Your doorbell rings. Scurrying to the door with candy in hand, you swing it open with a smile on your face. Standing at your threshold is a grotesque mutant with the head of a depressed cheerleader, the broken arm of a sacked quarterback, one leg kicking in random directions while the other runs in place, and a heart slowly fluttering to stillness. As it wheezes its final few breaths, it drops a placard on the ground and falls on top of it, its hand smacks the sign on the way down, obscuring the words. Startled by this display, you hesitate before leaning forward to move its hand. The message is short and sweet, “I’m out.”
In a season that may that may be a perpetual Halloween, the Seahawks are doling out horrors at a rate that would make Stephen King shudder. This week, they featured more missed kicks, more sacks, and fewer points than a presidential debate.
There were many ways to win this game, but when you are stuck in a losing rut, the wheels always seem to snap back onto that track. All aboard the Bridge to Nowhere Express.
Most teams try to find a backup quarterback who has similar traits to their starter so the offense does not have to change much should an injury occur. Seattle seems to have misunderstood the assignment, finding someone who has all of Wilson’s worst traits amplified. Geno Smith took sack after sack Monday night all the way up to the final few plays of the game.
There are a number of backup quarterbacks in the NFL who could have won that game. Smith is not one of them. It is bizarre that a number of analysts said Seattle has the best backup QB in the league when Wilson went down. I was like, “really??” It even made me wonder if I was being too pessimistic about the dude. Nah. He’s awful.
If Pete Carroll got any encouragement from their burst of effective running in the third quarter against Pittsburgh, he saw four quarters (five if you include the 4th quarter against the Steelers) of how pointless that approach is with this offensive line.
Seeing Smith play made it a little more understandable why the coach would want to keep the ball out of his hands. And as impotent as the offense was, Seattle would have probably won the game if Jason Myers had made the two field goals he missed.
The one positive on the night was a defense that played well for the second straight game. If not for a Marquise Blair sack that was a few inches too high on 3rd down and an inexplicable Al Woods offsides on a field goal attempt, Seattle may have held the Saints to 10 points.
For the night, Seattle held the Saints to just 4.5 yards per play and only 304 yards of offense. That is a good nights work, regardless of opponent.
We saw slightly more pass pressure than has been around the past few weeks and decent coverage. The run defense was excellent, and the tackling was far better than the last time Alvin Kamara came to town.
It was still confusing to see Kamara get so many chances in the first half when he was basically their only weapon. How the team didn’t come out with a focus to take him away and force the ball anywhere else was aggravating. Coaches may say they did exactly that and the execution was not there. Whatever the reason, it was a large contributing factor to the loss as Kamara had over 100 yards receiving and scored the lone touchdown.
The most hopeful news of the evening may have been when John Schneider said Dee Eskridge may be back next week after seeing a concussion specialist. Darrell Taylor should be back as well.
This season is much more about evaluating young players than about wins. Wilson almost certainly will push to come back for the Packers game in a few weeks. The team needs to be very cautious about how they handle that situation. Rushing Wilson back before he is fully healthy to play behind Kyle Fuller when he already takes too many sacks could be disastrous. You might say this season is already a disaster, and you’d be right. The question is whether you want to make next season and beyond a disaster by risking re-injury to your franchise quarterback’s throwing hand.
The upside of a tiny chance of making the wild card game is massively outweighed by the downside of hampering your best player.
It is not trade deadline time and the Seahawks should be sellers wherever possible. They need draft capital. Older players should all be offered up, even names like Duane Brown. Younger guys like Dakoda Shepley should be given shots to play in places of underperforming players like Fuller. This team is not built to get better in the next few years. Holding onto older players who will not be a part of the next wave of talent is one of the cardinal sins of roster management. Get what you can while you can to avoid extending the losing years.
There is fun and hope in moving on from the old guard and bringing in fresh blood. That can extend past the players and into the coaching and front office ranks. Status quo is the enemy.
In the meantime, find your favorite Halloween candy and distract yourself with empty calories. And beware what you might find when you open your doors and turn on your TVs next Sunday.