Seattle Seahawks vs. Green Bay Packers Takeaways

The Seattle Seahawks made short work of the Green Bay Packers in the second half, as the much-hyped regular season opener ended up in a very nice 36-16 win for the ‘Hawks, who are still my pick to win the Super Bowl even after the Denver Broncos monster offseason. It’s going to be tough to repeat given the quality of the teams around the league (the New England Patriots, New Orleans Saints, and Broncos all got significantly stronger this year), but the Seahawks showed that their smashmouth running game, elite defense, and steady passing game comprises a winning formula.

1. Run blocking the key to the Packers offense

Aaron Rodgers is obviously the Packers most important player, but the biggest X-Factor on the offensive side of the ball is Eddie Lacy. I know it’s weird to call someone as well-known and talented as Lacy an “X-Factor”, so I think a more apt adjective is “key”. As we saw yesterday, the Packers running game and passing game need to work in tandem, and they really didn’t get enough out of either. Points are always tough to come by against the Seahawks, but 34 yards on 12 carries just isn’t good enough. Josh Sitton, as always, put in an excellent display last night, but the rest of the offensive line has to be better; it’s mostly on them to make sure Lacy has the holes. The Packers offense has the potential to be the best in the NFL with Rodgers at the helm, because what makes them special is the fact that they have the league’s best QB-RB combo. Lacy didn’t actually have a bad day, because the Pro Football Focus tracked him with more yards after contact than yards and six missed tackles forced, so a lot of it was on the offensive line.

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2. Earl Thomas‘s impact

One reason I prefer to title these pieces “Takeaways” as opposed to “What We Learned” is because we didn’t really learn that Thomas is an incredible player who is vitally important to the Seahawks; just about everyone calls him their most valuable player on defense. But we saw Thomas’s impact perfectly yesterday, as the Packers simply got nothing going downfield, aside from a pass interference call. Rodgers was 1-6 on deep throws, with just a 23-yard pass to Randall Cobb to his credit on such plays. That’s Thomas’s impact, as Jordy Nelson could never break lose despite winning shorter matchups against talented CB2 Byron Maxwell.

3. Spreading the ball around

The Seahawks are a running team and set up vertical passes with Marshawn Lynch‘s punishing runs, but they are also one of the best teams in the league at spreading the ball amongst a variety of pass-catchers. Russell Wilson has excellent horizontal vision of the field, so that suits his decision-making skills. The Seahawks threw the ball to eight different players, with only Percy Harvin receiving more than five targets. Both teams opted for shorter throws, though the Seahawks were more successful downfield (2-5 for 57 yards).

Conversely, it was surprising to see how little the Packers spread out the Seahawks defense, because I thought their fast-paced offense would take advantage of the multitude of weapons Rodgers has at his disposal. Richard Rodgers‘s injury hurt the Packers flexibility on offense, but it was still disappointing to see just five players notch targets; Cobb and Nelson combined for 23 targets. The Packers are in a different position, because it is much wiser to feed targets to two receivers as talented as Cobb and Nelson, while the Seahawks have to play things a little bit more cautiously with Harvin, given his injury history. That said, Davante Adams was never targeted nor did he receive many snaps, and I wished we saw more of the rookie last night. Jarrett Boykin, of course, was taken out of the game by Richard Sherman with relative ease. Once Adams and, hopefully, Jeff Janis get going, the Packers offense could really spread out defenses, especially once the run blocking generates more push for Lacy.

4. Jordy Nelson does it all

Nelson didn’t have his best game last night, especially since he wasn’t able to get any of his signature catches downfield. That said, he still played pretty well, especially considering how tough it is to beat the Seahawks defense, since it’s more than just having to beat Maxwell one-on-one (that’s hard enough). Overall, he did a really nice job of moving the chains with nine receptions for 83 yards on 14 targets, and Nelson simply does it all at the wide receiver position. He can beat defenses deep, very few wideouts are better on back-shoulder throws, his communication with Rodgers is top-notch, he wins from the slot or the outside, he has the short-area quickness to match his long speed (this allows him to win in short and intermediate routes), and he can make tough catches in traffic. Since the Packers offense will be faster-paced, the man with the new contract should be even better this year. Statistically, he didn’t have a great day, but he got off to a solid start considering the circumstances.

5. Time to gush more about the Seahawks

Nobody counted out the Seahawks following their romp over the Broncos in the Super Bowl, but I think a lot of people don’t give them enough credit for their offseason. Yes, they lost Golden Tate, but they don’t really even need him. While I believe he will have an amazing season for the Detroit Lions, he was constrained by the Seahawks run-heavy offense and didn’t play an irreplaceable role in the offense. I’ll get to this in a piece later today, but Percy Harvin actually fits the Seahawks better, even if Tate is the superior wide receiver. If Harvin can stay healthy and Paul Richardson can make a significant (not necessarily “big”) rookie impact, then this wide receiver corps should be even better.

The Seahawks had such a great offseason because they didn’t get worse after winning the Super Bowl and facing several tough decisions. They had to make some tough decisions, but they did a great job of holding onto key players like Bennett and filling in some gaps with promising young players that Pete Carroll can develop. Cohesiveness is so important in this league, so the Seahawks largely kept a group that worked to near-flawlessness last year. The difficulty and importance of that was lost on some people, and it’s why they should have been regarded the favorites coming into the regular season. After last night’s performance that contained pure dominance in the running game and defensively, more people will unsurprisingly hop back on the Seahawks-as-the-favorites train.

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