Game 1, the most important victory for Seattle Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald.

It was about as messy a first half as you could get, and maybe a better team than the Denver Broncos would have punished the Seahawks with an opening day loss. But that’s hypothetical; the reality is the Seahawks didn’t let their numerous mistakes get them down and were able to win 26-20 in front of over 68,000 fans at Lumen Field. We knew there would be some growing pains between the players and the coaching staff,

Let’s talk about the first regular season winners and losers of the Mike Macdonald era!

Winners

The entire defense

There really is nothing damning or alarming to say about the Seahawks defense. We have complained about how often the Seahawks made life far too comfortable for rookies and reserve-level QBs in recent seasons under Pete Carroll. Under Mike Macdonald, Bo Nix did not have the luxury of an easy day. It was not until deep in the fourth quarter that Nix broke 100 yards passing and he finished with Pi as his average net yards per attempt.

There were some occasional defensive hiccups, but nothing major. Additionally, Denver’s running backs were limited to 64 yards on 20 carries.

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

Safety game was excellent. Julian Love had an interception and made some great open-field tackles. Rayshawn Jenkins was great in his debut, and K’Von Wallace had a forced fumble. The cornerbacks generally closed out their matchups (with the exception of a couple of plays Tre Brown allowed), and Riq Woolen read Bo Nix like a book on that undercut route for an interception.

What surprised me the most was the linebacker play of Tyrel Dodson and Jerome Baker. It’s one game against a limited offense, but Dodson was great at killing screens and so was Baker, who had a fumble recovery and a tackle for loss.

When you throw six straight three-and-outs, three takeaways, and limit the Broncos to 3.3 yards per play, you’ve had one hell of a day. The best part? Few missed tackles and constant pursuit of the ball and the ball carrier. All those YAC plays that have killed Seattle the last few years were kept to a minimum. The difficulty will increase, starting with the Miami Dolphins, but they made a (probably) bad offense look even worse.

Kenneth Walker III

It took until the 2nd half for K9 to really get going, but he delivered. Walker rushed for 103 yards on 20 carries, scored a touchdown and had another one called back for holding. Give him rushing lanes and he’ll be electric! Apparently he’s fine after being questionable late in the game with an abdominal injury, so that’s a relief.

Zach Charbonnet

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

Tyler Lockett

Passing was a premium for both teams, but not so much for the Seahawks. How about a team-leading 6 catches for 77 yards for #16? No catch was more important than the game-winning one on 3rd and 6. What a special player, and he’s still a reliable target when you need a big first down.

Ryan Grubb’s second half adjustments

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

Seattle was out of sorts in attack in the first half and seemed a lot more fluid after the break. Kudos to Grubb in that regard.

Jason Meyers

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

Losers

Offensive line

If you want me to single out individuals, Laken Tomlinson, Anthony Bradford, and Stone Forsythe all had terrible individual reps and drive-killing mistakes. Bradford at least redeemed himself with some solid run blocks (including Walker’s touchdown), but the pass protection 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 is gone. Christian Haynes needs to get a starting chance as soon as possible, regardless of what guard position he plays. If he’s worse than Bradford (which is implied by the fact that he couldn’t win the job), then I’m really worried.

And needless to say, a full game of Forsythe at right tackle isn’t 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 messed up a punt and then inexplicably tried to pick it up, resulting in a turnover. Williams let another punt fly over his head and was taken down at the 1.

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

Laviska Shenault Jr

Seattle’s other return specialist had one decent return, but otherwise made a false start and had one yard on two offensive touches. He’s no super speedster, but he didn’t look particularly fast either.

DK Metcalf

A ticky-tack hold to take away a touchdown from Kenneth Walker? Yeah. I think it was the letter of the law and way off the play. I’d say he’s out of luck 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 that contested catch on the deep shot to Patrick Surtain II. That’s a play that I think the absolute best receivers in the NFL make, and Metcalf has rarely been good at tracking the ball and scoring big in those situations.

Metcalf finished with 3 catches for 29 yards, although the advantage of his size and length is that he drew a flag for Surtain.

Coaching staff game management

These decisions were ultimately inconclusive, but they are still worth acknowledging as questionable decisions.

After Geno Smith’s touchdown run, the Seahawks went for two (and failed). I don’t agree with “too early to go for two” anymore and I completely understand why they wanted to get ahead by three. The problem I had was I didn’t go for two again when it was 25-13 after Zach Charbonnet’s touchdown. Convert and you’re up 27-13, don’t convert and the Broncos still need two touchdowns to take the lead. Taking the PAT was not a good decision.

I also didn’t like throwing the ball on 2nd and 19 with under five minutes left on the failed screen pass. That was a free timeout for the Broncos when it was more important to run the clock than to get 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 called for the interference penalty.

You live and learn.

Final comments

• I’m a little hesitant to give Geno Smith the win given the way the game started, but he settled down after the bad start. I didn’t really say there were any other bad plays, aside from the interception (which was influenced by the low hit, but I’m not sure Tyler Lockett is even open to that), and his touchdown run was electrifying. His final statline is 17/25 for 171 yards, a touchdown pass, a touchdown rush, and an interception. Nothing spectacular, but very steady once everyone settled down. About as good as you could ask for behind the OL, and the game-ending throw was well placed.
• Quiet day for Jaxon Smith-Njigba, whose only catches came 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 3rd and 11 offside play. It looked like he was going to get the first down and we wouldn’t have to see Tyler Lockett’s heroics on the next play. Fant held his block just well enough on Walker’s touchdown, so he had an impact in a different way.
• Speaking of TE blocking, AJ Barner made one mistake on a Charbonnet screen, but otherwise he and Brady Russell were solid as blocking tight ends.
• Dre’Mont Jones was a non-factor in his debut on the edge. I think the only pressure he had was against Denver’s backup left tackle after Garrett Bolles got hurt.
• Byron Murphy II had a decidedly quiet game. It was the first time he played a first-team offensive line for an extended period of time and it was a marked departure from what we saw in preseason. It’s still early, but that was one of the few “negatives” on defense.
• I said the New England Patriots game would be tougher than it looked because of that defense. They actually pulled off a major upset for the Cincinnati Bengals by holding visiting Joe Burrow and company to just 10 points. New England also rushed for 170 yards and didn’t give it up. Jacoby Brissett isn’t great, but he’s definitely better than Bo Nix, and that should be a tougher game for the Seahawks on paper, plus it’s on the road.
• Enemy Reaction and the Denver Broncos might be a better combination than ER and the 49ers. See you Monday!