Aaron Curry was back in action before the Seahawks defense could even take the field. He was wracking up a fifteen-yard unnecessary roughness penalty for an unjustifiably late hit. Jacoby Jones was tackled by two Seahawks defenders, his elbow clearly down, seconds before Curry gave him the ol' Brian Russell. It didn't register as dirty to me, but frighteningly unaware.
He started the next series by backing away from his gap and taking himself out of a run play directed at him. It looked like Curry was held, but not flagrantly and not impactfully. The remaining series went:
2. Contain but did not factor.
3. Timed and blitzed perfectly off right end, but lands only an after the fact hit on Matt Schaub. Josh Wilson was burned badly on this play. Ron Pitts called it a nightmare play for a nickelback because the slot receiver has a two way go. Wilson was burned defending the outside route when David Anderson cut in on a post.
4. Stands up and sheds fullback Vonta Leach.
5. Dominates Joel Dreessen but is held and dragged right and out of the play. This would become a theme.
6. [Out] This looked like a 3-3 stack.
7. Stands up left tackle, sheds him with an inside move, closes to the ball carrier and joins David Hawthorne in a gang tackle.
Then Curry executed to perfection and still allowed Dreessen to squirt out for five on second and seven. He was subbed out and Hawthorne, keying Ryan Moats from before the snap, took a bad angle of pursuit, bubbling up and away from Moats to stay parallel, and whiffed so badly that Moats didn't break stride, didn't even slow as he ducked then drove into the end zone. Lofa Tatupu at least gets a shoulder tackle on Moats, and a shoulder tackle would have staggered the roster cut veteran and allowed Seattle's defense to swarm and stop him.
Three more plays before the quarter ended:
1. Bites hard on play action, does not factor.
2. [Out]
3. Can't separate from Dreessen and is unambiguously held.
Now, I'd rather a rookie that lacks awareness than a rookie that lacks tools, but this was a bad, bad start for Curry. He looked as clueless as he did unskilled, and all his size, strength and speed didn't help him when he was reading wrong, reacting wrong and rarely where the ball was.