Seahawks thrash Colts 46-18: Winners and losers from Seattle’s week 4 triumph

I won’t lie, I was very nervous when the Seahawks went into halftime down 15-10 to the Colts. There was creeping doubt that Seattle, at best, was setting itself up for an ugly win with the potential for some controversial refereeing decision in the Seahawks’ favor. By the end of the third quarter, I was pretty relaxed, and it felt terrific seeing Seattle properly demolish a bad football team.

Let’s look at the winners and losers from Sunday night.

Winners

Russell Wilson

Outside of the first interception and the safety he took, Wilson was outstanding. I’m glad that he got a couple of late touchdown passes, or else the final statline wouldn’t have accurately reflected to how well he performed. The best Wilson is one who’s in rhythm, decisive on his throws, making big throws down the field, and extending plays with his legs. He also was helped greatly by the fact that other than Jimmy Graham, I don’t think any Seahawks receiving target dropped a ball. By the way, there’s an outside chance that Wilson could reach 150 touchdown passes before his 50th interception. His current ratio (reg. season only) is 132:47.

J.D. McKissic

His first and last touches were explosive play touchdowns. What more could you ask for? McKissic had great moments in preseason and looks like someone the Seahawks should get more involved in the offense, and they may have to with Chris Carson’s injury. This was by far the most encouraging moment of the night, because Seattle needs all the RB help it can get.

Eddie Lacy

Lacy certainly helped run out the clock! After being a total non-factor for the first three games, Lacy strung together a strong 4th quarter, accounting for 41 yards on the final touchdown drive, and he led all Seahawks rushers with 52 yards on 11 carries. This was a much-needed showing from Lacy, regardless of opposition.

Offensive Line

No, really! Seattle gained more than 100 yards rushing before contact, and ended with 194. The run-blocking was on point, especially when they went to shotgun, and I’d argue that all three of the sacks Wilson incurred were not really OL protection breakdowns. Wilson did have to evade pressure on a few occasions, particularly from Jabaal Sheard, but this was one of the better OL performances in awhile. I have a feeling the story won’t be the same against the Rams, but we have seen them look uncharacteristically off the pace for three straight weeks.

Justin Coleman

Not only was Coleman the first Seahawks defensive back to intercept a pass since week 12 of 2016, when Kam Chancellor picked off Jameis Winston, but he was the first Seahawk to record a pick-six since Chancellor’s TD vs. Cam Newton and the Carolina Panthers in the 2015 NFC Divisional Round. Kudos to Coleman for airtight coverage at the nickel position, plus his first career interception and touchdown.

Bobby Wagner

Can anyone tell me the glaring weakness in Bobby Wagner’s game? Is he perhaps just a little too awesome for his own good? Wagz once again held down his duties in pass coverage, picked up a half-sack late in the final quarter, and most importantly he gave Seattle a double-digit lead with his fumble return for a score. #54 is well on his way to another first-team All-Pro selection.

Marcus Smith

I bet you didn’t think Marcus Smith would be responsible for Seattle’s first forced fumble of the year. Once written off in Philadelphia as a bust, Smith was pressed into more playing time than usual due to the injuries on the Seahawks defensive line, and he recorded 1.5 sacks, including the aforementioned strip-sack of Brissett that led to Bobby Wagner’s touchdown.

Losers

Blair Walsh

I don’t want to beat up too much on Blair when he’s made 6/7 field goals and 8/9 extra points this season, but that 37-yard shank at the end of the first half was ugly. Let’s hope he keeps the short-ish distance misses to a minimum. On a similar note, our old buddy Stephen Hauschka keeps drilling kicks from 50+ in Buffalo.

Rees Odhiambo

First off, I wish Odhiambo the best as he deals with an apparent bruised heart suffered in the third quarter, which will keep him out until at least November. Jabaal Sheard was having his way with Odhiambo on several plays in the first half, and on more than one occasion he was able to get to the backfield untouched. Unfortunately, Sheard also caused the Odhiambo injury on the Malik Hooker interception, which means the Seahawks are down to the third-string choice at left tackle. Good luck to Matt Tobin, his presumptive replacement.

Referees

Brad Allen’s crew was real flag-happy to begin the second half, and Sunday night was the first time I’d ever seen offsetting holding penalties committed at the line of scrimmage. There was an uncalled pass interference in the end zone with Amara Darboh getting mauled by a Colts DB, but what really irked me was the very next play, when Russell Wilson’s touchdown run was ruled as down at the 1 during live play. Seattle had to lose its final challenge for something that would’ve otherwise been automatically reviewed. It’s way more sensible to call it a touchdown and review it than have a team waste a challenge because the officials made a mistake.

Al Michaels

Al is one of my favorite play-by-play voices of all-time, but I also realize that he’s 73 years old in just over a month, and NBC’s big Mike Tirico signing is a strong indicator that he’ll be Al’s successor. Michaels mistook JD McKissic for Eddie Lacy (!!!) on McKissic’s touchdown run, and last week he called second-year Redskins wide receiver Josh Doctson “the rookie who missed almost all of last season.” I don’t know how much longer Al’s gonna stick around, especially since NBC has the Super Bowl this year. Will this be his swan song or does he go for one more three-year cycle?

Somewhere in between Winner and Loser (Woser? Linner?)

Jimmy Graham

The drops are pissing me off, and Graham has had one in every game this year, but Wilson still went to him after the second interception and he finished with 4 catches for 61 yards. He’d have been in the loser column outright if not for the way he ended the game. Graham is now 2nd on the team in total receptions, but the drops must decrease and the YPC (9.5) must go up.

Shaquill Griffin

Griffin had a nice pass break-up after Jeremy Lane’s injury, but he did give up a (nicely thrown) touchdown to Donte Moncrief, and I’m still unsure as to what he’s doing on this Jacoby Brissett run. I still feel like he’s a better option than a healthy Lane, so I’m not too concerned. I really wish he’d change his jersey number to something in the 40s so people don’t mistake him for Eddie Lacy Richard Sherman.