Despite looking very impressive in their season opening win, the Seattle Seahawks expect a lot more from themselves as they carry on with their Super Bowl defense bid, moving to playing a tough road game against the San Diego Chargers, who still find it hard to believe how they lost their season opener.
The Chargers had a comfortable lead in the fourth quarter against the Arizona Cardinals, and as they were trying to get into field goal range to finish off the game, a bad snap cost them a drive, leading the Cardinals to score twice in the final three minutes of the game to come up with the improbable 18-17 win. The Chargers will now face a tougher NFC West foe, knowing that room for such mistakes is gone. They haven’t started the season at 0-2 since 2008.
What was so bad about the 36-16 win over the Packers for the Seahawks? It wasn’t perfect, and this teams seems to be striving to get it. They gave up a first quarter touchdown, which happened just once last season including the playoffs in all 19 games. While stopping Aaron Rodgers from completing big plays, he did connect on 69.7% of his passes, a lot higher than the Seahawks’ average of holding opposing quarterbacks to just 59% of their attempts being caught through the 2013 season.
The offense ticked, and is hoping for more of the same. Russell Wilson threw a couple of touchdown passes while completing 67.9% of his passes, and Marshawn Lynch finished with 110 yards and two touchdown runs. Who remembers that he almost held out through the preseason because of contract negotiations? Percy Harvin might be the most dangerous weapon of all, with 100 yards in receptions and on the ground.
The Seahawks will be once again trying to force another quarterback into throwing just one way. Aaron Rodgers didn’t attempt a single pass at Richard Sherman, and that might happen again with Rivers. He throws a lot less right of the hashes and does a lot better when looking for receivers down the middle or the left side of the field. He threw for 455 yards in the previous meeting between the two teams (2010), but the Seahawks came away with the 27-20 win. A lot was different for both teams back then.
Running the ball is very difficult against Seattle, but Ryan Mathews needs to shake off his rough game against the Cardinals, in which he gained just 40 yards on 12 carries. Rivers will have his hands full against the best secondary in the NFL, so any help he can get from the ground game to ease off the pressure will be more than welcome. The Seahawks might be slightly less intimidating on the road, and yet there seem to be so few weaknesses to expose.