All or Nothing
Pass or Fail
Right or Wrong
Good or Bad
Get it?
👍
It'll be very interesting to hear Kirk's media time after this game. He was far from the worst part of games 1 or 2 and he showed even more today. There was a steeliness in his eyes that I can't recall seeing & it manifested with an MVP-caliber day at the Purple Palace. One thing he probably won't say is that the pick of Kellen Mond added to his fire but it wouldn't be a surprise if that was a factor in how he's executing. Putting it all on that would be an overstatement but professional intensity has seen that effect before. Whatever the case, he was great & will have a chance to keep it rolling when things get back to noon-normal next Sunday!
His lead back this week also handled the role with aplomb. Back in the role against the team that he could have secured the win against last season, Alexander Mattison had a Dalvin Cook sort of day - which begs the question what Cook would have done against Seattle - but there's no need to go down that rabbit hole! He finished with 171 total yards from 32 touches (a 5.3 yards/touch average). Pretty good for a complimentary member of the offense as Jefferson, Thielen & Conklin got the money.
With KJ Osborn making a positive impact for the third straight game to go along with the dynamic duo he's move into trend territory where the first two games could have proven to be mirages. The capability to get open & taken advantage of opportunities is exactly what is needed from WR3 & is exactly what they haven't had since Jake Reed. Jefferson's 9 for 118 & a TD will get a lot of attention but it's the totality of the developing receiver corp that should be well-regarded!
The offense also did a marvelous job keeping the ball out of Wilson's hands. In only four second-half possessions they gave up 96 yards. Seattle only had the ball one time in the third quarter, it was a masterpiece of strategy execution!
And all of it came as the offensive line had a second-straight strong performance. It's a basic tenant but keeping the quarterback upright is the best way to have a chance, they did exactly that today while once again avoiding penalties.
Now to the other side
After struggling like they did through the first two games, the second half was as good as can be justifiably expected by the defense. And while it sure looked like Harrison Smith got the lucky bounce interception, there's positives to be extracted from them not needing those sorts of plays to suffocate Seattle.
Just doing the job without having to depend on flukes (or even great individual plays) is a recipe that should be repeatable going forward. Even though he didn't splash this week Nick Vigil should not be quickly replaced by Barr. It's possible the big man can come in & make today's great even better, but until it's been proven on the practice field the status quo should remain. Because, ya know, don't fix what's not broken.
And after last Sunday the positives performed by the specialists also need to be mentioned. Settling for three field goals to end the game won't work every time but after the miss it was a shrewd move by the coach to bolster Greg Joseph's confidence with the opportunities. And in turn, the kicker held up his end, unlike Jason Myers surprisingly. His holder, Jordan Berry was "limited" to two punts which gave him the boom to pin Seattle at the 1 to seal the W. Everyone who follows this team knows the history & how it can fall apart but those two showed great things today as well!
Wouldn't be doing this justly if the first half deficiency by the defense wasn't mentioned.
But with the way they turned it around, it's just a passing mention.
Young Ihmir Smith-Marsette was the latest to make a bad decision during return duty so that needs to keep being worked on. But again, it was a one-off error so not going to harp on it.
Comments