What we learned from the Seahawks’ opening week victory over the Colts

The Seattle Seahawks defeated the Indianapolis Colts by the score of 28-16 on Sunday, and it was a surprisingly calm, easy-going game for the Seahawks. The offense looked smooth, the defense looked good, and they did not allow for the Colts to open any windows for a comeback late, as they commonly do.

So, there are 16 more games to go in the regular season and we have only seen the Seahawks face one opponent but, what did we learn from Seattle’s week one victory?

The taunting rules will indeed be strongly enforced

The NFL made it clear that they would be enforcing taunting penalties stronger than they had been in the past, and we learned that quickly as DK Metcalf was flagged for taunting in the second quarter of one of the first games of the year.

I guess the helmet nudge by Metcalf was the reason for the penalty? This induced a 15-yard penalty and if DK had another unsportsmanlike against him, he would have been ejected.

We can see why the Seahawks let KJ Wright go

The Seahawks ran a defense that not once found me wondering about the safety of Ken Norton Jr’s job and was just frankly solid all around. The cornerback play wasn’t spotless but they held Wentz in check for the whole game — ignore the garbage time stat-padding — and the combo of D.J. Reed/Tre Flowers played 100% of the snaps. The same can be said for the defensive line, which got pressure on Wentz and sometimes was taken out by check-downs and runs, but they were effective in the run game and forced three sacks.

My main observation about the defense was that we can clearly see why KJ Wright was not re-signed. They ran a nickel formation for the vast majority of the game with Darrell Taylor, who was frequently coming off the edge, and Cody Barton only playing a combined 45% of the snaps. Darrell Taylor’s performance in camp was also the only thing that Kenny Albert and Jonathan Vilma wanted to talk about the whole game, but it was for good reason as he had a sack, TFL, and a QB hit. Here was the sack (It’s a good one).

Shane Waldron. Wow!

My colleague Stan Taylor did a deep dive into Shane Waldron’s impressive first game but I’ll take the eye test route. He passed! (No pun intended)

Waldron’s first game as the offensive play-caller featured a cornucopia of motion, tight end creativity, and overall he helped Russ do what he does best: Just give him enough time to let him make something happen and, sure, cook.

Wilson did face a fair amount of pressure, but he completed multiple deep balls to Tyler Lockett under that pressure, and commonly Russ was untouched and the receiver was open. That last part felt good to say.

Overall, Waldron’s offense was best described as smooth. It was creative and fun from time to time and featured some less creative yet sensible plays like DK Metcalf over the middle or a Tyler Lockett go route.

The Seahawks are going to be a good football team (as usual) this year

There was plenty of doubt from pundits this year about the Seahawks, but they went on the road and beat a team that went 11-5 last season. We did not really learn much about Wentz in the Colts offense, but that's going to be a good team and the Seahawks had a comfortable win in their house.

Again, the offense, defense, and special teams all looked solid and while some position groups are worse than others, there is no reason to panic about any aspect of this team as opposed to what we might have thought this offseason.