12th Man Rising
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Seahawks offensive implosion is beyond concerning

By Keith Myers

Nov 27, 2016; Tampa, FL, USA; Tampa Bay Buccaneers outside linebacker Lavonte David (54) and Tampa Bay Buccaneers cornerback Alterraun Verner (21) combine on the hit against Seattle Seahawks tight end Jimmy Graham (88) to fumble the ball during the second half of an NFL football game at Raymond James Stadium. The Buccaneers won 14-5. Mandatory Credit: Reinhold Matay-USA TODAY Sports
Nov 27, 2016; Tampa, FL, USA; Tampa Bay Buccaneers outside linebacker Lavonte David (54) and Tampa Bay Buccaneers cornerback Alterraun Verner (21) combine on the hit against Seattle Seahawks tight end Jimmy Graham (88) to fumble the ball during the second half of an NFL football game at Raymond James Stadium. The Buccaneers won 14-5. Mandatory Credit: Reinhold Matay-USA TODAY Sports /
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The Seattle Seahawks are running out of excuses for why their offense has been so terrible this season after scoring only 3 points against Tampa Bay.

Think about all the excuses that were used to explain the offensive ineptness of the Seattle Seahawks earlier in the season, and the justification for why it all didn’t matter. All of those excuses were exposed as lies in yesterday’s game.

Let’s do a little myth busting of those excuses, shall we:

Myth 1: The line is really young and will be better once they’ve had a few weeks together. This was the narrative after Week 2’s abysmal performance in LA against the Rams. This was a new offensive line, and look at how the line improved in the 2nd half of last season.

Well, here we are in Week 11, and the line was just as bad yesterday as it was back in September, and against a slightly less-talented defensive line. There’s been no improvement. Nine weeks later, this group played just as poorly.

The idea that the Seattle’s OL “got better with experience” last season ignores the that that it wasn’t individual improvement that happened. What happened was Pete Carroll stepped in and forced Tom Cable to end the Drew Nowak experiment.

That created an almost-instant improvement simply by getting everyone assigned to blocking the correct defenders. Britt, Gilliam, Sweezy and Okung didn’t improve at that time, the protections were simply being called correctly.

That isn’t happening here. There are no personnel moves being made that are going to turn this around.

Myth 2: Russell Wilson’s lack of mobility was real problem. If only Wilson hadn’t had a bum ankle and a sprained knee, that 6 point performance vs Arizona wouldn’t have happened.

Reconcile that with what we saw yesterday. Wilson had his full range of running skills. His 80 yards rushing not only led the team, but it also was the only thing that worked for the Seahawks offensively.

The offensive line still gave up 6 sacks as the offense ground to a halt. The run blocking was putrid as well. Even with all of Wilson’s mobility back, the offense only scored 3 points.

Myth 3: The Seahawks won a Super Bowl with a terrible offensive line, so they should be fine here. Russell Wilson was sacked 44 time in 2013 and it didn’t matter as the Seahawks dominated their way to a championship. That will likely happen again, right?

That the 2013 line was bad is something I don’t buy at all. It had a few terrible games, but that was when Okung and Unger were both injured. Paul McQuistan was terrible, but the offensive line wasn’t. Once that pair came back, the line played at an elite level.

Keep in mind that Wilson’s time to throw was the 2nd slowest in the NFL that year. Many of those sacks were his own doing. That isn’t the case now; Wilson’s time to throw is 11th fastest in the NFL this season, and is almost a full second faster than than back in 2013.

Next: Takeaways from the loss to Tampa

Is all of this an overreaction on my part? Probably, but Seattle’s offensive performance yesterday was embarrassing. Tampa Bay is a decent team, but they are hardly an elite squad. For Seattle to score only 3 offensive points is completely unacceptable.

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