SEATTLE SEAHAWKS

Seahawks Instant Reaction: Seattle Sports on 48-45 win over Lions

Oct 2, 2022, 2:32 PM | Updated: 3:36 pm

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Rashaad Penny of the Seattle Seahawks celebrates with teammates after a touchdown against the Detroit Lions on October 02, 2022. (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)

(Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)

The Seahawks got back in the win column and back to .500 on the season Sunday, beating the Detroit Lions 48-45 on the road in what turned out to be quite the game if you’re a fan of offense and points on the board.

Seahawks Fast Facts: Seattle holds off Lions in 48-45 shootout

As we do after each Hawks game, we have collected the instant reactions of the voices of Seattle Sports for you to read here. Remember, this is just a sampling of what they’ll have to say Monday on the air beginning with Brock and Salk at 6 a.m. and The Pete Carroll Show with the Seahawks head coach at 9:30.

Mike Salk – Brock and Salk (6-10 a.m.)

When your defense doesn’t quite have it, you might as well just outscore the other team. And that’s exactly what the Seahawks did in Detroit.

With nothing much positive to say about the defense (other than Tariq Woolen), the focus should be on Geno Smith’s best game in a Seahawks uniform.

He was deadly. Accurate, efficient, mobile, productive. And yes, clutch. We’ve seen some of those attributes from Geno before, but for 55 minutes. This time he saved some of his best work for the final drive, converting on a key third down to Tyler Lockett on a play that I don’t know if his predecessor even attempts.

Pete Carroll has always imagined his quarterback as a point guard, and that’s exactly how I would describe Geno today. He managed the game, called the right audibles against the blitz, threw beautifully on the run, and got the ball to his playmakers. He completed balls to eight different receivers in a variety of ways.

This team won’t truly be what Carroll wants them to be until they can play defense. But if this is what Geno Smith, coordinator Shane Waldron and the rest of the offensive performers are capable of, there is more hope than many Seahawks fans had expected.

Stacy Rost – Bump & Stacy (10 a.m. to 2 p.m.)

Hang on one second, let me just… brush off my instant takeaway from last week

Ah, there we go.

A few edits needed for this one.

The Seahawks’ offense once again continued to carry the Hawks’ defense, but they did even better this week against another bad defense. Seattle didn’t punt once. It had 555 total yards of offense. Here’s where it’s better: they actually found the end zone in the second half (multiple times!) and found a way to run the ball more effectively (Rashaad Penny finished with 151 yards and two touchdowns on 17 carries). Seattle’s 48 points is a season high and the most any team has scored against Detroit this year. Grade: A.

And what’s this here? “The defense struggled against the Falcons…” Let’s go ahead and just replace that one with “Lions” and it tells the story of this week again.

Seattle’s defense got more three-and-outs in this game (that’s good!) and a pick-six by rookie Tariq Woolen (that’s great!) but allowed Jared Goff and the Lions’ offense to score on all but two possessions. Explosive plays, particularly those that converted on second- and third-and-long, would’ve killed them were it not for another big day from Seattle’s offense. But it sure doesn’t feel great to follow up a week that saw the Falcons convert third-and-19 with a 26-yard-pass with a game that saw the Lions convert a slightly better third-and-9 with a 24-yard pass.

The Seahawks have to find a way to contain the edge against the run, and they have to find a way to stop opposing offenses from converting in pivotal moments with explosive plays.

Bob Stelton – Wyman and Bob (2-7 p.m.)

What a great day for the offense! They came in facing the worst defense in the league in terms of points allowed (31 per game) and made them look even worse.

Once again Geno was very efficient, completing 23 of 30 passes for 320 yards and two touchdowns. Geno has been very good at taking what the defense is giving him and not trying to force the action. More importantly, the tight ends seem to be getting the attention we’ve asking for for a few seasons now. Dissly, Parkinson and Fant combined for seven catches on eight targets for 69 yards and two scores.

Also, this is the running game I think we all expected to see this season. Rashaad Penny had a breakout day going for 151 yards and two touchdowns on 17 carries. He’s looking much more like the guy we saw during the final five games of last season.

Another solid day for the O-line (save for a couple of penalties), and there is very little to not be positive about when it comes to this offense.

