I’m not even mad anymore.
The Seattle Seahawks (3-8) are the worst they’ve been since the Jim Mora season. And yeah I contend that the 2010 and 2011 teams were more watchable than this. At least those teams you could tell that something was building up towards the eventual special run of success that we’ve experienced... they just needed a franchise quarterback. Well now that franchise quarterback is a major part of the problem and it feels like a massive rebuild is needed.
No need to think about the playoffs. No need to think about what could’ve been. Accept that this team is bad and don’t fool yourself into anything else to suggest they’re actually a good team.
There are no winners on the offensive side of the ball after that putrid effort. That’s five straight games of failing to clear 300 yards. I can’t even believe they made it to 45 plays even with the two-minute drill at the end. Instead I tip my cap to Tyler Lockett for almost getting to 100 yards again on just 3 catches. Ditto to Gerald Everett for his touchdown and leading the team with 5 catches. Not even Freddie Swain gets the winner tag. His contributions to the game up until his touchdown included a drop, a near muffed punt, and failing to recover the Alex Collins fumble that bounced right to him. I give him a tip of the cap for not botching that touchdown and that’s it.
Winners
Rasheem Green
I am now a strong advocate for re-signing Rasheem Green solely because of his blocked kick and runback for two points at the end of the half. Big boy was motoring down the sideline and ended up being the first player in NFL history to do a block, recover, and score for two points in the brief time that this has been a thing. Green also was one of the better pass rushers on the night (not saying much) and he had his moments in run support before everyone was gassed out.
Jordyn Brooks and Bobby Wagner
I’ve been harsh on Brooks quite a bit this season but he came to play. And for my money he was better than Bobby Wagner, but they were both largely on point. They both had 14 tackles (10 solo) and they were largely meaningful tackles that prevented big gains or prevented first downs. Brooks was even recognizing and stopping screens which feels like winning the Super Bowl at this point. It’s still just his second season so it’s still very much worth giving him time to develop.
Jamal Adams
Hey! It’s two straight road games with a pick for Jamal Adams. But he was just the recipient of a phenomenal play from Quandre Diggs, I was more impressed with Adams being much more disciplined with his tackling and he was pretty good in pass coverage. The only demerit I see for him is getting blocked out on the McKissic touchdown on the screen pass, but otherwise he played well.
Quandre Diggs
Pay him.
Darrell Taylor
Taylor now leads the team with five sacks and was the only Seahawk to register a tackle for loss. He probably could’ve had another sack if not for the elusiveness of Taylor Heinicke. I’m pretty sure he was also front and center for one of those 3rd and 1 run stops.
Michael Dickson
The offense loves to go three-and-out so they can watch Michael Dickson do his thing. I can almost respect that if it didn’t make my eyes bleed.
Losers
Russell Wilson
First of all, happy birthday to Russ. Now to the hot take: this version of Russell Wilson is either not ready to return from his injury or we are watching his rapid decline. We’re getting a little too much of Old Russell Wilson and not enough of the Russell Wilson of old. His 20/31 for 247 yards, 2 TDs statline is remarkably deceptive. The interception he threw on the two-point conversion felt fitting because he should’ve thrown at least two picks earlier in the game. The accuracy on those deep crossers to Tyler Lockett were still there, and his TD to Gerald Everett was one of his best throws all seasons. Everything else about his performance was ghastly, especially the sack he took on the two-minute drill that felt eerily similar to the one he had against the Rams on the possession before his injury.
At present, Wilson is barely a functional NFL starter with his continued 3rd down woes and accuracy issues. And what’s most glaring to me is he is making some reckless decisions that I’ve not seen since his rookie years. That ain’t the injury. Age 33 is when Matt Hasselbeck (whom unlike Russ did have an injury history on him) began his very steep decline. Russell is 33 now. Is history repeating itself? I hope not. But at no point in his career has Wilson looked this bad for this long. Be adamant as much as you want about how this is really just Pete’s offense that Russ is running, but if Pete has been doing that the entire time it sure as shit hasn’t looked this rough. He only looks marginally better than Geno Smith, and that is staggering to think about.
