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Welcome back to real football, friends. And welcome back to the Cigar Thoughts articles. The Seahawks stepped into a new era today, and I wish I could say they did so boldly. Instead, we were treated to an absolute comedy of errors for the first hour and a half before this team got their shit together and played big stack poker against an inferior opponent.

I think a lot of us were pretty optimistic heading into this game but that hope was severely tested during the first half. The Seahawks defense was everything even the most pollyanna fan could have hoped for but the offense looked like 11 toddlers trying to tie their shoes during an earthquake until the third quarter.

The Seahawks found themselves inexplicably down 13-9 at halftime but found their footing after intermission. The offense got on schedule, the defense continued to dictate terms, and Seattle leaned on Denver until the outclassed visitors finally folded. Even though things started out ugly on offense, this felt like Mike Macdonald’s team from start to finish.

The discipline that has been missing from this team was evident all day on defense and throughout the second half on offense. I caught myself wondering if I was in the twilight zone as Seattle’s new head coach used his timeouts judiciously, didn’t risk them with unnecessary challenges, and looked in control of everything on the sidelines from start to finish. And before you interpret this as a sneak-diss towards Pete Carroll (I would never), I’m purely talking about how impressed I am with a 36-year-old whose hands were on all the controls for the first time.

It took a while but we saw Geno Smith assert himself in a new offense, Ken Walker land punch after punch in the second half, and a Seahawks secondary that was practically running the Broncos routes for them. At halftime, despite Denver leading 13-9, I turned to my buddies and said “we got this”, because despite the blunders, nothing about the opening 30 minutes told me Seattle wasn’t the best team on the field.

It got a touch uncomfortable at the end but when games are on the line, good teams trust their strengths and that’s exactly what Seattle did to close things out with a terrific throw-and-catch between Smith and Tyler Lockett. 200 minutes after kickoff, the Seahawks downed out their first win of the season and head into Week 2 at 1-0.

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SMOKE RINGS

*The first half was covered in shit like a baby’s butt in an unchanged diaper, but the Seahawks didn’t lose composure. They came out of the break with a flurry of strikes that kept the Broncos on their heels and Seattle pressed the issue until their opponent was on the ropes. From there, it was just a matter of delivering body blows until the chin opened up and the ‘Hawks were ready with a knockout punch.

Then, after a Julian Love interception at the 1, Anthony Bradford got called for holding in the endzone for a safety. The defense did their job but Dee Williams muffed a punt inside his own 20 and then muffed the attempt to pick it back up. Later in the second quarter, Laken Tomlinson got whooped on an inside stunt and Zach Charbonnet was swallowed up in the endzone for the second safety of the first half.

In the end, Seattle got away with it because they were playing a pretty bad team but that shit absolutely will not fly against the good ones. Hopefully this was just a series of opening day jitters, and kudos to them for getting right in a second half that saw them outscore their opponents 17-7.

*Mike Macdonald’s defense lived up to the hype. These guys were flying around in a way we haven’t seen in Seattle in a very long time. Even considering the obvious caveats that it was at home against a rookie QB, this was a very impressive performance. I’m pretty sure you can count the number of yards after the catch Broncos receivers had on two hands.

But the biggest thing? The tackling. And my god did this team tackle. Not only were they disciplined in their attack, they were ferocious. And there was almost always a second defender present to clean up should the ballcarrier make a rare escape.

So much of modern NFL discourse revolves around scheme and for good reason, as the league continues to evolve at an insane rate. But scheme doesn’t matter a whole lot when you don’t block and tackle. And the Seahawks, well, they haven’t blocked or tackled well for a long time. The blocking remains a work in progress but the tackling was downright elite. On top of that, there were no breakdowns from an assignment standpoint.

Lord willing, we won’t see another game this season where the defense faces such a terrible average field position and yet, they never folded. They allowed one TD and even that took 58 minutes. Before that, they withstood multiple possessions that started deep in their own territory, zooming around like they’d been in this system for five years. If that’s not coaching, I don’t know what is.

