This was supposed to be an opportunity to bounce back from Monday Night Football, get to 4-1 and prepare for a critical meeting with the 49ers.
Instead the Seahawks played one of their worst performances in recent memory and delivered a bucket of ice water to early excitement and optimism, sparked by a 3-0 start.
Losing to the 1-3 Giants at home is bad enough. The manner of the display, however, is concerning. It’s especially disappointing given Arizona’s surprise win in Santa Clara.
This is the second game in the row where the defense has looked incapable of making stops. It’s worse than last year at the moment. It’s starting to look like they merely benefitted from Bo Nix’s first start and the hapless Patriots and Dolphins to begin the year. The unit has been destroyed by the Lions and the Giants.
Yes, they’re missing starters. Other players are clearly not 100%. It’s still reasonable to expect a lot more than this.
And let’s not forget — the Giants didn’t have Malik Nabers or Devin Singletary.
The Seahawks looked defensively soft, just as they did on Monday. There was little energy. They couldn’t tackle, with Giants’ ball-carriers falling forward nearly every time.
Consistent pressure was non-existent — even against a struggling Giants O-line. When they took away the deep-ball early, New York simply leaned on screens, quarterback runs and underneath throws. After half-time, Seattle adjusted so the Giants attacked deep.
They ran for 176 yards. The Patriots ran for 185. Jared Goff didn’t have an incomplete pass against this defense.
Daniel Jones ran around like he was channelling his inner Lamar Jackson. Was he wearing a jersey made of wet soap? The Seahawks couldn’t bring him down.
It’s not unfair to expect a lot more from Mike Macdonald’s system. We’re seeing a lot of the same problems carry over from the end of the Carroll era. Where are the answers to the questions being posed? This is about as bad a two-game defensive stretch as you could possibly see.
The offensive performance was equally bad.
This felt like a cocky, arrogant offense today. They got +500 yards on Monday. They waltzed into Lumen Field today and it felt like they thought they could just turn it on again. I bet they’d deny that — but it’s definitely how it felt.
What was the plan? Just throw it around the yard? Everything Brian Daboll and the Giants did had a purpose. The Seahawks looked like a bunch of show ponies. Apart from when they were sulking on the sidelines, of course. The body language was dreadful today.
Macdonald talks about an identity featuring the run. How then can he justify an offensive plan like this, where it’s a total afterthought? How did Ken Walker only have five carries in this game? Ryan Grubb should be in his office first thing tomorrow explaining that.
D.K. Metcalf is a perfect example of the offense in its current state. He’s capable of big, flashy, explosive plays. But there’s also a bonehead error right around the corner.
He had a significant momentum-shifting fumble for the second week in the row. Maybe it’s time to give Jaxon Smith-Njigba and Tyler Lockett the whole ‘force-feed’ approach instead if they insist on it?
There was too much pissing around at the line of scrimmage. No-huddle, then a check to the sideline, then a change of play. It just seemed to make things muddled, including a couple of penalties as a consequence.
Geno Smith didn’t do a good job dealing with the pressure. He took some sacks that felt avoidable but admittedly, the O-line was crap again too. Seven sacks given up in total. But why was he asked to throw 40 times? It was hard to watch him slide right before the line to gain in the fourth quarter, only to see an epic fail on fourth down on the very next play.
Doesn’t that fourth-down call speak volumes? You need a yard and you’re messing around in play-action when you claim to want to be a physical football team.
They had a touchdown drive at the end with New York playing prevent but when they had a chance to win with one final drive — they couldn’t deliver. They didn’t deserve to. Perhaps feeling left out of the mess, special teams then gave up a touchdown on a blocked kick to tie.
I don’t know what Grubb was doing today. He and Macdonald were out-coached. The players were outplayed.
Once again, the trench battle was lost on both sides of the ball. If this is going to be a tough, physical team — well we’re still waiting for that.
You learn more in the last two games and Thursday night against San Francisco than you do beating up the remains of the Dolphins, winning Bo Nix’s first NFL start and scraping by a bad Patriots team.
The Seahawks were hammered by the Giants in their own backyard. The scoreline was only close because of a freaky 14-point swing on the one-yard line due to the fumble return touchdown. This feels worse than the Steelers loss last season. It raises plenty of questions. I said during pre-season they’d almost certainly drop a game they were expected to win with a rookie staff. I didn’t figure it’d be like this.
The honeymoon is definitely over. The season is far from over, thankfully. But they’ll need to be a lot better than this. What we saw today was bad. Real bad.
