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Week 1 Game Recap: Seattle Seahawks 10, Buffalo Bills 34
What you need to know
| Seattle Seahawks |
For the Seattle Seahawks offense, there's nowhere to go but up. That's the good news. In the bad news department: No one on this offense had a day worthy of a fantasy start, and the player who came the closest (Nate Burleson) sprained his knee in the third quarter and could miss some time. Running back Maurice Morris also hurt his knee, but no word on the seriousness of the injury.
QB Matt Hasselbeck seemed to get better as the game went on, but that's not saying much. The passing game as a whole suffered for a couple of reasons. The main reason is all of the injuries at the WR position (Engram, Branch, and now Burleson). The other was that the weather did not help. From the opening kickoff, the game was played in rain, with heavy wind. That didn't stop the Seahawks from going to the air however, as their first three plays were passing attempts (all three of which were incomplete).
The Seahawks had already been hit hard by injuries at the WR position, that they didn't need a running back to go down also. Maurice Morris was receiving the lion's share of carries -- and had just broken two longish runs (13 and 17 yards) when he went down. Julius Jones got carries in his absence, and looked ho-hum, but not particularly bad. The Seahawks targeted him more as a receiver than they had with Morris.
| Buffalo Bills |
The Buffalo Bills look to be essentially the Marshawn Lynch show in 2008. He is clearly the focus of the offense, but the Bills showed that they are not a one dimensional team by any stretch.
Young starting QB Trent Edwards was quietly efficient and handled the offense well throughout the game. He made a couple of nice passes that were difference makers, and more importantly, avoided any costly mistakes against a pretty good secondary. Lynch at RB lived up to the hype; though he didn't put up huge numbers, he battled on every play, and busted a couple of longer runs at crucial moments. WR Lee Evans looked to have a pretty good rapport with QB Trent Edwards. It appears to be a work in progress, but Edwards showed that he is not afraid to target Evans in traffic.
What really won the game for the Bills was their special teams play. Roscoe Parrish returned a punt for a score, and a fake field goal resulted in a touchdown. On defense, they blanketed the inexperienced Seahawk receiver corps, and held the running game in check with apparent ease.
What you ought to know
| QB Matt Hasselbeck, Pass: 17 - 41 - 190 - 1 TD / 1 INT |
Hasselbeck looked rusty to start, but came out throwing right from the start. Unfortunately, he had very little to work with as two of the Seahawks top receiving options are injured. He made the best of it, and did not throw a pick until the final play of the game, when it no longer mattered if he took the risk of throwing into heavy coverage. Most often, two things happened on passing plays: Either he overthrew the pass (because the target was covered) or the open receiver dropped the ball. The Buffalo pass rush was tough as well, and he didn't often have much time to throw. His completion percentage was awful, but when he does get his WR options back, he should be productive. There was talk of a nagging back injury leading up to the game, but he did not seem to be affected by it.
| RB Julius Jones, Rush: 13 - 45 - 0, Rec: 2 - 17 - 0 (5 targets) |
Jones was clearly the number two option in the running game, behind starter Maurice Morris. He did not even carry the ball until the second quarter. Once Morris got hurt early in the second half, Jones took over almost exclusively. He had runs of 14 and 24 yards, but also had four carries for negative yards. The main difference with Jones on the field is that the Seahawks included him in the passing game, which was not the case with Morris.
| RB Maurice Morris, Rush: 6 - 31 - 0 |
Morris was not targeted at all in the passing game, but was clearly the preferred back for the Seahawks. The running game did almost nothing in the first half, but he started the second half strong, with runs of 17 and 13 yards before injuring his knee. There was no immediate word as to how serious the injury was.
| RB Leonard Weaver, Rush: 2 - 9 - 0, Rec: 2 - 17 - 0 (2 targets) |
Weaver is not someone the Seahawks count on to carry the ball for them, but he is a little bigger than Morris and Jones, so he is sort of a reverse change of pace back for them. He carried the ball twice, for four and five yards respectively, and caught both passes thrown his way.
| WR Nate Burleson, Rec: 5 - 60 - 1 (9 targets) |
Burleson suffered a knee injury in the third quarter and did not return. He was the lone bright spot in an extremely weak looking group of wide receivers prior to the injury. The only real knock on him is his inconsistency. On this day Hasselbeck found Burleson wide open near the goal line, only to have him drop the ball. However on the very next play he redeemed himself by making a highlight reel catch for the touchdown.
| WR Logan Payne, Rec: 2 - 25 - 0 (3 targets) |
Payne's numbers don't look too exciting, but between Kent, Taylor, and himself, he was the one who actually made the catch when he was targeted. He did fumble one after the catch, but it was a very hard hit, helmet right at his hands (which were protecting the ball) that not many would have been able to hold. The lack of targets shows where he is on the depth chart, but if the two ahead of him don't improve, he may see more balls thrown his way.
