A Seattle Seahawks Game Only Admiral Ackbar Could Love

Admiral Ackbar from “Return of the Jedi” loves to point out a good trap.

I absolutely hate being right some times. I honestly do. I have no ego that needs to fed, so being wrong doesn’t bother me. I make predictions because it’s part of my job, but there are many time I’d rather be wrong than right. I hate predicting that college players wont make in the NFL, since it’s probably their dream to do so. I also hate predicting Seahawk losses.

I spent most of last week, both on this site and on twitter warning that this game against the Rams was a trap game. The Seahawks are a far better team on paper, whether you look at it statistically or just examine roster talent, and yet I could just feel this loss coming. Too many distractions, too much focus on last week, not enough focus on this week.

That’s exactly what happened. The Seahawks fell victim to the classic trap game. And that, unfortunately, gets them the Admiral Ackbar* seal of approval.

*In case this needs explaining, Ackbar is the lobster-like character from “Return of the Jedi” who’s “It’s a trap!” line is often quoted.

The Seahawks have no business losing to a team like the Rams. So when a debacle like this happens, everyone wants to know why. Unfortunately, there’s plenty of blame to go around.

This week, I’m placing it squarely on the backs of the coaching staff. This teams wasn’t ready to play. They were flat. They weren’t ready to play the game. They were simply unprepared.

The game plan also seemed poorly put together. Why would the Seahawks run the ball until they get inside the red zone, and then abandon the run altogether? Fans tend to blame the offensive coordinator for play call calling, but that’s incorrect. The plays aren’t called unless that is the game plan to do so. While Bevell gets part of the blame for the gameplan, his bosses, Pete Carroll and Tom Cable, deserve much more blame for these questionable choices.

On defense things weren’t any better. Dropping off in soft zones on every 3rd down only made it easy on the Rams to continually pick up 1st down after 1st down. This is especially true with the Seahawk corners, who excel in Press coverage but are genuinely poor at zone coverage. Again, the game planning was just really poorly done with week.

The Seahawks also repeatedly shot themselves in the foot with penalties. This is also on the coaches. Yes, I know that individual players (especially Giacomini) caused most of the problems, but penalties with this team is an epidemic problem, and that starts with the coaches. Good coaching leads to teams that don’t have penalty problems. There’s a reason Bill Belichick’s teams, or Mike Holgrem’s teams, or Jim Fassell’s teams are always among the best in the league at avoiding penalties.

This coaching staff needs to get it’s act together before it costs the Seahawks a shot at the playoffs.

There also seems to be a lot of focus right now on QB Russell Wilson. He certainly didn’t play well, but he also wasn’t the main reason for the team’s struggles. while there is reason to be critical, I still support the Wilson as our starting QB. I’ll saving this topic for a longer post later in the week.

Ultimately, I think that, as fans, we need to take a step back and not panic. Most fans had this team at 2-2 at this point in the season. While losing to the Rams was never part of the plan, neither was a W against the Packers. The Seahawks just need to fix a few things and this team will be alright.