The Seahawks lost again, and I’m here to tell you to get used to that sentence. It’s been a long time since the arrival of Russell Wilson and the Legion of Boom turned our team into a perennial contender, but those days are gone and it’s time to accept that. The Atlanta Falcons made the trip to Seattle in Week 3 to kick off a battle between two teams for the higher pick in next year’s draft. In some sick way, the Seahawks actually won.
The interesting part is that the Seahawks aren’t actually that hard to watch. Sure, their gameplan revolves around making as few plays as possible, which is inherently boring, but I’ve watched a lot of football this year and seen a lot of teams in truly abysmal, unwatchable states. The Seahawks are not one of them. Geno Smith has been statistically better than Wilson this year, going 32-44 with 325 yards and two touchdowns on Sunday. He has completed a league-leading 77.5 percent of his passes through the first three weeks.
The run game still hasn’t lived up to its potential, with Rashaad Penny going for 66 yards and Kenneth Walker III going for another 19 on 17 combined attempts across the two. We’ve seen Penny be an explosive back as recently as Week 1, so even 66 yards can be considered a down week for him.
Smith has also shown an incredible ability to spread the ball around to different targets throughout a game. Ten players hauled in passes, including three running backs, four wide receivers and three tight ends. Eight of those players caught more than one. Tyler Lockett has been the man of the hour in the receiving corps, putting up another nine receptions for 76 yards. DK Metcalf has been somewhat stagnant, showing a lack of synergy with his quarterback. Of Smith’s 12 incompletions on the day, Metcalf was targeted on seven of them. His numbers still seemed fine, with five receptions for 64 yards and a score, but it’s been three weeks of the same thing for him and you have to wonder if there’s a personal issue between DK and Smith.
Any semblance of optimism goes out the window when it’s time to discuss Seattle’s defense. They got absolutely torn up by Atlanta’s running back Cordarrelle Patterson, who went for 141 yards on the ground alone. They didn’t give up many passing yards, only 229, but Marcus Mariota is a run-first quarterback so this isn’t surprising at all. The Seahawks play a style of football where if the opposing team can run effectively and control the time of possession, they lose. The defense sacked Mariota twice and had a singular additional tackle-for-loss, which feels inexcusable when a team runs the ball 23 times. Tariq Woolen picked off Mariota at the end of the first half, but that didn’t amount to anything.
This should sum up most Seahawks experiences going forward. The defense is abysmal, and the offense is not horrible to watch. There will be boring games, but there will also be shootouts like this one. Smith is quietly playing some of the best football of his career, which has been quite the pleasant surprise. But for now, it’s time to buckle down and accept that the Seahawks need to rebuild before they can contend again.
