SEATTLE – Yes, it was a preseason game. Yes, it was only one series. And yes, it came against a defense that was resting nearly half of its projected Week 1 starters.
But even with those caveats in mind, the Seattle Seahawks’ new-look offense made quite the first impression in Friday night’s 33-16 preseason win over the Kansas City Chiefs.
Instant observations from Seahawks’ preseason win over Chiefs
In the unit’s first action together this preseason, Seattle’s first-string offense opened the game by churning out exceptionally sharp 10-play, 81-yard touchdown drive.
The offensive line pushed defenders off the ball and – with help from the tight ends, fullback and wide receivers – created wide running lanes in new offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak’s scheme. Zach Charbonnet took full advantage, showing nice burst and decisiveness while rushing for 45 yards and a touchdown on five carries.
And with the run game humming, Sam Darnold was a crisp 4 of 4 for 34 yards in his Seahawks debut – highlighted by back-to-back completions on play-action bootlegs where rookie fullback Robbie Ouzts and rookie tight end Elijah Arroyo were schemed wide-open.
“Yeah, offensively it’s about how you would script it,” Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald said of the opening drive.
Consider this: There’s a stat called success rate that measures how often an offense achieves a successful play – with success defined as gaining at least 40% of the yards to go on first down, at least 60% of the yards to go on second down and 100% of the yards to go on third or fourth down.
And by that measure, the Seahawks achieved a successful play on all 10 plays of their opening drive.
It was a sharp contrast from last season, when Seattle had one of the worst run games in the league and was frequently facing third-and-long in then-OC Ryan Grubb’s dropback-heavy passing attack.
“All of us on defense were excited about the flow that we had on offense today,” Seahawks safety Julian Love said. “When you’re able to stay on cadence, on timing, ahead of the sticks, it is awesome. I don’t know the final numbers or the time of possession and all that stuff, but we see what it can be.”
Darnold & Co. know it was only one drive in a preseason game. But for an offense that’s looking to create a new identity – one that meshes a strong run game with an efficient passing attack – Friday night’s cameo was a highly encouraging start.
“It was our style of football,” Darnold said. “It’s the style we wanted to create in OTAs and then even in training camp. We started to find our identity that way and can kind of see it come to life.
“It’s August, so there is still a long ways to go in terms of where we want to be as an offense. But it was really good to get out there and just take the field as a unit the way we wanted to.”
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