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August 23, 2009 at 11:18 AM

Saturday's exhibition: Good, bad and (a little) ugly

The good

The Seahawks scored touchdowns on their first possession of the first quarter and scored the first possession of the third quarter as well.

"We talked this week about starting ~~fact~~ fast," coach Jim Mora said after the game, "and the importance of that in the first quarter and the third quarter."

Rookie defensive end Nick Reed continued to make plays. He had three tackles, a sack and a half and deflected a punt. It's getting harder and harder to see how he won't be on the regular-season roster when the season begins.

Seattle's 3-minute, 80-yard touchdown drive. The Seahawks managed the clock, moved the ball and capped off the scoring drive with Hasselbeck's perfectly placed pass to T.J. Houshyourredzonethreat ... I mean ... Houshmandzadeh.

"That was easy," Houshmandzadeh said of the 2-yard TD catch. "That wasn't hard at all."

Deon Butler, the receiver. He made two great catches, the first running under a deep lob perfectly placed by quarterback Matt Hasselbeck. The second was even more impressive. He had a dig route that brought him across the field, got separation from Champ Bailey and made a diving catch for a 13-yard gain on third-and-8.

The bad

Deon Butler, the kick returner. Mora said Butler looked average at best in the first exhibition game, and he didn't look much better this time around. He returned three kickoffs in the first quarter, and on two of them wound up tackled inside Seattle's 20.

Denver outgained Seattle in large part because the Seahawks' first-unit defense played the part of first-half patsy. The Seahawks' third-down defense was more rumor than reality on the Broncos' opening drive. Denver converted three third-downs on that 78-yard drive.

Center Chris Spencer suffered an injury to his left quadriceps at the end of the second quarter, and while his status isn't known, that means that three of Seattle's five starting offensive linemen from last season are out. Mike Wahle was cut after failing to recover from shoulder surgery, left tackle Walter Jones is recovering from arthroscopic knee surgery and now Spencer is out.

The ugly

That would be the protection of Hasselbeck. The quarterback made all the right jokes after being sacked three times in the first half.

"They hit pretty hard, but it was good just to do that, and get the feel," he said.

Here's what wasn't good: the protection. Sean Locklear was beat once by Kenny Peterson, a defensive end who came on a stunt and got around Locklear. Locklear would have given up another sack later to Elvis Dumervil. The only thing that prevented it was someone did a worse job of protection than Locklear on that play because by the time Dumervil blew around Locklear, Peterson had already reached Hasselbeck.

Mora passed on passing judgment after the game.

"It's really tough to evaluate an offensive lineman without looking at the tape," Mora said. "So I can't tell you that right now."

Chances are that Seattle's protection won't look any better in hindsight, especially the play in which Denver's 242-pound linebacker D.J. Williams came unimpeded on a delayed blitz and got a point-blank shot on Seattle's quarterback.

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Saturday's exhibition: Good, bad and (a little) ugly

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