Seattle Seahawks: Russell Wilson will have strong Week 8
Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson has a TD:INT ratio of 8:5, but the interceptions are the only weakness on his stat sheet so far this season. Wilson hasn’t thrown many passes this season (as usual), but he’s averaging a career-high 238.3 passing yards per game with a crisp 69.6% completion percentage and 8.2 yards per attempt. Both stats would also be- or tie, in the case of Y/A- career totals, and Wilson has done it despite injuries and a slow start to Marshawn Lynch‘s season.
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Well, Lynch is back on track after shredding the San Francisco 49ers to the tune of 122 rushing yards last week, and that only means even bigger things for a quarterback who is second in the NFL in completion percentage right now. Wilson is killing it, and I don’t think people realize just how well he’s played. With Tyler Lockett emerging after last week’s strong performance and Lynch healthy again, the arrow is trending upwards for a talented young QB who never had less than 8.0 yards per attempt in a game in October after starting the season with back-to-back sub-7.0 Y/A performances.
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On Sunday, the Seahawks will take on the 2-4 Dallas Cowboys at 4:25 p.m. ET on the road, and this is a chance for Wilson to shine under some more spotlight. If you ignore his two interceptions against the rival Niners, Wilson played reasonably well, and he should have an even bigger game in Week 8 against Dallas.
For starters, the Cowboys are 24th in the NFL with 26.3 points per game allowed, and it’s hard to praise their pass defense right now, even if they dominated a handicapped New York Giants attack. There’s no doubt that Sean Lee and the Cowboys do a terrific job of stifling tight ends and shutting down the middle of the field, but they are thin at cornerback and are weak when it comes to defending sideline throws.
And therein lies the problem. According to statistics I’ve found on Pro-Football Reference, no quarterback with at least 100 pass attempts this season has a higher completion percentage on passes to the left and right sides of the field than Wilson, who is hitting 71.3% of those passes. Only the notoriously accurate Drew Brees is within three percentage points of that clip, and he averages a full 0.9 yards per attempt less.
Sure, Wilson has thrown a tad too many interceptions this season, but the Cowboys don’t exactly have a good record when it comes to picking off passes. In fact, their two interceptions forced this year rank last in the league, which means that they won’t be able to take advantage of the fact that Wilson has thrown three picks in his last three games.
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That’s a huge matchup problem for Dallas, because they are already constrained at the QB position with Matt Cassel going up against the Seahawks vaunted defense. Cassel is undoubtedly one of the NFL’s most chronic INT-tossers, as evidenced by his three picks against the Giants last week in his first start with the team.
Wilson’s rushing ability, arm strength, and deadly accuracy to the outside areas of the field will put both huge vertical and horizontal stress against the Cowboys defense. But as with every seemingly favorable matchup, there is always a catch, and the catch for Wilson lies in the Cowboys pass rush. Greg Hardy is a disgrace, but he is a menacing beast and forms an elite pass rushing group with Tyrone Crawford, Jeremy Mincey, DeMarcus Lawrence, and rookie Randy Gregory wreaking havoc along with him.
Oct 22, 2015; Santa Clara, CA, USA; Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson (3)slides against the San Francisco 49ers during the fourth quarter at Levi’s Stadium. The Seattle Seahawks defeated the San Francisco 49ers 20-3. Mandatory Credit: Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports
Look, Wilson is going to take some heat on Sunday afternoon, and, like San Diego Chargers QB Philip Rivers (tops in the league in passing yards per game, by the way), his offensive line has been atrocious. But also like Rivers, he’s been brilliant despite the pressure.
His accuracy is on display on these plays, and if you remember that narrow win over the Detroit Lions, his scrambling and arm strength bailed out the Seahawks offense when plays looked dead. The picks are a negative, but they are the product of a player who is under a lot of stress to make something out of nothing.
Against a Cowboys pass defense with impressive first-round rookie Byron Jones as its only true bright spot at corner, there will be plenty of “somethings” for Wilson and the Seahawks offense this week.
I see Lockett’s Week 7 performance as a sign of things to come, unless if Darrell Bevell and the ‘Hawks unwisely prevent the rookie from playing to his potential.
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It would be unwise to sell Wilson’s Week 8 upside short, and while the Cowboys defense isn’t a terrible unit by any means, Wilson is a star who has the strengths to exploit their weaknesses.