As for the defense, there was very little to be happy about. In fact, the Seahawks took a step back in just about every way possible, including a season-high in points allowed with 45 and yards allowed at 520.

They were gashed by the running game once again, giving up 145 yards and two touchdowns on a combined 25 carries. Jared Goff threw for 378 yards and four TDs. If not for Detroit missing some of their best offensive weapons and a replacement kicker who missed two extra points and kicked the ball out of bounds on a kickoff, the Hawks could be looking at a loss even with the huge day we saw from the offense.

I’m not sure what it will take or how long it will take for this defense to start to turn the corner, but hopefully it will be soon because this offense will not be putting up 48 points and 555 yards against the worst defense in the league each week.

It’s time for the defense to step up and give the offense some help.

Dave Wyman – Wyman and Bob/Seahawks radio analyst

Mike Lefko – Wyman and Bob

This is everything we had heard about and hoped to see from the Seahawks’ offense.

Geno Smith made smart decisions all game, balancing finding his open receivers with taking off to run when he needed to extend drives. He played turnover-free football and didn’t do anything to harm the Seahawks’ chances of winning the game, which is the mantra that Pete Carroll always stresses for his offense. It is exactly what we envisioned the optimal version of a run-oriented offense could look like: not solely focusing on lining up and running the ball repeatedly, but also using short to mid-range passes to move down the field and open room for the running backs to carve out chunks of yardage.

Shane Waldron continues to script opening drives well, as evidenced by the diversity of play calls and control of the clock that the Seahawks showed in their 11-play, 75-yard opening drive. That took nearly seven minutes off the clock before the Lions even touched the ball.

The disappearing act of the offense in the second half has been the glaring issue, but with a couple of unconventional third-down run plays, the Seahawks were able to get that ominous lack of scoring off their back. You could argue that Rashaad Penny still needs more touches with the way he ran, especially in the second half today.

The defense’s performance is troubling. The Lions were without the best wide receiver and top running back yet were able to move the ball at will. After the Seahawks took a 31-15 lead, the next two Lions touchdown drives went three plays, 71 yards in 59 seconds, and three plays, 75 yards in 70 seconds. The linebackers and secondary struggled mightily to make tackles and cover intermediate routes in the passing game, allowing Jared Goff to rack up 378 yards and four touchdowns.

But, the play of the game came from the brightest star and biggest surprise on defense this year: cornerback Tariq Woolen.

The raw athleticism combined with a growing knowledge of how to play the position has made Woolen a valuable starter at a position that has seen plenty of attrition for the Seahawks. So, while the defense didn’t do anything to inspire, you have to end on a positive note after a win, and Woolen is undoubtedly a budding star for this team.

Maura Dooley – Brock and Salk

It’s hard to get too excited for a three-point victory over a Lions team missing some of their best offensive players, but there were a lot of positives to take away from this one.

Geno Smith was fantastic, throwing for over 300 yards for the second consecutive week, and DK Metcalf backed up his comments that Lions cornerback Jeff Okudah was not a lockdown corner by building a vacation home on what the Lions fans have been calling “Okudah Island.” But the biggest difference from what we’ve been seeing is that they kept scoring in the second half.

The Seahawks were much improved in the red zone, going 3 for 4, and they kept going back to the run game even though Rashaad Penny had only eight of his 151 yards in the first half.

You have to dig deep to find the positives on defense, though. Missed tackles continue to be a glaring issue and they contributed to the Lions going 4 for 4 in the red zone and 3 for 3 on fourth down. This defense also has absolutely no answer for tight ends, and opponents know it. T.J. Hockenson hadn’t put up more than 38 receiving yards all season and he just posted 179 against Seattle. Last week, Falcons TE Kyle Pitts racked up 87 receiving yards when he only had 38 yards combined in their first two games.

The rookie cornerbacks were the bright spot today, with Coby Bryant forcing a fumble that led to a Noah Fant touchdown and Tariq Woolen coming up with a pick-six. It’s good to see the Seahawks getting back to letting their rookies play and you can see their confidence building every week.

At the end of the day, the Seahawks got a big road win to put an end to their two-game skid, and they will look to continue that in New Orleans next week against a team that played them very tough last year.

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Seahawks Instant Reaction: Seattle Sports on 48-45 win over Lions