Seahawks versus Giants: 3 quick impressions

Here are three quick impressions from the Seahawks 17-12 loss to the Giants in week 13,

The Seahawks rarely make it easy for 12s to watch games. Fans have gotten used to watching Seattle win close games but lately, Seattle has been losing most of their close games. Seattle is 3-4 in their last seven games. And Seattle’s 17-12 week 13 loss to the Giants was as ugly offensively as Seattle has been a long while to a losing team.

Here are three quick impressions from Seattle versus New York.

The defense looked better because the offense was bad but the defense wasn’t great

The Giants entered the game with backup quarterback Colt McCoy at the helm. The Seahawks knew that the Giants couldn’t do a whole lot throwing the ball. Knowing that, keying on the run was important. But in the third quarter, Seattle got gashed on runs. New York ran for 119 in the third quarter alone and it was the third quarter that determined the outcome of the game.

For the Seahawks to know that the Giants needed to run the ball and then not be able to stop New York for a lot of the second half is simply unacceptable. New York ran for 190 yards in the game and averaged 6.1 yards a carry.

The Seahawks need to run Chris Carson more

On Seattle’s opening drive that ended with a field goal, the Seahawks ran 8 plays. Two were runs with Chris Carson and Carson ran for 11 yards each time. Carson didn’t run the ball again until Seattle’s second play of the team’s third drive. He ran for seven yards. On the third series that resulted in a punt, Seattle ran 8 plays and Russell Wilson dropped back six times, handed to Carson once and the other play was a punt.

My point in this is that at the start of games Seattle clearly sets the tone that they are going to throw the ball a lot and not mix in Carson so much. This is a mistake. More Carson and less Russell Wilson is needed to help the offense be more efficient.

The Seahawks ended at 10-6 is more a hope than realistic at this point

Seattle’s offense is getting worse as the season goes on and the unit was awful against the Gaints. The defense still isn’t good enough to win a game on its own. Seattle should defeat the 0-12 New York Jets in week 14. Should. But the rest of the games? Maybe not.

Seattle currently sits as the fifth seed in the NFC playoff picture. They are two games better than the Cardinals who are outside the playoff bubble right now. The 49ers also have 6 losses. The bears, Lions and Washington Football Team all have 7 losses. Seattle should not miss the playoffs in 2020 after a 5-0 start and are likely to make the postseason.

But if the Cardinals can win out and Seattle loses to the Washington Football Team, Rams and 49ers to end the season (and all that is possible) then Seattle will miss the playoffs. Seattle needs to look at the last quarter of the season and act like they are out of the playoffs and play with a sense of urgency. And also hope that the offense can get back to three-quarters of what it was in the first five games.