Knee-jerk reaction: Boy, that was way closer than it should have been.
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Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson has a sprained ankle, but coach Pete Carroll said he expects Wilson to play in Week 2 against the Los Angeles Rams. Pete Carroll is in his seventh season as coach of the Seahawks and has only six players who’s time in the National Football League predates his arrival in Seattle.
Playing through an ankle injury suffered in the third quarter, Wilson took Seattle 75 yards the final time the ball was in his hands.
Upton, who is engaged to Detroit Tigers pitcher Justin Verlander, specifically condemned the players’ actions as “more horrific” because they occurred on the 15th anniversary of the September 11 attacks. Minnesota (which won Sunday) and Dallas (which lost) are without their starting quarterbacks.
Even if Wilson appears to be in good physical shape, and injury free next week, should the Seahawks give him some rest anyways to be precautionary?
Reality: That was a very convincing performance by Seattle’s defense in many ways.
That means his other 11 completions totaled just 51 yards. Cornerbacks DeShawn Shead and Jeremy Lane were tremendous in coverage and in run support. But there were some issues.
You can analyze any and every angle of the Dolphins’ 12-10 season-opening loss at Seattle, but know this: “that dropped potential touchdown pass by wide receiver Kenny Stills in the second quarter was the biggest play of the game”.
Miami quarterback Ryan Tannehill was 16 of 29 passing for 186 yards, no touchdowns and no interceptions for a 74.8 passer rating. This is not to hold Seattle’s defense to some unreasonably high standard, just to point out that as well as it played Sunday, there are some things to clean up.
The mistakes were many against the Seahawks.
With Griffin out, Josh McCown will start this week’s home opener against Baltimore.
Reality: Let’s wait and see on this one. But, sources previously said that Seattle was exploring the veteran QB market for a potential backup prior to the Heaps signing. With the Dolphins needing points at the end of the game, Tannehill took the team 87 yards for what could have been the winning score. Russell Wilson does incredible things with a garbage offensive line. Stafford spread the ball around judiciously, picking up where he left off in a sizzling finish last season. It’s not as though the Seahawks were playing from behind on Sunday.
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The Broncos played much better against the Seahawks in their 2014 Super Bowl rematch than they did in the big game a few months earlier. The Rams have also been uncommonly opportunistic against Seattle of late, returning a punt 75 yards for a touchdown in the opener previous year and a fumble for a touchdown to take a lead they never surrendered in the win at CenturyLink.
