Dave Boling: Seahawks, Mike Macdonald answer doubters with 34-14 rout of Falcons
This had the feel of a turning-point game. A fulcrum upon which the entire season could pivot.
The Seattle Seahawks had lost three straight. The Atlanta Falcons had won three straight.
Instead of dropping a fourth consecutive game, which might have contributed to irreversible negative momentum, the Seahawks went down to Georgia and laid an unexpected 34-14 whipping on the Falcons.
If they continue this quality of play, and fight their way back into the postseason, the Seahawks will look back at this game and pinpoint it as the start to their revival.
Not only did it allow them to take over the NFC West Division lead (with San Francisco’s loss to Kansas City), it provided one more piece of evidence by which fans can evaluate head coach Mike Macdonald in this debut season with the Hawks.
Macdonald and staff, with a patchwork secondary and a spotty run defense, found ways to arrest their nosedive and beat a quality NFC team on the road.
How? It appears they’d been able to instill a winning mindset in the locker room. Pretty obviously, the Hawks came out looking more aggressive and ready to compete than in some recent losses.
Three consecutive losses in 11 days had caused some difficult questions to be asked, and suspicions to arise that player unity among themselves and with the staff might be fraying.
Does Macdonald have what it takes, inexperienced as a head coach, to get this thing turned around? For a so-called defensive genius, why is the team near the bottom of the league in those stats? Is this new offensive coordinator, Ryan Grubb, getting questioned by some of the players?
Sunday, almost everything looked efficient and fully functional.
Yes, they continued to have trouble tackling, giving up 155 yards rushing, but they countered that by curing a weakness that had left them vulnerable most of the season – the inability to force turnovers.
Seattle came in minus-6 in the turnover ratio, but intercepted Falcons quarterback Kirk Cousins twice (Julian Love and Coby Bryant) and scored on a strip-sack (Boye Mafe) and TD return (Derick Hall) of Cousins in the second half.
Another key: Their offensive stars stepped up – exactly what a team in a slide needs.
Quarterback Geno Smith’s play had been questioned recently. Strangely, perhaps. He’d come in leading the NFL in pass yardage and was on pace for more than 5,000 yards this season, which would easily break his own franchise record of 4,282 yards.
It’s been enough to doubt that any Seahawks quarterback has ever gotten more yards with weaker protection.
Against the Falcons, he threw a pair of touchdown passes and no interceptions, even with the pocket crumbling on many attempts.
Kenneth Walker III, who was not expected to play due to an unspecified illness, raced 20 yards for a rushing score in the second period, and in the third added another score with an exceptional diving, finger-tip reception of a Smith pass.
Walker’s production has been inconsistent at times, and he hasn’t always been playing at 100% health, but when he is, he’s a threat that has to be exploited.
His beautiful scoring grab was only the second touchdown reception in his two-plus seasons with the Seahawks.
Sunday was Walker’s 24th birthday, a reminder of how many big plays he may have in his future.
Receiver DK Metcalf, who had been a Seahawk most visibly agitated by the recent losing streak, finished with four catches for 99 yards, a 35-yard gain coming on a trick-play pass from fellow receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba, and a 31-yard touchdown reception that Smith fired in between four Falcon defenders.
More games like this from Smith, Walker and Metcalf can carry the Seahawks offense. But it was the maligned defense that came up big in the second half Sunday, and can be considered a positive omen for the rest of the season.
When the Falcons were attempting to rally, the Hawks ended three consecutive drives with forced turnovers.
Not only did the replacements in the secondary play well, but on offense rookie right tackle Michael Jerrell performed with no less competence than some of those previous starters sidelined by injuries.
On Walker’s 20-yard scoring run, the rookie right guard and tackle duo of Christian Haynes and Jerrell adeptly opened a hole for Walker’s burst into the second level.
To be sure, a 20-point win in the NFL is a notable romp.
It answered a lot of questions about the Seahawks, and should quell fears and predictions of impending doom.