Seattle, WA- The Seattle Seahawks came into their last preseason game against the Oakland Raiders with a little intensity, coming off a shocking loss to the Vikings last week. Most of the Seahawks’ starters sat down for the most part. Russell Wilson sat out this game, while back up QB Austin Davis started in his place. In the first quarter, penalties killed any produce drive that the Seahawks had going for them. In the first two series, Davis looked great.
He was very poised when the pocket was collapsing, threw a couple of accurate slants throwing off his back foot, and was not careless with the ball. He completed 6 passes or 40 yards, with his longest pass going for 17 yards in the first quarter.
After a couple of promising drives that were cut short because of the Raiders’ defensive front were making it difficult for Davis to get any passes to his receivers down the field, Seattle’s defense sparked a lift for the offense. They got the Raiders off the field on third down conversions and gave the Seahawks’ great field position After a couple of scores from the Raiders, the Seahawks had to do something to get back in the game late in the second quarter with their backs against the wall 17-6.
Davis, as well as running back Mike Davis took the team down the field and scored before the half making it a 17-13 with a 1-yard touchdown by Mike Davis.
The first half was a mixture of seeing what running back will be productive and get the starting and second string spot. Mike Davis has been the underdog in the running back line up but was very effective running between the tackles. He was very productive in the first half averaging 5-yards a carry and finished the half with 45 yards.
Chris Carson, who is expected to be the starter this season for the “Hawks” had a rough first half, he only carried the ball twice for a minimal of 5 yards.
In the second half, the Seahawks let Alex McGough start. On his first possession, he threw a 52-yard touchdown that was called back, because the receiver did not drag his second foot in bounds after he caught the ball in the end zone. The overturned touchdown took the momentum that the Seahawks were building. Instead of a touchdown and taking the lead over the Raiders, E. Manel marched the Raiders down the field and threw a beautiful back-shoulder pass to his receiver for a touchdown to go up 23-13.
McGough has shown improvement in throwing the ball out of bounds and looking over his reads. In his last two games, he has had problems with his progression in reads. Against the Raiders, when the yards or throw was not there, he just threw the ball out of bounds and lived to fight another down.
Down 30-13 late in the fourth quarter, McGough tried to lead his team down the field to somehow get some type of positive motivation back on their sidelines. He capped off a 6-minute drive with a touchdown, which brought the Seahawks within 11 (30-19).
After this loss, the Seahawks have dropped all four preseason games, but they might have fixed their issues with their offensive line, as well as found their one, two punch running backs in Chris Carson and Mike Davis.
The regular season starts next week, so we will see if the preseason losses will have some type of effect on the Seahawks.
