Versus Cowboys, Greg Olsen Was Exactly Who Seahawks Need Him to Be

Rebounding nicely from a rough Week 2 performance against the Patriots, Olsen came through with several clutch receptions to help the Seahawks hold off the Cowboys in an offensive slugfest on Sunday, giving the team the complementary weapon they hoped he would be when signing him in February.

Russell Wilson has been attracting all the headlines and rightfully so, kicking the year off with a record-setting 14 touchdowns to just one interception through the first three games of the season. That lone turnover sticks out like a sore thumb, however, especially when it wasn’t really the fault of Wilson at all.

The responsibility of that interception, instead, falls on the shoulders of 14-year veteran tight end Greg Olsen, who (literally) saw a bullet pass from Wilson bounce off between his eyes and into the hands of Devin McCourty for a pick-six in the Seahawks’ eventual 35-30 victory over the Patriots. From that point forward, Olsen was a non-factor in that game despite seeing the field for 71 percent of the team’s offensive snaps.

Olsen’s blunder became the butt of an ongoing joke throughout the week, but the 35-year old had the last laugh in a strong redemption act in Sunday’s 38-31 win against the Cowboys. Wilson looked Olsen’s way six times during the game, and Olsen hauled in five of those targets for a total of 61 yards while drawing a key defensive pass interference call that set the Seahawks up at Dallas’ one-yard line for an effortless score late in the second quarter.

The Seahawks brought Olsen in to give Wilson a reliable, veteran pass catcher with excellent savvy and situational awareness, which is why his mistake versus New England was so surprising. On Sunday, however, Olsen was every bit that and then some, giving Seattle - and Wilson, specifically - exactly what they had hoped for.

There are three plays of Olsen’s in particular that really stood out on the television broadcast. The first of which happened on a play that was followed by a chaotic, confusing, and time-consuming display by the referees that initially pegged Olsen for illegal touching and Dallas for illegal contact, completely negating a toe-tapping grab by Olsen on the sideline. Moments later, it was determined that Jaylon Smith’s push of Olsen was what made the tight end step out of bounds in the first place and the illegal touching call was waived, which ultimately made the play all the more impressive. After being pushed by Smith, Olsen works his way back inbounds, finds a pocket in front of the pylon, sets his feet, and hauls in a bullet from a scrambling Wilson to not only stop the clock but set up the Seahawks at the goal line right before the half.

Just a few game seconds before then, with under a minute to go before the half and no timeouts left for the Seahawks, Olsen showed his veteran wit by working a comeback route in front of rookie corner Trevon Diggs and taking no risk of being brought down inbounds by stretching the ball to the sideline after the catch, effectively putting Seattle in the red zone with time to work.

Olsen’s biggest and most impactful play of the day, however, came on the Seahawks’ eventual game-winning drive. On fourth down near midfield, with a little over two  minutes on the clock, the Seahawks down by a point, and a defense that had struggled to keep the Cowboys’ offense at bay waiting on the sideline, Olsen found a hole in Dallas’ zone to set up an easy toss from Wilson to move the chains and potentially save Seattle from its first loss of the year.

It’s plays like these that made Olsen so valuable to the Panthers over the past decade and exactly why the Seahawks targeted him so early on in the offseason. While Olsen’s inclusion in the offense doesn’t necessarily scream “high ceiling,” it certainly raises their floor and affords Wilson an additional security blanket late in games outside of Tyler Lockett and DK Metcalf. Week 2 woes aside, Olsen has been as advertised and adds a great deal of experience to an arsenal of offensive weapons that is slowly proving to be the best Wilson has ever had in his career.