Tag Archives: Jamal Adams

The Seahawks Were Pretty Great On Offense, Simply Atrocious On Defense

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If you take a step back, that was actually a cool, entertaining Thursday Night Football game. If we had no rooting interest in the outcome, how can you beat a game with zero punts, nine touchdowns, and lots of great plays by really talented play-makers? Admittedly, I do like a little more competence out of the defenses I’m watching, but this was the perfect game for a Thursday. I don’t take these games seriously anyway, so why not have a lot of offensive fun?

I’ll admit, I didn’t have a lot emotionally riding on the Seahawks in this one. I picked against them in my weekly pick ’em game, I had plenty of Cowboys in fantasy (Dak in one league, CeeDee and Pollard in another), and I’m at the point of the season where I’d rather we just lose every game going forward. I don’t believe this is a Super Bowl contender, I don’t believe Geno Smith will ever be the answer at quarterback, and I need the Seahawks to go on a significant losing streak to close out the regular season, as that will be the only way Pete Carroll will be able to see that, objectively, I’m right.

That being said, I couldn’t help getting swept up in the action. The Seahawks were once again wearing their throwback jerseys, backs were against walls, and if ever there was hope of winning a game in this gauntlet stretch we’re in, this was it. The Cowboys are good, but flawed. They were ripe for the picking. They were at home – where they were 5-0 heading into this game – they were on a three-game winning streak where they’ve been absolutely dominating the opposition, and I’m sure they were somewhat looking ahead to their showdown with the Eagles next week. Especially if the Eagles lose to the 49ers this week, that game could put the Cowboys in the driver’s seat for the division.

The Seahawks needed this game more than the Cowboys, and they came out of the gates playing like it. Our third play of the game was a third down conversion to D.K. Metcalf that went 73 yards to the house. Right after he caught the ball, he was ten yards away from the nearest defender, yet he turned on the jets like they were right on his heels. That’s what this game meant to us. Going above and beyond.

D.K. was phenomenal in this game, catching 6 for 134 and 3 TDs. Jaxon Smith-Njigba had maybe his best game as a pro (7 for 62). Zach Charbonnet played his ass off before injuring his knee late in the game; he finished with 60 yards rushing and a TD, with 1 reception for 39 yards. More importantly, Geno Smith was on it in this one: 23/41 for 334 yards, 3 TDs, and 1 INT. With zero sacks to boot, against an extremely ferocious Dallas pass rush.

If we had managed to play this well on offense on Thanksgiving, maybe we would’ve stood a chance against the 49ers!

The problem with this one is that the defense brought nothing to the table. We forced them into a 4 & Out after the interception left them in Seahawks territory, but even that was a clear CeeDee Lamb drop that would’ve otherwise easily kept the drive going. Quite frankly, if it weren’t for a couple of drops (of admittedly tough catches), this game would’ve been a Dallas blowout!

Heading into this game, the Seahawks were 36-0 in the Pete Carroll era when they’ve scored 35 or more points. It should go without saying, but when you score 35 points in a football game, YOU SHOULD WIN THAT FOOTBALL GAME! I know a lot of people are going to point to the Seahawks’ performance on 4th down (0 for 3), in particular our final play of the game, and call for Shane Waldron’s head, but don’t let that distract you from this being an all-time bungled defensive showing.

If I had to nitpick the offense, I’d start with Charles Cross. He totally whiffed on our 4th & 1 play, when Charbonnet was running behind him only to get stuffed. He looked mediocre to bad all game; decidedly not worthy of an upper first round draft pick.

I couldn’t tell you what happened on the second fourth down play. There was immediate pressure, but I don’t remember who that was on. It’s unfortunate that Smith and Smith-Njigba weren’t on the same page. It looked like Geno threw it up to him, but he didn’t see the ball and didn’t seem to be aware that it might be coming his way. Had he had the proper awareness of the situation, he might’ve been on the lookout for a quick pass and adjusted his route accordingly. It certainly looked like a ball he could’ve gotten to, if his head was on a swivel. That’s a play Doug Baldwin in his prime makes 10 times out of 10.

But, it’s the final play, ye gods. Dallas rushed six. We let our offensive linemen single-block the first five, leaving Micah Parsons unblocked on the edge. DeeJay Dallas was in the backfield. He was in the game either because Zach Charbonnet was injured (and couldn’t have played anyway), or because it was a 2-minute offense and that’s DeeJay’s role. I have my doubts about the second part of that, because Charbonnet was in there at the end of the first half, so it would stand to reason he’d remain out there in this situation if he was capable of going.

Almost immediately after the game, we were bombarded with video noting how we intentionally left Parsons unblocked. You know, probably the best pure pass rusher in the game of football today? That guy? Yeah. DeeJay was supposed to peel off in the flat and be the number one read to convert the 4th & 2. Except, another defensive lineman forced his way into the backfield and DeeJay got caught up in the wash. Parsons was in Geno’s face almost instantly, and all he could do to avoid a sack was throw the ball at DeeJay’s feet. At that point – with the game clearly hinging on that one play – I don’t know why you don’t just heave the ball straight up into the air and hope for the best, but that’s neither here nor there.

What a crap play call against that defense! Do literally anything else! Max protect, align DeeJay on that side to try to block Parsons, throw a slant to D.K. Something! Not a play where Parsons can get to the quarterback in 0.2 seconds, because not even Tom Brady himself would’ve been able to convert it with that play call.

But, again, it was an otherwise good-to-great game from Shane Waldron, Geno Smith, and the rest of the offensive crew. 35 points is good enough. Except it wasn’t today, and that’s all on the defense.

I will say that it was tough watching some of the penalties in the secondary. There was A LOT of ticky-tack calls going on. And the call against Bobby Wagner was flat out fucking wrong. If I had one gripe about my overall enjoyment of this game, it was the flags. Let guys play. I’d rather they allow a little extra grabbing and hand-fighting than nothing at all. Or, what we actually got last night, which was three quarters of nothing at all, followed by it being pretty much a free-for-all in the fourth quarter. Which you had to know was coming, either by design, or because refs are gonna ref and let things go late in games.

As much as I love to shit on terrible referee performances, I can’t blame them for this one. The Seahawks’ defense was total ass. Devon Witherspoon, Jamal Adams, and Riq Woolen all had mediocre-to-terrible games. Bobby Wagner isn’t able to cover anyone in space unless they literally run right at him and stop; he’s a fucking statue out there. The pass rush did get to Dak for 4 sacks, but they seemed pretty quiet otherwise (and Darrell Taylor whiffed HARD on another potential sack, having Dak dead to rights before letting him go). The Cowboys were 8/14 on third down and 1/2 on fourth down; that’s all you need to know. They dominated in total plays (79-64) and therefore in time of possession (36:27 to 23:33).

Now we get a little extra rest before going on the road to get decimated by the 49ers again. So, enjoy this Seahawks-free weekend while you can!

Do The Seahawks Seem Like A Playoff Team?

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The Seahawks are 6-3 right now. They’re tied for the division lead with the 49ers (who own the tiebreaker edge based on divisional record) and are technically the best of the wild card bunch (with the tiebreaker edge over Dallas based on conference record). That’s a fifth seed, for those keeping track at home. If that were to hold until the end of the regular season, we would almost certainly be facing the winner of the NFC South in the wild card round, who will almost certainly have a worse regular season record.

But, I dunno. When I think of playoff teams, I think of teams that can legitimately win it all. I know that’s not the case (that’s never the case), but to me, there are capital P Playoff Teams, and there are teams that just so happen to make the playoffs. Someone’s gotta be fodder for the legitimate Playoff Teams, until we get to the point where there are only legitimate Playoff Teams left standing.

The Seahawks made the playoffs last year, but they weren’t a Playoff Team. They also started 6-3, and were actually in the lead for the NFC West before the 49ers got their act together and went on a huge run to close the regular season at 13-4. The Seahawks finished 9-8 and were the aforementioned fodder for those very 49ers in the opening round of the playoffs.

