That was appalling. It was as bad as the Giants game. It was as bad as the Steelers game last season. I’d say it was worse than both. It reminded me of the Rams game in 2017. A total embarrassment.
The Seahawks were a disorganised mess. They made so many routine, high-school level errors. A center snapping the ball too high or standing on the quarterback’s toes. Geno Smith getting a penalty for throwing a ball at a Bills defender like a petulant child. Two players fighting after one of them makes a dumb mistake for a penalty. Another mistake by Dee Williams on a punt.
Not for the first time this season, the Seahawks didn’t appear ready to play. This time there are no ‘short week’ excuses either.
Nothing sums it up better than the running game. They keep saying every week they want to be able to run, that’s their identity. Today they managed 32 yards. The Bills had 166. Everyone runs against this defense. The Seahawks, meanwhile, simply cannot establish the kind of team they say they want to be.
It’s time to start being honest. Not enough people are. They are capable of beating a similarly flaky team like Atlanta. Great. Roll out the parade. They’re also capable of being embarrassed like they were today and losing four games out of five.
Good teams will lose games — but they don’t lose like this. It was non-competitive, slop-fest, undisciplined, waste of time football.
So let’s just admit it. The way this team is built isn’t capable of being more than a team that occasionally will flatter to deceive by beating someone like the Falcons. They won’t win a Super Bowl. They won’t make a playoff run. Playing like this, you can forget the playoffs altogether. Bin off the hubris. Use this as a reality check.
Questions need to be asked about how John Schneider has built this roster. If they have any more games like the Giants, 49ers and Bills beatings, questions will need to be asked about whether he deserves the chance to put things right, plus the staff he’s put together — rookie season or not — will need to be challenged. This isn’t good enough. I, like many, had high hopes for this staff. Are they bogged down by the makeup of the roster? Are they too inexperienced? Are they just not good enough? It’s painful that these questions feel necessary — but a performance like that makes this kind of conversation unavoidable.
There’s no benefit of the doubt to give when they are this bad. And they are bad on every level. There isn’t a single aspect of this team playing mostly error-free, consistent football.
They are not tough. They are not difficult to play against. At home they are awful. They’re 19-19 at home in front of fans since 2019. It’s a massive problem that not enough people talk about. The famous ‘home-field advantage’ in Seattle is gone. It is consigned to the history books. Now home games are full of away fans buying tickets because people are clinging on to Seahawks season tickets in the expensive seats as a side hustle.
This is something the people at the top of the franchise needs to sort out. On the field, the GM and the coaches also have to produce a team that can actually be competitive, physical and live up to all the talk of what they want to be.
They rely too much on the offense. If the offense can score points and apply scoreboard pressure, the defense has half a shot. When the offense stumbles and bumbles, which is happening too often, it’s game over. The defense is so bad, there is no resistance.
We’re eight games into the season and the run defense is still appalling. Even after the two trades. They’ve thrown loads at the D-line and it can’t stop the run or rush the passer consistently.
This is a disorganised team lacking on-field leadership. I’m starting to wonder if they have enough of it on the sideline too. If you can’t get your schemes going and you’re consistently easy to play against, that isn’t good enough.
Are they too inexperienced? They have a Head Coach who previously had only been a defensive coordinator in the NFL for two seasons. Their offensive coordinator had never coached in the NFL before he took the job. The defensive coordinator was previously only ever a position coach. Their special teams coordinator mainly worked for his dad at Michigan. I’m not sure having Leslie Frazier on the staff is enough. Are there simply too many people who haven’t done this before?
Sean McVay won coach of the year in his first year as the Rams Head Coach. His first act was to appoint Wade Phillips as his defensive coordinator.
The Seahawks are scrambling for an identity. If you want to be a tough, physical team you can’t be waiting to shop in the bargain bin at left guard then adding a center late in the summer who’s only just recovering from a serious knee injury. Neither can you pay a big fat whopping contract to an epic disappointment like Dre’Mont Jones on the D-line.
The O-line stinks and has done for too long. I get it, the whole league is struggling here. You can still ask legitimate questions as to why the Seahawks were basically just waiting to see who’s left at guard (Laken Tomlinson? I guess he’ll do), change their center every season and are playing musical chairs every week at right guard. No other team does this and has success.
Geno Smith has been one of the few positives this season. He isn’t the solution for the future though. The people clamouring to invest major money in him like the Seahawks are on the right track here need to give it a rest. The last thing they should be doing in their current form is giving Smith, who turns 35 next year in the final season of his current deal, a massive salary. They’ll just end up like so many other teams who are paying mega bucks for a quarterback who isn’t at the elite end. Why on earth would you do this? They’re so far away from being a team that should be handing a big contract to anyone at the moment.
The Seahawks have hovered around .500 for the last two years and they’re 4-4 now. This is what they are. Losses like this make a .500 record feel better than the reality.
Making rental trades before the deadline isn’t fixing anything. You need serious change to the roster. You need to actually build the team you want to be — like the Lions have done. This game should act as a brutal exposure of just how far away this team is.
My biggest fear is they end the season with an Atlanta-type win and everyone goes into the off-season talking like the team is just an off-season away. I said it before and after the Atlanta game and got pelters from some. They might need a six-win season to actually act as a slap in the chops to realise this team isn’t built for success.
You’re either on the right track or you’re not. The Seahawks aren’t.
