Seahawks Insider: Seattle’s slow starts only a half-truth

Turns out that the description of Seattle as a slow-starting team is only half true.

The defense has no problem getting going early, a fact the Seahawks demonstrated once again on Sunday night when they held the Eagles scoreless in the opening period.

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The Seahawks have given up 30 first-quarter points this season, second-fewest of any team in the league. What makes that fact even more impressive is that of those 30 points, nine were the result of plays by Seattle’s offense as the Seahawks had a safety in Week 4 against Indianapolis and Russell Wilson had a fumble returned for a touchdown by Atlanta in the Monday night meeting last month.

When Philadelphia failed to score in the first quarter on Sunday, it was the ninth time in 12 regular-season games that Seattle’s opponent was held scoreless in the first period.

That was only half the reason that Seattle jumped out to a double-digit lead, though.

The offense did its part this time, which was a departure. The Seahawks scored on two of their first three possessions and led 10-0 after one quarter as Seattle became the first team to score a first-quarter touchdown against Philadelphia all season.

That was all part of the plan, said running back Mike Davis.

“We knew from the jump that we couldn’t go down against Philly,” running back Mike Davis said, “because they’re a high-flying offense so we wanted to stay up on them and stay up and stay up so we wouldn’t have to abandon our run game and do anything different.”

And while the Seahawks didn’t win the game in the first quarter, they went a long way toward deciding the outcome as the Eagles never could catch up.

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