You could make an argument that the Seahawks were a Playoff Team in 2020, finishing 12-4, winning the NFC West, but Playoff Teams don’t lose in the first round to a Rams team playing two backup quarterbacks (starting with John Wolford before he got hurt and was replaced by the benched Jared Goff, who obviously would go on to better things with the Lions, but was still a mess at the time).

In reality, the Seahawks haven’t been a Playoff Team since 2015, when they got buzzsawed by the eventual Super Bowl runner ups in Carolina.

Playoff Teams have real strengths that stand out against elite competition. Playoff Teams don’t just feast on the mediocre and the bottom-dwellers. Playoff Teams find ways to win against the best of the best.

Before this past weekend, I would’ve told you our only quality victory was at Detroit in week two. The longer this season goes, the more impressive that’s going to look; the Lions feel like a Playoff Team. With Cleveland advancing to 6-3 after beating the Ravens, I think that victory gets elevated a little bit (even though we beat their backup QB); at least the Browns have an amazing defense, and we were still able to move the ball and put up some points on them.

We can’t write this Seahawks team off yet, without seeing how they do in the games going forward. There are going to be plenty of opportunities for us to show up against the best of the best: two against the 49ers, the Eagles, the Cowboys, all in a row. Right now, I would say we’re 2-2 against quality opponents, with a hard-fought loss at Cincy, and a drubbing at Baltimore. If we finish that gauntlet stretch going 2-2, splitting with the 49ers and splitting with the NFC East teams, that gives us a 4-4 record in such games, and puts us in good shape the rest of the way. I might buy us as a team that can make some noise in the post-season.

That being said, A) going 2-2 in that stretch is a HUGE “if”. It wouldn’t shock me in the slightest if we went 0-4 against those teams. All of them have amazing defenses, and if Geno doesn’t show up, they could be significantly ugly losses like we had against the Ravens. And B) even if we go 2-2, that doesn’t automatically guarantee we’re going to take care of business against the four other teams who aren’t very good. The Rams are always a nightmare, Pittsburgh has a terrific defense, Arizona has played hard all year and are getting healthy at the right time, and Tennessee is extremely well-coached. Going 2-2 during the gauntlet does us no good if we also go 2-2 against the dregs, finishing 10-7 and probably in a lesser wild card spot that has us facing one of the top dogs again.

I keep coming back to the concept that the Seahawks don’t really do anything great. They’re okay in a lot of areas, and they’ve feasted on most of the teams they should’ve beaten, but that only gets you so far.

The rushing attack is fine; I like both of our backs and think they bring some diverse and impactful things to this offense. But, they also feel underutilized; we tend to steer away from the running game for long stretches. And by the time we get back to it, it feels like teams have adjusted to what we were doing.

Our passing game is okay, but Geno has been hyper mistake-prone, it seems like guys are having trouble getting open (or we’re having trouble scheming them open), and we’re not really winning a lot of 50/50 balls. This team turtles up in the biggest spots (on third down, and in the red zone), and when we’re going bad, everything snowballs for entire quarters, halves, or even games. Playoff Teams don’t do that!

No one can say the run defense isn’t improved, but you don’t win championships on stout run defense. I would say the pass rush is better than expected, but we also lost our best pass rusher for the year in Nwosu, and had to trade significant draft capital just to bring in Leonard Williams to try to shore things up. When have these trades ever worked for us? Williams seemed to make an impact last week at times, but one guy isn’t going to automatically take this team to a top level.

I still haven’t figured out if this secondary is the team’s strength or not. It feels like it should be. It was certainly projected to be heading into the season. But, guys were injured early and they got off to a pretty horrid start. They’ve picked it up significantly with Devon Witherspoon, Riq Woolen, and Jamal Adams back in the fold. But, what happened the last two weeks? Baltimore was able to do whatever they wanted against us, and Washington definitely found large swaths of green grass in the intermediate zones of the defense, with their running backs and tight ends dominating. Is that on the secondary? I would say somewhat. Where were our safeties? How atrocious was the tackling? It’s not the L.O.B. and comparisons to such are lazy and pointless. But, if you want to be a true Playoff Team, you need a unit like the L.O.B. to give you some real validity.

Good, not great, seems to be the mark of this Seahawks team. This is the time of the year where pundits like to point out all the flaws in every team, to give people like Seahawks fans hope that maybe we’re in that calibre as the Eagles, 49ers, etc. The Eagles are 8-1, and yet you’d think they’re the Saints or something. They had a mistake-prone game against the Jets’ elite defense on the road, and still only lost by one possession. No, they haven’t been running up the score like they did last year, but I would also argue that none of their victories have felt in jeopardy. The 49ers famously had that 3-game losing streak to dip below the Seahawks for a week, but then what happened? They had their BYE, they got guys healthy, and they absolutely stomped the Jags into smithereens. They might conceivably not lose again the rest of the way; they did something VERY similar last year! As for the Lions, they’re 7-2 and the biggest knock against them seems to be the fact that they’re the Lions. Sure, they got roughed up by the Ravens like we did, and they lost to us, so they might be at a similar level to the Seahawks. Their schedule is so easy, they might not be discovered as frauds until the playoffs, but there’s a lot to like about the way that team is set up. Their offense is no joke, both running and throwing, and they’ve got some quality players up front on defense that can make lives miserable.

The Seahawks feel like a second-tier team, on par with the Lions and Cowboys. Of those three, I think I have the least amount of faith in the Seahawks. That’s a tough thing to feel about a team that’s highly likely to be involved in the post-season in some capacity. We’ll probably make the playoffs, sure, but I don’t think we’ll win a game once we get there. In that sense, what’s the point? It’s like we weren’t even there at all!

The hope, then, has to be that 2023 is a jumping-off point. A la 2011 or 2012. But, by the end of 2012, we were one of the best teams in the league, who got beaten by a bad first half of football in the divisional round. I don’t see that kind of finish happening fo this squad. There’s a ceiling with Geno Smith that there wasn’t with a rookie Russell Wilson. And that, as we all suspect – as much as we hate to admit it, because we all generally like Geno – is going to be our ultimate downfall, and the reason why not only this team isn’t a Playoff Team, but it won’t be a legitimate contender until we find his eventual replacement.

The Seahawks Traded For Leonard Williams!

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This is exciting news!

Here’s the deal: the New York Giants sent Leonard Williams; the Seahawks sent a 2nd round pick in 2024 and a 5th round pick in 2025. The Giants are also paying the lion’s share of Williams’ remaining salary, which means the Seahawks only have to pay the pro-rated portion of the veteran minimum, or around $647K.

It’s not an insignificant price for the Seahawks. A second round pick for a guy on the final year of his deal isn’t nothing. But, given our cap situation, it was a necessary one if we wanted to make this upgrade along the interior of our defensive line. The rationale – if any face-saving is to be had post-2023 – is that the Seahawks could be in line for a compensatory 4th or even 3rd round pick next year, should Williams sign with another team next year.

Of course, that would mean we don’t bring in too many outside free agents to negate that possibility. That would also mean he doesn’t suffer a significant injury, or otherwise play himself into a lower-than-expected new contract. Don’t forget the whole Sheldon Richardson debacle. Part of the appeal of giving up a second rounder to the Jets was the likelihood that he would kick ass in Seattle and sign a huge deal the following year. He ended up sucking and had to settle for a prove-it deal that netted us nothing in compensatory picks. Since then, I’ve stopped believing in those things, taking more of an I’ll Believe It When I See It approach.

That would also mean, not for nothing, that the Seahawks don’t find a way to extend Williams after the season, or even sometime during this season, if he plays well and we can fit him into our future plans!

But, enough about that. This is clearly a move designed to win NOW, and I for one couldn’t be more thrilled.

Are we a Leonard Williams away from being a Super Bowl contender? That remains to be seen. Even with him, and even with an inordinate amount of good injury luck the rest of the way, it’s probably iffy at best. But this shores up what could be argued as our biggest weakness.

