Raiders 30 Seahawks 19: Winners and Losers from Seattle’s 2018 preseason finale

The 2018 NFL preseason is over, and now we can focus our attention on roster cuts, then the start of the Seattle Seahawks’ quest to get back into the playoffs. Seattle fell to the Oakland Raiders 30-19, and in case you’re wondering, no team in the 16-game era has ever gone winless in the preseason and gone on to win the Super Bowl. However, the 1982 Washington team did go 0-4 in preseason and win the Super Bowl, although that was a strike-shortened year, so 16 games weren’t played.

Anyway, after a seemingly endless final preseason game, here’s the final Winners and Losers recap before we turn the calendar to September and Week 1 of a brand new season.

Winners

Mike Davis

Davis rushed for 45 yards on 9 carries and a walk-in one-yard touchdown. If you go by DVOA, Davis was only marginally better than Eddie Lacy and Thomas Rawls in his handful of starts last year. He won’t be starting this year unless we have another merry-go-round of injuries, so I’m more than fine with seeing Davis as a third-down back.

Damore’ea Stringfellow and Malik Turner

They won’t make the cut, and perhaps only Stringfellow is in practice squad consideration, but Stringfellow had a beautiful 81-yard touchdown in the 1st half on a dime from Austin Davis, while Turner had 3 catches for 69 yards, and was unlucky not to get a TD himself on this incredible bomb by Alex McGough. On a night where there weren’t that many entertaining moments by the Seahawks offense, they certainly provided reason for the crowd to cheer.

Austin Calitro

I’ve neglected Calitro’s presence for far too long. He recorded a sack, seven tackles, and throughout preseason he’s shown good closing speed and an ability to pursue the ball effectively. Don’t be surprised if he’s earned a spot as a reserve middle linebacker.

Shaquem Griffin

The rookie is expected to start in K.J. Wright’s place on opening day, and he was all over the field in the 1st half, racking up eight tackles (four of them solo). One of his better plays was preventing Chris Warren from turning up the sideline to get a third-down conversion in the 2nd quarter. There will be growing pains, but there are many non-sentimental reasons to be excited about Shaquem. Hopefully he kicks ass in Denver.

Losers

The secondary

Even with almost nothing but backups in the game... you can’t let this happen.

Off the top of my head, Delano Hill was at least partially culpable on two of those three touchdowns. Mike Tyson got scorched by the apparently unstoppable Keon Hatcher for his third touchdown. There were multiple blown coverages and missed tackles. It was really bad even by preseason standards.

Pass rush

Manuel and Cook had all day to throw for the most part, and that didn’t make the secondary’s job any easier. Jacob Martin had a couple of “almost sacks” but the pressures were few and far between.

Sebastian Janikowski

Two missed extra points was Hauschka-esque. Under the current PAT distance, Seabass had only missed three from 2015-2016. Both of his misses on Thursday were wide left. Thanks for providing some nervousness in the kicking game just in time for the regular season to start, Mr. Janikowski! We sure needed that.

Amara Darboh

Pete Carroll said on Wednesday that Darboh would play on Thursday. He didn’t play, and he’s surely not here to stay after missing the entire preseason. I admit I vouched for drafting Darboh in 2017. There are many reasons why I’m not a scout.

Cyril Grayson

Not that he was ever in consideration to make the team, but he had at least one drop, a muffed punt, and a miscommunication on a deep ball thrown by Alex McGough. He’s also not a very good returner. It’s time to pull the plug on the Grayson experiment, meaning no practice squad for the former LSU track star.

Michael Dickson

I can’t believe he actually punted for a touchback. This is mindblowing to me. We might need to pump the brakes on Michael Dickson’s league MVP push if he’s going to actually show that he’s human.