by Clint Elsemore

Fresh off the bye week and still feeling good emerging with an overtime win against Denver, our Seahawks now prepare for another primetime game on Monday night against the seemingly lowly Washington football team.

Washington features a strong running game behind Alfred Morris, and an inexperienced quarterback in Kirk Cousins who has had extreme highs and lows in the three games he has played this year.   Washington is coming off a blowout loss to their division rivals in New York with Cousins throwing 4 interceptions and losing a fumble.  They are dealing with key injuries along their offensive line, and in their defensive backfield making this seem like quite a mismatch on paper.  As a Seahawk fan I still do see cause for concern.  The primary reason is the Seahawks propensity to start slowly and struggle on the road.  They lost both of their preseason contests on the road, and lost their only road game to the Chargers in week 2, meaning their last road win occurred in 2013.  Offensively Washington has the ability to run the ball consistently if the game remains close, and has quality receivers in Garcon and Jackson on the outside.  They also expect to get back possibly both of their extremely athletic tight ends in Reed and Paul adding to their skill position weapons.

On defense Washington does a good job stopping opposing running games and can bring 3 quality rushers to get after the quarterback in Kerrigan, Orakpo, and Hatcher.  They struggle mightily in coverage however with inexperience at cornerback, safety, and linebacker.  This has led to them getting beat for big plays down the field and struggling to cover opposing tight ends in the passing game.

The time off will serve the rested and relatively healthy Seahawks well as they face a challenging road opponent.  This team gets up for primetime though, and I expect the offense to score early and often.  Building a two score lead in the first half makes Washington one dimensional and forces Cousins to take chances in the 2^nd half down the field.  I expect the LOB to emerge with two picks and the line to sack Cousins at least 3 times.  On offense Russell and the wide receivers have big days passing for over 300 yards and accounting for three scores.  Marshawn is partially held in check on the ground, but has another strong game through the air reaching 100 total yards and still crossing the goal line one time.

Final game prediction: Seahawks 34 Washington Football Team 17