For what it’s worth, I don’t like the word “weakness” when it comes to our D-Line. I think our D-Line has been solid-to-good this year as it is. But, Williams playing at his best could take the D-Line from good-to-great, and that’s vital if we do want to be a Super Bowl contender. I would argue we weren’t one before; now, at least we have the potential to be.

An interior with Williams, Jones, and Reed is as good as it gets, across the board. There’s no one uber-stud, but three very good players, with little drop-off behind them. Throw in our outside guys – Clark, Edwards, Mafe, Hall, Taylor – along with Wagner and Brooks, and you’ve got a front seven that’s pretty remarkable. The secondary has been coming along nicely since Witherspoon, Woolen, and Adams have gotten healthier, so there’s really not a weak link on that side of the ball.

It could be argued – especially as the offensive line gets healthier – that the biggest “weakness” on this team is Geno Smith (depending on your opinion of Jason Myers). But, at this point, as long as we don’t suffer a rash of injuries to our best guys, Geno Smith shouldn’t be the reason why we don’t contend for a Super Bowl. That’s not a huge ringing endorsement of his abilities, but if he plays within himself, the Seahawks have as good a chance as anyone to go all the way.

It’s interesting, because part of me still feels like the Seahawks are a year away. Another small part of me feels like the Seahawks are infinity away, because Geno Smith will never be the guy to take us all the way. I guess we’ll see. But, with the addition of Williams, this is as good as this roster has been – top to bottom – since 2015. I don’t know if this team could hang with that team, but it can certainly hang with what the NFC is trotting out there in 2023.

Leonard Williams is great. He’s got 39.5 career sacks, spanning 8 and a half seasons. He’s ranged anywhere from 0.5 to 11.5 sacks per year, which is quite the span. He’s got 1.5 sacks so far this year, but is coming off of an excellent three-game stretch, where the Giants have really picked it up on that side of the ball. Williams is no small part of that; even when he’s not filling up the stat sheet, he’s commanding enough attention to open up opportunities for others around him. He’s also, obviously, got a lot of incentive to continue being great, given his free agent status at season’s end. And, I’m sure there will be a considerable morale boost going from a 2-win Giants team that just lost to the Jets, to a 5-win Seahawks team currently sitting in first place in the NFC West.

And, like I said, there’s always a chance we could keep him around, if he has a good time here and we’re able to pony up the dough. Jarran Reed is under contract for a very reasonable amount next year (he could also be cut with a low dead cap hit). We might want to wrap up Boye Mafe before he hits his final year in 2024; that could buy us a little savings. Jordyn Brooks will be a free agent, and could command a lot of attention, but he’s still an inside linebacker, and they don’t necessarily break the bank. My point is – without knowing every single in and out of the Seahawks’ cap situation next year – I think we should have some wiggle room if Williams proves he’s worthy of being a part of this thing going forward. It’s always better, in this case, to have the guy in your system ahead of time, to know for sure if he’s a fit. This is a win all the way around, in my book.

The Seahawks Started Strong & Ended Lucky To Beat The Browns

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The game certainly didn’t go the way I expected, at least through the first quarter. The last three quarters were pretty … yeah, pretty ugly.

I ultimately didn’t come away very impressed with the Browns’ defense. Seems like you can really move the ball against them. The Seahawks regularly had guys open, and were able to gash them on some pretty big runs (we averaged over 9 yards per carry with our running backs), and quite frankly, the Seahawks should’ve won by more. But, Geno Smith had an abysmal game, and … I’ve got thoughts about D.K. Metcalf.

Geno had 2 TDs and 2 picks. It’s hard to fully blame him for the two interceptions, because one was tipped, and the other was a situation where it looked like D.K. could’ve come back to the football instead of levelling off his route. But, nevertheless, neither were well-thrown balls, and both were pretty bad decisions. There was also the near-interception that was dropped by Cleveland – on a route where JSN was supposed to continue his route to the outside rather than cutting it short – that would’ve easily gone for a pick six; I would argue that was another terrible throw and poor decision, that had little chance of being completed even if JSN had run the route Geno thought he was going to run.

He was all over the place, all day. Balls too high, balls too low, balls behind guys. The best thing you could say about Geno’s day is that he only took one sack (to Myles Garrett, naturally) because he was quick with the release. Nevertheless, that lone sack came on 3rd & 11 from the Cleveland 41 yard line when we were down by 3 points in the fourth quarter. A promising drive to maybe tie the game ended in a punt, and almost resulted in a loss.

That’s because the Seahawks’ defense took a considerable step back in effectiveness in this one. It didn’t seem that way early! Just as it seemed like the Seahawks’ offense had itself figured out – taking a 17-7 lead through the first quarter – it seemed like the Seahawks’ defense would continue kicking ass and taking names, having forced a fumble on a Jordyn Brooks sack, and Woolen picking the ball off early in the second. But, the Browns were weirdly methodical for most of the rest of the game, cutting the deficit to 17-14 at halftime, then taking a 20-17 lead in the third quarter on a couple of field goal drives.

The Browns ran it 40 times for 155 yards. 3.9 yards per carry isn’t amazing or anything, but running it that many times means they were effective in moving the chains. They were 6/15 on third downs (0/1 on fourth), and held a 36:40 to 23:20 time of possession advantage. Part of that is Cleveland forcing four 3 & Outs, but part of that was them getting the job done on 3rd & short. P.J. Walker was no slouch in this one; not a great completion percentage (15/31), but he hit it for 8.0 yards per attempt, for 248 yards. Amari Cooper caught it 6 for 89, and David Njoku caught 4 for 77 and a TD. They really controlled the line of scrimmage, and nearly schemed us to death with screen plays.

The defense looked like it was reacting more than dictating terms. You could see glimpses of eliteness, but also too many instances of this team looking the way it’s looked the last few years. Maybe the Browns are just a bad matchup for us. If that’s the case, maybe try to sleep in next week when we play the Ravens at 10am, because they’re like the Browns if they only had an MVP at quarterback.

We would’ve lost this game if it weren’t for a ball bouncing off of a blitzing Jamal Adams’ helmet, landing in the outstretched arms of Julian Love late in the fourth quarter. With the ball at our own 43 yard line at the 2 minute warning, we were able to reignite the offense with a deft mix of short and intermediate passes, along with a superb play by Fant to rumble for 27 yards to set up a red zone situation. Jaxon Smith-Njigba caught either a swing pass or a screen and took it to the house behind a fantasic D.K. Metcalf block. Had the Browns completed that third down pass, though, and that very well might’ve sunk us.

As for D.K., I dunno. I am of the tinfoil hat opinion that he was secretly benched last week for talking smack about the team. As such, I was watching him closely to see how invested he’d be in the outcome of this game. I’d say that outlook is muddied.

He certainly didn’t appear to come close to drawing any 15-yard penalties, with a very workmanlike persona. You could see Browns defenders jawing at him, and then you saw D.K. turn around and walk back towards the huddle or to his own sideline. Very commendable, but of course, I’m not going to say he’s magically cured. We’ve seen him go stretches of being cool, calm, and collected, for games at a time.

I also saw a guy who only caught 5 balls on 14 targets. No egregious drops or anything, and given how bad Geno looked in this one, it’s hard to tell if the 9 incompletes were on the quarterback being wild, or the receiver not being where the quarterback thought he was going to be. Someone who has quit on his team – but doesn’t want to make it LOOK like he’s quit on the team – isn’t just going to blatantly drop balls that are right in his bread basket. He’s going to finesse it. He’s going to maybe be a half a step too slow. Maybe he goes out of his way to avoid contact. Maybe he pulls himself out of the game for an extra play or two.

That being said, his block on the game-winning TD was a thing of beauty, disengaging at exactly the right moment. So, I fully acknowledge that this is me being Tinfoil Hat Guy, but it’s just something I’m going to monitor going forward. I am nothing if not curious about this whole saga.

It was cool to see Tyler Lockett have a breakout game; feels like it’s been a while since he’s been as wide open as he was in this one. It was cool to see Jake Bobo hit an end-around for a 3-yard TD (sweet cut up the field when stringing it out would’ve gotten him stuffed). And, obviously, it was VERY cool to see JSN have the glory at the end.

