3 Up, 3 Down: Another Admirable Defensive Performance Goes in Vain as Seahawks Fall 17-15 to Washington Football Team
For the past two decades, the Seahawks have majorly dominated the Seattle sports sphere. But on Monday night, it was more apparent than ever that a shift in hierarchy has come about.
On a day in which the Mariners signed one of MLB's top free agents and the newly-minted Kraken recorded their fourth victory in five games, the Seahawks continued their downward trend into NFL irrelevancy. Falling just shy of overcoming yet another dreadful offensive performance, Seattle's former darling dropped to 3-8 on the year with a 17-15 loss to the Washington Football Team under the national spotlight of Monday Night Football.
As a result of their third consecutive defeat, the Seahawks finish the season 0-4 in primetime games—the first time they've gone winless in such affairs during the Pete Carroll era, and first since 2008. FiveThirtyEight.com now drops their odds of making the postseason to a mere one percent.
Let's sift through this mess and try to find some positives while addressing the obvious negatives.
3 Up
DL Rasheem Green
Though he was tabbed with a questionable roughing the passer call in the second quarter, Green played himself a nice game. He consistently got penetration against a good Washington offensive line, making plays both on the edge and on the interior—particularly at 1-technique. Overall, he recorded just two tackles but may have had Seattle's best highlight of the night when he blocked an extra point attempt and returned it the distance for two points. Once thought to be a potential cut candidate in training camp, Green looks to be earning himself a solid payday in March.
LB Jordyn Brooks
For the third game in a row, Brooks sat atop the Seahawks' leaderboards in tackles, tying Bobby Wagner with 14. His recent line of success against the run continued, with six of those tackles limiting Washington running backs to three yards or less. He was also a big part of the team's improvement against screens, making a nice play on an attempt to Antonio Gibson in the first half. Despite Seattle's struggles and Brooks' hiccups in coverage this season, his play in recent weeks has been an encouraging development.
S Jamal Adams
Adams was all over the field in this one, finishing third on the team in tackles with nine and first with a pair of pass breakups. He also nabbed the team's lone turnover, reeling in a floating ball caused by a violent pass breakup from Quandre Diggs—his second interception of the year and in a Seahawks uniform overall. But perhaps his biggest play came late in the fourth quarter, when Taylor Heinicke seemingly hit Logan Thomas for a game-sealing touchdown. Instead, the play was ruled an incompletion after the official's review showed the ball hit the ground, thanks in part to Adams' strong coverage. Like the rest of the defense, the three-time All-Pro selection played his heart out, only to see his efforts go in vain.
3 Down
QB Russell Wilson
Whether he's less than 100 percent due to his injury, flat-out regressing or both, Wilson is in a bad place right now and it's not doing his team any favors. The Seahawks have scored just three touchdowns in 30 drives since his return, including a last-minute strike to Freddie Swain to set up a potential game-tying two-point conversion attempt. But Wilson's subsequent pass was picked off by Washington's Kendall Fuller, sealing Seattle's fate—both in this game and for the season as a whole—once and for all. While he finished the night with a 64.5 completion percentage, it was his inaccuracy on 11 incompletions that proved to be the story. Several came in key situations, including a trio of misfires that were credited as targets to Gerald Everett but were nowhere near his catch radius. He also failed to target DK Metcalf until the third quarter, then proceeded to force a few poor decisions to the All-Pro receiver. In the end, the two connected just once for 13 yards. It's a shame because, at times, Wilson did look efficient, especially on his impressive touchdown throw to Everett in the first quarter. However, those sparks of production were too few and far between. And if his health is truly playing a role in these struggles, the 3-8 Seahawks should be entertaining the idea of protecting their star quarterback by shutting him down for the rest of the year.
RB Alex Collins
Collins doesn't deserve the entirety of the blame for his inefficiency on the ground, though we'll get to that later. Nevertheless, there's no way around it: he doesn't offer this team anything, especially at 3-8. Set to be an unrestricted free agent in March, Collins rushed for just 14 yards on seven carries and coughed up a crucial fumble that abruptly ended a promising drive for the Seahawks. That turnover proved to be a momentum-shifter in this one, as Washington stormed down the field for a touchdown nine plays later. Development should be at the forefront of Seattle's collective minds at this point and Collins isn't a long-term option, meaning the likes of DeeJay Dallas and Josh Johnson should be seeing more action out of the backfield from here on out.
The Seahawks' offensive line
With the injuries Seattle's offensive line was nursing heading into this one, disaster felt imminent. Sure enough, it was, as the battle in the trenches was dominated by Washington all night long. The Seahawks could not generate any push in the run game, as Collins and Dallas combined for 18 yards on 10 carries (1.8 yards per attempt). Wilson was met with pressure on a consistent basis, though he was only sacked twice—the second of which being on him. That said, it was a bad outing in both phases for Seattle up front.
