Seahawks fail to deliver Christmas cheer

The Seahawks suffered a tough loss against the Arizona Cardinals on Saturday, making the road to the Super Bowl much more difficult.

The Seattle Seahawks had a golden opportunity to basically guarantee a first round bye with a win against the Cardinals, but they were not able to rise to the occasion, losing 34-31.

The offense looked out of sorts in the first half, and nothing was working for them.  The root of the problem was the offensive line, and they struggled to give Wilson any time to throw the ball.  The devastating injury to Tyler Lockett added a crushing blow to an already rough first half.

The Seahawks’ offense started to get things going after halftime, and Wilson ended up finishing the game with 350 yards and 4 touchdowns.  There were definitely positive aspects of the second half from the offense and hopefully they can build off that success going forward.

The defense played excellent football to begin the game, but their problems started in the second half.  When the offense finally started to click, the defense failed to do their job.

The defense gave up way too many explosive plays, and the Cardinals scored touchdowns with ease when they entered the red zone.  With 1 minute to go, the Cardinals drove down and kicked the game winning field goal to silence the home crowd.  It wasn’t the dominant Seahawks defense that fans are used to seeing.

The Seahawks’ inconsistency during this season has been a bit of a head scratcher. They are not playing as a unit right now, and it’s extremely frustrating to watch.  When the defense plays well, the offense often struggles.  And, as we saw on Saturday, when the offense played well, the defense failed to make key plays.

Football is a beautiful game, and one of the reasons people love it, is because it’s a complete team sport. Everybody needs to work together and do their job to have success. The best teams in the NFL are connected as a group, in a very special way.

As frustrating as this game was, the Seahawks showed a whole lot of fight to get back into the game in the second half.  Russell Wilson is as mentally tough as they come and he brought the offense back into the game and put the team in position to win.

The Seahawks can still win the Super Bowl, but it’s going take a lot of extra work now and some serious soul searching.  They have the talent to do big things, but it’s the mental errors and inconsistency that keeps holding them back.

Next: Can the Seahawks still get a bye?

The Seahawks just need to get hot at the right time, and they can start by dominating the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday.   Once the playoffs start, anything can happen, and the Seahawks have the experience and talent to make an exciting and magical run once the postseason begins.