On the defensive side of the ball, I thought we got levied with a bunch of ticky-tack bullshit. Two different hands-to-the-face penalties propped the Browns up and kept them moving; both seemed weak as hell, with either the offensive player moving his head into the opposing player’s hand, or the offensive player physically moving the defender’s hand with his hand into his own face. Either way, they were pretty glancing blows, and neither seemed to rise to the level of the intent of that penalty.

I thought Riq Woolen had a humongous game, and would’ve been even better if he could’ve gotten that second pick. Great to see him have such a big impact after all the eyes of the NFL community had been on Devon Witherspoon. Speaking of, I thought he was pretty quiet (except for, again, the ticky-tack penalty he had), which maybe speaks to teams avoiding him whenever possible. It also seemed like Jamal Adams had a pretty quiet game, until the very end with the head-block of the Walker pass. Cool to see Love get his first interception in a Seahawks uniform though!

Bobby Wagner was all over the place, Jordyn Brooks – at times – was the best player on the field, and Boye Mafe – at other times – was also the best player on the field. The latter two each had sacks, with Brooks getting the forced fumble, which was recovered by Mafe (who had 4 QB hits and a TFL). Also, big ups to Darrell Taylor for getting a game-sealing sack at the end, to eliminate any chance of a Browns late comeback.

Frank Clark did, indeed, make his return; he looked a little rusty. Derick Hall had a couple of really good plays, but also lost contain a couple times (one of them was a Walker scramble for 9 yards). You know who didn’t look rusty? Dre’Mont Jones, who not-so-quietly had a TFL and 3 QB hits. He made an impact, even if he didn’t blow up the stat sheet.

Great punting day by Dickson. Clean kicking day by Myers. The special teams didn’t take over the game or anything, but it also didn’t cost us.

I’m not going to say that’s a game you HAVE to have, but it’s one you really really want to have. They’re an AFC opponent, so obviously it means a little less that way. But, it’s a home game, it’s a winnable 50/50 type game, and it came against a highly-ranked defensive unit (who didn’t always look it on Sunday, and hasn’t looked it very much at all over the last two weeks). If nothing else, it’s nice to see the Seahawks just put up 24 points on a top tier defense. It’s nice that we didn’t totally go in the fucking tank for three full-ass quarters. We figured it out, when it mattered most. Geno had a crap game, yet he led us to a come-from-behind victory in the fourth quarter. These are the games you have to win if you’re going to contend for the division, and a spot among the NFC’s best.

Which, incidentally, is where we are now. At 5-2, we’ve surpassed the 49ers, who are 5-3 after losing their third straight game. We’re in first place in the division, and we’re only trailing the 7-1 Eagles (who, in spite of their record, don’t look nearly as dominant as they did last season); we’re tied with the 5-2 Cowboys, but I don’t know if anyone really considers them to be a legitimate top tier threat.

I’m Having A Hard Time Predicting This Seahawks Vs. Cardinals Game

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Do you ever smell a rat sometimes? I don’t mean literally, of course; I certainly wouldn’t recommend doing that. But, I dunno, there’s just something fishy about this Seahawks/Cardinals game, that I can’t quite put my finger on.

Maybe I’m over-thinking this. I probably am. On paper, this shouldn’t even be a question. The Seahawks are largely healthy, they’re at home, they’re favored by 8 points. The Cardinals are still rolling with Josh Dobbs, they’re missing their top offensive weapon in James Conner, they have a new coaching staff, and they seem to be in the beginning stages of a considerable rebuild. The Seahawks are coming off of a frustrating loss in a game they should have won, the defense is improving week by week, they have weapons all over the field. This has the look of a game where the Seahawks get right against a clearly-inferior opponent.

Yet, we’ve been saying all season long: the Cards have been frisky! Sure, they’ve lost their last three games by double-digits, but all of those games were one-score contests heading into the fourth quarter. And it’s not like the Seahawks have shown any sustained excellence outside of that Giants massacre on Monday night.

The thing I get caught up on is the fact that I don’t know what exactly the Cardinals do well. They’re pretty miserable on defense, they don’t score very much. They seem to run the ball well, but again, Conner is out and their backups are nothing to write home about. Their quarterback isn’t much of a passer, but he’s mobile. He doesn’t really turn the ball over a lot, and he doesn’t take an inordinate amount of sacks.

There’s also the Suicide Pool aspect to this game. If you’re fortunate enough to still be alive in any Eliminator-type contest, you probably haven’t picked the Seahawks yet. I know I’m in that boat, along with most of the remaining participants in my league. In fact, only one person who’s still alive has already used the Seahawks. This has the feel of a situation where the rest of us take the Hawks, they lose to the Cards, and a champion is crowned.

The Seahawks are 7-6 at home to the Cards in the Pete Carroll era; 5-6 since Russell Wilson’s rookie year, and 3-5 since 2015. There’s been some good Cardinals teams in that span, but a whole lotta crap as well. Who can forget Colt McCoy’s mastery over us?

A good team – a team that can truly contend for the NFC West title – would win this one handily. But, I don’t know if I’m there yet. I can’t lay out a good case for us to lose to the Cards, other than weird shit happening. The defense goes conservative, doesn’t touch Dobbs, manages to keep it close, but ultimately gives up a score late to lose it 19-16. That case, obviously, coincides with the Seahawks’ offense failing to move the ball with any sort of regularity, but again, how does that work? It made sense with the Bengals; they have a tremendous front seven, and a rock-solid coaching staff. Who do the Cards have on defense, other than Budda Baker returning from IR or PUP or whatever it was that he was on?

Considering our upcoming matchups against the Browns and Ravens, the Seahawks can ill-afford to lose this Sunday. That being said, would it surprise anyone if we lost to the Cards, but then followed that up with wins in the subsequent two weeks? This is what we do; the Seahawks make no sense!

There’s also a bit of turmoil to deal with (when isn’t there?). The offensive line is still in flux; perhaps with Jason Peters making his first start of the season. People seem to finally be fed up with D.K. Metcalf hurting the team with his antics. The coaching staff put up a list of players who’ve committed the most penalties on the team and he was right there at the top of the list. He fired back in his press conference this week telling everyone what he thought of that (not much) and how he’s not going to change the way he plays (as if anyone ever doubted that, considering nothing has changed from the start, in spite of a lot of lip service on the matter). And, we’re always one false move away from Jamal Adams being injured; that’s a spectre that’s never going to stop hanging over our heads until it inevitably happens all at once.

This week’s slate of games, in general, seems really hard to pick. I’ve always taken that to mean we’re in for a bunch of upsets. Of course, I’m always wrong when I expect a ton of upsets; it’s when you LEAST expect them that they happen. But, I dunno. I’ve generally felt like I had a handle on picking games thus far this year; this week is an absolute mystery to me.

In the end, I have to predict the Seahawks will prevail, but I don’t feel great about it. It hasn’t felt like a “home field advantage” around here in quite some time. I don’t blame the fans for that one bit; I think the fans are fine. It’s the product on the field that’s costing us these games. And until I see it consistently, I’m not going to have a ton of faith in this team to take care of business in games they absolutely SHOULD take care of business.

Are The Seahawks Progressing Faster Than Usual This Season?

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The Seahawks under Pete Carroll have a certain reputation, that I don’t think is actually warranted anymore. They’re a team that starts slow, but then comes together and improves as the season goes along, until they slam into a home stretch that puts them over the top by playoff time. The biggest lament of this scenario is the fact that the Seahawks usually dick around too much early in the season – losing too many games – and are unable to qualify for a divisional title or a top seed in the conference. We might be playing the best ball by the end of the regular season, but we’re going to be playing that ball on the road, and it makes a big difference in the playoffs.

Anyway, that’s the reputation, but again, if you go back season-by-season, I don’t know if it’s really true anymore. It probably hasn’t been true since 2018. But, just go with me on this.

