Seahawks Report Card For Week 12

As I said in my post game report, this game was really frustrating. There is just no excuse for losing to an inferior team when you have a 10 point lead with 10 minutes to go. At least in the Cleveland game, they were without their starting QB, RB, TE, C, and WR on offense, so of course the offense struggled. What’s happened here? The Seahawks came out of the game a week ago relatively healthy.

Unfortunately, the Seahawks looked unprepared and undisciplined. Lets get to the grades:

Tarvaris Jackson: D+

I feel a bit bad for grading Jackson down each week. He’s playing threw a lot of pain. The Fox crew yesterday said he has a 50% tear of the pectoral mussel. He also didn’t get any help from his receivers this week (see below). But before we play the blame game and say none of the problems were Jackson’s fault, lets remember that he did throw a interception, and had 2 pick-6s dropped by Washington defenders.

Marshawn Lynch: A-

Lynch had an outstanding day. He and run blocking were the only thing to like about the offense. I would have liked to see him break a couple big gains, instead of everything being 12 yards or less, but thats a small complaint against an otherwise great game.

Receivers: D –

6 dropped passes. 6. Do I really need to say anything else? Probably not, but I’ll also add in Mike Williams pure inability to get open at all just to fan the flames a bit. The only redeeming quality within this entire group is the play of Doug Baldwin, but even the super-rookie couldn’t save this unit.

Offensive Line: B

It’s hard to remember the last time the offensive line wasn’t a major problem in a Seahawks loss. The Seahawks gave up 2 sacks, but on both Jackson held on the ball way too long. The line held the great DC pass rushers, like Brian Orakpo, in check for most of the game. The line was also able to open holes in the running game all game long. Unfortunately, there were still penalties; lots of penalties.

Rush Defense: B+

The rush defense gave up 110 yards on the ground, but DC only averaged 3.8 yards per carry. The defense was also in a rough spot all day, since the Seahawks offense had difficulty sustaining a drive and kept putting the defense back on the field with little to no rest.

Pass Defense: D-

Hard to give the pass defense anything but an F here. The team made an very ordinary QB in Rex Grossman look like an all pro. when they weren’t getting scorched for 314 yards, they were committing stupid and costly penalties. Brandon Browner was especially bad for all but a few plays. Only reason this isn’t an F is because of a couple interceptions.

Special Teams: A-

2 blocked kicks, a couple good returns by Leon Washington, no big returns given up. If it wasn’t for the missed kick by Hauschka, this would have been a solid A.

Coaching: D

It’s difficult for me to not just vent some major frustration right here. The penalties, the clock management, the sudden abandonment of Marshawn Lynch and the running game once the Seahawks had a lead, there’s a long list frustrating problems with the coaching in this game.

To me, though, the worst part was the defensive game plan. Why would you ever call a stead diet of soft zone coverage with the corners currently on the Seahawks’ roster? It makes no sense. All of them were picked because of their ability to play press coverage and are at their best in man to man coverage. Choosing to not play to their strengths is just unfathomable to me. It simply makes no sense.