“It’s just one of those days, I guess. Unfortunately, you can’t have those days.”
– Seahawks Right Tackle Abraham Lucas
The Seattle Seahawks and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers made history on Sunday, Nov. 13 by being the first two NFL teams to play an official game in Germany. It was the definition of a sold-out arena, and the crowd was honestly one of my favorite parts of the game. However, for the first time in five weeks, the Seahawks came home with a loss on the scoreboard.
Seattle struggled immensely to put up any offense, going the entire first two quarters without a score and being down 14-0 at halftime. They had five drives in the first half, all ending on punts. They kicked off the second half with a field goal and then got the ball back when halfback Leonard Fournette lobbed a pass to quarterback Tom Brady, only to be picked off by rookie Tariq Woolen. Unfortunately, Geno Smith would fumble the ball on that drive.
Down 21-9 after another Tampa touchdown, the Seahawks would put together a very complete fourth quarter. In five plays, they drove down the field and scored on a 21-yard touchdown to Tyler Lockett. Cody Barton would cut Tampa’s next drive short with an interception. Smith drove it back down the field again and landed a touchdown pass to Marquise Goodwin.
However, Tampa would run out the clock and escape Germany with a 21-16 victory.
It was a well-fought game from both sides, with the Tampa defense preventing Seattle from getting anything going early. Still, Smith had a solid night, going for 275 yards and two touchdowns. The fumble was costly, but everybody makes those mistakes, which was more evident than ever in Week 10. Kenneth Walker had his first bad game on the ground, but he made up for it by hauling in six receptions for 55 yards. DK Metcalf wasn’t able to record a touchdown of his own, but he led the team with 71 receiving yards.
Woolen is again making his case for the Defensive Rookie of the Year award, tying for the NFL lead in interceptions (albeit on a trick play). The defense was otherwise unremarkable, getting gashed on the ground to the tune of 161 rushing yards, when Tampa had averaged just 60 yards per game before this. That was the worst in the league. It was, however, the first time NFL fans got an extended look at rookie halfback Rachaad White, who went for 105 of those yards on 22 carries.
The Buccaneers played excellent football, and it wouldn’t be fair to discount that. But Seattle isn’t going to roll over and play dead. They’re too good to let that happen. Going into their bye week, they will then be faced with three matches against struggling opponents, which should allow them to get some momentum going into San Francisco, Kansas City and New York in the following three. Playoffs are far from guaranteed, and they will have to bounce back from a tough loss in Munich.
