3 Studs and 3 Duds from Seahawks win over Titans in NFL Week 12

The Seahawks went into Tennessee and beat the Titans 30-24, and as they say, “a win is a win”, but this was a performance full of flaws. There are tons of silver linings, though, as the Seattle needed holes poked in its’ winning recipe before facing several tough teams down the stretch.

Honorable mentions for Studs go out to several defensive players. Derick Hall quietly continues to lead the edge rush group. He had eight pressures today, a sack and a team-high six hurries. Devon Witherspoon was excellent in coverage with two pass breakups. Patrick O’Connell did as well as anyone could have hoped filling in for a depleted linebacking corps without Ernest Jones IV and Tyrice Knight.

It’d be easy to give a Dud to the punt coverage team for allowing a 90-yard punt return touchdown, but they get a pass when facing the best punt returner in the NFL in Chimere Dike. It was more of a good play by him than a bad play by them, and special teams coordinator Jay Harbaugh is sure to let them hear it as they watch film this week.

Here are your Studs and Duds for Week 12.

STUDS

Jaxon Smith-Njigba

Smith-Njigba broke D.K. Metcalf’s single-season Seahawks receiving record today in just the eleventh game of the season. He’s already at 1,313 yards and is now on pace for a whopping 2,029 across the 17-game season. As a depleted Titans secondary lined up in front of JSN, he inspired us all to eat big ahead of Thanksgiving this week. He finished with 8 catches for 167 yards and 2 touchdowns. On a day the offense struggled to finish drives, a few explosive plays from the best wide receiver in the NFL bailed Seattle out of a trap game.

Leonard Williams

The man known as “Big Cat” showed up in every way in Tennessee, leading the game with eight pressures from the interior defensive line while being double teamed. He outplayed his counterpart on the Titans, Jeffery Simmons- one of the few defensive tackles who can hold a candle to Williams’ title of the best DT in the league. Simmons had three pressures himself, still great for an interior pass rusher- but Williams showed why he’s the best at his position today and deserves NFL Defensive Player of the Year consideration. He also recorded a sack, three QB hits, four hurries, a tackle for loss, and three total tackles. But most importantly, the attention he demanded caused headaches for the Titans' offense and enabled the entire defense to play better.

Kenneth Walker III

From his first carry of the game for 10 yards, Walker got into workhorse rhythm in Week 12. He finished with 71 yards on just 11 carries for 6.5 yards per carry. Despite Klint Kubiak’s system favoring a split backfield, Walker is making himself too efficient to not be a clear-cut feature back. Charbonnet had an efficient day as well, but Walker’s slashing ability stood out as the running option that raised the offense’s ceiling. His stat lines aren’t as gaudy as they were under offensive coordinators like Shane Waldron and Ryan Grubb- but that just shows they don’t always coincide with his contributions to a Seahawks win. He’s contributing to this offense, bringing bodies back into the box and forcing opposing defenses to play heavier than they planned after they spend the entire week of practice preparing to defend JSN and the aerial attack.

DUDS

Rashid Shaheed

While the trade deadline move for Shaheed made sense as an all-in move, he still hasn’t produced much. Kubiak clearly wants to get the ball in his hands, calling run and pass plays to him in every game since acquiring him. Yet for another week, we’re still waiting for him to produce any meaningful yardage totals. He took 1 rush for 5 yards today and didn’t catch either of his two targets. He did have two punt returns for 38 yards, but that wasn’t an area of need for Seattle to begin with. His biggest value so far is beyond the stat sheet as he stretches defenses and opens things up for others. Seattle has needed him just to play, as Cooper Kupp, Dareke Young and Jake Bobo got banged up, and Tory Horton just went on injured reserve. The hallmark of the JSN-Kupp-Horton starting trio is the elite route-running and hands each of them possesses, which Shaheed doesn’t seem to quite fit in with. It’s hard to see that the offense has gotten significantly better since acquiring him, even if he provides a big-play threat- and there hasn’t been a big play yet, either.

Josh Jobe

Despite facing one of the worst receiving corps in the league, Jobe struggled in coverage today- which is usually his strong suit. He gave up catches all four times he was targeted today for a total of 52 yards and a touchdown, all team-highs in the game. Luckily, Tariq Woolen had a good game, and is steadily getting back to reliability, but Jobe looked more like a backup today than in any other game this season. A former product of Nick Saban’s Alabama teams, one of Jobe’s best traits is his instincts and IQ. However, he gave up the final touchdown of the game on a pick play where the Titans sent his man inside and brought Dike outside. Teams can try this on Seattle’s man coverage again if they don’t communicate a switch and see it before it happens. Although Jobe played more snaps than Woolen this week, Riq might get more benefit of the doubt going forward.

Ty Okada

Okada surging from the roster bubble to become a starter has been a huge part of the Seahawks’ defense reaching elite status in recent weeks. However, a lower-tier offense exposed his weaknesses today. With Nick Emmanwori playing a “joker” position and needing freedom to be aggressive when reading quarterbacks, it’s imperative to have other good defensive backs that stay conservative in coverage. While Okada’s coverage game had turned a corner in the Washington and Arizona games, he took a step backwards today against Tennessee. He’s trigger-happy in the run game, but bit too much coming forward and left the middle of the field open when plays broke down- allowing the Titans to grab chunk plays and get back into the game. His aggression is so valuable to this defense, but needs to be measured with tougher offenses coming up like the Colts and the Rams again.

This article originally appeared on Seahawks Wire: Seahawks vs Titans: Seattle Studs and Duds from Tennessee victory