Brady Henderson Jeff Legwald Close ESPN Senior Writer He covered the Broncos for nine years for the Denver Post and Rocky Mountain News Previously covered Steelers, Bills and Titans Member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame Board of Selectors since 1999
SEATTLE — The Seattle Seahawks upset the Denver Broncos 17-16 on Monday night as Russell Wilson, who played his first 10 seasons in Seattle, was beaten by Geno Smith. Close ESPN Senior Writer
He covered the Broncos for nine years for the Denver Post and Rocky Mountain News Previously covered Steelers, Bills and Titans Member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame Board of Selectors since 1999
Seattle Seahawks
For all the speculation leading into Monday night’s season opener about how Wilson would be greeted in his first game against his old team, it was his former backup who got the loudest applause. And he stole the show. As the boos rained down on Wilson mercilessly, the Lumen Field crowd celebrated Smith’s every big play with chants of “GENO, GENO!” And there were enough of them — including a pair of first-half touchdown passes — to lift Seattle to a 17-16 victory. It will take years to determine whether the Seahawks made the right move by trading Wilson in March for a huge draft rather than trying to make things work with the best quarterback in franchise history. A game, no matter how exciting, does not validate this move. But it does provide some immediate gratification for the Seahawks — and some hope for their fans that maybe this season won’t be the slog everyone has assumed it will be. QB Analysis: Coming into his first Week 1 start since 2014, Smith didn’t look like a long-term backup expected to be anything more than a game manager. He looked like an NFL starter. Smith completed his first 13 passes and was 17 of 18 with a pair of touchdowns during a near-perfect first half. He was accurate and avoided the big mistake that plagued him at key moments when he filled in for Wilson last season. He made plays with his feet, too, stepping up in the pocket to escape pressure and avoiding killer sacks in the process. Smith finished 23 of 28 for 195 yards and two touchdown passes. Buying the Seattle tight ends’ breakout performance: A popular belief around the team this offseason was that tight ends would be a bigger part of the Seahawks’ offense this season — because whichever quarterback replaced Wilson would be more willing to throw his way than he was. That seemed like a foreboding thought Monday night, with Will Dissly, Noah Fant and Colby Parkinson catching a combined eight passes for 102 yards and two touchdowns. Their combined nine targets were six fewer than Seattle’s receivers. Seattle acquired Fant in the Wilson trade and re-signed Dissly to three years and $24 million after testing free agency. The cost to sign him went up when another team chased him hard. This team? The Broncos. Main game: On back-to-back possessions in the third quarter, the Broncos drove to the Seattle 1-yard line and looked poised to score the go-ahead touchdown. Both times, the Seahawks’ defense kept them out of the end zone by forcing a goal-line punt. Outside linebacker Uchenna Nwosu stripped Broncos running back Javonte Williams in the second, part of his Seattle debut that also included a sack, a pass defense and seven tackles. The Seahawks signed Nwosu to help with their increased emphasis this season on the 3-4 front. The two-year, $19.055 million deal he signed in March made him the highest-paid free agent in terms of APY under GM John Schneider and coach Pete Carroll. The Seahawks held Denver to six points on four trips to the red zone. — Brady Henderson Underrated stat you need to know: Geno Smith is the third quarterback since 1990 to complete each of his first 13 passes in a Week 1 game — joining Gardner Minshew (2019 Jaguars) and Jim Kelly (1990 Bills ). Next game: at 49ers (4:05 p.m. ET, Sept. 18)
Denver Broncos
After an offseason filled with the hopes and dreams that came with quarterback Russell Wilson’s arrival in Denver, it was the Broncos’ defense that saw some turmoil. Under new defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero, the Broncos tried to be aggressive in the pass rush, trying to keep the ball away from Seahawks wide receivers DK Metcalf and Tyler Lockett, but it wasn’t until outside linebacker Randy Gregory got the ball out by Metcalf. hands deep in the third quarter that the Broncos defense could settle. As a result, Wilson’s 340 yards and one touchdown were almost a nondescript footnote in a 17-16 victory at Seattle that ended with a missed 64-yard Brandon McManus field goal. It won’t be a smooth ride in the ratings for Denver’s defense. Seahawks tight ends caught six passes for 98 yards and two touchdowns before halftime, and Seahawks quarterback Geno Smith completed the game’s first 13 passes as part of a 17-of-18, two-touchdown performance in the first half time. Key play: The Broncos were slow from the start and never took the lead. Their night ended when McManus missed a 64-yard field goal attempt with 14 seconds to play. On a third-and-14 with 1:11 left, Wilson hit Javonte Williams with a 9-yard pass, setting up a fourth-and-5 from the Seattle 46. Instead of going for a first down with three timeouts remaining immediately after With the third down pass, the Broncos ran the clock to 20 seconds, called a timeout and then missed the field goal. Problematic trend: Week 1 overreactions are as old as the NFL, but given that the Broncos inhabit a division in which the other three teams have quarterbacks named to the Pro Bowl. The first half cannot be ignored. And while the Broncos harassed Smith a few times and beat him several times, he got the ball out quickly, created time in the pocket with quality footwork and was more than willing to take the safest completion. One play isn’t a trend, but the Broncos’ rushers will have to go to the quarterback more often and can’t allow any quarterback to get into a 13-of-13 rhythm to open a game. Biggest hole in game plan: Some of that was certainly the Seahawks’ defensive play to keep things flowing where the help was, but the Broncos’ wide receivers were targeted just twice in the first half when the Seahawks took control of the rhythm the game. Wilson didn’t put the ball in harm’s way, and that was good, but as much as coach Nathaniel Hackett hoped to be aggressive on offense, the Broncos weren’t the aggressor, especially early in the game. And when the Seahawks got the tempo of the game where they wanted it, it became a struggle for the Broncos. Denver’s wide receivers didn’t really get involved until late in the third and fourth quarters. Troublesome Trend II: Double-digit penalties for over 100 yards? Critics will point to Hackett’s easy approach to preseason games, in which virtually all starters didn’t play at all. Penalties came on both sides of the ball, and they were misplaced — especially a false start with less than 7 minutes to play and the Broncos inside the Seahawks’ 5-yard line — and far too often they were misplaced. — Jeff Legwald Underrated stat you need to know: The Broncos are the first team since the 1987 Chiefs to lose two possessions from the opponent’s 1-yard line in the same game, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. The last case happened in a game that uses substitutes. Next match: vs. Texans (4:25 p.m. ET, Sept. 18)
