Seahawks 23 Eagles 17: Winners and Losers from a dull but important road win

I’m recording the post-game podcast with Brandan Schulze and John Morgan. Normally that means I write up Winners and Losers the next day whenever it’s a night game. This was a real stinker of a Monday Night Football matchup and frankly it was one of the most boring Seattle Seahawks games I can recall. There were just so few interesting moments and talking points that I’m able to get this post up now instead of tomorrow.

Here are the winners and losers from Seattle’s latest road victory over the Philadelphia Eagles.

Winners

DK Metcalf

And to think, he should’ve had a touchdown and probably botched a TD for David Moore on the failed 4th and goal call. Metcalf had 10 catches for 177 yards and made Darius Slay Jr look like a chump cornerback, which he is not. Say, what made him so motivated tonight? Oh... thank you, Jim Schwartz.

Metcalf now leads the NFL in receiving yards with 1,039.

Chris Carson

I have the feeling that he’s not all the way healthy yet. He only had 10 touches for 59 yards but one glorious carry for a touchdown on 2nd and goal at the 16. That’s just something most other running backs are unable to manage when they see defenders and just blast through the contact. It’s nevertheless good to see him back on the field again.

Jamal Adams

Adams’ best asset is rushing the quarterback, which is amazing for someone officially designated as a safety. He added another sack to bring his total to 6.5, and he was excellent in run defense. If Carson Wentz didn’t underthrow a pass in his direction, he probably would’ve had an interception too. His closing speed and tackling (except that Dallas Goedert catch towards the end) are really outstanding.

The linebacker trio

KJ Wright, Bobby Wagner, and rookie Jordyn Brooks were all over the field. Wright had a critical 4th down pass defensed, Bobby Wagner had one early in the game down the field in the opening quarter, and Brooks broke up a pass on the very first snap. KJ also had a sack (which Adams helped cause), Wagner continues to be a menace everywhere, while Brooks looks like a promising talent who’s earning more snaps. The only ding for Brooks is the DPI on an underthrown ball by Dallas Goedert.

Pass Rush

Six sacks! Poona Ford was one of the best players on the field, Carlos Dunlap picked up another 0.5 sack, as did Jarran Reed, and we even had a Benson Mayowa and Rasheem Green sighting. LJ Collier almost had one too but technically he tackled him forward for a short gain after he had him behind the line of scrimmage. Shaquem Griffin even drew a holding penalty in his limited playing time. The Dunlap injury will be closely monitored as this could all come crashing down soon if he’s out for an extended period of time. An effective front four means less blitzing to generate pressure, and fewer potentially busted coverages.

Quandre Diggs

The easiest interception of his life. Even better is the decision not to run it out of the end zone, which potentially saved Seattle some field position.

Run Defense

Philadelphia’s running backs had nine carries for 29 yards. The Eagles were never down by more than 14 but they barely tried to run it, and I think a lot of that is because the Seahawks run D is that good. Only the Vikings and the 2nd half of the first Cardinals game have been able to really run all over this defense. It’s been one of the few season-long bright spots for a unit that collectively appears to be getting better.

Jason Myers

He still hasn’t missed a field goal all season and has only missed two extra points. What a stellar year for Myers, whom you may recall didn’t beat out Sebastian Janikowski just two years ago.

Losers

Brian Schottenheimer

Not a well-called game from Schotty. It was an odd one too because it felt like play-action was kept to a relative minimum and they were stuck in this weirdly conservative mode for much of the night. The only deep shots were to Metcalf and there were just too many bad running plays even before the game was largely decided. Carlos Hyde’s 22 yards on 15 carries doubled Chris Carson’s load for the day and frankly... it was pitiful to watch. Both failed 4th downs were curious playcalls even if Metcalf was at fault on the first one. I also don’t understand (unless there were more headset malfunctions) why the Seahawks kept running the play clock all the way down to 0, hence two timeouts burned in the opening quarter. There was no real push to use the TEs as receivers, with Will Dissly getting no targets while Jacob Hollister had just two catches.

The idea of playing David Moore as much as the Seahawks did

He had the only passing touchdown for the Seahawks but he was not healthy at all. Freddie Swain needed to absorb all of his snaps. Moore was running in quicksand and was yanked off of punt return duties. Not often you see someone have three catches for -6 yards and a TD, but that was Moore’s day. His hip problem may be more serious than first imagined. Free Josh Gordon.

Offensive Line

Keeping in mind that Brandon Shell was out and the Eagles do have a very dangerous front four, this was one of their poorest showings. Philadelphia didn’t blitz all that much but they routinely got interior pressure, which falls on both guards and Ethan Pocic. Cedric Ogbuehi took away a Carlos Hyde touchdown on a hold and he was just generally beaten like a drum much of the night. The running game was dead on arrival and pass protection was really iffy.

Officials

Easily the worst reffed game I’ve seen out of all the Seahawks games this season. Brad Allen’s crew was bad for both sides and I don’t say that as a cop out. They were awful. But the worst miss was this intentional grounding by Carson Wentz, which would’ve meant 2nd and eternity and instead we got an Eagles TD. This throw, WITH THE LINE JUDGE STANDING THERE, apparently reached the line of scrimmage.

Fine them for incompetence. Speaking of which...

The Monday Night Football team

Holy shit they are bad and unlike Booger McFarland, don’t provide any entertainment value when they’re terrible. Steve Levy is/was a great SportsCenter anchor and one of the few at ESPN who cares about the NHL, but a play-by-play man he is not. Just no fluency to his commentary style and too many errors, including one to end the night where he said that Philadelphia improved to 8-3 while the Eagles dropped to 3-7-1.

I also didn’t anticipate Louis Riddick being this boring. Him and Brian Griese often just forget the game is happening and drift off into other conversations. If nothing else, they made for great defenders for Carson Wentz because by the end of the night that’s pretty much all they ended up talking about.

Other Notes

• A pretty unusual night for Russell Wilson. He was 10/13 for 177 yards targeting DK Metcalf and 12/19 for 53 yards and a touchdown throwing to anyone else. Russ seemed a bit fidgety and off on some of his throws but he avoided any huge mistakes (outside of the intentional grounding, which ended up not mattering) for a second straight outing.
• The secondary did its job tonight although I hesitate to praise too much knowing how rotten that Eagles offense has become, particularly Carson Wentz. It’ll no doubt be a confidence builder if they can string together more performances like this before playoff time. Tre Flowers did get beat a couple of times by Alshon Jeffery without punishment but otherwise he was fine, and Shaquill Griffin looked sharp (including that horse shit DPI).
• DJ Reed needs to be the permanent return man. He’s more decisive and smoother than David Moore or Travis Homer have ever been.
• Tyler Lockett had another quiet night with just three catches for 23 yards and a pretty generous DPI call. But like I’ve said all season, you can shut Lockett down on one day and Metcalf on another, but both at the same time is an enormous task that borders on impossible.
• Philadelphia might be a bad team but they’ve had every game this season within one score entering the 4th quarter. They only lost by nine at Pittsburgh, by two against the Ravens, and by five at the Browns. Their one blowout was versus the Los Angeles Rams and that was a 24-19 game with about 12 minutes left. Don’t be too bummed about the margin of victory, especially since the Seahawks seemingly always win this way against the Eagles regardless of year.
• First place in the NFC West and in the driver’s seat. You can’t take any of these next three games for granted but things are looking up. That’s how much the win over the Arizona Cardinals meant for the Seahawks’ season. Now you have to keep the foot on the gas pedal.
• Another Enemy Reaction featuring the Eagles? They must be sick of me doing these. I know you aren’t.