Having faced the Dolphins twice a year during his time with the Buffalo Bills, Dodson came into the game with a healthy dose of respect for the strain players like Hill, Achane and receiver Jaylen Waddle can put on a defense, so he was thrilled to see the defense limit Hill to 40 yards on three catches, Waddle to 26 yards on four catches, and Achane to 30 rushing yards and 28 receiving yards.
“Being in the AFC East, I have so much respect for those guys,” Dodson said. “At the beginning of the week, I told the guy, ‘Put the track shoes on.’ And guys, we put our track shoes on today, we were in the Olympics. We were running to the ball, we were meeting each other at the ball, we were trusting each other with the angles and stuff like that.”
Making the performance all the more sweet was the fact that Seattle’s defense began their week upset with how things went in last week’s win at New England, particularly because of the way the Patriots were able to rush for 185 yards.
“Last week, we didn’t play well, and I was honestly pissed off about that,” Dodson said.
“And you see how we responded today. We’ve just got to keep stacking it. We’re 1-0 for this week, but we’ve got to go 1-0 again. So after tonight, this game don’t mean nothing.”
Thanks to the defense’s big day, the game felt like it was in Seattle’s control after two quick touchdown drives in the first quarter gave the Seahawks a 17-3 lead. Seattle’s offense got stagnant for a while before putting together a game-sealing 98-yard drive late in the fourth quarter, and while there will be games in which the offense will need to do more to pull out a victory, on this particular Sunday, a dominant defensive performance made any offensive struggles a non-factor.
“When we talk about complementary football, those are the things we talk about,” quarterback Geno Smith said of the way the defense picked up the offense. “Situations aren’t always going to be perfect. Again, we got to eliminate the mistakes, and that starts with me. I’ve got to eliminate putting our defense in tough spots. To see them go out and not flinch, not bat an eye, go out there and put the clamps on that offense and hold them to three points, the only points they got throughout the game, and then they had another big time stop late in the game right before the big drive. You know, so the way they’re playing is lights out. Man, it’s going to give us a chance to win every single game we play.”