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Game Day
Washington’s Own Broadcaster Called His Secondary ‘a Wreck.’ Darnold Gets First Crack.
Sam Darnold’s first real game since Week 1 comes against a pass defense that Washington’s own play-by-play man has already disowned. Commanders voice Bram Weinstein went on Brock and Salk this week and didn’t bother with diplomacy: “The secondary has been a wreck through the first couple of games. It is literally the reason why they lost game one.” That’s the home team’s announcer. On Seattle radio.
He has receipts. Philadelphia hit passes of 64, 31 and 43 yards, all on scoring drives. Then Dak Prescott went 26 of 31 for 279 yards and four touchdowns. That’s not a pass defense. That’s a suggestion box. Last November, Darnold completed six passes of 20-plus yards against these guys, including a 60-yarder for a score, in a 38-14 win.
26 of 31
Dak Prescott’s line against Washington’s secondary last week, with 279 yards and four touchdowns.
Washington’s feel-good story this week is Marcus Mariota, whose teammates voted him a sixth captain for the rest of the season, even after Jayden Daniels returns. Lovely gesture. It does not block edge rushers, and even a Washington blogger admits the line is already down left tackle Laremy Tunsil and may be without right guard Sam Cosmi (concussion).
Seattle is a 7.5-point favorite with a 40.5 total, per Field Gulls, and a win makes 13 straight. The only thing that should make you nervous is our own deep middle, where AJ Finley and Rodney Thomas II start for Julian Love and Ty Okada. Their quarterback is a backup too, though. Fair’s fair.
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Special Teams
Seattle Tried Out Two Punters, and Michael Dickson Is Perfectly Fine
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A lefty punt spins the opposite way, which matters a lot to the guy standing underneath it trying not to fumble on television. And this isn’t a one-week rental. San Francisco’s Corliss Waitman and Kansas City’s Matt Araiza are lefties too, and both are on the schedule soon, per Field Gulls.
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Two guys got an NFL tryout whose entire job was to impersonate a punter from another team.
So two guys got an NFL tryout whose entire job was to impersonate a punter from another team. I love it. Pete Carroll would have had a returner catch balls off a JUGS machine and yelled “compete” at it. Macdonald hires a body double for the other team’s specialist.
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AROUND THE COOP
Around the Coop
Maxen Hook and Velus Jones Jr. got elevated from the practice squad. Hook, undrafted out of Toledo, makes his regular-season debut if active. Avery Smith is also a Toledo guy. Schneider is quietly assembling the Rockets’ entire secondary. Seahawks.com
Zach Charbonnet was eligible, but Macdonald said the team won’t open his practice window this week. Correction to our earlier optimism. Nobody rushes a guy back to a team that’s won twelve straight without him. Yahoo Sports
Seattle wears the all-white combo for the first time this season, a look that’s 11-11 since 2012. Its best night came in this same building, the 2012 wild-card win. A .500 outfit with one great memory in Landover. Very relatable. Yahoo Sports
NFC WEST SCHADENFREUDE REPORT
RAMS
Tonight’s trip to Denver is being billed as a possible Super Bowl preview, and Los Angeles is a 2 1/2-point road favorite. Cute. The last time the Rams played a game with a Super Bowl trip on the line, it was January 25 at Lumen Field, and they flew home afterward. A preview is a trailer. We’ve already seen how this movie ends.
NINERS
Nick Bosa will miss a few weeks with a calf injury he suffered doing high knees while warming up for Thursday’s walkthrough. Not practice. The warm-up for the walkthrough. Then the fun part: San Francisco is leaning toward not putting him on IR, partly because it’s running out of room to bring players back. “I know he’s bummed out, but he’ll be back,” said Kyle Shanahan, a man who has now rationed injured reserve like wartime sugar.
CARDINALS
Kendrick Bourne has a separate handshake for every receiver in Arizona’s room, and he sat down with the team’s in-house show this week to discuss his ongoing quest to get Jacoby Brissett to do one too. Still a work in progress. Honestly, respect to Brissett. After going 3 of 12 on third down against us, I wouldn’t want anybody looking at my hands either.
SEACHICKENS TRIVIA
In 2006, Minnesota pried this Michigan guard, Seattle’s 17th overall pick in 2001, away with an offer sheet containing a “poison pill” that would have guaranteed his entire deal if he wasn’t his team’s highest-paid lineman. Who is he?
Tap to Reveal the Answer
Steve Hutchinson. Seattle had just paid Walter Jones more, so matching would have triggered the clause, and Hutchinson went on to a Hall of Fame career while the league outlawed the maneuver.
THIS DAY IN SEAHAWKS HISTORY
2020
September 27, 2020
Wilson Throws Five, Metcalf Celebrates Early, Seattle Wins Anyway
Russell Wilson threw five touchdown passes for the second straight week in a 38-31 win over Dallas. The game is best remembered for DK Metcalf’s 62-yard catch, when he eased up celebrating before the goal line and a Cowboys cornerback punched the ball out of the end zone for a touchback. Metcalf redeemed himself with a 29-yard go-ahead touchdown with 1:47 left. The cornerback who punched it out? Trevon Diggs, who now sits on Seattle’s practice squad.
Got a Question for the Mailbag?
Lefty punters, practice-squad safeties, whether the all-whites are cursed. Send it in. The weirder the question, the better the answer.
White jerseys, a healthy quarterback, and somebody else's secondary to worry about. Enjoy the game. — The Rooster