Before a season-saving home victory over the Green Bay Packers, the Seattle Seahawks had given their fans little reason to be optimistic about first downs. Because they were bad.
How bad?
Teams who earn a first down most often on first down, ranked:
30. Seahawks
Coming into Week 11 and Thursday Night Football, only two lousy teams, with a combined 5-14 record, were worse than Seattle at moving the chains early. So of course, the Seahawks continued the trend against the Packers.
Seattle elected to run the ball early in series against Green Bay far more often than passing it: on 22 out of 30 first-down plays, Russell Wilson handed it off.