Which is worse: the Seahawks offense or the defense?

The Seahawks looked worse in their week three loss than their week two loss. One of the issues is that what’s wrong with Seattle may not be fixable. And if you think I am overreacting to what we have all witnessed the last two games then just think about how good the NFC West is overall and the following facts.

First, Seattle after three games is in last place in their own division by two games. Until the 49ers lost to the Packers on Sunday, no other division team had lost. The Rams beat the Buccaneers by 10 points and clearly looked like the better team. Kyler Murray looks great and the Cardinals look better. Seattle is the worst team in the division right now and it isn’t close and their only win came against the still-winless Colts.

So, yes. We know the Seahawks defense is terrible. That is easy to see. How Seattle fired Brian Schottenheimer after last season and kept Ken Norton Jr. is a mystery.

It probably has more to do with Pete Carroll being a loyal guy – Norton Jr. has a long history as a player and coach with Carroll and Schottenheimer did not. But Norton Jr. has never been a successful defensive coordinator and is proving his ineptitude again in 2021.

Seahawks have issues both offensively and defensively

Opposing receivers are open by several yards on nearly every pattern they run. The Seahawks aren’t a physical team anymore and their cornerbacks are not good. But a better coach would scheme in a way to help their limited secondary. Seattle’s vaunted pass rush doesn’t exist and this is partly scheme as well.

Through three games Seattle has allowed 82 completions in 116 attempts. That means opposing quarterbacks are completing 70.7 percent of their passes against the Seahawks. Seattle has no interceptions this season.

Seattle, though, also allows 4.5 yards a rush which is 25th in the NFL. So this defense doesn’t stop the pass or the run. And this isn’t going to get better because Seattle doesn’t have the coaching to make it better.

But the offense may not be better than the defense. If Seattle could take its first half offense into the second half then great. But it can’t. This means opposing defenses adjust to the Seattle offense and once they do Seattle cannot adjust to that adjustment.

Based on first half points, the Seahawks should average 41 points a game (Seattle has 62 points in first halves this year). But after halftime, Seattle has just 13 points combined in three games. This means if entire games were played like the second half offense, Seattle would average 9 points a game. Seattle’s points scored in the second half is the worst in the league.

But what is this offense trying to do? Does it want to run the ball? Does it want to do shorter, more effective throws than throwing the ball downfield as much as it did when Schottenheimer was the offensive coordinator? This offense is lost just as much as the defense. The Seahawks offense holds the ball for 38.9 percent of the time of a game, last in the league.

Seattle averages 5.1 yards a carry, fifth in the league. But Seattle has run the ball just 63 times, 26th in the NFL. Why not run the ball more? And consider that Russell Wilson is getting sacked on 8.5 percent of his dropbacks, 26th-worst in the league.

So Seattle has two sides of the ball that appear to not have a plan throughout the course of a game. The offense starts games strong and finishes terribly.  Seattle’s defense gets worse as the game goes on. At this point, this will be a franchise-changing season because player and coaching staff changes will need to be made and we could be on the verge of the worst Seahawks season in the Pete Carroll era.