masyimasyi blog: Recap: Seattle Seahawks at San Diego Chargers

See the Chargers fan? / Seahawks.comThe Seattle Seahawks defeated the San Diego Chargers easily 31 – 10, displaying their very talented deep roster for all to see. Seahawk fans drooled; Charger fans cried, but probably drooled in jealously. One thing became very clear throughout the game: making the roster cuts down to 53 is going to be very challenging and I do not envy Pete Carroll for having to deliver the bad news to the men that have been giving it their all in camp. For all that was good during the first preseason game, there were also a few negatives which I will cover first. Negatives The “Starting” Offense Our first couple offensive drives were very underwhelming. I realize that the offense was very vanilla, but I was still hoping for the Hawks to march down the field and get in the end zone. Russell Wilson made some nice scrambles, escaping some close encounters that included nearly getting sacked by his own offensive lineman, J.R. Sweezy. However, I am not worried about the offense at all, especially considering that our true starting offense was not on the field. Winston Guy Seriously, Guy looked defeated out there on the field. I was not impressed with him whatsoever. The Chargers scored a late touchdown on the Seahawks and I recall Winston Guy standing out like a sore thumb. Dating back to last year, I have personally not seen much from Guy other than some attitude and physicality which has been on our own guys during camp, like the Stephen Williams hit during a non-tackling drill a week ago. I know it might be too soon, but I do not think Guy will make the final roster this season. TE appears to still be the weakest position on our roster The rookie Luke Willson had a couple of catches for 16 yards, but he also had two drops, one of which came on third down during the first drive, and the other was a simple catch that had me shaking my head. It appeared to me that nerves got the best of Willson, so hopefully he will show us more next week. Cooper Helfet had a very nice diving snag for his one catch of 23 yards, but he also had a drop. We should all send Zach Miller a “Get Well Soon” card!

DangeRuss is back! / Seahawks.comOverall, the negatives really are not a big deal at this point. If this were week one of the regular season, I would be a little more worried. Plus, the negatives were blanketed by all that went right for the hawks! Positives Backup QB battle between Quinn and TJack Brady Quinn did a good job running the second team offense. Overall he was 6/11 for 59 yards, connecting with camp star Jermaine Kearse for a TD. For as good as Brady Quinn looked, Tarvaris Jackson looked better. TJack was 8/9 (one dropped pass) for 128 yards and had two passes for touchdowns, one of which was to… Stephen Williams

Soon to be TD / Seahawks.comIs this guy fast or what? He had two catches on deep balls and appeared very good in the process. Our receiving group is pretty loaded, especially once Percy Harvin comes back, but I really liked what I saw from Williams yesterday. In total, he caught two passes for 83 yards and a TD. Rookie running backs Nothing made me happier than Christine Michael and Spencer Ware! I saw Ware make some nice blocks on blitzes from the defense, and Michael looks like a solid fit in the zone blocking scheme. Both ran the ball very well. Christine Michael ran the ball the most for a total of 89 yards on 16 carries (5.6 avg) while Spencer Ware had 32 yards on 7 carries (4.6 avg) and a touchdown to boot. I do recall Michael having a nice hole open up on the right side, but he was not patient enough and ran into the back side of his own guy, but he will learn and get better. Overall, the rookie running backs were fantastic! Allen Bradford and Byron Maxwell Seriously, Bradford was all over the place and very quick on the trigger! He has been working hard transitioning from running back to linebacker the past three seasons and he looked like he belonged starting this game. I was very impressed with Bradford’s overall ability to perform and lead the defense. Byron Maxwell made less of a statistical impression, as cornerbacks often do, but he did have a very nice interception and seemed to be doing a great job covering the receiver the entire time he was on the field, which is his job. Maxwell looks like he could be a starter for a lot of other teams in the league.

LOL / Seahawks.com Special TeamsDrool. The Defensive Line Pressure, pressure, and pressure! Despite not getting to Rivers (who would be the sacked-master if not for Aaron Rodgers) the first series, the Seahawks continued to make whichever QB who was on the field (mostly Clipboard Jesus) very uncomfortable. Michael freakin’ Bennett looked unblockable at times and very fast off the snap, which makes me even more excited that we signed him during the offseason! Benson Mayowa was very impressive at DE; he never stopped pushing for the QB. Talk about a guy that appears to be a steal early on! Other rookies such as Jordan Hill and Ty Powell also got me excited. Jesse Williams looked slow off the snap, but the guy is a wall. As I am writing this, I take back what I said earlier about Michael and Ware; it was the defensive line that got me the most excited! Other guys fighting for a spot to note: Jaye Howard, John Lotulelei, Derrick Coleman, O’Brien Schofield looked awesome. The biggest surprise to me, however, was Alvin Bailey (who?) on the offensive line at LT. The guy just looked like a straight up bully out there. Having a quality backup at LT is very rare, but we just might have that based on what I saw yesterday. I am so very impressed right now! Overall I am very happy with our performance. Preseason is the time to get the sloppiness out of the way, but we did not seem to have much of that. Despite some key injuries, I am very confident that we will be ready to go week one. My biggest concern is the cut down to a 53 man roster because I feel like so many of our guys deserve to make the team, and I will absolutely hate seeing them being picked up off the waiver wire by other teams. With that being said, it is part of the game and if that is your biggest concern then you should be very happy. It was not too long ago that our biggest concern was who would be the starting quarterback – that was dreadful. Thankfully, it is the New York Jets’ problem now, and not ours. Go Hawks! Game MVP TJack! Seriously he looked like a man among boys out there, but that is what I would expect from a veteran going against guys fighting to make the Chargers’ roster. Nevertheless, he did a great job running our offense and I would personally like to see him run the second string offense next week to see how he performs.