If we focus exclusively on the defense – and, spoiler alert, that’s what the title of this post is referring to – then I think you very much CAN make that argument, across a long span of time. Probably dating back to 2016. As the L.O.B. aged out and went their separate ways, the Seahawks have failed in trying to replenish this team with defensive stars. It’s been nothing but middling players, with an occasional splash trade for an overpriced veteran who isn’t able to do enough to bring this unit back to its former glories.

So, what happens? Well, we start each and every season looking like the worst defense in all of football. We look like that, because we ARE that. Doesn’t matter if it’s Kris Richard, Ken Norton Jr., or Clint Hurtt; this side of the ball is going to massively struggle early, Pete Carroll is going to assert his will to get things more in line, and it’s eventually going to look somewhat better. But, that never lasts, because there’s a major talent shortage, and you can only hold the dike together with scotch tape and bungee cords for so long before it bursts.

Why does this year look different? How did we – in one offseason – go from looking like one of the worst defenses in football, to potentially looking like one of the best? Don’t get me wrong; I’m not saying we’re the 49ers or the Jets or something. But a difference from being Bottom 10 to Top 10 is certainly massive.

Well, let’s start with the guys we brought in. Dre’Mont Jones, Bobby Wagner, Jarran Reed, Devon Witherspoon, Julian Love, Mario Edwards, Derick Hall, Devin Bush, and Cameron Young are the major culprits. Then, there’s the return of Jamal Adams, Tre Brown, and Jordyn Brooks from injury. And maybe the biggest catalyst is the improvement of Boye Mafe from year one to year two.

Now, let’s look at who’s NOT here. Cody Barton, Ryan Neal, Shelby Harris, Al Woods, Poona Ford, Quinton Jefferson, Bruce Irvin, L.J. Collier, and Bryan Mone (still on the roster, but injured). There’s a lot of addition by subtraction going on here. Neal is probably the best player in this group, but the combo of Love and Adams certainly more than makes up for his loss. Barton is one of the worst linebackers in football. Poona has hardly even played. Collier is who we thought he was. The rest of them are role players at best. And maybe the biggest catalyst here is the fact that Mike Jackson’s role has been severely diminished with Brown and Woolen healthy. Rather than being this team’s 2nd corner, he’s now the 4th or even 5th option, which is probably where he belongs (and as far as 4th or 5th corners goes, he’s pretty good at that).

So, it definitely looks like the Seahawks pulled all the right strings in this past offseason.

Witherspoon is obviously getting the lion’s share of attention, for good reason. He’s wonderful! We’ve never seen someone quite like him, and he’s quickly proving why he was deemed to be the #5 overall pick, and the best DB in the draft. I would say, however, that the biggest surprise has been Jarran Reed. The NFL more or less left him for dead after he left the Seahawks the first time, since he hasn’t done a whole lot with the Chiefs or Packers. He’s back and he might be better than ever!

The combo of Reed and Jones is better than any interior option we’ve had since the L.O.B. days. Jones got off to a bit of a slow start, but he’s beginning to assert himself, and it’s really paying dividends. You can see it in the VAST improvement of our run defense, but they also have 5 sacks between them after 5 games.

Having Wagner and Brooks together again has also been a breath of fresh air. I am in awe over Brooks’ ability to return so quickly from ACL surgery. Not just to play since week 1, but to play at a high level. You also want to lump in Witherspoon and a healthy Adams into this mix, because they’re wreaking havoc near the line of scrimmage.

We talk about depth a lot with the Seahawks’ defense. They don’t seem to have – on paper – the kind of front-line stars that teams like the 49ers, Jets, and Eagles have. Those teams, as we’ve seen, also have lots of depth, but I think that’s easy to come by when you have so many superstars. Put anyone with a pulse around Nick Bosa, Fletcher Cox, and Quinnen Williams, and you’re bound to look good. But, the Seahawks – 1 through 25 – look pretty rock solid, and it’s making all the difference.

Nwosu is still playing like he did last year. Mafe, again, has taken a clear step forward in his progression (tied for the team lead in sacks with Reed). Hall and Darrell Taylor are still valuable rotational pieces in the pass rush. Even Edwards and Young have plugged holes and made some noise.

Thus far, the secondary – the unit we all expected to be among the best in the game – has been the biggest disappointment. But, I would argue they’ve also been the most banged up. Adams, as per usual, has only played in a game and a quarter. Woolen was injured before the season and came late to the party. Ditto Witherspoon. Brown has been in and out. Now, we’re down Coby Bryant with a toe injury (currently on IR). We’ve had to use Love more than we would’ve liked, and probably in areas where he’s not best utilized. Jackson, in spite of a promising 2022, and a highly-regarded training camp, has not looked good. Diggs has had everything on his plate, and hasn’t been able to just let it rip the way he does best (as a turnover machine). With our stars returning, though, everyone else can settle into the roles that best maximize their talents, and you get what we’ve seen the last two games: the Seahawks shutting down opposing passing games (including the vaunted Bengals) the way we all expected heading into the season.

We can’t claim the Seahawks are up there with the true elites, simply because when injuries start to crop up again, we won’t have enough behind them to keep us in that upper echelon. But, if we can avoid truly devastating injuries, and somehow cobble together the rest of this season with Adams involved ON the field, I think there’s real potential here.

The offense won’t always be as bad as they were against the Bengals. I wouldn’t even say they were truly bad, just inept in the red zone. They should keep us in most every game the rest of the way. But, that’s a two-way street. I firmly believe this defense can also keep us in every game the rest of the way. Then, it comes down to execution, and a little luck.

We’re not in an insurmountable hole, even though a 3-2 record – after losing a very winnable game – is far from ideal. Having the defense seemingly figured out only a month into the season is a big boost for this team, though! Now, I could be dead wrong, and this unit will revert back to giving up tons of yards and points this very next game. But, I don’t think I’m off here. And that will mean big things for this team the rest of the way.

We have 12 games left. 6 at home, 6 on the road. If we break it up, three of our next four are at home (Arizona, Cleveland, at Baltimore, Washington). Two of those games should be wins, if we expect to be a playoff team. With the other two, I would say both are winnable, and you’d like to come away from this stretch at least 3-1. That makes us 6-3 as we head into the gauntlet of the schedule.

At the Rams (didn’t have this one pegged as part of the gauntlet heading into the season), 49ers on Thanksgiving night, at Dallas also on Thursday, at 49ers, home for the Eagles. I would like to believe we can compete with L.A., but I dunno. If we manage to win that one, it’ll likely have to be a shootout. Dallas seems like a game we might be able to steal. The Eagles don’t look quite as dominant as they did last year. That leaves us with two against our direct rivals, the 49ers. If we can split those two, and win 2 of 3 against the rest, that puts us at 9-5 heading into the stretch run. Seems far more likely we’re 8-6, and still clinging to wild card hopes, but we’ll see.

The final three games are at Tennessee, home for Pittsburgh, and at Arizona. You’d like to think, by that point, those teams will have nothing to play for. Regardless, all are incredibly flawed. Still, when have we ever managed to be perfect in the final month against incredibly flawed teams? Seems like we always bungle one of these types of games. 3-0 would put us at 11-6 or 12-5, with a puncher’s chance at the division (but, almost certainly falling short, because the 49ers seem destined to make the Super Bowl). If we go 2-1 (which is my official prediction), that still puts us at 10-7 or 11-6, which is almost assuredly a wild card spot.

I will say that – other than Washington and Arizona – there’s a lot of high-end defenses on this slate. So, of course, now that we’re feeling good about our defense, it’ll be the offense that we have to worry about (the one thing we were all feeling pretty great about heading into the season). Isn’t it always the way? We just can’t have nice things.

The Seahawks Blew It In Cincinnati

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I was right: the Bengals beat the Seahawks. But, they didn’t quite do it as I expected.

As I noted on Friday, I was at the Taylor Swift movie experience – surprisingly, they did NOT cut away occasionally to Travis Kelce cheering along in the luxury suites – so I didn’t get to see this game. As such, this will be a post with more questions than answers. I’ll tell you this much, I didn’t project this as a 17-13 slugfest.

