Seattle Seahawks: Dud and Stud of the opening six weeks
By Ed Stein
Every week the Seattle Seahawks play, Emerald City Swagger will have a dud and stud of the game. There is no game this week, so we decided to sum up the opening six weeks.
Only six games into the 2018 season, and it’s been a tale of two teams for the Seattle Seahawks. They opened the year with two stinker losses. One at Denver, and one at Chicago. In both contests, Seattle couldn’t move the ball. The Seahawks decided passing was a better option than running. Unfortunately, that strategy led to as many opponents in the backfield as Seahawks.
For game three, guard D.J. Fluker made his season debut and it stabilized the offensive line. That was also when head coach Pete Carroll committed to the ground game. Against Dallas, the Seahawks had it’s first of four straight games with 32 or more rushing attempts and 111 or more yards on the ground. As a matter of fact, starting with week three, the Hawks have averaged 157.3 yards-per-game and 4.4 yards-per-carry.
Their successful ground game has taken heat off of quarterback Russell Wilson. Opponents have to respect Seattle’s run game so they can’t tee off on Wilson. Additionally, he isn’t responsible for carrying the team on his shoulders. The powerful run game has also helped Seattle’s defense. Joel Carpenter wrote a fantastic article about it, which you can read here.
Since the opening two losses, the Seahawks have won three of four and the lone loss was to the undefeated Los Angeles Rams by two points.