Alex Collins
What a critical fumble by Collins and only the third lost fumble by the Seahawks all season. He only had 14 yards on 7 carries but I chalk a lot of that up to a rotten offensive line, speaking of which...
Offensive Line
Especially Ethan Pocic and Kyle Fuller. The interior of that offensive line got bulldozed by Washington’s front, which I could understand at full strength but they were down Chase Young and Montez Sweat. Mike Solari has to be fired. I think I’ve tiptoed around that long enough given the Tom Cable era, but this o-line was inept at opening holes in the running game and were giving up pressures on the inside too often to count. I don’t know what they do well and I’m sure as hell skeptical of their well-regarded “pass block win rate.”
And this isn’t for lack of investment necessarily. Pocic is a second-round pick, they traded a fourth-rounder for veteran starter Gabe Jackson, and when healthy Damien Lewis is a third-rounder. Duane Brown was acquired for a second-round pick back in 2017 and he unfortunately hit that sharp age-related decline now. This offensive line is not 2017 bad but it definitely ain’t good.
Dee Eskridge
Woof. The rookie had a catch where he failed to pick up a first down when he stepped out of bounds early with no one near him. What was worse was the blown blocks he had on a running play and an Everett screen. Perhaps that’s part of why he hasn’t seen the field a whole lot.
L.J. Collier
I don’t know what the point of Collier’s snaps were. It was surely matchup related for him to get the call over Robert Nkemdiche but him lining up at 3-tech over and over and failing to set the edge or generate anything resembling pressure was maddening to watch. What an unbelievably bad draft pick.
Benson Mayowa
Watching Heinicke give him the okey-doke was sorry.
Carlos Dunlap
No stats other than a penalty that gave Washington a first down. Sad to see him reduced to this after his great career in Cincinnati and valuable plays in 2020 after the midseason trade.
Pete Carroll
Never a doubt that Carroll would punt the ball at the end of the first half with :23 left and with Washington’s kicker injured. Relying on Wilson’s hard count to get any team to jump is a useless experiment except against the 49ers in the NFC Championship Game somehow. It’s the same old story. Although in defense of him I bet the Seahawks would’ve found a way to botch that. But I’ll have more on him later in the week. I’m not going to talk in-depth about his coaching, either.
Shane Waldron
That toss to DeeJay Dallas on 3rd and 1. Why. How in the hell do you have DK Metcalf on your team and you can’t scheme him one simple target? Not even a stupid looking pop pass akin to a jet sweep? Metcalf is talented and shown he’s talented. Some of this is on Wilson but it feels like great coordinators find a way to scheme their best players into favorable situations. Carroll can meddle in the offense all he wants but “DK doesn’t see the ball for almost the entire game” can’t be part of the plan.
It’s pretty messed up that the best offenses of the Russell Wilson era were coordinated by a former Jeff Fisher assistant and the worst one we’ve seen to date is by a former Sean McVay assistant.
Final Notes
- The officiating at the end of the 2nd quarter was a farce. Clay Martin’s team flagged Ugo Amadi for defensive holding when I saw nothing to suggest there was a hold. The Sidney Jones DPI was questionable and then they didn’t flag him for arguable actual DPI a few plays later. Rasheem Green’s roughing the passer penalty was a joke. All of this led to the first McKissic touchdown. Luckily it did give us the Green return so it wasn’t all that bad.
- I’m tired of watching Ken Norton Jr drop his defensive linemen into coverage. It’s a part of NFL defenses so I don’t expect him to never do it, but they did this several times to zero effect. And for all of the warranted criticism of the offense for their shitty time of possession, the defense started the game allowing a 9-minute drive for the second week in a row. An offense that can’t sustain drives and a defense that consistently allows long drives whether they’re fresh or tired.
- Alton Robinson was unlucky to have a surefire strip sack of Heinicke turn into a completed pass. Sums up the season.
- Details details details. That onside kick was perfectly executed except for not lining up properly. What a bummer.
- The Seahawks are dead. Long live the Seahawks. We can watch the rest of the season without worrying about the playoffs. So all I’ve got to say to you is let’s put a dent into the 49ers’ postseason hopes and take them with us into an early offseason.
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