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Brad Rempel-USA TODAY Sports
Yeah I know it’s preseason, games don’t matter, schemes are vanilla, playcalling bland, yadda yadda, they’re usually supposed to be bad to watch. Outside of the opening quarter, this game was just boring and brutal and then it turned into bad news for Seattle with a trio of fourth quarter injuries.
So let’s get to Winners and Losers for the Seattle Seahawks’ loss to the Minnesota Vikings, and then we start anew on Monday. This will be a quick and dirty version because... well... I don’t know how much in-depth analysis you want out of that dreck.
Winners
Poona Ford
I just want to point out that this was not ruled a fumble and I believe they called Alexander Mattison down by contact. Whatever. Ford looks like a run-stuffing machine whose lack of size is made up for with ridiculous leverage, quickness, and strength. I cannot wait to see him get an increase in snaps.
Tyler Lockett and Jaron Brown
Lockett didn’t miss a beat. Three catches for 27 yards, including a toe-tapper along the sidelines that was just ridiculously good. Russell Wilson’s only failed target was courtesy of a pass break-up by Harrison Smith. As for Brown, he did have what was sort of a drop on an overthrow by Wilson, but he also had two grabs for 52 yards and was wide open on both occasions.
Ugo Amadi
UGO SMASH. Don’t know about his prospects as a member of Seattle’s defensive back rotation, but he should at least make the team for his special teams impact. Neiko Thorpe is already a godsend on the punt coverage unit, add Amadi and you’re really hyped up.
— Seattle Seahawks (@Seahawks) August 19, 2019
Jamie Meder
I was impressed by the Seahawks’ interior run defense, and Meder stood out the most with two tackles for a loss. Seattle is lacking depth in several areas but I don’t think this is one of those trouble spots.
Jason Myers
He went 4-for-4 on his field goals. That’s cool.
John Ursua
I liked his jet sweep run and he had another slick catch over the middle of the field on a Lynch throw.
Cassius Marsh
It was Marsh’s initial pressure (followed by Barkevious Mingo) that led to Sean Mannion’s rushed throw and subsequent interception for a touchdown by DeShawn Shead. One of the few bright spots for Seattle’s defensive line.
Losers
The second-string offensive line
Elijah Nkansah and Marcus Martin shouldn’t be on the 53-man roster. Through two games they’ve been arguably the worst offensive linemen out of the entire depth chart. Nkansah gave up a holding penalty and a sack on consecutive plays when Paxton Lynch entered the game. Martin is just a horrible blocker.
Rushing with four
If it wasn’t a blitz, there basically wasn’t a pass rush. Unsurprising and worrying at the same time, because those blitzes will get picked apart in the regular season if the actual A-team pass rush doesn’t show any sort of pulse.
Paxton Lynch
First off, I hope he’s okay after that viciously illegal, suspension-worthy hit by Holton Hill. Now leading up to that point, Lynch looked like the bust from the Denver Broncos. He was wildly inaccurate, particularly when throwing on the run, and was lucky not to have been picked off by Kentrell Brothers on an obvious staredown of John Ursua.
Rashaad Penny
To be totally fair to Penny, there were a couple of plays where there was at least one Vikings player ready to destroy him immediately upon handoff. But Penny had 8 touches for 8 yards and I don’t think he broke a single tackle. He is a very choppy, hesitant runner who badly needs open space, which is why he excelled at toss sweeps but running between the tackles remains a problem for him. Preseason isn’t the sole barometer for player measurement but I’m not that enthused about his two games thus far. Travis Homer was also playing against backups and looked better than Penny. Obviously Rashaad will make the team, he just needs to clean up a lot of problems in his game.
Rasheem Green
Green offered virtually nothing as a pass rusher, bit hard on play-action more than once, and with a chance to get the Seahawks offense the ball back for a possible winning touchdown, he failed to set the edge and gave up a first-down to Mike Boone on 3rd and 8. He played a significantly high number of defensive snaps and outside of one run stuff, it looked like another struggle for the second-year player.
Secondary
I will not single anyone out in particular, but collectively this group was not good. Akeem King was beaten repeatedly by Laquon Treadwell, Shaquill Griffin was burned by Adam Thielen, Tre Flowers wouldn’t stop holding (called and uncalled, defense or special teams), and even DeShawn Shead’s pick-six was somewhat offset by a few missed open field tackles. The busted coverage on Irv Smith Jr’s touchdown was awful, and Jamar Taylor managed to commit a hands to the face penalty right before giving up the other passing touchdown of the game to Brandon Zylstra. Plenty to work on back on the practice field.
Injuries
Marquise Blair had back spasms, Paxton Lynch had the aforementioned concussion, and Demetrius Knox’s knee injury (update: make that quad) probably ended his season, or at least shelved him for a long time. Preseason sucks.
Madden NFL 20
These whack-ass glitches need to be taken out of the game, EA Sports... wait a minute. I’m told this was a real play. Hahahahahahahaha. Sometimes preseason is good.
This is poetry pic.twitter.com/xCll8K0E2r— The Checkdown (@thecheckdown) August 19, 2019
