Seahawks-Giants: As I See It

My thoughts about what happened on Monday Night Football: Seaside Bonus, 10/2/2023

Today is the one-year anniversary of the Seattle Seahawks beating the Detroit Lions 48-45, a game that featured a semi-historic offensive performance by a Pete Carroll team. Seattle’s victory over the Lions is probably the 2022 game that has carried over the most good memories of any win last season, even if Pete would like to forget that the Seahawks also gave up 520 yards that day.

Now October 2, 2023 could end up being the Seahawks best defensive performance of the season, as Seattle notched an historic 11 sacks, tying a franchise record that was set almost 40 years ago.

Skeptics will understandably point to the fact that the New York Giants likely had the worst starting five offensive linemen of any team so far this season, just as it was noted a year ago that the Lions had the NFL’s worst defense at the time of their loss to the Seahawks (and finished 32nd in total yards allowed). But the Giants are not the first terrible offensive line and Daniel Jones is not the worst quarterback* that Seattle has faced since 1986, and so 11 sacks should stand the test as a remarkable accomplishment, especially for a team that entered the week with five sacks in the first three games.

*he could be close though!

The Seahawks sacked Jones 10 times and Parris Campbell once during Seattle’s 24-3 victory on Monday night to improve to 3-1 entering the bye week. Here are some before and after sack totals:

Uchenna Nwosu: From 0 to 2

Jordyn Brooks: From 0 to 2

Bobby Wagner: From 0 to 2

Devon Witherspoon: From 0 to 2

Boye Mafe: From 1 to 2

Mario Edwards: From 0 to 1

Myles Adams: From 0 to 1

The Seahawks go to sleep tonight with six players who have at least two sacks now (the other being Jarran Reed), and Dre’Mont Jones was basically a half-yard in front the line of scrimmage from getting his second sack. Said Pete Carroll after the game: “It reminds us that we’re just getting started…We’re not a finished product.”

When the Seahawks next play it will be against a Cincinnati Bengals team that ranks 32nd in scoring, 32nd in yards, 32nd in passing yards per attempt, 31st in rushing, featuring a patchwork offensive line and a hobbled Joe Burrow, if he’s even available.

If Monday was Pete’s defense “just getting started”, then October 15th will be Seattle’s opportunity to keep it going.

Here is more of the 24-3 win, As I See It.

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I see Daniel Jones never played knifey-SPOONY before

As I see it, Devon Witherspoon bailed out the Seahawks at a time when injuries could have sunk them as they did the Giants. Witherspoon had plenty of doubters when Seattle chose him with the fifth overall pick — in a way, he was the “Ken Walker III” of the 2023 draft, as Twitter wanted Jalen Carter — fans who said that there was no way that “a small nickel corner” could impact the game like someone twice his size or I guess with half of the work ethic.

How could anyone have watched the NFL over the last ten years and not seen the value of a player with Witherspoon’s skillset and attributes defending the middle of the field? Better yet, how could any SEAHAWKS fans not see what Pete’s defense had been missing since age and injuries broomed the boom six or so years ago?

I’m not calling you out if you wanted Carter or were skeptical of Witherspoon. Carter is a great prospect, Witherspoon wasn’t on the radar…for most, and they are only four weeks into their careers.

But ever since his debut in Week 2, he’s had a noticeable impact on the field, something that could not be said for most Seahawks defensive players since 2016. We got an even better look at that impact on Monday night because Witherspoon got his first action in the slot, in the nickel, and the end result was a a player who is a practical “thirst trap” for being on the ball. Witherspoon seems to get physically mad when he’s not the one making the play and he made a lot of them against Daniel Jones:

Two sacks, several key run stops, and of course a pick-six that turned the game around from a potential 14-10 (if the Giants had scored from the SEA5) to a 21-3 Seahawks lead at the end of the third quarter.

On a night when the Seahawks tied a franchise record for sacks, the key play of the game was an interception by a player starting his third career game and getting his first-ever action at a “new” position. And that player ALSO HAD TWO SACKS!

I’m grateful for the chance to be tagged by someone who says that Devon Witherspoon reminds them of Seaside Joe every time he makes another play and I won’t make it a habit to bring this articles back when he does something good because then…I might never be able to stop. But I’ll say it again this one time, why I felt that Witherspoon was my favorite player in the draft, the perfect fit for Pete Carroll, and my prediction as who Seattle would choose even though there were SEVEN players who had better odds of going to the Seahawks on the morning of the first round.

