Reaction vs Reality after Seahawks’ season-opening win over Miami

Each week, we’ll attempt to separate the knee-jerk reactions from the realities of the Seahawks’ most recent game, in this case a 12-10 season-opening victory over the Dolphins at CenturyLink Field:

Knee-jerk reaction: Boy, that was way closer than it should have been. As well as the defense played, a two-point win at home over a team that went 6-10 a year ago isn’t all that inspiring.

Reality: It was certainly ugly – especially on offense – but then again, the Seahawks have sort of made a habit out of winning that way, so the fact that this one came down to the wire shouldn’t necessarily be a cause for much concern. A win is a win, as they say, and the Seahawks pulled one out on a day in which their quarterback played the final 26 minutes with a sprained ankle that all took away his mobility and made it difficult to push off on his throws. Coach Pete Carroll sounds confident that he’ll be able to play next week. Seattle’s offensive line is a big question mark, especially in its reconfigured form with Germain Ifedi sidelined by a sprained ankle, but that was already apparent before Sunday. Something else to consider is that the Panthers and Cardinals both lost their openers, so Seattle has a head start on them. Green Bay, the other NFC heavyweight, had to sweat out a four-point road win over Jacksonville. Minnesota (which won Sunday) and Dallas (which lost) are without their starting quarterbacks. So all things considered, the Seahawks are in a good spot, as unsightly as their season-opening win may have been.

Knee-jerk reaction: The Seahawks’ defense was absolutely dominant across the board. If only it could play that way each week.

Reality: That was a very convincing performance by Seattle’s defense in many ways. The Seahawks held Miami to 222 yards of total offense, including a measly 64 on the ground, and only 3 of 13 on third down. Cornerbacks DeShawn Shead and Jeremy Lane were tremendous in coverage and in run support. Seattle got five sacks from five different players, coming off the ball in a way that reminded Carroll of the dominant defensive line of the 2013 Super Bowl team. But there were some issues. The tackling was suspect at times, free safety Earl Thomas had an uncharacteristically uneven game and there were two big breakdowns, including one that led to Arian Foster’s 50-yard catch and run. The other one would have resulted in a touchdown had Kenny Stills not dropped a wide-open pass after getting behind Seattle’s secondary. Stills got open behind Seattle’s secondary again on Miami’s final drive – when the only thing that would have hurt the Seahawks was a deep completion – but the pass was overthrown. This is not to hold Seattle’s defense to some unreasonably high standard, just to point out that as well as it played Sunday, there are some things to clean up.

Knee-jerk reaction: See, the Seahawks really are shifting to more of a passing offense. First they paid Wilson, they they traded for Jimmy Graham, then they paid Doug Baldwin and now they open their season by throwing it 43 times. Knew it.

Reality: Let’s wait and see on this one. Carroll has said that Seattle will remain a run-first team, refuting the notion of that all the resources the Seahawks have concentrated over the last two years on their passing game is indicative of any shift in offensive philosophy now that their bell-cow running back, Marshawn Lynch, is retired. Seattle’s offensive game-plan on Sunday was hard to make sense of. Wilson’s 43 attempts were the most in any game of his career with the exception of last year’s division-round loss to Carolina, when he threw 48 times while trying to dig Seattle out of a 31-0 hole. He attempted 41 passes twice in the regular season last year, both in losses to St. Louis. It’s not as though the Seahawks were playing from behind on Sunday. They didn’t even trail until late in the fourth quarter, yet Wilson’s 26 passes in the first half and 43 in all were both career-highs for regular-season games, according to ESPN Stats & Information. It was curious, to be sure, but one game doesn’t validate any theories about a possible sea change with Seattle’s offense.

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