I have two main takeaways coming out of this game. First and foremost – the reason why we lost this one – has to lay at the feet of the offense. Geno Smith had one truly atrocious pick, and another where D.K. apparently gave up on the route. The team as a whole was only 5/12 on third down, and critically 0 for 2 on fourth down (both near the goalline in the fourth quarter, where we had a chance to take the lead or even win the game). Penalties were costly in setting us behind the sticks. And the Bengals were able to pressure us more than we’ve been pressured all season.

I’d love to know what the gameplan was coming into this game. We got Charles Cross back from his injury, but were still saddled with Jake Curhan at right tackle (with some interior shuffling, moving Haynes to left guard, and starting Bradford at right). Did we leave them on more islands than we had the previous few games, opting to go with more 3 wide receiver sets and fewer jumbo packages? Or, was it pretty comparable, and we just got manhandled by a superior front seven? I would hope the coaching staff would have more sense than that, but you can’t rule it out until we see the snap counts. Regardless, it didn’t seem like a well-called game by Waldron. Nor was it a very efficient game from Geno and the rest of our skill players.

My other big takeaway, however, has to do with the defense, and how promising this unit looks going forward.

The Bengals had back-to-back touchdown-scoring drives to open this game, which initially led me to believe my prognostication would be accurate: that we wouldn’t touch Burrow, and they’d carve us up and down the field accordingly. But, we ended up tightening things up the rest of the way, giving up just 3 points after the 12:20 mark in the second quarter. We forced 6 punts and got an interception. We sacked Burrow 3 times in the game, hit him 5 times, got 4 tackles for loss, and knocked down 6 passes. We held Burrow to a paltry 185 yards passing (5.3 yards per attempt) and held their running game to 46 yards on 15 carries. Coming on the heels of that Giants massacre, there were a lot of questions about whether or not we could keep that going against a competent offense. The Seahawks’ defense came through this one with flying colors. They absolutely did enough to win us this game, which hasn’t been something we’ve been able to say very often the last 5+ years.

I can’t sit here and get too down on this team after one game. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t feel very strongly the other way either; I’m not telling you everything is wonderful. It probably helps that I didn’t actually sit through this game for 3 hours; I’m sure in the moment I would’ve been miserable for damn near every minute. Part of me wants to say people are too quick to write off Geno Smith (and they’re damn near insane if they’re calling for Drew Lock to start for this team!), but there’s another part of me that saw Geno finish 3-6 last year (including playoffs), and knows he’s still getting credit for some of those early-2022 performances. He’s good against bad defenses, he’s pretty miserable against good-to-great defenses, and we still don’t have a lot of those late-game heroics that we regularly saw during Russell Wilson’s prime.

I’ll also say that we’ve given Wilson a lot of crap – especially since he’s gone to Denver and stunk up the joint – for poor performances on 3rd down and with taking brutal sacks, but that hasn’t really let up a whole lot with Geno under center. Especially in the biggest games. I don’t know what that says about the team as a whole, other than it’s really hard to be great at quarterback in the NFL, and I ultimately don’t think Geno Smith is great. I think he’s fine. He’s much closer to Ryan Tannehill in his prime than Russell Wilson in his prime.

But, I think we’re going to need to see this season as a whole before we can totally rule him out. There are more opportunities for Geno to turn it around. In a couple weeks, we have back-to-back games against the Browns and Ravens, two good-to-great defenses that he’ll need to be the best version of himself if we expect to win either of those games.

Ultimately, it’s a loss to an AFC team, which means very little in the grand scheme of things. Thankfully, we were bailed out by the Browns – who took care of business against the 49ers – so we haven’t lost any ground. But, that makes next week’s game against the Cards all the more important.

Good on Kenneth Walker for continuing to look like a stud. Good on Tyler Lockett for having another big game. Good on Jaxon Smith-Njigba for being involved, and good on Jake Bobo for making a couple of hard-nosed catches.

Devon Witherspoon had a quieter game than the one in New York, but still broke up 3 passes. Jamal Adams stayed healthy throughout. Dre’Mont Jones, Jarran Reed, and Boye Mafe each had sacks. Tre Brown returned from injury and had a bigtime pick (the combo of him, Witherspoon, and Woolen look dominant together). And look at Jason Myers being perfect (and hitting a 55 yard field goal)!

I will say that I was disappointed in Pete Carroll. If there was ever a game we needed him to be the conservative version of himself, this was it. The defense was rolling by the fourth quarter. We were down 4 points, we had the ball near the goalline. We failed to get it in due to offensive incompetence. There was still over 2 minutes to go, we had two time outs, and he opted to keep the offense out there on 4th & goal at the 6. Kick the field goal! Then, you’re down 1, you have a chance to get the ball back (which we did), and drive it down for the game-winner. It’s mind-boggling when Pete decides to be hyper-aggressive, and when he decides to turtle up. He’ll punt from the opposing 40 yard line in one drive (when we’ve proven capable of moving the football), then he’ll go for it near the goalline (when we’ve looked like ass trying to score in the red zone). Just be consistent! He’s standing on a 16 against a dealer’s 10, then he’s hitting on a 14 when the dealer has a 5, just because he has a feeling or whatever.

Ain’t No Way The Seahawks Are Beating The Bengals

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I can’t remember the last time I was so thoroughly convinced of an impending Seahawks loss. I’m sure it wasn’t THAT long ago, probably as recently as last season, but this isn’t one of those deals where our opponent is so vastly superior – like, for instance, the 49ers – that it’s just a slam dunk defeat.

The Bengals have been one of the most disappointing and mediocre teams in the NFL so far this season. The defense hasn’t been as effective as we’ve seen the last few years, but really the onus falls on the offense. Joe Burrow was injured through most of the pre-season, and even though he’s gutted it out through every regular season game, he hasn’t been particularly good.

One might argue the schedule has been on the tougher side. They lost 24-3 to the Browns in week 1, but the Browns’ defense looks like a top 5 unit in the NFL. They lost 27-24 to the Ravens, but those look like two fairly evenly-matched squads. They managed to beat the Rams, but only 19-16; again, the Rams have looked a lot better than we thought heading into the year. The real shocker was the loss at Tennessee, where once again the Bengals were held to 3 points in a 27-3 blowout. The Titans are crap. Okay, their run defense is probably solid, but that doesn’t explain why the Bengals weren’t able to move the ball through the air.

Last week’s 34-20 victory in Arizona was the first time the Bengals looked like the Bengals. The Cards have been frisky this year, so that makes it even more impressive. But, you know, they’re still a bad team. Was this the first time Burrow’s felt fully healthy (or, as healthy as he’s going to be with a nagging calf injury)?

You could argue that playing in Cincinnati this early is the best possible scenario for the Seahawks, over playing them late, when they usually start to go on a tear towards the playoffs. Given that they’re 2-3, and we’re 3-1 (and have looked better and better every week), one might expect the Seahawks to take care of business in this one. But, I just don’t think we match up very well.

Our run defense is undeniably improved over last year, which is great. We give up among the fewest yards per game in the league, and I think I saw a stat somewhere saying we give up the fewest yards per carry, which is outstanding! But, our passing yards per game are among the highest given up in the league (worse than the Broncos, and pretty close to what the Bears and Chargers are giving up). The Bengals, in spite of having a solid back in Joe Mixon, don’t feature the run. They use it to complement their passing attack, but the offense runs through Burrow, and he’s saying he’s as close to 100% as he’s been all season. That’s scary.

He’s a smart, capable quarterback who doesn’t take a lot of sacks. I don’t know if people watched that Monday night dismantling of the Giants and are now thinking this is the new normal for the Seahawks’ defense, but I don’t expect us to touch Burrow. I feel like this is going to be a lot like the Rams game in week 1, where he is getting the ball out quickly, moving the sticks, and picking us apart in the secondary. Burrow’s biggest problem this year has been his accuracy, which is in the bottom quarter of starting quarterbacks. But, a lot of that has to do with his injury, and now that he’s feeling better, I expect that to be less of an issue. He’s averaged 62.4% completions on the season, but last week against the Cards, he was up to 78.2%. He’s not Daniel Jones, in other words.