April 11:

If you’re like me, you will start this article thinking, “Do I really want the Seahawks to use their first pick on a cornerback?” but by the end you’ll know that Devon Witherspoon is not a cornerback. He’s an attitude change that Seattle desperately needs and that Pete Carroll tends to gravitate towards.

Because if there’s a single player in the draft who exemplifies the character, competitiveness, and toughness that’s been missing from the Seahawks defense since Kam Chancellor retired, he is Illinois cornerback Devon Witherspoon. Though Witherspoon doesn’t have the magical 32” arm length and despite Seattle’s earliest cornerback pick under Carroll in 13 years being Shaquill Griffin at 90th overall, Witherspoon is also the top-ranked corner in a draft class that has enough questions about the top-20 prospects to think that this might be a time to make exceptions for someone who will alter the attitude of a defense that too many opponents see as “soft”.

Using this picture of Witherspoon’s workout day to point out the guy in the Seahawks hat, not the guy in the circle:

The only reason that I even researched Witherspoon is that three weeks before the draft I had deduced that the Seahawks would not draft a quarterback at #5. If not a quarterback, then who?

Well, I thought that Jalen Carter made sense for a lot of reasons, but nobody outside of the building could say for certain if he had been removed from consideration due to character concerns. A lot of people claimed they could know, but I just went with what I knew I DIDN’T know and so I said to myself, “If not Carter, then who?”

I figured that Will Anderson would be off the board before the Seahawks picked. If not Anderson, then who?

A lot of other people were speculating Tyree Wilson because of reasons I can’t quite explain. Just like I would eventually do with Witherspoon, I researched Wilson and came away hoping that he was not the answer, even if I did have some fears that if Seattle hadn’t changed their drafting philosophies of the past that they could end up with him. However, I also noticed that Seahawks had been operating differently since just before the Russell Wilson trade, so I thought maybe I could look somewhere that others felt would be impossible because of past draft decisions. If not Tyree, then who?

At that point, I just think that this exemplifies why it should have been easy for people to predict that Devon Witherspoon was high on Seattle’s draft board: Because the Seahawks were picking fifth, there weren’t many options to choose from. I had eliminated all but a couple, and since I did not think Seattle would select a running back, there weren’t many choices left.

Then I saw a video of Hall of Fame cornerback Ronde Barber comparing the top two cornerbacks in the draft—Witherspoon and Christian Gonzalez—and coming away with the opinion that not only was Spoon the best of the class, that it wasn’t even close. And he really liked Gonzalez!

Everything that Barber had said about Witherspoon, that he played with intensity, attitude, controlled violence, and was the most competitive player in the draft, screamed one thing to me: If you could build a Pete Carroll prospect with A.I., the output would be Devon Witherspoon.

So after a few more weeks of internal debate, and even though Carter was -230 and Witherspoon was +2200 to be the fifth overall pick, I predicted that the Seahawks would buck a 13-year trend and choose the cornerback.

Then the top-four picks were three quarterbacks, plus Anderson, and the Seattle Seahawks made Witherspoon their highest-drafted cornerback since Shawn Springs in 1997. After an offseason, training camp, and Week 1 of “will he, won’t he, where is he?”, Witherspoon has been the revelation on defense that many people—not just me, I was simply copying what others were saying!—predicted that he would be.

Not only for his literal play, but also due to the emotional impact and competitive energy that he’s brought to a defense that was listless, soft with tackling, and didn’t have 11 sacks in a game before he arrived.

It felt good to brush aside other prospects, to see Witherspoon, to want the Seahawks to draft Witherspoon, and then for the Seahawks to actually do it! That was the loudest I’ve ever screamed over a pick. But all I did was find out from other people that he seemed to be the most exciting prospect in the draft, especially among those who would be available at pick 5; literally all of the real work was done by Devon Witherspoon and Pete Carroll.

Hopefully I’ve now buttered you up enough so far to get through everyone’s least favorite segment

As I see it, this game still managed to be an annoyingly sloppy performance by multiple Seahawks units and didn’t answer some important questions that will come up when Seattle doesn’t play arguably the worst team in the NFL.

