There was a time when the Seahawks were so talented, so advantaged by defensive scheme, and so dominant in all phases, that the could make many mistakes and have many injuries and still win more games than they lost. That was a team that could fall behind 20-0 to a winless Tampa Bay team or 20-3 to a Matt Schaub-led Texans team and still win. They were both the tortoise and the hare, slow beginning and zippy ending. This is not that team. There is not one part of this team that even is within the same zip code of the corresponding part of that team. This group is far closer to that winless Bucs team than those Seahawks. But guess what? The Bucs have more Super Bowl rings since that season than the Seahawks, so let hope spring eternal.
This version of the Seahawks stayed the tortoise for a full game, except the famed tortoise made slow and steady progress. Seattle remained in their shell, unmoving, uninspired. The offense has gone six quarters without scoring a point after their near flawless opening half against Denver. The defense started out by allowing runs outside, and inside, and leaving receivers open. They missed tackles throughout and got almost zero pressure on the quarterback. Special teams chipped in with a muffed punt. There is no vomit in t-e-a-m, but this was a nauseating group effort.
As is the song of losers, we must point out how if only a few things changed, this game could have been different. Down 13-0, Geno Smith took a halfback backwards pass and tossed it 54 yards downfield to DK Metcalf who made a spectacular catch in tight coverage. The play was called back because rookie Abe Lucas blocked him man too far downfield before the throw. On that same series, Seattle employed a wildcat formation with Ken Walker at QB, who gave it to DeeJay Dallas, who threw it directly to the 49ers in a play so pitifully awful that I laughed out loud. Still, down just 13-0, the Seahawks muffed a punt at their own 22-yard line, leading to a 49er TD.
Seattle probably loses this game 99 out of 100 times, but the 49ers are not nearly as good as the score indicated. The Seahawks played as poorly as you can play a football game and still had a ton of chances to make it competitive. They had outscored San Francisco 7-0 in the second half until there were less than two minutes remaining in the game.
The Tariq Woolen field goal block and Michael Jackson return for a touchdown was fun. Seeing the defense play well in the red zone again and stiffen up a bit in the run fits was good. That was about the extent of the positives.
There will be a lot of text wasted in other places on the performance of Geno Smith. Smith is not, and never will be, the quarterback who takes Seattle to their next ring. He is a placeholder. Generally, I thought he played fine in this game with what he had to work with.
The bigger issues are around the development of the offensive line in the run game, the capability of the defense in the run game, and the lack of pass rush.
Seattle will have little chance to win more than five games if they cannot start to run the ball with some level of effectiveness. It is not uncommon for offensive lines, especially new ones, to take time to find their coordination and timing in run blocking. I have seen it take 10-12 weeks in some cases. It will be hard to watch if it takes that long, but what matters this season is that they eventually get there. I am relatively certain they will. The talent is there to do it.
The run defense is another matter. We knew Cody Barton was going to be a problem as a starter at inside linebacker. What was less clear was that Jordyn Brooks would be just as bad. Both players have been atrocious at getting off blocks, leaving massive gaps for opponents to walk through. Do not be fooled by their big tackle totals. Those are coming 5-10 yards downfield.
Perhaps tired with COVID, the Seahawks defense look like patient zero of a new pandemic that causes missed tackles at every level. The new defensive coaching staff better develop a vaccine or they could wind up achieving the ignominious achievement of fielding a defense worse than Ken Norton Jr.’s.
Darrell Taylor is supposed to be the featured pass rusher on this team. He has been a ghost through two games. Granted, Garrett Bolles and Trent Williams are pretty good, but Taylor has been a cake walk for those players. There has been little in the form of interior pressure either. Coverage has not been terrible, but nobody is going to consistently cover for 4-5 seconds in this league.
You cannot give up 4-5 yards per carry on the ground, miss tackles when you have a player stopped in the backfield or at the line, and get no pressure on a passer, and hope to be competitive. Even one of those things is usually a killer. All three looks like Jack Kevorkian took over as defensive coordinator.
It says something about the state of the 49ers that they could not put this game away. Their defense is legitimately Super Bowl quality. Their new safety Talanoa Hufanga is a star. That offense, though…woof. A ton of their yards came due to boneheaded missed tackles and questionable penalties. They were gifted with sparkling field position and still struggled.
It was troubling to see Trey Lance leave with a serious injury. The young quarterback lost his season in just his second week as starter. The ramifications of that injury will be significant beyond this season. Jimmy Garoppolo can help the team contend this year, but is probably bad enough to keep them from truly being a threat to win a ring. He will be a free agent at the end of the year, and the 49ers now have no idea whether Lance will be a suitable replacement.
They have already surrendered three first round picks for him, and without a season of learning (for both him and the organization), there is disastrous potential if he proves unable to be a franchise player.
Meanwhile, the Seahawks are faced with their own disaster in the present day. They do not need to win many games. They do need to play well enough to allow youngsters to develop and to avoid creating a culture of losing.
No games will be easy for Seattle, but if they can start running the ball and defending the run, they can be competitive against most teams. As the Broncos look to be worse than many expected, Seattle has a chance for four quality draft picks in the first two rounds of the draft next year. This year has never been about winning. This week was ugly, but at least it was funny ugly at times.
Uchenna Nwosu, Woolen, and the offensive tackles are showing promise. More names need to be added to that list as the season moves along.