OK, here’s the deal. Current conventional wisdom in the NFL suggests that the third game of the preseason is the closest thing a team will have to a dress rehearsal for the regular season.
In the Seattle Seahawks camp there seems to be differing opinions on that. In the lead-up to Saturday’s Week 3 preseason game at San Diego quarterback Russell Wilson seemed on board, saying it “felt like it’s playoffs practice.” Meanwhile, cornerback Richard Sherman took the contrarian view, dismissing the game as a “glorified practice.”
So whose Week 3 interpretation should the Seahawks be advocating? That all depends on which side of the ball one’s talking about. While some aspects of Seattle’s game appeared ready for the curtain raising during Seattle’s 16-15 victory over the Chargers, others were still frantically trying to memorize their lines.
Seattle’s special teams played like they’re ready to be the headlining name atop the marquee. Rookie Tyler Lockett continued to electrify the return game, adding a breathtaking 67-yard punt return for a touchdown to the 103-yard kickoff return he had against Denver in Week 1 of the preseason. Punter Jon Ryan played his usual role in the field-position battle by booming seven punts for an average of 51.9 yards. Then kicker Steven Hauschka won the game by booting a 60-yard field goal with seconds remaining that would have cleared the crossbar had the Chargers already moved up the road to Los Angeles. If Saturday was the dress rehearsal, then the special teams stole the show.
The Seahawks’ defense was fine, too. Sure, Seattle’s first-team defense, which played most of the first half, gave up some yards. But the first-team D didn’t allow a touchdown. Despite San Diego possessing the ball for nearly 22 of the 30 minutes in the first half. Despite playing without two of the three core members of the Legion of Boom — strong safety Kam Chancellor continues his holdout, while free safety Earl Thomas continues to recover from offseason shoulder surgery. While Seattle’s defense may not have produced a performance worthy of a standing ovation at the final curtain, the director would at least feel safe that the defense wouldn’t flub any of its cues.
Then there’s the offense. Oh, the offense. If there’s a member of the cast that has the producers worried about a possible opening-night bomb, this unit is the culprit.
There were some mitigating factors to why the Seahawks offense struggled Saturday. Battering ram running back Marshawn Lynch finally saw his first action of the preseason, but exited stage left following the brief cameo of a single series. Left tackle Russell Okung, the star member of the offensive line, was a late scratch because of a sore shoulder.
However, Seattle’s Week 3 performance only served to reinforce the questions that cropped up about the Seahawks offense following the first two games of the preseason, rather than answering them.
Seattle’s offensive line is this season’s grand experiment. In order to hand out big contracts to the team’s stars the Seahawks had to scrimp somewhere, and the offensive line became the solution. Seattle’s starting line Saturday included three players (center Drew Nowak and tackles Garry Gilliam and Alvin Bailey) who were all undrafted free agents, have a combined six career NFL starts, and have bargain-basement salary-cap numbers of $587,000 or less. The Seahawks running game was better Saturday (117 yards on 28 carries), but still short on the type of holes that result in explosive plays, and Wilson found himself scrambling frequently on passing plays.
Then there’s Wilson himself. The fourth-year quarterback finished a pedestrian 7-for-15 for 56 yards, and for the preseason as a whole he’s just 17-for-31 for 146 yards. Those aren’t the type of numbers the Seahawks were buying when they signed Wilson to a four-year, $87.6-million contract extension. He has yet to display chemistry with his big new weapon, tight end Jimmy Graham, and there has to be concern that through three preseason games the first-team offense has yet to produce a touchdown.
Nevertheless, after the game the Seahawks weren’t ringing any alarm bells. In his postgame press conference Seattle coach Pete Carroll was excited about the team’s first preseason win, saying, “What’s jumping out is I’m really fired up about how hard we’re playing across the board,” though he did acknowledge the offense wasn’t on track yet. Meanwhile, Wilson trumpeted his usual determined optimism, saying, “We’re moving the ball, we just have to finish. That’s ultimately the key, and we will.”
So whether the Week 3 preseason game truly is a dress rehearsal for the regular season all depends on one’s perspective. But if it is, then some Seahawks appear ready for the first act, while others would be best served studying the script a little longer.
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