Seahawks lose to Saints in week 7 with late mistakes

Seattle’s defense played better in the second half than it has for most of the season and the Seahawks were tied with 2 minutes left in the game. But late mistakes allowed the Saints to get the victory 13-10.

Seattle had the Saints off the field with a sack on Jameis Winston on New Orleans final drive but a questionable personal foul penalty by Seattle safety Marquise Blair on Winston gave the Saints a first down. Then later in the drive, with a bit over 3 minutes remaining and New Orleans attempting a field goal on 4th and 5, Seattle defensive tackle Al Woods jumped offsides and gave New Orleans a first down.

The play in itself didn’t give the Saints points, of course, but it did allow New Orleans to run another minute-plus off the clock and when New Orleans did make the 33-yard kick that was the difference in the game it was by far more makeable than it would have been before Woods’ offsides.

On the Seahawks final drive, Geno Smith was sacked on second and third down and a 4th and 28 ended up being incomplete. The Saints took a knee to wind out the clock.

Seahawks fall to 2-5 with loss to the Saints

Seattle did do some good things in the game. On their second drive, Smith hit DK Metcalf for an 84-yard catch and run for a touchdown. After trailing in time of possession 19 minutes to 10 in the first half, Seattle actually got it to within a few seconds difference in the second half.

But overall, Seattle spent a lot of time forcing the run and mostly only threw in the second half on obvious passing downs, like the last final and futile Seattle drive. Special teams didn’t help either. Jason Myers missed two of his three field goal attempts, missing one for 44 yards. With the final being 13-10, that missed field goal ended up being huge.

And while Seattle did keep Alvin Kamara in check running the ball (51 rushes on 20 carries) he went wild catching the ball with 10 catches and 128 yards. With no Kamara, maybe Seattle wins. Of course, if the Seahawks had had Russell Wilson, maybe Seattle wins.

But now Seattle is 2-5 and 5 games back in the NFC West. Seattle isn’t going to make the playoffs. They already have more losses than they did last season. The question is, what changes does Seattle make in the offseason to make 2022 better?