Instant Reaction: 710 ESPN Seattle on Seahawks’ win over Colts

As we do after every Seahawks game, we have polled the voices of 710 ESPN Seattle for a sneak peak at what they’ll have to say about Seattle’s 46-18 win over the Colts on the air Monday. Here is what their initial impressions are:

Tom Wassell of Bob, Groz and Tom

It’s almost not worth evaluating what goes wrong for the offense in the first half of any game. The result is the same every week. The odd part about Sunday night was that the defense seemed a little confused by what Colts quarterback Jacoby Brissett threw at them, especially cornerback Shaq Griffin, who was turned around every which way on that QB scramble for 25 yards. Nevertheless, Russell Wilson’s legs, Chris Carson and a few nice catches came through on a great drive to start the third quarter, and the defense responded by forcing all kinds of mistakes by Brissett throughout the second half. Smooth sailing from there, save for Carson’s injury. Oh, by the way: J.D. McKissic!

Brock Huard of Brock and Salk

There were some nervous moments in Seattle tonight before the Seahawks responded in the second half in familiar fashion in their building. Explosive plays, takeaways, QB pressure and a composure built on years of sustained success led to just that in the final 30 minutes. And just when the run game executed at its highest levels, Chris Carson suffered a terrible lower leg injury with the game already in hand. Sad to see a young stud go down.

Dave Grosby of Bob, Groz and Tom

For once, a game that went exactly like I thought it would. I said on the air I thought that the ‘Hawks would trail at the half and blow them out in the second half. The surprising thing was that it was the J.D. Mckissicks and Marcus Smiths of the team who carried the day as much as the stars. Losing Carson is a terrible blow and makes the health of C.J. Prosise and Thomas Rawls even more important, though Eddie Lacy actually looked OK. Of course, it was late in a blow out. It’s a good way to go into what is becoming a very interesting-looking game against the Rams next week, especially for the defense Despite a slow first half, this win over the Colts should have provided a lot of the optics people were looking for.

Bob Stelton of Bob, Groz and Tom

The start to this game was a disaster. Offense couldn’t get going at all, the O-line was being handled, and the defense committed drive-extending penalties to give the Colts life. It was the second time this season the crowd at CenturyLink booed the Seahawks on their way back into the locker room. The second half was what fans were expecting, or at least hoping to see – domination of a bad team on your home field. Things clicked in a big way on both sides of the ball in the second half. The only downside was the injury to Chris Carson that saw him carted off with an air cast on. On the bright side, J.D. McKissic put on a show with a tremendous TD run and a beatific TD grab. We’ll see if this performance carries over to next week for the Hawks. But at least for one night, we saw the team play as we expected… in the second half.

Jim Moore of Danny, Dave and Moore

The Seahawks played well in the second half and not only avoided the upset but rolled to victory. Problem is, later this season this game will be remembered most as the one in which Chris Carson suffered what could be a severe injury to his left leg. He had clearly won the starting job, but now it looks like Eddie Lacy and Thomas Rawls will be the leading candidates to replace him. But I wouldn’t rule out J.D. McKissic from what we saw Sunday night. He was inactive in the first three games but scored two touchdowns, one on a tie-breaking 30-yard run, the other on a fourth-down play when he made a circus catch in traffic. At the very least, McKissic will challenge C.J. Prosise, who sat out with an ankle injury, for playing time as the third-down back. McKissic, to my untrained eye, looks 10 times faster than Lacy. I know I’m exaggerating, and at least Lacy looked like a competent NFL running back in the fourth quarter. As impressive as the Seahawks were in the third quarter, scoring 22 points to erase a 15-10 halftime deficit, I’m still skeptical about the team overall. The Colts, minus Andrew Luck, are one of the worst teams in the NFL. The Seahawks’ only two wins are over the Colts and 49ers, teams with a combined 1-7 record featuring quarterbacks Jacoby Brissett and Brian Hoyer. Now they have to go on the road to play a 3-1 Rams team, having lost the last three road games against their division rival, two in St. Louis and one in L.A. The Rams now have an offense to go with their already good defense, and they beat Dallas 35-30 Sunday and could have easily scored more than 35 points as 21 came on seven field goals.

Mike Salk of Brock and Salk

To say the Seahawks needed a big second half is underselling it. I was at the stadium and the crowd was less than enthused with the first half. I don’t want to say their season hinged on the second half of the fourth game, but I do believe there were a lot of hardcore fans losing patience and casual fans that were losing interest. Whatever they needed, they got – in spades. The second half was as well as this team has played in years, dominant on both sides of the ball. And while some will argue it was just the Colts, a crazy Sunday full of upsets in the NFL should disavow anyone of that notion. Even though Russell Wilson was huge in the win, the Seahawks got a spark from a lot of unheralded players. Perhaps those hungriest for success made their presence known.