Seattle Seahawks Dominated In Trenches By Baltimore Ravens: ‘That’s Not Like Us’
It's a common saying that football is won and lost in the trenches, and the Seattle Seahawks found that out the hard way in Sunday's 37-3 loss to the Baltimore Ravens at M&T Bank Stadium.
There were a lot of things that went wrong for Seattle on Sunday, and even that may be underselling it. However, the Seahawks being completely overmatched in the trenches was arguably their biggest issue in this game.
The Seahawks woes on the offensive side of the ball were much more apparent. They allowed Geno Smith to be sacked four times, tied for a season-high, but what was even worse was their inability to get any running game going. Despite having two capable running backs in Kenneth Walker and Zach Charbonnet, the Seahawks had just 28 rushing yards and averaged 1.9 yards per carry on Sunday.
Smith fumbles after a sack by Ravens linebacker Kyle Van Noy.
Tommy Gilligan-USA TODAY Sports
“We wanted to (get it going early). You guys know this line of thinking: If you don’t convert (first downs), you don’t the chances and you’re off the field. No matter how much you want to do something, it doesn’t matter when you’ve got to sit down,” Seahawks coach Pete Carroll told reporters. “You can’t call your plays on the bench. We’ve got to get off some winning third-down plays.”
Shifting over to the defensive side of the ball, the Seahawks didn't fare any better there either. They only got to Baltimore quarterback Lamar Jackson once, and they allowed the Ravens to rush for nearly 300 yards while averaging over seven yards per carry. Keaton Mitchell, an undrafted rookie, gashed the Seahawks' defense for rushes of 40 and 60 yards, with the former going for a touchdown.
“It’s very frustrating. That’s not like us,” defensive tackle Jarran Reed said. “That’s not anything we’ve put on film all season. But it’s the NFL. We’re gonna take it to the chin and get right back Monday and get right back to the drawing board.”
Seattle does have quite a few injuries on both sides of the ball, such as offensive tackle Abraham Lucas and linebacker Uchenna Nwosu. Still, the Seahawks can't expect to go anywhere if they get dominated in the trenches like this. The team knows that, and the top priority after this game should be to fix these issues.
“I think it’s just stuff where we beat ourselves. Not fitting in the gaps the right way, staying on the back side of plays, staying on the front side of plays,” he saod. “Things that we can’t to beat ourselves, we’ve got to hone in on that.”
