On Sunday afternoon at Lumen Field, the Seattle Seahawks moved to 3-1 on the season by holding on to defeat the Los Angeles Chargers 30-23 after having jumped out to a three-touchdown lead in the third quarter.
When the Seahawks had the ball, Emanuel Wilson saw the bulk of the work at running back, playing 60 percent of the offensive snaps, with George Holani at just 37 percent and Velus Jones seeing the field for his first two offensive snaps of the season.
Wilson turned those snaps into 21 carries
for 81 yards and a touchdown, to go with three receptions for 39 yards and a receiving touchdown. Wilson’s 81 yards marked the fourth time in his career he’s broken the 75 yard rushing mark in a game, including the second time in the past three weeks.
At right guard the rotation between Christian Haynes and Beau Stephens continued with yet another week of a roughly 60/40 split. At times Stephens has looked good, and at other times he has looked like a rookie fifth round pick. However, perhaps the most notable stat from the rotation is the fact that of the eight pressures credited to Seattle offensive linemen Sunday, four of them were allowed by Haynes. Whether it was simply a poor matchup, opponents have enough tape to know the weaknesses to exploit when Haynes is in pass blocking or some other reason, whatever the reason for the struggles Sunday, with Anthony Bradford out for at least two more weeks right guard will continue to be a spot to keep an eye on.
Lastly, while fans call for more Tory Horton, the coaching staff seems to have other ideas. After missing the season opener, Horton’s snap counts and the percentage of offensive snaps played has decreased in each of the past two weeks:
- Week 2: 22 snaps, 31.4% of offensive snaps
- Week 3: 15 snaps, 22.4% of offensive snaps
- Week 4: 10 snaps, 16.7% of offensive snaps
The most likely culprit to point a finger at would likely be the simple fact that even as some receivers are producing more at a younger age, wide receiver remains one of the slowest to develop positions in the NFL due to the complexity of NFL route trees compared to most college systems. Whether that is what is preventing Horton from seeing more snaps or not is something to which fans are almost certain to be paying attention in the coming weeks.
On defense, the secondary looked revitalized with the return of Julian Love, who played every snap. Notably, Trevon Diggs saw his first regular season action of the season after earning an elevation from the practice squad, while Nehemiah Pritchett played less than he had in any game so far this season. In spite of that limited playing time against the Chargers, with just five more snaps over the remaining 13 regular season games Pritchett will set a career high.
And, as always, special teams continues to belong to Brady Russell, as he led the Seahawks with 30 special teams snaps played. Interestingly, though, former wide receiver turned defensive end turned linebacker Connor O’Toole finished right behind Russell with 29 special teams snaps. From there Mike Morris, A.J. Finley, Patrick O’Connell and Tyrice Knight all played 24 special teams snaps, with Julian Neal right behind them with 23.
And now it’s on to Week 5 and an opportunity to take over first place, via tiebreaker, in the NFC West.
