Seattle Seahawks: Three Takeaways from Week 8, 28-14 win in Detroit

The Seattle Seahawks temporarily moved into an NFC Wild Card slot with a 28-14 win over Detroit on Sunday. Here are our three takeaways.

Winning on the road is never easy in the National Football League. The Seattle Seahawks went into Detroit on Sunday needing a win to build on their current four-game streak of strong play. They came out with a 28-14 win which moved the Seahawks into the NFC’s second Wild Card spot.

Excitement of head coach Pete Carroll and the team

During his post-game remarks, Pete Carroll said both he and the team were happy about what has happened so far this season, outside of the first two games. He, like the 12s, believes the Seahawks would have won those games if they had run the ball the same way they do now.

Often the Seahawks get off to a slow start, however this season they have limited it to the first two games. With the 28-14 road win, Seattle has a record of 4-3. The Seahawks have nine games remaining on the season and six of them will be against other teams competing for playoffs.

All the Seahawks have to do is continue playing as they have in the last five games, where they have gone 4-1. As Pete Carroll said, the other teams will have to find a way of stopping them. He’s always been a positive coach and this year more so than he has the last few years.

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The offensive line

Seattle’s O-line had another solid effort leading the way for the running game, which totaled 176 yards. This was the fifth game in a row the Seahawks ran for over 100 yards. Chris Carson was able to run for 105 yards on 25 carries. This helped keep the Lions big play offense off the field.

Since Detroit had to honor the Seahawks run game, Russell Wilson was able to throw three touchdowns in the second quarter. Seattle held their 21-7 lead into the fourth quarter. Pete Carroll’s game plan is to always go into the fourth quarter with a solid lead and keep running the ball.

Seahawks defense holds Detroit

K.J. Wright returned to the Seahawks defense this week and the unit took a big step up. The Lions were averaging 26.2 points per game going into this game so for the Seahawks to give up only 14 points is a solid effort. The Lions scored a touchdown on their opening possession, and again four minutes and twenty seconds into the fourth quarter. In between, Detroit was held scoreless for just under 37 minutes

Seattle did give up 310 yards in the air so outside of the two touchdowns they bent but didn’t break. Matt Stafford threw the ball 40 times, completing 27. Going down 21-7 didn’t give Detroit much of choice. It was his highest number of passing attempts on the 2018 season.

Lions rookie running back Kerryon Johnson was outstanding last week in their win over the Miami Dolphins. He carried the ball 19 times for 158 yards, an average of 8.3 yards-per-carry (YPC). Johnson only ran for 22 yards on eight carries this week (2.8 YPC). It was his lowest running total this year. In all the Lions ran 33 yards on 13 carries.

The Seahawks have now won four of their last five games. Next week they face another strong offensive team, the Los Angeles Chargers.