Russell Wilson and the Seattle Seahawks have some bad news for the rest of the NFL: they are already in midseason form.
The Seahawks dominated the Falcons in Atlanta on Sunday, leading by at least two scores for almost the entire second half before winning 38-25.
Wilson was, in a word, masterful. He had as many incompletions as touchdown passes, finishing 31-of-35 for 322 yards and four touchdowns.
“I think what impressed me the most was just Russell Wilson’s command of the offense,” KOMO-TV sports director Mike Ferreri said on After Hours with Amy Lawrence. “Pete Carroll said that he really just owned the offseason – the Zoom calls and everything else. I’m sitting there like, ‘How are they executing offensive plays and drills?’ They’re just committed to doing things the right way. Pete Carroll said, ‘It’s a pandemic, we have all this stuff going on – we’re going to win this. We’re going to do everything we can to win this the right way.’ And he wasn’t kidding. They looked great.”
Granted, the offense was not perfect. Wilson was sacked three times, and Seattle running backs ran 16 times for 43 yards (2.7 yards per carry). Ferreri said that the offensive line has “a long way to go,” especially on the right side with Brandon Shell and Damien Lewis, a rookie out of LSU.
“But there was one thing I really liked,” Ferreri said. “On Chris Carson’s second TD, Damien Lewis was downfield blocking, and he likes to get after it kind of like D.J. Fluker did at the right guard spot. So that was encouraging. And then of course Jamal Adams. Man, you give up two No. 1s, that guy better be good – and he showed everybody today that he’s pretty good. I could talk for hours on what I saw on the positives, and I don’t think they felt really awesome about the game. I think there’s a lot of things they want to improve on, especially defense.”
The Falcons, who trailed 14-3 after the first quarter, were in comeback mode almost from the jump. Matt Ryan finished 37-of-54 for 450 yards, two touchdowns and an interception. Atlanta’s top three receivers – Julio Jones, Calvin Ridley and Russell Gage – all had nine catches and 110+ receiving yards.
“There were a couple of Falcons scores that shouldn’t have happened, especially the one when Jamal Adams collided with Shaquill Griffin,” Ferreri said. “But that’s just guys knowing each other and knowing where they’re going to be. But overall, it was a good start on the road for a team that does have a lot of veterans and a lot of guys that know what they’re doing.”
The Seahawks led 14-12 early in the third quarter when Wilson found Metcalf for a 38-yard touchdown – on 4th-and-5. That, for all intents and purposes, was the ballgame.
“Russell said after the game that he saw [the Falcons] celebrating, and I think that [motivated him],” Ferreri said. “If you’re going to win in this league, if you’re going to be a good football team, you have to have that confidence to go for it and just do things because you can. D.K. Metcalf is a terrific receiver, and they’ve done balls like that, throws like, situations like that over and over and over again – not just in the month of training camp, but they actually were training during the pandemic down in California at Russell’s little ranch, doing all the things they need to do to be comfortable."
Metcalf finished with four catches for 95 yards. His touchdown was his longest reception of the day.
“It’s just a matter of, ‘Hey, let’s just go play catch,'" Ferreri explained. "Boom, there you go. You got a score. That was really cool, and that had to leave the Falcons thinking, ‘What just happened? We were feeling great about a third-down stop, and then they just stuck it to us.’”
Looking ahead to Week 2, the Seahawks (1-0) host the Patriots (1-0) on Sunday Night Football, while the Falcons (0-1) face the Cowboys in Dallas (0-1). Kickoff is at 8:20 and 1:00 p.m. ET, respectively.