-Benson Mayowa more or less confirmed my fears tonight. He started, and didn't even face Ryan Clady, but merely Ryan Clady's backup. And he was almost completely shut down against Denver's 1st team offense. I noticed him for only one positive play of note in that span, and that positive play was against the run. When the scrubs were put in he immediately looked great again and got a sack almost immediately. There are still two preseason games left, but Mayowa definitely looks like a guy with sub-fringe tools that might not have what it takes to produce against real starting lineman. Not saying I'm giving up on him, but tonight was a troubling sign, IMO.
-Seattle's starting pass rush had a very tough time, but to Denver's credit I think their OL is pretty darn good, particularly their interior group.
-Give Manning 4 seconds and he will murder an elite defense. That hasn't changed. Given how our pass rush is still growing up, there are a lot of AFC teams I'd rather face in the next Superbowl. Like, 15 of them.
-Need to study the DVR to know for sure, but the run blocking didn't seem all that great tonight, or at least it seemed like a step down from the Chargers game.
-Red Bryant played a ton of DT, and didn't look terrible by any means when I watched him.
-Apparently Refs are paid by the penalty now. There were 21 accepted penalties (12 on Seattle), but that number doesn't include flags that were thrown and later picked up, penalties that were declined, or offsetting penalties. You add all those up, there were probably 30-35 total penalty stoppages in this game. By the 4th quarter even the broadcast crew started to lose their patience. The refs seemed to make it a point to discuss every single penalty, and some of their decisions (including replays) seemed dubious. It reminded me a lot of the replacement official period last season.
-Derek Wolfe was my favorite DT from the 2012 draft. He had a very strong rookie season (6 sacks as a DE/DT) last year. It sucks seeing players taken off the field in an ambulance, but it's way worse when it's a player you really like. Fortunately, he's okay. I'm sure Mike Rob would have felt completely terrible had it been a career ending neck injury from his hit. Wolfe's status is good news all around.
-UDFA rookie DT Michael Brooks (#70) had another very nice game. Even the broadcast crew is starting to notice him. It might not be a bad idea to give him a few reps with the starting unit, just to see how well he does against real NFL players.
-Maxwell took a tiny step back tonight (though I loved his block on Kearse's KR TD), while seemingly every other fringe DB made an impact play. Thurmond had a critical PD to end a Broncos' drive, Shead had an interception in the end zone, Lane had a very nice tackle on kick coverage, and Blackmon swatted away a 3rd down pass in the endzone.
-Chancellor and Browner were stupid good in this game. Chancellor had an unbelievable 11 total tackles in less than 2 full quarters of play. And Browner was a big play machine all night. Even when he got picked on for receptions, he had reasonably good coverage and only gave up the reception because Peyton Manning with 4 seconds to throw is the definition of unstoppable.
-Bobby Wagner had a great night. We know he's awesome in coverage, but tonight he was killing it against the run too. Exciting progress. Also, he had seven tackles in half a game against an elite offense.
-Stephen Williams had two terrific catches back to back, though he didn't actually score on the second one. Seattle caught a tiny break there. Still, it was hilarious watching him flop into the endzone. I wish he played more, but if nothing else there is obvious chemistry between Williams and Tjack. We need to start seeing Williams more with Wilson now.
-John Lotulelei showed some improvement tonight. No negative plays that I noticed. He still hits hard.
-Not to sound like I am overhyping the guy, but watching Allen Bradford make impact tackle after impact tackle this preseason, I am starting to be reminded of 2011 Kam Chancellor. That guy just came out of nowhere and was solid as a rock that season. He was the one defender you could count on the most that year. At the time, he was briefly my favorite Seahawk. Whenever you noticed Chancellor, you notice him for good reasons. That's kind of how Bradford is starting to feel for me. A few times a game some dude makes a stellar play and it's #52 getting up from the tackle. I'm really liking Bradford's outlook right now.
-Wes Welker made Antoine Winfield look pretty old on that TD. In fairness, Wes Welker is an elite WR who makes pro-bowl corners look bad on a regular basis. What a fantastic addition for Denver. What a blow to the Patriots.
-Ronnie Hillman had a couple of decent cuts/moves for extra yardage, but for the most part he looked like crap. He also had at least two fumbles, including the Browner one. Hillman looked crappy, but Montee Ball looks legit. I really respect the Broncos btw for committing to the run early even though Seattle couldn't stop Manning. It kept our defense on their heels and had this been a real game, we'd be very lucky to keep them under 30 points the way that their balanced offense was humming.
-We still badly depend on Chris Clemons, IMO. Even with Hill and Bennett out there, our defense struggled to pressure Manning. Manning is one of the best in the business at punishing the blitz too, so if we face them in the Super Bowl, that could be a major dilemma. We still haven't seen Avril or Irvin 2.0, but neither are very likely to give us what Clemons did last season.
-Jermaine Kearse didn't even play with the scrubs in the 2nd half, as far as I could tell. That's a pretty strong indicator that the team not only views him as a roster lock, but possibly even as a fringe starter. As much as I don't want to lose Golden Tate after this year, Kearse is a somewhat similar player and could make Tate expendable in the FO's eyes. Also, I had no idea that Kearse was that fast on his KR TD. That might be the first KR I've ever seen Kearse attempt, even at UW, and he took it to the house. Loved the stiff arm on the kicker too. He also had a TD from Wilson in the 1st quarter.
-As many of you know, I was a huge fan of RW before the 2012 draft and kind of flipped out when we got him. I thought he was perfect, but in an effort to be objective, I went back to his Wisconsin tape to see if I could find any meaningful flaws in his game (other than the occasional height factor). I did find one problem- just one. He had a tendency to overthrow his intermediate and deep passes. Maybe 20-30% of them. That tendency carried over into the preseason and the early portion of the regular season, but by the Detroit game, it seemed to be behind him. We all know how the rest of the story goes, his numbers took off around that same time. It was one of the most exciting things about his 2012 development.
-But tonight, the overthrows came back with a vengeance. It must have been five passes out of six where he overthrew at one point. Disturbing. And yet, you look at the box score after the game and it says that Wilson had a passer rating of 141.3. The "smart" stats (YPA, ANY/A) loved him just as much. How incredible is this guy that he can have an off night (by RW standards) against an elite defense and still put up numbers like that?
-I really hope we keep Spencer Ware somehow. Fun player. If we lose him to someone else, I think there is a decent chance he'll surface as a 1000 yard rusher at some point. He looks even more like Marshawn Lynch now than he did at LSU. Clone Lynch but take away the "wiggle" (drunken master) aspect, and that's Ware.
-Coleman had a tough night, but also had a positive play or two. I now know this, I don't want Coleman as a pure RB.
-Schofield had some nice plays. Tonight definitely helped his roster status.
-Robert Turbin had a very nice game. I'd love to see a game with Michael, Turbin and Ware splitting carries for four quarters.
-Russell Wilson's gaudy 141.3 passer rating was once again the second highest on the team. Tjack finished tonight with a 141.4 rating. Jackson is averaging almost 14 yards per pass attempt this preseason so far. These might be the best games Jackson has ever played. For the preseason, he's averaging 13.81 yards per attempt, and 1 TD per 5.3 pass attempts. A lot of that is the Stephen Williams connection, and it's not sustainable, but man, Tjack has been something.
-40 to 10. Total fluke score, but still, heck yeah. Seattle in the preseason during the Russell Wilson era: 6-0, 193 points for, 64 points against.
-My silly dream of "23-0" lives another week.
I'll post a DVR review which will go into much more detail with more observational accuracy some time in the next few days.
