Seattle Seahawks Five Up: Russell Wilson, Cliff Avril

The Seattle Seahawks were actually losing 17-14 at the half, but the New York Giants stood absolutely no chance against the ‘Hawks ground attack, as Marshawn Lynch and Russell Wilson both went over 100 yards in a huge display of force. It was as if the Giants didn’t even want to bother with trying to stop Wilson from burning them with his legs, while they simply weren’t good enough to stop Lynch, who received some really nice blocking up front. Below are five players/units/duos who played at a high level on Sunday and were the most instrumental in the Seahawks big win.

1. Marshawn Lynch

It all starts and ends with Marshawn Lynch, who needs to remain the focal points of the Seahawks offense. It simply isn’t wise to keep asking Wilson to run the ball so often, because they can’t afford him to get hurt. He’s very durable and should run the ball, especially when the opposition fails to account for him, but Lynch makes his game on taking punishment between the tackles and embarrassing defenders in the open field. He certainly embarrassed the Giants yesterday with 140 rushing yards on 21 carries with four rushing touchdowns to his credit and an average of 6.7 yards per attempt. Lynch is central to the Seahawks success, and he showed that on Sunday.

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2+3. Cliff Avril, Michael Bennett

It all starts with frustrating the quarterback, and one of the league’s best defensive end duos did exactly that to Eli Manning. Although Avril didn’t have a sack or a tackle, he hit Manning a whopping five times, and his partner-in-crime Bennett added a sack and an additional tackle for loss. The Seahawks recorded nine QB hits in total, and they also did a great job of holding down a Rashad Jennings-less running game. Bennett and Brandon Mebane continue to impress in run defense, and I think the Seahawks defensive line has been better than the secondary this season, especially when you look at the weekly consistency that Avril and Bennett have put forth.

4. Russell Wilson (mostly as a rusher)

This wasn’t Wilson’s finest game, as evidenced by his two interceptions, but he deserves some recognition for some more great rushing. He’s been incredibly deadly and efficient on the ground this year, and while the Giants obviously had to key in on Lynch (the funny thing is that still didn’t do them much good), it was pretty ridiculous how little attention they paid to Wilson, who had 14 carries for 107 yards and a TD. Yes, Wilson had nearly as many carries (14) as pass attempts (17). He didn’t have as bad of a passing day as the interceptions indicate, because the always-efficient signal-caller averaged over ten yards per attempt, had an ESPN TQBR above the average mark of 50, and dropped an absolute dime to Jermaine Kearse for a 60-yard gain.

5. Offensive Line

It was too difficult to just single out one or two people, so I decided to give some credit to the entire offensive line. These guys could have done a better job of protecting Wilson, who was hit five times, but they deserve as much credit as Lynch does for his big rushing day. I mean, the Giants were doing whatever they could to mitigate the effectiveness of the Seattle Seahawks rushing attack, but it didn’t matter at all.

If I had to single out one player, then it would definitely be center Max Unger, who is proving that last season’s down year was due to an injury. He’s easily one of the best centers around, and he is almost as central as Lynch to the rushing attack. The Seahawks had 11 carries for 112 yards and three touchdowns on runs up the middle, and that tells you all you need to know about Unger’s impact, and it isn’t like facing stout second-year man Jonathan Hankins, who still had a sack and another QB hit as a pass rusher, is an easy task either.

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