Game one, win number one for Seattle Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald.

The first half was as chaotic as it gets, and perhaps a better team than the Denver Broncos would have condemned the Seahawks to an opening-day loss. But that’s hypothetical; the reality is that despite their countless mistakes, the Seahawks held on and won 26-20 in front of over 68,000 fans at Lumen Field. We knew there would be some initial struggles between the players and the coaching staff.

Let’s get to the first winners and losers of the regular season in the Mike Macdonald era!

winner

The entire defense

There’s really nothing damning or worrying to say about the Seahawks defense. We’ve lamented how often the Seahawks made life far too easy for rookies and backup QBs in recent seasons under Pete Carroll. Under Mike Macdonald, Bo Nix couldn’t afford an easy day. It wasn’t until well into the fourth quarter that Nix reached 100 yards passing and finished the game with Pi as his average net yards per attempt.

There were some problems with the run defense at times, but nothing serious, and Denver’s running backs were only able to gain 64 yards on 20 attempts.

Leonard Williams had five QB hits and probably would have had a sixth if the referees would consider this as holding. Boye Mafe had one sack, seven pressures and one TFL on a run stop.

Safety game was terrific. Julian Love had an interception and made some great tackles in the open field. Rayshawn Jenkins was great in his debut and K’Von Wallace had a forced fumble. The cornerbacks generally nullified their opponents (except for a few plays allowed by Tre Brown) and Riq Woolen read Bo Nix like a book on that undercut route for an interception.

What impressed me the most was the linebacker play of Tyrel Dodson and Jerome Baker. It’s a game against a limited offense, but Dodson was great at breaking blocks and Baker did the same, recovering a fumble and making a tackle for a loss.

When you force six straight three-and-outs and three turnovers and limit the Broncos to 3.3 yards per play, you’re in for a heck of a day. The best part? Few missed tackles and constant chasing of the ball and the ball carrier. All of those YAC plays that have broken Seattle’s neck in recent years were kept to a minimum. The difficulty will increase starting with the Miami Dolphins, but they made a (most likely) bad offense look even worse.

Kenneth Walker III

It took until the second half for K9 to really get going, but he delivered. Walker ran for 103 yards on 20 carries, scored one touchdown and had another called back for holding. Give him running lanes and he’ll be electric! He appears to be doing well after being questionable late in the game with an abdominal injury, so that’s a relief.

Zach Charbonnet

After waiting until November to get into the end zone, Charbonnet scored his first NFL touchdown of his young career. Geno Smith found him open on a broken coverage and Charbonnet showed the soft hands to catch the ball on the run and score. The rest of his day was ineffective, but that was technically the game-winning touchdown he scored.

Tyler Lockett

The passing game was a must for both teams, but less so for the Seahawks. How about 6 catches for 77 yards for No. 16, which tied his team for the most catches? No catch was more important than the decisive one on 3rd and 6. What a special player, and he’s still the reliable target when you need a big first down.

Ryan Grubbs adjustments in the 2nd half

The Seahawks tried to run the ball with as many different offenses as possible. In the first half, Geno Smith accounted for 34 of the 56 rushing yards. After halftime, Seattle had 94 yards from its running backs on 20 attempts. The success of the running game seemed to slow the pass rush, as Geno Smith was not sacked on 13 dropbacks after halftime.

Seattle was confused on offense in the first half and seemed much calmer after the break. Big kudos to Grubb in that regard.

Jason Myers

Don’t pretend you weren’t nervous about Myers after he missed his PATs earlier in the preseason. Two field goals, three PATs, all converted!

loser

Offensive line

If I had to single out individual players, it would be Laken Tomlinson, Anthony Bradford and Stone Forsythe, who all had terrible individual performances and made mistakes that ruined drives. Bradford at least redeemed itself with some good run blocks (including Walker’s touchdown), but the pass defense was a nightmare. The holding penalty on Bradford that resulted in a safety was unacceptable.

I gave Tomlinson the benefit of the doubt, “haha, it’s the Jets.” The doubt has vanished. Christian Haynes has to get a chance to start sooner or later, no matter what guard spot he plays. If he’s worse than Bradford (which is implied by the fact that he couldn’t get the job), then I’m really worried.

