The best thing you can say about Sunday’s performance by the Seahawks is that they did what they should do against a struggling team, and that’s not always easy to do in the NFL.
“I’m fired up that we played up just the way we should,” Seahawks coach Pete Carroll said. “A lot of people expected and asked questions about letdowns and all that kind of stuff; we didn’t see it that way at all.”
And before we get more into the game, let’s get the injury stuff out of the way. The only two injuries Carroll mentioned after the game were back spasms that took defensive end Red Bryant out of the game, and a sprained ankle for receiver Jermaine Kearse, who was wearing a walking boot after the game.
“Red had back spasms out of nowhere that just kind of popped up,” Carroll said. “I don’t know what that means, but he’s pretty uncomfortable right now.”
—Of all the things Carroll was most excited about, cutting down on penalties ranked pretty high. The Seahawks had 19 penalties for 183 yards in their first two games, which contributed to offensive struggles. Sunday they had four for 24 yards.
“The most important thing to report is we had four penalties,” Carroll said. “That’s awesome.”
—The 3-0 start matches a franchise best start, and this is the sixth time the Seahawks have done that, with the last coming in 2006. Seattle has now also won eight straight regular season game. And most significantly, at 3-0, the Seahawks are now two games ahead of the rest of the NFC West with everybody else in the division, including the ‘Niners at home, losing Sunday.
Asked if he knew what had happened in the division today, Earl Thomas admitted he had been doing some scoreboard watching.
“Ls,” he said. “Trust me, I was looking. I was checking it, especially after they took me out of the game, I started looking at the scores. I saw San Francisco lose, I was excited about that.”
—After struggling to get going last week, Russell Wilson and the passing game were much improved. Wilson matched a career high with four TD passes, and finished with a passer rating of 117.5, a number that would have been higher if not for an interception that hit off of Golden Tate’s hands.
—Tarvaris Jackson, seeing his first regular season action since re-joining the Seahawks, was spectacular in relief, completing seven of eight passes for 129 yards and a touchdown, good for a perfect passer rating of 158.3. Jackson also scored on a five-yard run.
Asked about Jackson, who returned to Seattle this offseason after being released by Buffalo, Doug Baldwin opened his comments with, “First of all, I don’t know what Buffalo was thinking.”
—Seattle’s tight ends combined for nine catches for 112 yards and two touchdowns. Zach Miller had the odd stat line of two catches for five yards and two TDs. Rookie Luke Willson had five catches for 79 yards.
On his first touchdown, Miller said, “It was wide open. Worked even better than it did in practice.”
—Despite being disappointed in the fact that they allowed some points and scores in the second half, Seattle’s D still leads the NFL in scoring defense, allowing 9.0 points per game. The Seahawks are also allowing the fewest yards (241.7) and passing yards (146.7) in the league.
—Wilson’s 117.3 passer rating since Week 9 of 2012 is the best in the NFL over that span.
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