Russell Wilson can set an NFL record Sunday vs Cowboys. Might that get him an MVP vote?
Yes, Russell Wilson cares about being the MVP.
Because to him, the NFL most valuable player signifies the ultimate award.
Winning.
For all the Seahawks’ franchise cornerstone has done is his wondrous career—the winningest quarterback in NFL history over the first seven seasons of a career, Seattle’s first Super Bowl title, six Pro Bowl selections—Wilson has not received even a vote for NFL most valuable player, let alone the award itself.
But Wilson is getting all the early talk for the being the league’s 2020 MVP. That’s because of his nine touchdowns and just 11 incomplete passes through two games, both Seahawks wins.
Sunday at CenturyLink Field, Wilson goes at a Cowboys defense that has allowed more than 800 yards through two games. Dallas has two starting cornerbacks injured (Chidobe Awuzie and Trevon Diggs). The Cowboys start a rookie corner (Diggs). Their leading pass rusher DeMarcus Lawrence is banged up. Atlanta’s Matt Ryan threw for four touchdown passes last week against the Cowboys, before Dallas rallied from 19 points down to beat the Falcons 40-39.
Wilson had four TD throws against Atlanta in Seattle’s opening win. He threw for five more last weekend while outscoring the Patriots.
If he duplicates against porous Dallas on Sunday what he did against New England last week, Wilson will set the NFL record for touchdown passes through three games.
That might finally get him an MVP vote, eh?
“I don’t want a vote. More importantly, I want to win,” Wilson said this week.
“Obviously, MVP is a special award. The best players in the world, so many great guys. I think of guys like Lamar last year, he was unbelievable last year. Such a great player. Guys like Patrick Mahomes, some other greats, obviously, that still play this game. Tom. Drew (Brees).
“For me, I want to be regarded as one of the best to ever play this game, to be honest with you. It’s part of the process. Hopefully, I can win enough games and do enough special things as a team to be able to do that.
“It’s a team award, really, I think, in terms of the MVP. It’s really a special award, because everybody’s involved in it. Hopefully I can be a part of it. Hopefully we can be a part of that, as a team.”
This has the makings of a Big 12 game in Seattle on Sunday. The conditions are going to be perfect for offense:
- The Seahawks’ defense has been worse than Dallas’. Seattle has allowed the most yards (970) and yards passing (831) in the NFL through two games. The Seahawks have just one sack by a defensive lineman (Benson Mayowa), and Mayowa is questionable to play because of a groin injury. Dallas has just two sacks this season.
- There will be fans again inside CenturyLink Field, because of King County’s ongoing civic restrictions for the COVID-19 virus. Teammates wlll have no trouble hearing audibles and line-protection calls by Wilson and Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott.
- The weather is going to be ideal. The rain that returned to Seattle this past week is gone for the weekend. The forecast for kickoff is ideal: sunny, 63 degrees, no wind.
The Seahawks are trying to start a season 3-0 for the first time since 2013. They began 4-0 that year—on their way to their only Super Bowl and NFL championship.
Here are the key players in Sunday’s game:
1. Neither team is pressuring opposing quarterbacks. The Seahawks just lost rush end Bruce Irvin for the season to knee surgery. Mayowa is hurting. They will be watching a pass rusher who got away from them this summer chasing Wilson on Sunday: Everson Griffen. Seattle tried to sign the four-time Pro Bowl defensive end this summer when it moved on from Jadeveon Clowney, but Griffen signed with the Cowboys for one year and $6 million instead. Griffen’s played 66% of snaps through Dallas’ first two games. He has one of the Cowboys’ two sacks and leads the team with five pressures. If Dallas doesn’t get more pressure Sunday, Wilson will have the time to continue the hottest start of his nine-year career.
2. Seattle’s pass rush gets a new addition this week. Rookie Alton Robinson was impressive in training camp and got many of the reps second-round draft choice Darrell Taylor would have gotten if he wasn’t out indefinitely following leg surgery in January. Robinson was the Seahawks’ fifth-round pick in April. He has been inactive for each of the first two games. But Seattle’s pass rush that has just one sack by a defensive lineman so far this season needs Robinson to debut now and take Irvin’s roster spot. He gained 10 pounds in the offseason to become stronger for the line of scrimmage, but coach Pete Carroll has been impressed Robinson has maintained the speed he showed rushing college quarterbacks for Syracuse. He’ll be number 98 in blue on Sunday. If you notice him, the Seahawks’ pass rush will be better than it’s been without him the first two games.
3. Prescott gets all the attention because he’s the quarterback of the Dallas Cowboys. The NFC offensive player of the week is coming off a 450-yard passing day rallying Dallas from 9 points down in the final 2 minutes to beat Atlanta last weekend. But Ezekiel Elliott remains the basis for Dallas’ offense, even under new coach Mike McCarthy. Elliott has rushed for 2,800 yards and 20 touchdowns over the last two years plus two games. McCarthy has had him rush 22 times in each of the Cowboys’ first two games this season. And Prescott targeting him seven times for six catches last week against the Falcons’ poor pass defense. All-Pro linebacker Bobby Wagner reminded that Seattle’s game plan will be as it has been while winning five of its last six meeting with Dallas: slow Elliott, make the Cowboys’ offense one-dimension and put the entire game on Prescott. That’s how Seattle has won three of the last four games in this series.
4. One of Wilson’s nine touchdown passes in the first two weeks has been to David Moore. The former seventh-round pick had to take a pay cut to remain on the team three weeks ago. He made a remarkable catch while back-pedaling last weekend against New England. Then he deftly bounced his second foot off the goal-line pylon and toe-tapping inside the sideline of the end zone in a ballet move for a 38-yard score. The NFL says it was the second-most unlikely catch since 2018, with a catch probability of 6.3%.
Moore has become the Seahawks’ third wide receiver behind DK Metcalf and Tyler Lockett, because the team put Phillip Dorsett on injured reserve this week with a foot injury. Wilson has trusted Moore for years more than his numbers show, particularly on third downs and in game-deciding moments.
