Seahawks hangover: 3 things we learned vs. Bears

The Seahawks lost to the Bears on Monday 24-17. Here are three things we learned from week two.

The Seahawks just look like a team that has lost a lot of talent. That is because they have. But losing Richard Sherman, etc., this offseason is no longer an excuse for the team. Seattle is making mistakes in places they didn’t expect. And that is costing them games.

Here are three quick things we learned from Monday’s loss to the Bears.

Ken Norton Jr. hire looks OK but the Brian Schottenheimer hire does not

Schottenheimer appears to have somehow made Russell Wilson a worse quarterback. Schottenheimer seems to have forgotten how to call run plays or any kind of creative pass plays. Instead, he has made Wilson into a pocket passer who holds on to the ball too long and who then gets sacked. Meanwhile, Chris Carson and Rashaad Penny don’t get used much.

Norton, however, has taken what players he has left – as every member of the Seahawks defense seems to have been injured already in 2018 – and made the defense workable. On Monday, Seattle gave up just 17 points to Chicago’s offense and 271 yards. Seattle had no K.J. Wright or Bobby Wagner and started a linebacker that had never played a down with the team.

And those 271 yards were only after Chicago started with a 96 yard drive. After that opening score, the Bears only gained 175 yards on nine meaningful drives (the tenth and last “drive” was the one-play game-ending kneel down.) That is just 19 yards a drive gained. Not bad.

Norton wasn’t a great defensive coordinator with Oakland. He looks like he might be decent in Seattle.

Chris Carson shouldn’t be playing so much special teams

The Carson thing was weird on Monday, right? It isn’t just me, I don’t think, who thinks this. Carson looks pretty good when he does get to run the ball, which isn’t enough. And he is still the best running back on the team for 2018. But Pete Carroll didn’t play Carson in the fourth quarter because Carson was “gassed” from playing so much special teams.

According to Seahawks.com, Carroll said after the game

"(Carson) was a little gassed from working on special teams and helping us. He had to kind of double dip and I wanted to see how we could do with Rashad and get him some playing time."

I understand Seattle has a banged-up team. But here is a theory: Don’t put your best running back in a position where he will not be able to play the last quarter of a game because he is playing special teams.

This was still a close game late and Carson should have been available. (And while I am talking about it, maybe experiment with Penny in the second quarter, not the fourth. That way Carson could have missed early in the game instead of late.)

The kids are still alright on the Seahawks

Seattle isn’t going to make the playoffs in 2018. The way the offense is playing, the Seahawks will be lucky to win 7 games. Maybe with some certain coaching changes this coming offseason, Seattle’s offense will improve in 2019.

But there is still hope for the future after this year. Here are just some of the key players who are rookies or in their second year with Seattle and that have already shown they will help the Seahawks for several seasons to come: Chris Carson, Shaquill Griffin, Michael Dickson, Will Dissly, Rashaad Penny, Rasheem Green and yes, Austin Calitro.

Maybe John Schneider is right and Seattle is simply re-tooling and not rebuilding. There is young talent on the team and Seattle has extended Tyler Lockett as well. Maybe 2018 won’t be a year of great highlights. But 2019 might be. So might 2020 and beyond.