Vision Board: Seahawks-Bengals

It's stoner week in Cincinnati: Seaside Joe 1686

In the last edition of Vision Board against the Giants, I dreamt of:

Tyler Lockett has 100 yards and a touchdown

Jordyn Brooks causes a turnover

Dre’Mont Jones has three pressures and 1.5 sacks

Lockett had his best game of the season in between the end zones—54 yards and 9.0 yards per target—but certainly didn’t star on Monday Night Football. In fact, three of his four catches and 40 of his 54 yards came almost back to back to back on a drive that ended in zero points. (Not his fault, but unfortunately can’t say Lockett had the biggest impact of the game on offense.)

Brooks recorded a fumble and had two sacks. Even though I think you can that Brooks actually just finished off plays by his teammates in all three cases, I’ll take the points. I would say Jones did more to pressure the quarterback, I’ll take a half-point for that.

1.5/3 for the week totals:

6/12 for the season

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This week, the Seahawks play a Cincinnati Bengals team that appeared to be playing stoned for the first four games of the season, ranking right around the bottom of the league for points, yards, passing, rushing, third downs, and in the red zone. In fact, the Bengals are still 31st in yards, 30th in yards per pass, 31st in rushing yards (they have yet to reach 100 in a game), 27th on third downs, and 24th in the red zone even after beating the Cardinals 34-20 last Sunday.

In honor of how the Bengals have been playing for most of the season, this week’s vision board utilizes the classic “stoner comedy” to compel the universe to side with us.

Dude, Where’s Ja’Marr?

This clip from Dude, Where’s My Car? currently has 420,000 views. If that’s not a sign—or a vision—then I don’t know what is.

Somehow, Devon Witherspoon is embroiled in a war of words against Ja’Marr Chase when he hasn’t even participated.

In reality, this thing between DK Metcalf and Ja’Marr and Witherspoon is a product of fans/media trying to create something that isn’t there. Metcalf said that Chase is a great receiver but that he believes in Spoon’s ability to contain him. Chase knows that and laughed when asked about it by Cincinnati journalists, saying that Metcalf is just hyping up his teammate like he’s supposed to be doing.

I know it’s more fun when there’s something personal attached to the game—I would prefer it that way too!—but football players rarely go there anymore. They’re going to do the talking on the field.

Chase has clearly been as good or better than advertised since entering the league as the fifth overall pick in 2021, going for 85.6 yards per game and 13 touchdowns as a rookie, then 87.2 yards per game with nine touchdowns in 12 games in year two. Without Joe Burrow being his normal self to start the year, Chase wasn’t a factor against the Browns and Ravens in the first two weeks.

But in the last three games, Chase has caught 34 passes for 406 yards and three touchdowns.

However, he has yet to line up against the fifth overall pick who entered the smoke two years after him.

The Vision: Devon Witherspoon holds Ja’Marr Chase to under 70 yards and no touchdowns

We will see how often Witherspoon is even matched on Chase—Riq Woolen still has something to say about that and we would have thought he’s the guy taking center stage against an opponent’s top receiver prior to the season—but I see Seattle’s defense having “the stoner dog” in them and containing Cincinnati’s top weapon.

Everyday J

“This is the apex of the vortext of joint engineering.”

Is it gonna be a J-day? Jordyn Brooks, Jarran Reed, Jamal Adams, and Julian Love.

The two big names I wanted to focus on here for this were Jamal Adams and Jarran Reed because I think they have the potential to be two of the Seahawks five-best defensive players for the rest of the season, and that’s a lot more impressive in 2023 than it might have been in 2022.

This year, the Seahawks do have Dre’Mont Jones, Bobby Wagner, and Devon Witherspoon, in addition to Riq Woolen, Uchenna Nwosu, Quandre Diggs, and Boye Mafe. But so far, Reed is off to arguably the best start of his career and Adams seemed to be on track for a hugely impactful return game against the Giants prior to suffering a concussion.

Last time out, the Seahawks got 11 sacks and gave up three points. I envision another good game for the defense…And I thought hurricane was over.

The Vision: The Js lead the way for the Seahawks defense to hold the Bengals offense to a season-low of rushing yards, four sacks, and under 20 points

The Seahawks rank first in yards per carry allowed and the Bengals have one of the five worst rushing attacks in the entire NFL. Cincinnati’s season-low for rushing yards is 66, so Seattle could hold them to 65 or under.

Why not throw in Jaxon Smith-Njigba for a big play and get everyone involved in this cross-joint?

Seattle’s Doobie-ous Duo: Charbs and Ken

The only thing a stoner needs more than a light is…a best friend. Cheech & Chong…Harold & Kumar…Shaggy and Scooby….Method Man and Redman.

Every stoner has to have a stoner buddy. They shared getting stoned, but Ken Walker and Zach Charbonnet share getting the rock.

The Bengals rank 31st in rushing yards allowed and 30th in yards per carry allowed, giving up 206 yards to the Browns, 178 to the Ravens, 173 to the Titans, and 142 to the Cardinals. The only team that Cincinnati could contain has been the Los Angeles Rams, an offense that abandoned the run when Todd Gurley got hurt before the 2018 Super Bowl and literally never tried to pound the rock again.

In Walker, the Seahawks have a running back who has been at least as good as Arizona’s James Conner (he was averaging 7.7 YPC vs Cincy prior to being injured) and one who has been much better this season than Derrick Henry (he had 122 yards and 5.5 YPC).

Walker is averaging a broken tackle every 9.1 rushing attempts (twice as good as his rookie mark), but behind him is Charbonnet, he’s averaging a broken tackle every 7.0 attempts. Charbonnet has had a higher YPC average in each successive game to start his career, finishing with 31 yards and 6.2 YPC against the Giants and a season-long run of 15 yards.

The Vision: Walker and Charbonnet combine for over 200 rushing yards and over 6.0 YPC

Abandoning the pass and touting the stone?

It’s such a Half-Baked idea, it just might work.