And of course, playing an entire game with Forsythe at right tackle isn’t exactly reassuring. Hopefully George Fant is OK.

Dee Williams

Seattle’s backup punt returner is Jaxon Smith-Njigba, and I’d rather see him catch passes than punts. Dee Williams is here to do one thing: play well on special teams. He botched a punt and then inexplicably tried to pick it up, resulting in a turnover. Williams let another punt sail over his head and was brought down at the 1.

Williams is a great story, but I have a pretty low tolerance for the nightmarish play of special teams returners.

Laviska Shenault Jr

Seattle’s other return specialist had a decent return but otherwise had a false start, gaining one yard on two offensive touches. He’s not a super speedster, but he didn’t look particularly quick out there either.

DK Metcalf

A tricky hold to deny Kenneth Walker a touchdown? Yes. I think it was a legal hold and he was way off the play. I’d say he was unlucky there. He also committed OPI on a pick play where he wasn’t actually running a route, negating a Jaxon Smith-Njigba catch. I’m a little more annoyed that he couldn’t make the contested catch on Patrick Surtain II’s deep shot. I think that’s a play the absolute best receivers in the NFL make, and Metcalf has rarely been good at tracking the ball and aiming high in those situations.

Metcalf finished with 3 catches for 29 yards, despite having an advantage over Surtain due to his size and stature.

Game management by coaching staff

These moves were ultimately meaningless, but it must be acknowledged that they were questionable decisions.

After Geno Smith’s touchdown run, the Seahawks tried to score two points (and failed). I no longer agree that it’s “too early for two points,” and I completely understand why they wanted to go three points ahead. My problem was that they didn’t want to score two points again after Zach Charbonnet’s touchdown when it was 25-13. If you convert, you’re up 27-13, don’t convert, and the Broncos need two touchdowns to go ahead anyway. Kicking the PAT was a bad decision.

I also didn’t like throwing the ball on 2nd and 19 with less than five minutes left in the game after the botched screen pass. That was a free timeout for the Broncos when running the clock was more important than getting out of a tight spot. Even on the previous play, Jaxon Smith-Njigba ran a sideline route and the clock would have stopped if DK Metcalf hadn’t been penalized for interference.

You live and learn.

Concluding remarks

• I’m a little hesitant to declare Geno Smith the winner given how the game started, but he played well after the poor start. I didn’t really mention any other bad plays other than the interception (which was affected by the low blow, but I’m not sure Tyler Lockett is even that free) and his touchdown run, which was electrifying. His final stats are 17/25 for 171 yards, one touchdown pass, one touchdown rush, and one interception. Not spectacular, but very steady after everyone settled down. About as good as you could ask for behind that OL, and the game-winning throw was well placed.
• Quiet day for Jaxon Smith-Njigba, who only caught in the first quarter. A familiar feeling given what happened last season due to poor pass protection.
• I couldn’t believe how slow Noah Fant was on that offside play on 3rd and 11. It looked like he was going to make it on the first play and we wouldn’t have to see Tyler Lockett’s heroics on the next play. Fant kept his block just well enough on Walker’s touchdown, so he made an impact in another way.
• Speaking of TE blocking, AJ Barner made a mistake on a Charbonnet screen, but otherwise he and Brady Russell made their presence felt as blocking tight ends.
• Dre’Mont Jones played a non-factor in his debut as an edge. I believe the only pressure he faced was as Denver’s backup left tackle after Garrett Bolles got injured.
• Byron Murphy II had a decidedly quiet game. This was his first time playing on the first offensive line for an extended period of time, and it was decidedly different than what we saw in the preseason. It’s early, but this was one of the few “negatives” on defense.
• I said that the game against the New England Patriots was going to be harder than it looked because of this defense. In fact, they pulled off the big upset win against the Cincinnati Bengals by holding Joe Burrow and his team to just 10 points on the road. New England also ran for 170 yards and didn’t lose the ball. Jacoby Brissett is nothing special, but he’s definitely better than Bo Nix, and on paper this should be a tougher opponent for the Seahawks, plus it’s on the road.
• Enemy Reaction and the Denver Broncos might be an even better combination than ER and the 49ers. See you Monday!