turn came on special teams. Rashid Shaheed lost the second-half kickoff, Chazz Surratt scooped it and ran 35 yards to the Arizona 37, and four plays later Seattle led. Julian Love then got a wing under a Jacoby Brissett throw for a diving interception, which became a Jason Myers field goal. Two games in, this defense has intercepted four passes and allowed two touchdowns.
SOURCES →
AROUND THE COOP
Around the Coop
Sam Darnold’s timeline has “shifted quite drastically,” per Macdonald, who says there’s a chance the quarterback practices this week and confirmed the shift is in the good direction. So the glute is healing faster than anyone expected. Lovely. Awkward, but lovely. Seahawks.com
Emanuel Wilson took 21 carries for 92 yards and became the lead back after Jadarian Price left with a chest injury. Price also lost a fumble. The guy who got two snaps in the opener just out-touched the first-round pick. SI
The discipline problem lasted exactly one week. Seattle committed seven fewer penalties for 72 fewer yards than it did against New England. Turns out you can just stop jumping offside. Who knew. Seattle Sports
Nick Emmanwori played only a handful of snaps in his first game back from ankle surgery, then told reporters he is now full go. The coaching staff eased him in. He would like the record to show he did not ask them to. Yahoo Sports
Christian Haynes made his first NFL start at right guard with Anthony Bradford out, and from early in the second quarter rotated two series on, two off with rookie Beau Stephens. The run game put up 162 yards on 40 carries anyway. Two seasons on the bench, then a timeshare in his first start, and the line never blinked. Take the compliment. Watch the timeshare. HeraldNet
NFC WEST SCHADENFREUDE REPORT
RAMS
Aaron Donald is expected to play around 30 snaps in his season debut tonight against the Giants, per Ian Rapoport. Thirty. The last regular-season game he played, he took 64. Los Angeles un-retired a legend, paid him like one, and is now going to ration him out in half portions on a Monday night against a team that went 4-13. Enjoy the appetizer.
NINERS
Brock Purdy finished with a 99.7 QBR against a rebuilding Miami team, and as he wrapped up his press conference Fred Warner pointed at him and declared “MVP.” Two games in. Fifteen to go. Somebody get that man a calendar and a glass of water.
CARDINALS
Mike LaFleur, after watching his team get outscored 24-0 after halftime: “When you play really good teams, you don’t have to do the extraordinary. But you’ve got to do the ordinary extra.” His own team’s website then listed what did not happen, including any attempt to cover Jaxon Smith-Njigba, who went for 155 and three scores. The ordinary would have been a start.
SEACHICKENS TRIVIA
This lineman was Seattle’s second-round pick at No. 36 overall in 1994 out of LSU, spent his first two seasons at right guard before moving to center, played four years here, and was later enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Who is he?
Tap to Reveal the Answer
Kevin Mawae. He left for the Jets after his four Seattle seasons and went on to build a 16-year career that ended in Canton, which is a sentence Seahawks fans are allowed to read through squinted eyes.
THIS DAY IN SEAHAWKS HISTORY
2014
September 21, 2014
Lynch Ends the Super Bowl Rematch in Overtime
Seattle beat Denver 26-20 at home in the Super Bowl XLVIII rematch, and it was nothing like the first one. The Seahawks led 17-3 in the fourth quarter, then watched Peyton Manning tie it with an 18-second touchdown to Jacob Tamme and a two-point conversion. Manning never touched the ball again. Marshawn Lynch scored from six yards out on the opening possession of overtime.
THE GOLDEN EGG
🏆
The second half opened with Rashid Shaheed getting hit near the 28 and the ball squirting loose behind him. In the half second where this becomes a very different football game, Chazz Surratt picked it up and ran it 35 yards the other way, to the Arizona 37. Four plays later Seattle led and never trailed again.
Surratt re-signed here in the offseason off a season with 11 special teams tackles. He is not on anybody’s fantasy roster and he did not get asked a single question at the podium. He also turned the single worst moment of Seattle’s afternoon into the drive that broke a 21-year franchise record. The egg is his.
35
Yards on the Return
1
Fumble Recovered
7-7
Score When It Happened
Got a Question? Fire It Over.
The mailbag is open and the bar is low. Contract math, roster grievances, deeply unreasonable takes about the run game, attempts to learn my real name. All welcome. One of those gets answered honestly.
Twelve. Go say it out loud on a Monday. — The Rooster