Seahawks season ends as offense gets dominated by Rams defense

The Seahawks season came to end as the Seattle offense got dominated by the Rams defense.

The final score of the Seahawks versus Rams Wild Card game was not indicative of how close the game was until the very end. Seattle lost 30-20 to the Rams. Defense wins championships. The Rams have that. Seattle is close to that but now the great concern going forward for Seattle is how to fix the offense.

If you fell asleep after week five of the Seattle season and just woke up and this was the first thing you read I promise you have not been misled. For the last two-thirds of the season, the Seattle offense has been not good. But how to fix the issue is the question?

Against the Rams, the Seahawks scored 20 points (really 27 points as Russell Wilson threw a pick-six to the Rams in the first half and yes I am being sarcastic) and gained 278 total yards but if you watched the game you knew even those statistics are misleading. I give you example A: Seattle was 2 for 14 on third downs and for the longest time had zero third-down conversions.

The reason for this is two-fold. Los Angeles has a great defense and is the type of defense that with any offense at all could win a Super Bowl. They aren’t quite Legion of Boom but they are close. Seattle’s defense was amazingly better in the last two-thirds of the season and 2021 looks even better for the unit.

But Seattle will win or lose in the future with Russell Wilson and the ability of the offense. Wilson was simply off for most of the last part of the season and there is no real reason for this. Did he suddenly get old in front of our eyes due to all the hits he has taken over the years?

Or was the problem on Saturday the game plan by offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer? Seattle clearly should have run the ball a lot more early as Chris Carson was having success. As it was, Carson wound up with 77 yards on 16 carries and Seattle rushed for 136 yards overall. Seattle simply tried to throw the ball too much early in the game and never establish a run game which was a huge mistake.

Seattle’s offensive line was no match for the Rams either. So where do changes take place because if Seattle wants to win a Super Bowl they will need to make changes offensively somewhere. The offensive line? The coaching staff? Will Seattle re-sign Chris Carson who was one of the few positives to come out of the game for Seattle’s offense?

D.K. Metcalf did end up statistically with a good game (but had a bad late drop that basically ended any hope Seattle had for a miracle comeback) with five catches for 96 yards and two touchdowns but he was also targeted 11 times. Jacob Hollister had an atrocious game with no catches on 5 targets and at least two of those were drops.

2021?

So based on the Rams game and the end of the season for the Seahawks offense, how hopeful are 12s for 2021? The defense should be in good shape and was good enough to beat the Rams. Los Angeles scored 23 offensive points but the Rams were just 3-15 on third downs and had only 333 total yards.

The problem with Seattle against the Rams was the offense and penalties. Seattle had 9 penalties for 60 yards and the Rams had just 2 for 15. Seattle also lost the turnover battle with that bad interception and a fumbled punt and Los Angeles had zero turnovers.

Seattle once again made the playoffs and could again in 2021. But just making the playoffs isn’t good enough with the Seahawks when you have a solid defense and Russell Wilson as your quarterback. Or could it be that Russell Wilson is simply no longer a Super Bowl-caliber quarterback?