1 - The Seahawks had eight penalties, including four in a row at one point, mostly by the offensive line

2 - The Seahawks were 3-of-12 on third down and 0-of-2 on fourth down, for a grand total of 3 conversions out of 14 opportunities (21%)

3 - The Seahawks allowed 6-of-16 on third down to the Giants and 2-of-4 on fourth down, a total of 8/20 (40%)

4 - The Seahawks defense was on the field for 74 plays and 36 minutes

5 - Jason Myers missed another field goal

6 - Geno Smith wasn’t awesome

Despite a 24-3 final score, this is essentially a game that came down to two turnovers: The pick-six by Witherspoon and a forced fumble recovered by Jordyn Brooks (shout out vision board!). Quandre Diggs also had an interception that led to a field goal.

Seattle’s offense gained -7 yards (punt), 14 yards (punt), 7 yards (TD drive following fumble recovery), and 13 yards (punt) on their first four drives.

It can be said that the Seahawks offensive line once again started Stone Forsythe and Jake Curhan (who was awful) at tackle, and that both Phil Haynes and Damien Lewis left the game with injuries. It can be said that Geno also got hurt in the second quarter and was temporarily replaced by Drew Lock.

And it can also be said simultaneously and without negating the other facts that Geno Smith wasn’t awesome.

I know that in the Seaside Joe live game chat thread that most, if not all of the comments in the second half were clamoring for a little more Lock. In the fourth quarter, the Seahawks went two yards (punt), 29 yards (FG drive following Diggs’ pick), 7 yards (TO on downs).

After the game, Pete called New York’s Leonard Williams and Dexter Lawrence “the best defensive tackles we’ll face all season” and that’s fine too. Maybe this was an abnormally challenging game for Geno due to the circumstances at MetLife. But it is hardly the last or most challenging game on the schedule, with upcoming dates against the likes of the Browns (the number one defense in the NFL), the Ravens, the Cowboys, the Eagles, and two against the 49ers, to say the least.

Pete also said that the team’s number one emphasis recently has been to improve on third downs, both offensively and defensively. I guess he hadn’t quite digested the totals from Monday night yet because they’re actually a little worse now. That’s not solely on Geno Smith (Geno went 13-of-20 for 110 yards with a touchdown), but third down and red zone is where PLAYERS, not PLAYS, make the difference.

The players, including Geno, will have to be better.

Jamal’s well that ends…without another serious injury

As I see it, I don’t know what’s more surprising: How quickly Jamal Adams made his presence felt, or how quickly Jamal Adams was no longer present.

Pete said after the game that Jamal Adams is “gonna be okay” after leaving with a first drive concussion and made it sound as though he would be available after the bye week. The worst part is that this was the perfect environment for Adams to thrive in, but his injury had “forgot how to safely tackle someone” written all over it.

Pete also didn’t sound overly concerned about injuries to Geno, Jarran Reed, or Phil Haynes. He was a little more mum on Damien Lewis (ankle) and thinks that Coby Bryant could return in two weeks. If we’re looking at a potential “full picture” view of the depth chart when the Seahawks play the Bengals, fans might see Charles Cross back at left tackle, Adams back (again) at strong safety, and Bryant back in the secondary (with updates to come later on Tre Brown, Artie Burns). There’s a chance we could also see the debut of Jason Peters.

Going a little bit further ahead, Abe Lucas would be eligible to return after the Bengals game and Dee Eskridge will be back from suspension after the following game against the Arizona Cardinals.

Carroll also noted that Drew Lock was “jittery” in the beginning of his appearance, which tracks with what I saw. What else were people expecting? Lock hasn’t played in a regular season game since January 8, 2022. And he has only made three starts since the beginning of 2021. Pete called the opportunity for Lock to finally play, “invaluable”.

Finally, Pete noted that his biggest disappointment of the season is still the second half of the Rams game and that otherwise, he’s happy with every other half of football that Seattle has played so far.

Rams, Week 1

First Half: 13-7

Second Half: 0-23

Lions, Week 2

First Half: 7-14

Second Half, OT: 30-17

Panthers, Week 3

First Half: 12-13

Second Half: 25-14

Giants, Week 4

First Half: 14-3

Second Half: 10-0

So the Seahawks have outscored opponents 65-31 in the second half of their last three games. And Seattle could have scored even more points than this. If they start finishing their drives off more often in the red zone, they will.

The Seahawks defense did a lot of growing up on Monday. Now if the offense follows suit with more consistency on third downs, Pete Carroll may soon have the team that he’s wanted to get back again.

One more reminder to hit that button^^^if you haven’t already!