Little help for Jalen Milroe in 1st NFL start, Seahawks drop preseason finale

The best thing for the Seahawks about this final preseason game?

It’s over.

It was Seattle’s reserves against eight Packers regular starters on defense Saturday at Lambeau Field. So… yeah.

Rookie quarterback Jalen Milroe was the unlucky Seahawks quarterback who got the start. The third-round draft choice from Alabama played the entire game behind second-, third- and fourth-string offensive linemen.

They made the Seahawks coaches REALLY appreciate their starting blockers.

Milroe lost three fumbles. He got sacked five times. He got hit way more than coach Mike Macdonald and offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak wanted him to.

Any judgement of Milroe’s progress as a new NFL quarterback is going to have to wait for another day. One in which he plays against guys who aren’t going to get cut in three days.

Milroe completed 13 of 24 passes for 148 yards. His first professional touchdown, an 18-yard pass to Cody White early in the fourth quarter, was Seattle’s only score in a 20-7 loss.

So ends a preseason that until Saturday was wholly encouraging for the offense and its line.

The starting offensive line, that is.

New QB Sam Darnold and all 22 of the Seahawks who will start the season opener Sept. 7 against San Francisco did not play Saturday. Macdonald had his starters participate Thursday in the joint practice against the Packers. That was their final tune-up for the real season.

That’s why none of them were in uniform at Lambeau Field. They were all wearing matching team hats over their game jerseys and sweats. That made them more like the Seattle Whitecaps for this preseason finale.

Milroe paid the price for that. Emotionless Jalen Milroe.

Milroe played, or tried to play, behind many blockers who won’t be on the roster when Seattle cuts from 90 to 53 players for the regular season by Tuesday’s 1 p.m. league deadline.

They predictably failed to block the Packers regular starters who played early in the game. Besides the fumbles and the sacks, Milroe ran six times for 31 yards. On one scramble in the second quarter he needed rookie running back Damien Martinez to merely get in a Packer’s way for the QB to gain the first down just across midfield. Martinez didn’t get near any defender. Milroe got tackled short of the line to gain.

Yet the unflappable rookie had the same demeanor all day. After each of the four sacks, after each of the two turnovers, after two more turnovers on downs with his incomplete and batted-down passes, Milroe had the same reaction: None.

After his touchdown pass to White, Milroe looked the same he did after the negative plays. The difference that time was he got more congratulations and pats on his back from teammates on the Seahawks sideline.

On a 3rd and 7 with Green Bay ahead 7-0 early, Seahawks backup right tackle Mike Jerrell got beaten badly off the right edge by Green Bay’s Brenton Cox. Cox hit Milroe for a sack and knocked the ball out of the quarterback’s hand. Kingley Enagbare recovered at the Seattle 30.

The Packers turned that into a field goal for a 10-0 lead.

Early in the second quarter, Milroe pushed up the middle behind reserve center Federico Maranges on 3rd and 1 past the line to gain. But Milroe lost control of the ball in the scrum as he pushed forward. The Packers recovered that second fumble, at the Seahawks 47.

The Packers turned that into a touchdown pass and 17-0 lead. Green Bay’s Will Sheppard beat undrafted rookie cornerback Keydrain Calligan across the end zone for a 3-yard touchdown reception, on a pass from Green Bay fourth-string quarterback Taylor Elgersma.

It was that kind of preseason game.

Milroe’s third lost fumble came with 1:58 left in the game. He didn’t appear ready to catch the shotgun snap of rookie center Mason Richman coming out of the timeout for the 2-minute warning.

Finally, with 4 minutes left in the second quarter, Seattle’s coaches got what they wanted to see from Milroe.

On the first play after Green Bay took that 17-0 lead, the rookie QB dropped straight back to pass. He stood tall, looking taller than his 6 feet 2. With time to throw for one of the only times in the first half, Milroe zinged a dart of a throw onto the chest of Marquez Valdes-Scantling deep across the middle. The 27-yard completion was Milroe’s best play yet.

It was the best play of the preseason for Valdes-Scantling. The 30-year-old veteran was passed by rookie Tory Horton, who was on the first-team offense until the rookie injured his ankle last week. Horton did not play Saturday.

The fact that Valdes-Scantling started and played while all other veteran regulars were watching from the sideline in those white caps puts Valdes-Scantling’s roster spot in question for Tuesday’s cut day.

After the early fumbles by Milroe, quarterbacks coach Andrew Janocko (to whom offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak yielded play-calling on Saturday) called draw-play runs on two third and longs. The intent appeared to be to keep Milroe from being exposed further to hits by the Packers’ pass rush against Seattle’s porous reserve offensive line.

Milroe’s day would have looked tons better had his 50-yard pass in the final minute of the first half not tipped off the fingers of wide receiver Cody White’s outstretched left hand. White had gotten steps beyond the last Packers defender on the throw, into the red zone. But the pass was incomplete.

Milroe was sacked three times in addition to losing the two fumbles in the first half. It ended with Seattle down 20-0 – and with injuries. Jake Bobo injured

Jake Bobo was one of the few veteran regulars who played Saturday.

He and the Seahawks coaches may have wished he hadn’t.

Bobo was the punt returner in the first half. He brought back a 66-yard punt 14 yards straight upfield. On his second return, as he was catching the punt, teammate Tyler Hall got blocked into him. Bobo fell on the contact onto the back of Hall’s right leg.

After a few, tense minutes, Hall got up. He needed help from trainers to stand, then limp off not putting weight on his right leg. He went to the locker room on the back of a motorized cart.

Jalen Sundell, Charles Cross, Grey Zabel, Anthony Bradford, and Abe Lucas were among those starters in white Seahawks team caps over dark-blue sweats on the sideline for all of Saturday’s game

Olu Oluwatimi was in full pads with his helmet on.

That showed Sundell has won the starting center job for week one.

Oluwatimi did not play. He appeared to be on standby if needed, much like veteran backup quarterback Drew Lock, who was also in full pads but did not play.