The Seattle Seahawks defeated the Jacksonville Jaguars 20-12 yesterday, improving to 4-2 on the season. It was the Jaxon Smith-Njigba show,no other way to put it. Smith-Njigba finished the game with eight catches for a whopping 162 yards and one touchdown, averaging 20.3 yards per catch.
He now leads the NFL in receiving yards with 696 and is on pace for 1,972 yards, which would break the single-season record currently held by Calvin Johnson. His 696 receiving yards are also the most in Seahawks franchise history through six games. He is one of only three players to have over 700 scrimmage yards this season, Jonathan Taylor and Christian McCaffrey are the others.
JSN had over 100 yards in the first half yesterday, largely due to his 61-yard touchdown in the second quarter. Burning newly acquired cornerback Greg Newsome II on his first snap as a Jaguar. Cooper Kupp also found the end zone for the first time as a Seahawk in Jacksonville. Kupp may not be in his Triple Crown-winning form, but he has still been a reliable target for Sam Darnold. His football IQ is elite, consistently finding the soft spot in zone coverage and attacking opposing cornerbacks’ leverage, just like he did on his touchdown.
Smith-Njigba was one of the few bright spots for the Seahawks offense yesterday. After Seattle scored on the opening drive of the second half, the offense stalled out for the remainder of the game, largely due to the ineffective run game. Seattle could not run the ball at all.
Kenneth Walker had 10 carries for 34 yards, and Zach Charbonnet had 12 carries for 24 yards. Walker had Seattle’s longest run of the day, just 10 yards. Yeah… that’s it. Only 10 yards. Something needs to be done to find consistency in the run game.
So far this season, Walker has been the more explosive runner, averaging 4.7 yards per carry. Zach Charbonnet is averaging 2.6 yards per carry, which is dead last among qualified runners. Yet Charbonnet is still getting valuable carries, including in the red zone, where Seattle handed it off to him three straight times and settled for a field goal.
Numbers don’t lie, and the numbers are showing that Walker is the better back. He needs to be getting more carries—it’s only going to help this offense.
If you had read my game preview, you would know that Seattle was missing key starters on defense, especially in the secondary. One of my three keys to victory was sacking Trevor Lawrence, who had only been sacked six times heading into Sunday’s matchup. The Seahawks did just that, taking Lawrence to the ground a season-high seven times. Twice by DeMarcus Lawrence and twice by sophomore defensive tackle Byron Murphy II.
Murphy is having a brilliant season. Not only is he leading the Seahawks in sacks, but he is also tied for first among all defensive tackles in sacks.
The Seahawks defense did exactly what they needed to do with a depleted secondary, they made Trevor Lawrence uncomfortable in the pocket and forced the Jaguars into second and third and long situations. Outside of a couple of plays early in the game and Josh Jobe misplaying the ball, allowing Tim Patrick to score the Jaguars’ second touchdown, the Seahawks defense played especially well.
Yesterday’s win was the Seahawks’ ninth consecutive road win, and they are now 10-1 on the road under Mike Macdonald.
Seattle returns home to face the Houston Texans next week on Monday Night Football.
