The Seattle Seahawks dropped to 0-2 with a loss to the Green Bay Packers on Sunday night and for now everyone is asking: What happened to the Seahawks?
The Seahawks need to stop shooting themselves in the foot
The Seahawks are 0-2, but things could have been different if they’d avoided self-inflicted damage.
While it's too early for doom and gloom, it's certainly an odd start for the back-to-back NFC champions. While the Seahawks started somewhat slow with a 3-3 record last year, the last time they started 0-2 was the 2011 season with Tarvaris Jackson as the team's starting quarterback, one year before Russell Wilson arrived in the 2012 NFL Draft.
Make no mistake, the Seahawks haven't been blown out to start the 2015 season. In Week 1, they lost in overtime to the St. Louis Rams after scoring 18 points in the fourth quarter. On Sunday night, the Green Bay Packers scored 14 unanswered to finish the game, erasing a 17-13 third-quarter lead for Seattle. If it wasn't for self-inflicted damage, both of those games could have had different results. And the Seahawks know they only have themselves to blame.
"I think we are in our own way right now,'' said defensive lineman Michael Bennett. "That's a great way to put it. As good as that team is, we still had a chance to win the game with as many mistakes as we made.''
Two games, both on the road and winnable in the fourth quarter. So why are the Seahawks now staring up at the rest of the teams in the NFC West?
Penalties
Bennett jumped offsides three times against the Packers. Aaron Rodgers, realizing he had a free play in one of those instances, hurled a deep pass that drew a 52-yard pass interference penalty on Richard Sherman. Another Bennett offsides penalty was declined when Rodgers threw a 29-yard touchdown pass to James Jones.
Things came to a boil for linebacker K.J. Wright, who was ejected against the Packers for seemingly trying to rip off the head of tight end Richard Rodgers.
Altogether, the Seahawks have committed 13 penalties, not including ones that were declined, for a total of 138 yards. That’s not a huge amount, but the penalties have made a difference for the Seahawks because they have come at key moments, a common theme for many of the team’s miscues.
Untimely blunders
The defensive mistakes of Bennett, Sherman and Wright, among others, made little room for error for the Seahawks offense on Sunday. A costly turnover came late in the game when Wilson threw an interception on a screen pass to Marshawn Lynch, setting up a Mason Crosby field goal to extend Green Bay's lead to 10.
The biggest mistake for the Seahawks came against the Rams in Week 1, though. Somehow the team accidentally kicked an onside kick that set St. Louis up with great field position. That eventually resulted in a 37-yard field goal from Greg Zuerlein that proved to be the game-winner.
That game may have never even made it to overtime if Dion Bailey, the replacement for Kam Chancellor, hadn’t slipped and fallen on his face in the final minute of regulation, allowing a game-tying touchdown connection between Nick Foles and Lance Kendricks.
Not using their offensive weapons properly
The additions of playmakers like Jimmy Graham and Tyler Lockett were supposed to take an already good offense for the Seahawks to the next level, but so far the impact has been minimal. In two games Graham has just seven receptions for 62 yards, which is a problem the team knows it needs to correct.
From Pete Carroll's iv w/ @BrockESPN/@TheMikeSalk this morning (via @seahawks), Carroll talked about Graham pic.twitter.com/AAxs5k8NgI
— Danny Kelly (@FieldGulls) September 21, 2015 But even the weapons that already existed in the Seahawks offense haven’t been able to get going. Marshawn Lynch has 114 rushing yards in two games and hasn’t yet found the end zone. The biggest moment of the season for Lynch so far came in Week 1 when he was stuffed on fourth down in overtime to give the Rams the win.
After the Seahawks drew criticism all offseason for not giving Lynch the ball at the end of the Super Bowl, Rams defensive tackle Michael Brockers told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch it was obvious what play Seattle would call.
“It’s fourth down, who (else) are they going to go to?” Brockers said. “I think they kind of know what happens when you don’t give Lynch the ball, so we knew it was going to him.”
Even Lynch’s mom sounded off about the unsuccessful play calling of the Seahawks so far.
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All is not lost, however. Back-to-back home games against the Chicago Bears and Detroit Lions, two other 0-2 teams, are good opportunities for the Seahawks to erase those flubs and get back on track in the NFC West.
Or, as Seattle coach Pete Carroll said: “It feels like we are not as clean as we need to be. We are going to start over again. Let’s go home and get started and get this thing rolling.”
With 14 games left to play, there's still plenty of time for the Seahawks to emerge as a contender. Urgency would be wise, though, with the Arizona Cardinals already looking like one of the NFL's elite teams after years of being the also-rans of the NFC West.
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