Jim Moore: Devon Witherspoon stepped up in NY, and the Seahawks’ future looks bright
Have you ever seen anything like that? Maybe at a kids’ game or a college game when one school is a prohibitive favorite over the other. But in an NFL game, where parity reigns?
In the fourth quarter of Monday Night Football, the Seahawks had more players in the backfield than the Giants did in a crazy onslaught that dropped Daniel Jones to the turf on one play after another.
It was so bad that even if you were rooting for the Seahawks, you reached a point of feeling sorry for Jones, followed by a feeling that Giants coach Brian Daboll must be an idiot to leave his quarterback in a game that was hopelessly lost.
The Seahawks recorded five sacks in their first three games but more than doubled their output with 11 in a 24-3 white-washing of the Giants, who just might be terrible enough to finish with the league’s worst record this season.
Is the Seahawks’ pass rush suddenly that good? Is this a sign of more havoc to come? Maybe but probably not. By most metrics, based on lack of talent and an abundance of injuries, the Giants’ offensive line rates as the worst in the NFL in the early going.
But what if the Seahawks hadn’t pestered Jones all night long? They would have been criticized. “Boy, if they can’t generate a pass rush against the Giants, they’ll never get one going.”
And if the Seahawks had somehow lost to the Giants, there would have been an even bigger negative reaction. As much as it seems preposterous to suggest now, the Giants were at the Seahawks’ 5-yard line, trailing 14-3 in the third quarter, in position to make it a one-score game and perhaps close within three.
But fittingly, Devon Witherspoon thwarted all of it with a pick six as Jones misfired on a short throw, and the Seahawks’ rookie cornerback meandered 97 yards on his game-clinching way to the end zone.
Fittingly because Witherspoon was a notable nuisance throughout the game with two sacks and big hits, more than justifying his status as the No. 5 overall pick in the draft.
Witherspoon stepped up on a night when the Seahawks played without three injured defensive backs in what became a theme for the game. A fourth DB, Jamal Adams, was forced to the sideline with a concussion after only nine plays.
Injuries along the Seahawks’ offensive line caused the Seahawks to mix and match with backups, who could have been as vulnerable as the Giants but weren’t thanks to solid depth and versatility.
Heck, the Seahawks didn’t even look compromised when they had to go to backup QB Drew Lock in the second quarter after Geno Smith suffered what appeared to be a minor knee injury when he was tackled going out of bounds.
Lock led the Seahawks on a touchdown drive, creating a 14-3 lead at the half, highlighted by a 51-yard pass to Noah Fant, who somehow stayed in bounds, tip-toeing down the left sideline to the Giants’ 1-yard line. Ken Walker followed with a touchdown run that basically put the game out of reach for the feckless Giants.
The last two quarters, ESPN kept showing us beleaguered Giants fans at Met Life Stadium. Their faces basically said: “Man, we’re awful, why did I pay $250 for my ticket, how long will it take me to get home, and how in the heck am I going to function at work tomorrow on four hours of sleep?”
Meanwhile, the Seahawks must have had a merry old time at 30,000 feet on their six-hour flight home. Early byes are strange in some respects but the timing is good for the Seahawks this year with so many players recovering from injuries. There’s a good chance that cornerback Tre Brown, offensive tackle Charles Cross, cornerback Coby Bryant and Adams will return for the next game Oct. 15th at Cincinnati.
And the schedule is also favorable for the Seahawks, who are now 3-1 and have six winnable games ahead of them - following the game against the Bengals, who to this point have been hindered by an injured Joe Burrow, they’ll face Arizona and Cleveland at Lumen Field, Baltimore on the road, Washington at home and the Rams in L.A. The Seahawks will be favored or slight underdogs in those six games, giving them a reasonable chance to be 9-1, 8-2 or 7-3 at worst.
They’ll need that kind of cushion with a four-game stretch featuring games against NFC favorites Dallas and Philadelphia and two against San Francisco.
The Seahawks look like they’re prepared to take another step in the post-Russell Wilson era after being a one-and-done playoff team in 2022.
“We just put the world on notice that this ain’t the same Seahawks from last year,” cornerback Riq Woolen told The Athletic after Monday night’s game. “We’re destined to be great.”
Based on their latest performance, it would be hard to argue otherwise.
Jim Moore has covered Washington’s sports scene from every angle for multiple news outlets. You can find him on Twitter @cougsgo, and on KJR-FM 93.3, where he co-hosts a sports talk show from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on weekdays.
This story was originally published October 3, 2023 at 8:49 AM.