| WR Courtney Taylor, Rec: 2 - 19 - 0 (10 targets) |
Taylor was just plain bad. He couldn't get open all day, he dropped passes, he simply did not look like he belonged. Hasselbeck targeted him early and often, mainly due to the lack of options. Of note is the fact that Hasselbeck threw to him often at the start of the game. He was clearly a big part of the game plan, but it didn't work out that well.
| WR Jordan Kent (5 targets) |
Kent did little to distinguish himself from the trio of young receivers vying for playing time. He had his chances -- Hasselbeck threw to him four times in a row at the goal line, near the end of the game. He was not targeted until the second half, as Courtney Taylor started the game as the second wideout. His playing time increased after the Burleson injury.
| TE John Carlson, Rec: 4 - 52 - 0 (4 targets) |
In what could be called a tale of two tight ends, the rookie TE looked great in limited action. Once Holmgren and Hasselbeck noticed that Putzier had hands of stone, they began to look in Carlson's direction. He had one red zone look (stopped at the one) and a nice 20 yard grab down the middle and in traffic.
| TE Jeb Putzier (4 targets) |
Jeb Putzier has bad hands. Say that five times, quickly.
| PK Olindo Mare 1 - 1 FG, 1 - 1 XP, 4 points |
Kicking in heavy rain and high wind, Mare made his only field goal attempt, a long 45 yarder.
| SEA Rush Defense |
The Seahawks had a little trouble containing Lynch, but overall they came prepared and held the Bills to a reasonable yardage total.
| SEA Pass Defense |
Their coverage was good for the most part. The entire secondary looked good and made sure that QB Trent Edwards really had to pick his spots.
| QB Trent Edwards, Pass: 19 - 30 - 215 - 1 TD / 0 INT, Rush: 1 - -1 - 0 |
Edwards looked to be in control of his offense. He made a couple of big plays happen when he had to, by risking the interception and throwing into tough coverage, but for the most part he was simply efficient and made no mistakes, allowing the Marshawn Lynch train to rumble and (on this day at least) the Bills special teams to take over the game.
| RB Marshawn Lynch, Rush: 18 - 76 - 1, Rec: 3 - 18 - 0 (5 targets) |
Lynch looked like he was just warming up for the rest of the season. Playing in a hard rain seemed to slow him down some, but not as much as the defenders he was running against. In the early going, neither team could get anything going, but eventually he got loose in the second quarter and scored a 21 yard touchdown. It looked as though the Bills wanted to get him more involved in the passing game, but Edwards missed him one short throw that would have gone for a lot of yards, and he dropped another that would have been a sure first down.
| RB Fred Jackson, Rush: 10 - 31 - 0 |
Jackson came into the game in the first half, presumably to give Lynch a breather. In the second, he took over the rushing duties once the game was in hand. He did nothing spectacularly, but ran for at least three yards on all but one carry.
| WR Lee Evans, Rec: 4 - 102 - 0 (9 targets) |
Lee Evans was the primary deep threat for the Bills, and it was evident that he and his QB had a good rapport throughout the game. The weather may have made the ball harder to catch, but on each of Evans receptions, you wouldn't have known it. He made them with ease, when they clearly weren't easy. He was targeted once in the red zone, and all four of his catches were for first downs.
| WR Roscoe Parrish, Rec: 3 - 6 - 0 (5 targets) |
Parrish did not do any real damage as a wide receiver, but he did return a punt for a touchdown. He tends to be targeted on short routes in the hope that he can use his athleticism to pick up yards after the catch.
| WR Josh Reed, Rec: 3 - 37 - 0 (4 targets) |
Reed put in a workman-like day, catching the ball when they counted on him, but mostly stayed out of the spotlight. He was a reliable possession option for Edwards.
| TE Robert Royal, Rec: 6 - 52 - 1 (7 targets) |
Royal did not appear to be a big part of the game plan so much as a dump off option, which accounts for most of his receiving totals (all but one were for seven yards or less). The one longer one, however, was a dandy little catch at the goal line. On all of his catches, he showed good hands. The Bills appeared to look to him more often as the game progressed.
| PK Rian Lindell 2 - 3 FG, 4 - 4 XP, 10 points |
Lindell went two for three on field goal attempts and made four of four PAT attempts, all in pretty harsh weather.
| BUF Rush Defense |
The Bills contained the running game easily. The Seahawks opened the second half with a couple of big runs, but after that it was business as usual.
| BUF Pass Defense |
The pass rush was relentless and was in large part responsible for Hasselbeck's rough outing. They sacked him five times, and hurried him on a number of occasions. The only INT of the game came on Seattle's final play, but the secondary basically blanketed the offense all day. On an IDP note, Terrence McGee seemed to be everywhere that the ball was thrown to.