3 takeaways from alarming Seattle Seahawks Week 5 loss
By Jake Luppino
Coming off a huge Week 4 win, the Seattle Seahawks followed it up with a disheartening loss on Thursday Night Football. Through the first quarter of the season, the Seahawks have consistently run into the same problems. Just when it seemed they were turning the corner, they shot themselves right back in the foot. In spite of that, the game was still a toss-up. Meaning, it could have gone either way.
In fact, their Week 5 game is kind of a synopsis of the season; they play well enough to win, but do enough bad to lose. That has been what is most frustrating about the early 2021 season. The Seahawks now fall to 2-3 and move back into last place of the daunting NFC West.
Along with the loss, came a huge injury sustained to Russell Wilson. While there is no timetable for his return, it is safe to assume there is a dark cloud reigning over Lumen Field in Seattle, Washington.
Here are three takeaways from the alarming Week 5 loss.
3 takeaways from Seahawks Week 5 loss versus Rams
What do we make of this defense?
In 2020, the Seattle Seahawks defense got off to a very similar start to that of the 2021 defense. They let up over 400 yards per game, are on pace to be historically bad and then flip the switch at the halfway mark of the season. The reason being is because the halfway mark of the season is typically right after the trade deadline and as we have seen in years past, the Seahawks always have something up their sleeve. But, the problem in 2021 thus far is that the offense hasn’t been able to overcompensate for the poor defensive performances.
In the first half of the Week 5 game against the Rams, the defense truly did a stellar job. The pressure up front rattled Stafford a little bit, which was on display with the 3 or 4 early overthrows. Quandre Diggs had another interception, giving the Seattle offense an extra opportunity at scoring the ball. I thought D.J. Reed put together his best game of the year, playing with an extreme amount of confidence. As highlighted numerous times by the FOX commentary team, Reed was aggressive in coverage, playing on the line of scrimmage and not 8-10 yards back.
Is that a potential fix to this defense? In the second half, we saw Robert Woods just continually slice his way through the defense on a simple over route. Do the Seahawks need to go more man-to-man? Does Ryan Neal need to see more playing time? In Week 4, against San Fransisco, Neal was all over the place on third down, making great plays in coverage guarding George Kittle. Yet, it was as if he was in the early Halloween spirit last night and became a ghost.
Regardless, the Seahawks defense has issues and they don’t have time to wait until the trade deadline. Especially, with an injury to Russell Wilson. Whether they have to consider a trade or sign a free agent, with 10 days until the next game, now is the time to strike.