That all isn’t to say that I think we’re destined to get blown out of the stadium – like we were against the Rams – because the Seahawks have a number of things going for them that should make this game interesting. For starters, we’re coming off of our BYE week, which is always nice. That means we’re rested, and we’re starting to get healthy again.

Jamal Adams should be back from his concussion, which saves us yet another missed game from him (since you have to think – had we played last Sunday – he wouldn’t have been available, given the way concussion injuries have gone this season). I think Charles Cross and Phil Haynes are practicing again. Tre Brown is back. Riq Woolen and Devon Witherspoon are another week out from their respective injuries. As is JSN, who clearly hasn’t been what we saw in the pre-season, since he injured his hand. And, of course, Geno isn’t as hobbled, after taking that nasty hit out of bounds against the Giants. We’re not as healthy as we’ve ever been, but we’re as healthy as can be expected, and we’ll need every bit of it to hang with Cincy.

You can’t take this game for granted. I would argue this is a different Bengals team than we saw through the first month. Much closer to their expected status as an AFC contender. Solid enough on defense, great-to-elite on offense.

I do think the Seahawks will keep it close. Vegas clearly agrees, as they have the Bengals -2.5. They seem to be in line with what I’m expecting; I imagine there’s a good number of squares out there putting money on the Seahawks. I have to believe the sharps are on the home team.

I think the Seahawks will look a little ragged at times on offense, but will eventually get it going. I think the Bengals, however, will put up 31 points, minimum. I could see it being a 34-31 game where we come out on the losing end. I could also see the Bengals tacking on a late break-away touchdown to make it 41-31. Regardless, I’m not expecting to say very many good things about the defense when we come back here on Monday.

The Seahawks will likely put a lot of focus on Ja’Marr Chase, which might keep him out of the endzone, but he’ll still have good fantasy numbers when it’s all said and done. If the Seahawks let him blow up for 200+ yards and two scores, then I expect this game will get ugly in a hurry. They’ve really got more than enough weapons all over the field though, hence my belief that they won’t have trouble moving the ball on us.

This also just has the feel of One Of Those Games, you know? The Seahawks are riding high, this feels like one of those games we can go on the road and steal, and then BAM, we get smacked in the face.

The last time we started 3-1 or better was in 2020; that year we went 5-0 heading into our BYE before losing at Arizona in overtime. We are 7-6 in weeks after our BYE in the Pete Carroll era, but we’re on a 3-year losing streak where we haven’t looked good AT ALL in those games. We’re also 6-5 in our first AFC road games of the season dating back to 2012, which means nothing, but I find it amusing. There’s lots of these random AFC losses on our ledger; maybe it’s because we don’t face these teams very often. Maybe it’s just dumb luck.

I dunno. I got a bad feeling though. My family and I are going to the Taylor Swift movie concert thing on Sunday at 11am, so I’m probably not going to see very much of this game, unless I can watch it on delay after I get home. I fully expect to leave the theater to news of a Seahawks loss. If I didn’t already lose the Taylor Family Farm dozens of times, I’d put it up to win a boatload, because I think I’m right. As right as I’ve ever been!

The Seahawks Had A Dominant Defensive Performance Against An Inept Offensive Giants Team

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In retrospect, BOY are the Giants bad! I was not prepared for that level of ineptitude. I keep coming back to how they JUST gave Danny Dimes a huge contract extension (he’s going to have a $47 million cap hit in 2024!); what a disaster!

The Seahawks now head into the BYE week with a 3-1 record, firmly in second place in the NFC West, and among the wild card contenders one month in. It’s probably the best we could’ve hoped for heading into the season, so all things considered, I’m pretty happy with where this team is at.

While I readily acknowledge that it’s less impressive knowing Saquon Barkley was out for this game, I think it’s undeniable that the Seahawks’ run defense is vastly improved over last year. Daniel Jones scrambled for 66 yards on 10 carries, but everyone else only managed 46 yards on 19. Not that I want to allow opposing quarterbacks to run all over us, but few of those were actually designed runs, so in a sense they feel like flukier yards.

This game will forever stand out as the one where the Seahawks defense got 11 sacks. 2 from Wagner, 2 from Brooks, 2 from Devon Witherspoon (who also had a 97-yard pick six, to go along with 7 tackles), 2 from Nwosu, and 1 apiece from Mafe, Myles Adams, and Mario Edwards (who forced a fumble on his that was recovered by Brooks). Now THAT’S how you win a game 24-3!

It was, truly, an awesome defensive performance. But, at the same time, the Giants might have the worst offensive line in the league. They’ve got the aforementioned mediocre Danny Dimes. They’ve still not yet improved their wide receiver room. And they were without Barkley. There were pieces here and there on defense that stood out – Kayvon Thibodeaux had 2 sacks and looked like the monster we all expected coming out of college – but by and large the Giants don’t look like a good football team, at all. Don’t forget the Cardinals blew a 21-point second half lead to them, otherwise the Giants would be 0-4!

This might’ve been, all things considered, our easiest opponent (yes, even easier than the Panthers). And yet, good lord, did we suffer a massive amount of injuries in this one!

By the end, our O-Line looked like this: Forsythe, Brown, Oluwatimi, Bradford, Curhan. We lost both guards in this one (Lewis and Haynes) and had to do some shuffling. We also lost Geno Smith for part of the second quarter, after he was rolled-up on out of bounds unnecessarily. Jarran Reed missed the tail end of the game. There has to be some other guys I’m missing …

Oh yeah, Jamal Adams. The Hype Train was in all of its full-throated glory this week as The Return Of Jamal Adams was in effect.

I don’t know whether to make a joke or throw my laptop across the room. It is, indeed, comical how insufferably injury-prone he’s become since donning a Seahawks uniform. Are we, like, his kryptonite? Is someone secretly poisoning him with very low doses over a long period of time? Did he have all his bones replaced with wafer and his muscles replaced with nougat?

It’s particularly exasperating because you can CLEARLY see the impact of a healthy Jamal Adams. He was in there for, what, a drive or two? Yet, he was flying all over the place and had a couple crunching tackles. Unfortunately, his second tackle was made with his head, and he left with an obvious concussion (in spite of him berating the health professional who confirmed his disability).

But, you know, we were all prepared for this, right? Not to expect too much out of Adams. Whatever we get from him is a bonus and all that. That’s why we signed Julian Love, who – not surprisingly – had his best game in a Seahawks uniform, going up against his old team.

Forget Adams, what I was most excited to see in this game was the combo of Witherspoon and Woolen out there. I think you have to like what you saw in this one (again, the caveat being our level of opponent). The longest reception by a receiver was 12 yards. We held their best offensive weapon – Darren Waller – to 3 catches for 21 yards. I’m not ready to plant my flag on this being LOB 2.0, but the pass defense was the best it’s been this season, and I think having these two guys healthy has a lot to do with it. You get to slot the secondary behind them where they deserve to be, and you see these amazing results (including a late pick by Quandre Diggs, who should be able to make more plays as a roaming free safety).

The Seahawks offense gets somewhat of an Incomplete grade on this one. Geno Smith, I thought, looked fine, though he was definitely hampered in the second half with what I presume was a downturn related to his ankle injury. He’ll be fine. Drew Lock got some play in this one and did okay, hitting Fant for what turned out to be a 51-yard gain that led to Kenneth Walker’s TD. Walker finished with a respectable 79 yards on 17 carries; Charbonnet also looked solid as his backup, hitting open holes and gashing them for 31 yards on only 5 carries.

The offensive line depth really showed up in this one. Granted, we did a lot to help them out with our protection schemes, but this offense is talented enough to afford us this luxury of playing multiple tight ends. We can withstand keeping extra blockers for those extreme blitzing defenses, thanks to how elite our receivers are. Shoutout to Walker for his protection as well; he looked fantastic picking up blitzers up the middle.

This game was unquestionably sloppy throughout, with lots of penalties on both teams, but a win is a win. On the road, against an NFC opponent, on Monday night: I’ll take it.

