Seahawks offensive and defensive grades from ugly Week 13 loss

Seahawks lose first place in the West, dropping a game at home to the Giants in week 13.

After a hectic month of November, the Seattle Seahawks entered December in first place of the gauntlet that is the NFC West. Many speculated that Seattle had their work cut out for them as their first three opponents all had records below .500. Well, unexpectedly, the New York Giants marched into Seattle and stole a win.

The NFL is truly a week-to-week game and regardless of record or roster construction, any team can be beaten. That was proven yesterday as the Giants were without their starting quarterback, Daniel Jones. Backup Colt McCoy didn’t do too much as they heavily favored the run game, but it did not matter as New York won on the road. It was a mixture of an opportunistic Giants defense along with a sloppy Seattle offense that resulted in a Giants win.

As always, here is the weekly grade report.

Offense

I know, the box score certainly reflects a poor game from Russell Wilson. But, keep in mind the interception Wilson threw bounced right off of Chris Carson and into the hands of a Giants linebacker. Also, throughout the game, Wilson could not establish his rhythm as the Giants defensive front was successful in applying pressure. This was reminiscent of the losses to both Buffalo and Los Angeles as Wilson could not keep his eyes down the field.

Did he miss a couple of throws? Sure. But, it is a very difficult task for a quarterback to constantly maneuver through a pocket and find an open wide receiver. Given all that happened, Wilson still put this offense in a position to win at the end of the game but failed. Although Wilson deserves blame, it is only partial blame. He finished the game completing 27 of 43 passes for 263 yards, 1 touchdown and 1 interception.

The Seattle rushing attack was never really given the opportunity to have an impact on this game yesterday. I know the Seattle offense failed to establish any kind of rhythm and that had a hindrance on the run game. But, from the start, it felt as if Seattle strayed away from the run. They passed for a total of 43 times and rushed 22 times. They threw the ball nearly double the number of times they ran. Granted, the Giants are emerging as a top 10 defense in this league, but the run game might have actually helped this offense.

On this website, in particular, we have been harping about the return of Chris Carson and getting back to that balanced attack offensively. With Carson returning in Week 12, we were able to see a sneak peek, and I think most 12s were expecting a heavier load from Carson yesterday. Chris rushed 13 times for 65 yards and seemed to have found some success. When Seattle reviews the game tape, they may regret running the ball less.

Last week against Philly, the Seattle wide receiving core — well, really D.K. Metcalf — did a good enough job to help this offense win. In yesterday’s loss, Wilson actually did a nice job of spreading the ball around. But, they were not successful in hitting the big play and never established the rhythm. With the poor play of the offensive line, Wilson did not have enough time to make the big play, which we have become so accustomed to seeing. The Giants defense did a great job of taking away the explosive plays down the field.

D.K. Metcalf had another drop in yesterday’s game. The ball was a little high, but he leaped up into the air and got two hands on it. Besides that, he had a solid game that featured a mean stiff-arm to Giants DB James Bradberry. Tyler Lockett went down with an injury early in the game, but luckily enough, he returned to the field. The Seattle wide receiving core was just missing the big-time play ability yesterday and it hurt the effectiveness of this offense.

In the four losses on the Seahawks season, the one commonality in all is the poor offensive line play. For the most part, this offensive line has actually come together and put up a solid year. But, when they struggle as they did yesterday, the Seahawks are most likely going to lose. When they aren’t able to provide sufficient enough blocking, Wilson and the rest of this offense can never get settled in. Yes, Seattle could have gone no-huddle earlier on in the team in an attempt to wear down the Giants pass rush, but they didn’t. And yes, both of our RT’s were out of the game, but that still does not excuse 10 quarterback hits.

The media can throw all of the blame on Wilson, but he will not put together a good game when his eyes are not down the field. He consistently needed to find a way out of trouble yesterday and that always spells disaster. The rushing attack of course helps this offensive line establish their presence, but they got manhandled by the Giants yesterday for pretty much four straight quarters. The offensive line needs to be better moving forward.