*Today also marked the NFL for new OC Ryan Grubb and the early returns garnered significantly less enthusiasm. It’s tough to know how much blame to lay at the feet of a play-caller when at least on offensive lineman is getting beat on every play but the offense didn’t find their footing for a long time. When they did, though, we finally got a glimpse into the promise that Grubb offered in coming from the #1 offense in college football last year. The second half of the Seahawks offense was spritzed with UW cologne, using layered routes and decisive run concepts to lay the groundwork for a dominant second half.

With both Abe Lucas and now George Fant hurt, it might be tough to build momentum but the approach we saw in the second half was drenched in NFL sustainability. It’s only one game, but what a difference seeing an offense get better as the game goes on as opposed to starting hot and then being completely figured out halfway through the second quarter. Also— and it’s too early to tell whether it was his call of Macdonald’s but Seattle plopped some grapefruit-sized nuts on the table at the end of the game, passing on 3rd & 6 instead of burning Denver’s last timeout and then punting with a run play.

*Geno Smith is equal parts hero and victim of his circumstances. His early-career struggles stuck him with the tough-to-shake bust label and there are lots of folks out there— many of whom are reading this article— that are reticent to move off of that opinion. And look, I was one of them… initially.

But one quality that I pursue above almost all else is a willingness to adjust my opinions when presented with new information and Geno Smith is Exhibit A in that regard. When he was battling with Drew Lock to be the starting QB two years ago, I went on our podcast and said it didn’t matter which one of them won the job because neither would be the starter the following year. then Geno went out and played like a top 10 quarterback, leading the Seahawks to the most surprising playoff appearance of 2022. he regressed statistically in last year, although I believe that can be chalked up almost entirely to facing the second-highest pressure rate in the NFL.

Even so, he led the NFL in expected sack avoidance and completion percentage when pressured. He took gutter scrapings off the restaurant floor and cooked up passable meals. I was hoping he’d have a clearer path to takeoff this season but that was not the case today. And make no kistake— he struggled. His first two dropbacks ended in terrible outcomes and he didn’t get right for a long time.

But halfway through the second quarter he found his stride and delivered strikes to DK Metcalf, Jaxon Smith-Njigba, and Tyler Lockett with conviction. Then, he streated all of us to a new facet of his game when he escaped a broken pocket for a career-long 34-yard TD scramble that saw him freeze the safety with a dead-leg hesi move at the 25 that would’ve made Allen Iverson proud.

His final numbers— 18/25 for 171 yards, a TD and an INT— won’t give anyone a boner but the way he handled every dropback after the first two was exactly what the team needed in a grind-it-out contest. he threw the ball with conviction and never seemed caught in between the decision to either throw the ball or bail out of consistently collapsing pockets. He wasn’t the best version of himself but no one is every single week. What he was was enough to win a game when things weren’t smooth and that’s damn near as valuable as excelling when things are.

*This is Ken Walker’s backfield. I like Zach Charbonnet a lot and was happy to see him convert on a beautiful wheel route for what proved to be the game-winning score, but Walker was more decisive than we’re used to seeing and he didn’t let atrocious O-line play keep him from racking up 109 total yards while handling two-thirds of the backfield touches.

If there’s been one knock on Walker during his young career, it’s his proclivity to try and turn every carry into a big play, often taking lost yardage instead of settling for the 2-3 yards that are blocked for him. That was not the case this afternoon, as he narrowed his eyes, pinned his ears back, and attacked every opportunity with an aggression that I think we’ve all been clamoring for.

But that’s not to say that his unique dynamism wasn’t on display. His touchdown run displayed his singular ability to combine elusiveness with explosion, as he cut through a cascade of defenders, stiff-armed a man at the second level, and out-sprinted the rest of the defense before embarking on a preposterous launch into the endzone from the five-yard-line despite his momentum carrying him towards the sideline. Nick Chubb is probably the best pure ballcarrier in the NFL but Ken Walker is at the top of the tier below him.

