The New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks s are among the most consistent teams in the league year-in and year-out, and 2020 is no exception so far. While New England beat the Miami Dolphins 21-11 on opening day, the Seahawks went on the road to defeat the Atlanta Falcons with a final score of 38-25.
Needless to say that the team of head coach Pete Carroll is already looking like a serious contender again heading into its highly anticipated prime time contest against the visiting Patriots.
So, what is the state of Seattle entering Week 2? We spoke with John Gilbert of Pats Pulpit’s sister site Field Gulls to get an answer.
“The Seahawks come into Week 2 relatively healthy as a team with a ton of potential on both sides of the ball,” said John. “They’ve got more offensive weapons than at any point in memory with Russell Wilson, Tyler Lockett, DK Metcalf, Greg Olsen, David Moore, Chris Carson and Carlos Hyde all able to make a big play at any time.
“The question on the offensive side of the ball will be how well they’re able to move the ball when facing a defense that will likely be better schemed to stop the Seattle offense than the Falcons were in Week 1. Atlanta defensive coordinator Raheem Morris admitted Wednesday the Atlanta game plan was focused on stopping the run first, which is the opposite of what teams that have slowed the Seattle attack over the past couple of seasons have done.”
Just like the Patriots’, the Seahawks’ offense has also changed quite a bit since the two teams’ last meeting in Week 10 of the 2010 season. The engine that is powering the machine, however, is still part of it: Russell Wilson is still among the best quarterbacks in the game, and, as John pointed out, has an impressive supporting cast surrounding him — one that contributed to him having an impressive output against a Falcons defense more worried about the run than the pass.
Accordingly, Wilson finished Week 1 with 322 passing yards and the same number of incompletions (four) as touchdowns — all while completing 31 of 35 passes. The veteran QB was outstanding last week, and his performance made up for a defense that had its ups and downs versus Atlanta as John said.
“On defense, the back seven are a quality group, but it’s a group that is still learning and coming together after no preseason. This was a weakness against Atlanta and Matt Ryan had himself a day,” he acknowledged.
The Patriots’ offense relied more on running the football than passing it versus Miami, but could opt to challenge Seattle’s secondary outside of its impressive safety tandem Jamal Adams and Quandre Diggs. Either way, the Seahawks once again appear to be a team capable of successfully playing complementary and most importantly winning football.