It’s Week Two of the NFL season and your Pittsburgh Steelers are tied for the top in the AFC North at 1-0. Pittsburgh comes home this week to take on the 0-1 Seattle Seahawks with a great opportunity to stay undefeated. We reached out to Kole Musgrove, managing editor of Seahawks Wire, for our weekly Q&A. He gave us the inside scoop on this week’s Steelers opponent.
1 – What do you expect to see different from Seattle this week after their offensive struggles last week?
I’m hoping Seattle opens the playbook up a bit. They were beyond hyper-conservative last week… Sam Darnold didn’t even have more than 100 yards passing until under two minutes left in the game! With some health issues in the secondary, Seattle may have to open things up a bit more to help alleviate pressure on their defense.
2 – I know it’s early but what is the mood around Sam Darnold?
I think the mood is still “let’s wait and see” with Darnold. He didn’t do much in Week 1, but that was more of a result of the game plan than anything else. The fumble late was frustrating, but the deep pass to JSN a few plays before was more than enough to make the 12th Man roar. There isn’t a definitive mood set on Darnold yet, but a poor showing in Pittsburgh could obviously change that.
3 – How healthy are the Seahawks on defense heading into this week’s game?
Their secondary might be taking a hit. Rookie safety Nick Emmanwori is OUT, and Devon Witherspoon is DOUBTFUL. However, Julian Love and Ernest Jones IV will be playing and linebacker Uchenna Nwosu will be making his season debut on an already ferocious Seahawks defensive line. Overall, losing Emmanwori and Witherspoon stinks, but this defense should still be a problem.
4 – Give me your prediction for this week.
Steelers 24-17. This is a game I always had circled as an early loss for the Seahawks. I think Seattle’s offense will be solid overall, but there’s still the need to get everyone in the groove of a new system. Not having Witherspoon in the lineup could be the slight dip in edge that Aaron Rodgers needs to exploit issues in the secondary.