*From a pure talent perspective, the Seahawks have arguably the most talented receiver room in the NFL. But when there are only 171 yards to go around, it makes it tough for anyone to really stand out. Even so, we saw flashes from each of the skilled players in Seattle’s corps, with Noah Fant moving the chains on the first two catches of the day, to Tyler Lockett putting the win in the vault late. In between, DK Metcalf and Jaxon Smith-Njigba sprinkled in momentous catches to help a struggling offense get on track.

I am a very public Lockett-respecter but I have also predicted that by the time Seattle comes out of their bye, JSN will surpass him in this offense. That may happen sooner than even I expected, as it was Smith-Njigba on the field in two-WR sets; that being said, it was the NFL’s (formerly) last-remaining virgin that Smith turned to with the game on the line. Three of Lockett’s six catches came in crunch time including a delicious one-hander on the final 3rd down snap of the game to ice it. On that play, he beat good coverage with a one-handed snag, reaching his tiny paw out like a baby raccoon to snatch a perfectly-placed shiny object before cradling it to his minuscule bosom to cement a huge win. The day when Tyler Lockett is no longer the the high-leverage go-to is coming, but today is not that day

*The offensive line sucked today. It’s bad a situation made worse by an injury to George Fant, who was brought in to bandage the wound left by a PUPped Abe Lucas. His replacement Stone Forythe was completely overwhelmed in reprieve duty, as were guards Laken Tomlinson and Anthony Bradford. I thought new center Conner Williams and young stalwart LT Charles Cross were very good but it doesn’t matter a whole lot when you’re getting spanked on 60% of your OL.

*This defense, my god. I mean, holy shit. I’ve said a lot about them as a unit already but I want to take a moment to point out some remarkable individual performances, starting with Julian Love.

One of the things that made the early Pete Carroll defenses so unique was their ability to enforce a gameplan from the back of the defense. Most teams prioritize the players closest to the ball and outside of the handful of truly elite corners, I totally get it. But in a Macdonald defense, massive pressure is put on the safeties and Love has clearly embraced that role. He made his presence felt throughout this contest, racking up a game-high 12 tackles and picking off a pass at the goal line. His Pro Bowl selection last year wasn’t undeserved but it felt weird as a part of a truly bad defense. But today, he transformed from the last line line of defense on a bad unit to an absolute weapon for the foremost defensive mind on the planet.

Julian Love was the best player in this game but Devon Witherspoon is the best player on this defense. He was absolutely everywhere, forcing the issue on every level of the defense, including the backfield. He’s a heat-seeking missile with the world’s most advanced radr system. He stuck his nose in every play that ended up on his side of the field, splicing a number of impressive open-field tackles with two near-interceptions. A true All Pro talent.

How good was Boye Mafe today? He beat his blockers with the aggression and consistency of a Watt brother, notching a sack to go along with two tackles for losses. He won at the snap with the type of consistency that great edge rushers on great defenses do and if what we saw from him today continues all season, you can go ahead and raise this unit’s ceiling significantly.

There were a number of other standouts on the defense today, including Love’s safety-mate Rayshawn Jenkins who accounted for six tackles, new linebacker Tyrel Dodson who had 10 tackles and a broken-up pass, Jerome Baker who was excellent in coverage and chipped in five tackles, a TFL, and a fumble recovery, and Leonard Williams who was everything Seattle traded / paid for, adding a preposterous five QB hits to the ledger. Also, how freaking good was Riq Woolen today??

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I’m pretty open about how wins and losses are not always the true measure of a team but at the end of it all, they’re what determine who gets to keep playing when the regular season is over. The Seattle Seahawks are 1-0, and overall, the vibes are pretty fuckin’ good. I have a lot of confidence in the offense, so seeing the defense pick them up for 60 minutes is pretty damn encouraging. The coaching felt solid, and the team did what was necessary to win.

The arrow is pointed up, friends. I’ll be back next week to break down the Seahawks’ performance against the New England Patriots. Until then, onwards and upwards, my friends.

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