Field Gulls
Sunday the Seattle Seahawks handily defeated the Minnesota Vikings in a game where the defense dominated and the offense showed up enough to come away victorious.
Minnesota defensive coordinator Brian Flores spent the day toying with the Seattle offensive line, confusing the group with simulated pressures and defenders who started the play on the line of scrimmage only to drop into coverage after baiting an offensive lineman to commit to blocking what would shortly be nobody.
While the offense sputtered to the tune of just 219 yards for the game, there was no urgent need to score more against a Vikings offense led by Max Brosmer, who posted one of the worst quarterback games this millennium by efficiency standards.
At the skill positions, Ken Walker finally outsnapped Zach Charbonnet at running back, while at receiver it continued to be Jaxon Smith-Njigba and Cooper Kupp as the top two options, even in light of the recent acquisition of Rashid Shaheed and Cody White’s promotion from the practice squad.
For those who have spent the past two plus seasons yearning for more Jake Bobo opportunities, it appears as though that ship may have sailed, as Bobo was a healthy scratch for the second week in a row after having not appeared on the injury report in the lead up to the Week 13 game. And, of course, it was once again the Bryce Cabeldue show on offense, with Cabeldue’s three snaps once again propelling the Seahawks to a double-digit victory.
On defense, Ty Okada played all but two snaps against Minnesota in spite of the oblique injury suffered in Week 12, but several other key defensive players earned a bit of a rest. Leonard Williams played just over half of the defensive snaps, while DeMarcus Lawrence was on the field for just 20 snaps.
Because of the margin of victory, the Seahawks were able to give plenty of late game snaps to players who typically see the field only on special teams. That meant that the only non-specialists who played exclusively on special teams were Velus Jones and Quandre Diggs, the two practice squad elevations who were brought up for the game.
And now it’s on to another cross-country trip in Week 14 and an early kickoff against the Atlanta Falcons.
