It was just one of those days, a perfect storm of ineptitude as the Seahawks were as sloppy and disjointed as I’ve ever seen them. 4/15 on third down and that includes going 3/3 on the first drive of the game (doing the math, that tells me they were 1/12 the rest of the way). 10 penalties for 83 yards (which felt like 183 yards, as they seemingly came at the absolute WORST possible times). And, ultimately, one back-breaking pick-six that was literally the worst throw I’ve ever seen. I went to the game and had a perfect vantage of the entire play from behind and to the right; at no point was there EVER a receiver open on that play. That play was going for 6 points the other way or … there’s no end to that sentence, that’s how fucking easy it was. Gambling addicts in too deep with the mob don’t choreograph their point-shaving with such blatant disregard for looking totally fucking obvious. I’m not saying Russell Wilson threw away the game on purpose, but he certainly played like it. In the end, it added up to a 25-17 defeat that still saw the Seahawks down at the goalline with no time left on the clock and a chance to put the game into overtime if everything broke right.
What I’m Geeked Out About After Eight Games
There isn’t much to praise about this one, so I’ll shout out my buddy who got us these seats:
The second football game I saw in person over the weekend; the first one went a lot better …
As you can see, it didn’t rain a lick (even though it was looking pretty iffy heading into the weekend) and was actually as pleasant of a weather day as you can expect in early November. What geeked me out the most about this one? Having a rain jacket and not needing it!
Other Things That Caught My Eye (In A Good Way)
I guess there’s something to be said for the way this team fought back. Chris Carson, D.J. Fluker, and Bradley McDougald all left the game with injuries and didn’t return (more on them in a later section); you could argue those are 3 of the 5 most important players on this year’s team after Russell Wilson, and we lost them all for a huge swath of the game. Yet, after looking pretty miserable in giving up 19 points in the first half, the defense stepped up like a champion, giving up 0 in the second half (again, the aforementioned pick-six was the only points the Chargers got). It looked particularly dicey when our onside kick was totally botched, but our defense stood tall and gave our offense a chance to march down the field.
And, credit where it’s due, after that pick-six, Wilson led the Seahawks right down the field for a touchdown that took a little too long (nearly 5 minutes, not coming until AFTER the 2-minute warning). And, he once again worked his magic in getting us back down to the goalline on the final drive of the game. First, with a fantastic long throw that the Chargers defender had to interfere with to keep us from catching it; then with an untimed down on a dart to David Moore that he absolutely should’ve caught. I mean, there’s no guarantee that we would’ve made the 2-point conversion, but we’ll never know what could’ve been, now will we?
Let’s Talk About Competitions Injuries Again
This is bad, you guys. I noted it on Twitter this week, and it’s apparently a real problem: Chris Carson is fragile.
He’s had 2 games this year with 20 or more carries. After the first time, he missed the next game with an injury. The second time was last week, and lo and behold, there he was on the injury report again this week. He tried to give it a go – and looked pretty great in the early going of this one – but ultimately never came out after halftime. And, say what you want about Mike Davis, but he’s no Chris Carson.
To make matters worse, we lost D.J. Fluker and had to roll with Joey Hunt at right guard. We’re 0-3 in games where Fluker has missed some or all of the game, which I’d say makes him pretty fucking important to this team’s chances. From the sound of initial reports, it looks like this could be a long-term issue, which fucking sucks considering we’re going into the hardest stretch of our season. Anyone looking forward to the prospects of playing the Rams or Panthers on the road without Fluker in there manhandling fools? Because I’m not!
Finally, what can you say about Bradley McDougald that hasn’t already been said? We already lost Earl Thomas, but McDougald was playing like a superstar both with and without him! He’s easily our most important secondary player and the dropoff from him to Delano Hill is tragic. The defense is already pretty shaky as it is (see: all those long plays the Chargers were able to rip off in the first half, either with busted coverages or terrible tackling angles) and losing our best tackler and coverage guy in the secondary is only going to make matters 1,000-times worse.
Other Things That Caught My Eye (In A Bad Way)
I mean, where do you start?!
That was the worst I’ve ever seen Russell Wilson. Forget the pick-six, which was bad, don’t get me wrong. But, he was off-target ALL GAME. How many 3rd downs did he blow single-handedly by over-throwing or under-throwing wide open receivers? How many 13-yard sacks did he take by running backwards like a moron? I know he threw all those picks in the NFC Championship Game, but that gets overlooked because of how we came back to win. But, this loss is on Russell more than anyone else, and he needs to wear it this week.
Let’s see, how about the idiotic penalties on our offensive line? How many times do you need to get flagged for leaping into a pile of bodies before you’re going to figure it the fuck out? Stop being so fucking blatant with your attempts to injure opponents in the guise of being “aggressive”. It’s not cool! Be Smarter!
And seriously, what the fuck was up with all those deep plays our defense gave up? That game was damn near the opposite of what I expected. The Chargers are kings at dinking and dunking you to death, but Rivers was able to hit guys wide open deep down field, and if he wasn’t doing that, then Melvin Gordon was running through the biggest holes I’ve ever seen!
That’s another thing: why would you sit your best run-stuffing defensive tackle? Poona Ford’s presence was sorely missed. Someone fucked up royally in deciding the inactives this week, because clearly the Chargers took advantage of our pisspoor run defense. 22 carries for 160 yards.
Bully for the defense for adjusting in the second half, but that was as bad as I’ve ever seen THEM in the first half. This was 2009 Seahawks level of defensive play for 30 minutes. Unacceptable!
No individual shout-outs, because if you suck as a team you get ripped as a team. And this team deserves to get ripped. Everyone except Michael Dickson, who punted like a champ. And believe me, we needed every bit of it.
Also, fuck you Seabass for yet another missed field goal. God damn are we sick of your bullshit.