The Seattle Seahawks escaped the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday to advance to 6-2 on the season. Although the win wasn’t necessarily pretty, it was enough to get the job done and keep pace in the competitive NFC.
Following the victory in Atlanta, the Seahawks have jumped back into the top 10 in Touchdown Wire’s Week 9 NFL power rankings. Up two spots from last week, Seattle now sits at No. 10.
“Falcons coach Dan Quinn’s defense did its usual face-plant Sunday against Seattle, where Quinn was once one of the league’s best defensive coordinators,” writes Doug Farrar. “Perhaps it’s time for an Emerald City reunion, because Pete Carroll’s defense is a shell of what it was in the Legion of Boom days. Russell Wilson was murderously efficient against an Atlanta squad that frequently was out of assignment and position (especially against play-action passes), but how do you explain Matt Schaub playing in lieu of the injured Matt Ryan and completing 39 of 52 passes for 460 yards?”
“A lot of those yards were empty calories, as Schaub managed just one touchdown and threw a pick, but there’s a reason the Seahawks traded for ex-Lions defensive back Quandre Diggs, and a team that wanted to go back to the future this season with a high percentage of base-defense snaps is getting lit up far too often,” Farrar continues. “Seattle’s 6-2 record is a relative balm in the face of this, but one imagines that in the playoffs (or, before that, with two upcoming games against the 49ers), these liabilities will be exploited.”
The Seahawks are set to square off against the Buccaneers on Sunday before their schedule becomes one of the most difficult in the league in the second half of the season.
