3 takeaways from frustrating Seattle Seahawks Week 3 loss
By Jake Luppino
The Seattle Seahawks followed up a disappointing home opener with a very frustrating loss on the road in Week 3. In the last two weeks, the Seahawks have allowed over 900 total yards. Through the first six quarters of the 2021 season, the Seahawks defense appeared to be picking up where they left off in the latter half of the 2020 season. Over the last six quarters, however, the Seattle Seahawks defense looks like the worst in the league.
Seattle’s seven-game winning streak against Minnesota was snapped in Week 3. The Vikings offense absolutely dominated for four straight quarters, leaving a lot of doubt in the mind of 12s after the game. The good news is that the season is still young. The bad news is that the Seahawks have crucial games coming up on the schedule with little to no time to fix their defense.
Nonetheless, here are three takeaways from the Seahawks second straight loss.
3 takeaways from Seahawks week 3 loss to Vikings
Fast starts, slow finishes
As we have seen in the first three weeks of the season, the Seahawk offense comes out of the gate very aggressively. Similar to last week against Tennessee, Seattle scored on their first three offensive possessions. It should have been four straight if Jason Meyers didn’t miss the field goal attempt late in the second quarter.
It appears as if the Seahawks have entered the upside-down. 12s are used to the Seahawks starting off slow and finishing strong. Thus far in 2021, the Seahawks start off red hot and finish ice cold. In the Week 3 defeat, the Seahawks had a total of 7 yards in the third quarter. Is that due to defenses making really good adjustments at halftime? Are the Seahawks straying away from what’s working?
The Seahawks were 3-8 on third down yesterday and once again seemed to stray away from the run game in the second half. Early on in the first half, we saw Seattle utilize the strength of Chris Carson and even go up-tempo. Those resulted in scoring drives. Why go away from that in the second half? You know what helps a struggling defense? A 10-play, 8-minute drive that results in points.
The offensive line has done a pretty solid job throughout the early season and can’t receive much of the blame for the second half struggles. The problem lies within the lack of consistency. Three straight weeks, the Seattle offense has completely been shut down in the second half. The Seahawks need to be able to finish games if they want any chance of having a successful 2021 season.