Shoutout to Michael Dickson for some fantastic punts to flip field position. A reverse shoutout to Myers for missing a long field goal pretty miserably.

Now, we get our BYE week. People have been saying – given our injury issues thus far – it might be at the exact right time. I would say, with the punishment we suffered in this one, it’s even more important. Then, we go right back out on the road to play an underachieving Bengals team in a couple weeks. Either we’re catching them at the exact right time, or they’re going to be furiously trying to save their season.

My biggest takeaway through four weeks is how good our rookie class looks once again. Witherspoon, obviously, has DROY potential. Bradford has looked just fine at right guard. Oluwatimi got some playing time at center. Jerrick Reed, if nothing else, looks like an elite special teamer. Cameron Young had a couple impactful tackles up the middle. Hall and Charbonnet look like excellent role players thus far at important positions. Really, the only guy who has yet to stand out has been JSN, and I don’t think anyone is worried about the top overall receiver eventually finding his footing. I will say that maybe we can try sending him on routes that AREN’T just around the line of scrimmage.

The Seahawks Are Looking To Head Into Their BYE Week On A Roll

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This is our only Monday Night Football appearance this year, so live it up!

The Seahawks are 11-2 in games immediately preceeding their BYE week in the Pete Carroll era (a loss in 2010, and a loss last year vs. the Bucs in Germany, so technically 11-1 in games immediately preceeding their BYE week that take place in America). One of those games, oddly enough, came at the Giants back in 2011, so that’s neat!

We’re in an interesting spot right here, because I think this game can teach us a lot about where the Seahawks are as a team as they compare to the rest of the NFL. I know you can argue the Lions were a pretty good test, but they’re obviously a very different team than the Giants. The Lions feature a lot of offense, a solid – if undersized – pass rush, and that’s pretty much it. The Giants, conversely, want to pound it down your throats, and use that to play up their play-action game. They’re the team, quite honestly, that the Seahawks WANT to be.

I know it hasn’t been pretty thus far for the G-Men, but I would argue they’ve played an exceedingly difficult schedule to date. They’re one awesome half of football away from being 0-3 (that was against the Cardinals, who might be better than we thought). The Cowboys are rock solid, and the 49ers might be the best team in football. Conversely, I would say the Seahawks have played a soft – if unfortunately-sequenced – schedule that featured the Rams at their healthiest (minus Kupp). I won’t dismiss the Lions victory, but I will say it’s not super encouraging how ugly our first half was against an atrocious Panthers team.

It’s hard to assess how good or bad the Giants are, because while they might not be in the same class as the Cowboys or 49ers, they haven’t really played a team on their level until now (unless the Cardinals really ARE good, which I don’t think they are). The Seahawks, I would say, are on the same level as the Giants. We just get there in different ways.

The Seahawks match up better against a team like the Lions. But, I don’t know if we’ve got the horses to hang with a tough, hard-nosed team like the Giants. Not that I don’t think it’ll be close; this has all the trappings of a 3-point game either way. But, it also has the trappings of an ugly 20-17 contest. If the Seahawks continue to play the way they’ve played on third/fourth down – on both sides of the ball – it’s going to be a long game.

At this point in the week’s progression, I’m going into this game assuming Saquon Barkley will be in there. That’s … far from ideal. Granted, the Seahawks have looked much better against the run this year, but we’ve also not faced a running back even close to Barkley’s elite level. A guy who can do it all. A guy who can beat you between the tackles, who can run around you outside, who can break tackles, who can catch the ball in space and make something out of nothing. Even at 80%, he’s better than any other back we’ve faced this year.

This one, I think, comes down to Danny Dimes. If he can play a clean, turnover-free game, I think we’re toast. If he takes his check-downs, takes advantage of our various lapses in communication on the back-end, and either gets the ball out quickly (to avoid the rush), or scrambles with his legs (to both avoid the rush and generate positive yards), I think they’ll be able to dink and dunk us to death – with just enough chunk plays on the ground and through the air – to consistently generate scoring opportunities and run time off the clock.

That’s the worst-case scenario. We get run out of the stadium, can’t do enough on offense, and lose by 20.

I’d like to sit here and tell you that’s NOT going to happen. That we’ll continue our strong showing against the run, that we’ll contain Dimes (and maybe sack him a time or three), and blanket their mediocre receivers. That’s what SHOULD happen. That’s what teams like the 49ers and Cowboys have done to them (and what the Cards did for a half).

I’d also like to point to the potential return of Jamal Adams and Riq Woolen as major boosts to this side of the ball. Seeing Woolen and Witherspoon play opposite one another for the first time – with Adams flying all over the place – really has the potential to be something special. But, we might be a week or two away from seeing that (it’d be weird if we saw it next week, since we’ll be on BYE), not knowing their specific levels of health, or willingness to throw both guys into the fire right away.

I would say I’m fairly confident we’ll manage to keep it close on defense, and at least force a few punts. But, we’ll also see some more frustrating big plays given up, to prevent us from actually doing what we SHOULD do, and that’s run away with it.

I don’t have a great handle on what the Giants do well on defense. Based on three games, I’d say NOTHING. This is a team, last year, that really relied on their defense. Tough to run against, underrated pass rush, and good enough on the back end to capitalize on mistakes. Have they taken a step back? I’ll be very interested in finding out.

The Seahawks should be impervious to any and all opposing defenses. We have enough talent at all the skill positions to move the ball against anyone. But, it’s going to come down to the O-Line. And how we help out that O-Line by chipping, leaving TEs in there to double-team, RBs picking up blitzers, and making quick, decisive throws on time.

That blitzing thing will be key. It’s my understanding their defensive coordinator loves to throw out exotic blitzes early and often. We’ve seen two kinds of Genos in those situations. Sometimes, he takes advantage for big gains; sometimes he succumbs to the pressure and we’re chock full of 3 & Outs. The Rams game was a great example of the latter. I would argue in most of our defeats last year, him falling to opposing pressure was a primary reason for those L’s.

I get the feeling the Giants aren’t quite at the level the were last year, but that can change at any moment. This is a game the Seahawks DESPERATELY want to win. If you believe the Giants are a contender for one of those precious wild card spots – and if you believe (like I do) that the Seahawks are destined for the same, given how good the 49ers are – then you’re going to want that tiebreaker over them. And, not for nothing, this is an NFC game. You want these! You NEED these! You’ve already lost one to the Rams, it would be a damn shame to go into the BYE 2-2 in conference.

Getting a leg up on the Lions and Giants would put us very much in the driver’s seat for a playoff berth. At which point, you can start to dream a little bit bigger. A lot can happen between now and Thanksgiving. Maybe the 49ers suffer some injuries to key guys. Maybe the Seahawks start to gel with this young collection of players. Maybe we close the gap not by what we did in the offseason, but how we develop over the course of the regular season.

But, you can’t realistically see that happening if you lose one of these 50/50 games to a team directly on your level, and directly in your way for a playoff spot.

You also, not for nothing, can’t keep bending over and taking it up the pooper against elite defenses. At some point, you have to figure out a way to grind these games out. We have LOTS more of these types of opponents left to come. The entire AFC North, the aforementioned Rams and 49ers, the Cowboys and Eagles, even the Titans manage to have a stout run defense every year (in spite of their offense’s inability to move the ball with any consistency). If we can’t play well on this level, how do we EVER expect to take it up to the next level, with the truly elite teams?

It would be a bad, yet predictable omen for the Seahawks to lose this game. I feel like we, as fans, would be right back to where we were after week 1: left questioning what we have with this team. Whether or not it’s a 10-7 team or a 7-10 team. I would hate to have to stew on that for the next two weeks.

On the plus side, we have our record in pre-BYE games. We also have our record on Monday Night Football, which is among the best in the NFL. Can we ride that magic to victory? We are 1.0 favorites at the time of this writing; can’t get much closer than that.

I am officially expecting the Seahawks to prevail, which is probably bad news for me. It’s going to be an obnoxious evening if I have to sit there and watch us lose for 3+ hours.