Troy Taormina – USA TODAY Sports
The Seattle Seahawks struggled to do much of anything early on against the Houston Texans and found themselves in a deep 20-3 hole at halftime. Things started to turn around in the second half and the Seahawks rallied with 17-unanswered points to tie the game at 20-20 and forced overtime. Seattle’s offense was finally able to sustain a drive late in the game thanks to Russell Wilson taking the game over.
Wilson faced pressure from the Houston defense early and often in the first half and only attempted one pass in the first quarter (which fell incomplete). In the second half, Wilson started to create plays with his legs, extending pass plays by avoiding pass rush and sometimes tucking the ball away and running with it himself. On their long touchdown drive in the fourth quarter, Wilson picked up some huge first downs, including a fourth down near the goal line, as they worked down the field and scored their only offensive touchdown on the day.
That on-the-fly playmaking will be so important to the Seahawks moving forward as they try to make a deep run in the playoffs this year. Wilson’s elusiveness in the pocket will help mask some of the weaknesses of the offensive line as they try and get healthy and create big play opportunities for the Seahawks’ offense as he extends plays with his legs.
Wilson is growing into a leader of this Seattle team more and more each week in his second year under center for Pete Carroll. Backed by a physical running game, Wilson is the perfect trigger-man for this offense with his athleticism, intelligence and toughness when the game gets close. His stats may not jump off the page, but he continues to do everything he needs to in order to put the Seahawks on track for a Super Bowl run.
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