Five Takeaways From Russell Wilson’s Disappointing Return to Seattle

A wild Week 1 got here to an in depth Monday night time when the Seahawks held on to beat the Broncos 17-16 in Russell Wilson’s return to Seattle. The sport was predictably bizarre, given its individuals, and gave us a primary have a look at how some new faces look in new locations. Listed here are 5 takeaways:

1. Nathaniel Can’t Hackett

Broncos head coach Nathaniel Hackett’s debut may have gone quite a bit higher. His workforce performed sloppily and bought flagged 12 occasions, costing Denver 106 yards. The pre-snap operation was notably messy. His offense had some embarrassing sequences on the aim line, the place it persistently operated out of the shotgun, for no matter cause. And that may have influenced a questionable resolution to accept a area aim halfway by the fourth quarter with the Broncos down by 4 and dealing with a fourth-and-goal from the eight-yard line.

Hackett’s worst impression, although, was the final one he gave. With a couple of minute left within the recreation and the Broncos trailing by some extent, Denver’s offense stayed out on the sphere for 39 seconds of clock time on fourth-and-5 earlier than Hackett lastly referred to as a timeout. Following that, Hackett opted to ship kicker Brandon McManus out to attempt a 64-yard area aim as a substitute of holding the ball in quarterback Russell Wilson’s $245 million palms. McManus missed, and the Seahawks went on to win.

A lot was fabricated from the partnership between Hackett and Wilson within the leadup to this recreation, and there’s a lot of time left for them to outline it this season, however within the second it counted most on Monday, Hackett’s resolution was to Let Russ Look.

Fashions range, however Soccer Outsiders’ win chance calculator discovered that the choice to kick a area aim as a substitute of passing in that state of affairs price the Broncos almost 30 proportion factors.

McManus is an effective kicker who advantages moreover from enjoying half his video games in Denver altitude, however he’s by no means made a kick of over 61 yards—and this recreation was in Seattle. To not point out throughout league historical past, NFL kickers are solely 2-of-41 on kicks of 64 yards or longer.

To underscore how really befuddling this resolution was, Seattle had additionally used its ultimate timeout to ice McManus, and he missed that try as properly. At that time there have been solely 20 seconds left within the recreation, and McManus really did have the space on that kick that didn’t rely, if not the situation. Nevertheless it’s nonetheless stunning that even with additional time to rethink, um, asking a participant who’d thrown for 340 yards already to throw for 5 extra as a substitute of asking a kicker to make a career-long kick, Hackett didn’t.

Hackett confirmed after the sport that he by no means thought of going for it, both earlier than or after the timeout, then mentioned that 64 yards was McManus’s vary and that “Brandon gave it his greatest shot.”

He might have to supply additional rationalization this week, particularly on condition that Pete Carroll mentioned he was by no means anticipating the Broncos to kick in that state of affairs.

“I used to be stunned that they took Russ out on the finish,” Carroll mentioned. “We weren’t pondering area aim there, we have been pondering it was fourth down and so they have been nonetheless going. It gave us an opportunity to win the sport on that play. We have been lucky there.”

2. Let Geno Cook dinner?

Beginning his first Week 1 recreation in eight years, Geno Smith gave the Seahawks the whole lot they may have hoped for. He accomplished 82 p.c of his passes (23-of-28) for 195 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions.

Smith started the sport with a fan-base-appropriate 12 straight completions and threw two touchdowns within the first half earlier than the Broncos protection clamped down and held Seattle scoreless after halftime. However Smith’s output within the opening two quarters was sufficient to get the win and, extra importantly, present that he can run the offense the Seahawks needed to deploy final season after they employed offensive coordinator Shane Waldron away from Sean McVay’s Rams workers. Smith threw largely brief, over the center, and to his proper (his yards per try common was 5.1, in keeping with Subsequent Gen Stats). He bought the ball out on time, with a median time to throw of two.85 seconds, and he used play-action on a heavy 37 p.c of his dropbacks.

He wasn’t flawless, although. His willingness to face within the pocket is welcome in Seattle, the place Waldron needs his quarterback to play on schedule, a choice that had been a tough match with Wilson. However there have been a number of performs the place Smith was too prepared to take action, standing nonetheless when he ought to have climbed up within the pocket to keep away from stress and wound up getting hit by a go rusher coming across the edge. At the very least as soon as this occurred when Denver exterior linebacker Bradley Chubb gained a rep in opposition to Seahawks rookie offensive deal with Charles Cross, which is nothing to worry about, but it surely was one detrimental tendency that confirmed up within the recreation. General, although, Smith executed the offensive recreation plan properly, which bodes properly for a Seattle workforce in an NFC West that didn’t look as foreboding as anticipated in Week 1.

3. New Group, Identical Russ

We must always not have anticipated the rest. It doesn’t matter what offense he’s in, Russell Wilson runs his personal offense, and that’s what occurred Monday night time. A serious preseason speaking level in Denver was that the Broncos needed to function with numerous tempo—however when the sport really began, Russ took his time, threw it deep, and broke the pocket liberally. His common time to throw was 3.04 seconds, with a 7.3 common yards per try.

This isn’t a criticism! Wilson went 29-of-42 for 340 yards and a landing, and with out two goal-line fumbles from operating backs Melvin Gordon III and Javonte Williams, Denver most likely would have gained. The Broncos offense outgained the Seahawks by almost 200 complete yards, 433-253. It’s simply one other reminder that if Hackett is the offensive coach who will get Wilson to change his fashion, he would be the first to have carried out it.

4. Extra Rust for the Resters

The Broncos joined the likes of the Rams, Bengals, and Packers as groups who closely prioritized relaxation over reps for starters in coaching camp and the preseason, then had sloppy first video games. Although among the Broncos’ penalties may be defined by the noise at Lumen Subject, it was nonetheless a extreme difficulty. Two misplaced fumbles didn’t assist, both (although Seattle had three fumbles and was fortunate to get well two of them). Denver was so cautious in regards to the preseason that even when the Cowboys visited for a joint follow—one thing many coaches use to ramp up physicality as a result of they will see their gamers in opposition to one other workforce whereas having extra management than they’d in a preseason recreation—it wound up being a light-weight day of labor.

Seattle, in the meantime, joins groups just like the Giants and Steelers who, partly due to quarterback competitions or evaluations that wanted to occur, gave extra reps and bodily follow time to starters earlier than the season and pulled off upsets in Week 1. Some coaches would most likely say that accidents are a much bigger concern than rust, but it surely’s value watching to see whether or not the development continues.

5. Melvin Gordon III and Javonte Williams Do All the pieces Collectively

Denver apparently takes this operating again committee factor pretty critical. Gordon and Williams break up touches almost evenly Monday night time, with Williams getting 18 to Gordon’s 14. (In addition they every had a fumble on the aim line.)

Williams was much more productive, with 43 yards on seven carries and 11 catches for 65 yards within the passing recreation. Gordon had 12 carries for 58 yards and two receptions for 14 yards. If the disparity in manufacturing continues to be that vast, it could appear apparent that Williams would begin getting the bigger portion of the workload. However that hasn’t occurred but.