The Vikings were no match in a solid 20-13 victory for the Seahawks.  Our starters are clearly better than their starters, and just as importantly, our backups are better than their backups.  There won’t be cause for concern about the Vikings this season, in case you were worried.

But, shit, none of that matters.  Not in lieu of George Fant busting his ACL and needing surgery that will wipe away his whole year.

I could sit here and tell you that Russell Wilson looked great (13/18, 206 yards, 2 TDs in a half of play), I could tell you that Kasen Williams picked up where he left off last week (2 catches, 28 yards, a TD, a superb Special Teams tackle, and almost a second miraculous TD catch), I could tell you the run game looked vastly improved (against improved competition to boot), that Doug Baldwin is already in mid-season form (4 catches for 69 yards, making defenders look SILLY just for THINKING about covering him), that our backup running backs are also great pass-catchers, and that we had a Nick Vannett sighting (1 catch for 32 yards).

On the defensive side of the ball, we were a lot better.  We eventually settled down against the run after the Vikings’ first drive.  We held them in check on third downs.  Shaq Griffin was picked on quite a bit, but it looked like he has some good stuff to build on.  I liked what we got out of Naz Jones and some of our backup D-Linemen (that’ll be a tough cut-down for sure).  Blair Walsh hit a couple of 50-yard field goals and was perfect on his extra points.  And, overall, I thought Special Teams coverage units were solid.  They’ve been better, but not by much.

SO MANY positives coming out of that game, but I can’t help but think of George Fant.

I’ve said it all along:  Fant was the key to this O-Line coming together.  Not Britt, not Joeckel, not Ifedi.  The dropoff from Fant to #2 at that left tackle spot is ENORMOUS, and quite frankly we didn’t even know how good Fant was going to be this year.  By all accounts, he still could’ve been terrible when the calendar flips to September, but what we’ve got in his wake might just be leaps and bounds worse.

There are a couple options, as far as I can tell.  Keep Joeckel where he is at left guard and start someone else (likely Rees Odhiambo) at tackle; or move Joeckel back out to tackle and open up the competition for left guard.  Beyond Odhiambo, I don’t even know who the Seahawks HAVE who can play the left tackle position!  Glowinski, Aboushi and Roos all look to be exclusive to the guard spot, and Ifedi is strictly a right-side player.  Plus, it sounds like while Pocic can play every spot on the line, his very worst spot by a large margin is left tackle.

Well, he might have to suck it up and start working on it, because from what I saw the rest of the game on Friday was pretty miserable.

The Seahawks opted to keep Joeckel at guard and play Odhiambo extensively at tackle, and it wasn’t pretty.  He was beaten like a fucking red-headed stepchild!  Indeed, he might be worse right now than Fant was LAST year!  Just miserable to watch, all around.

So, yeah, I don’t know what the Seahawks should do.  I mean, it’s not like Ifedi was all that much improved in pass pro either, so once again we’re talking about Russell Wilson getting killed off the edge.  And, if Pocic has to try to learn the left tackle position, that pretty much locks us into Ifedi being the starter on the right side.

I hate this.  I hate everything about this.  At least we have two more weeks to figure it out.