3 takeaways from Seattle Seahawks hope-ending Week 15 loss

The Seattle Seahawks 2021 season has ultimately come to an end. To make matters worse, it comes at the hands of divisional rival Los Angeles Rams, who completed the season sweep of the Seahawks in Week 15. Featured on a Tuesday Night doubleheader, the Seattle Seahawks — as they have for the most part in this frustrating season — found themselves on the wrong side of bad breaks.

In the defeat, the Seattle Seahawks 9 consecutive winning season streak came to an end. The Week 15 game featured all of the frustrating factors that have caused this Seattle team to experience an uncharacteristic season — 3rd down failures, bad penalties and missed opportunities.

With only three games remaining on the schedule, the Seahawks will be playing for pride. On the other hand, the Rams are now tied for 1st in the daunting NFC West and are only one game out of the 1 seed in the NFC. As mentioned coming into this game, there was a lot on the line for both teams. Unfortunately, it was the Rams who were able to seize the key moments and walk out of Sofi Stadium winners of two straight.

Here are three takeaways from the Seattle Seahawks Week 15 loss.

3 takeaways from Seattle Seahawks Week 15 loss versus Rams

Limited Offense

Entering a matchup against one of the most successful pass rushes’ in the entire NFL, it was critically important for Seattle to draw up a game plan that got the ball out of Wilson’s hands quickly. While Wilson’s average completion was 5 yards, it felt as if the Seahawks once again became reliant on the big play down the field.

To start the second half, they established the run in a nice 5 minute plus drive to take the lead. In that drive, when they did not run the ball, Wilson was throwing quick hitch routes to his wideouts. Both D.K. Metcalf and Freddie Swain made big plays on that drive to move the chains and get them closer to the end zone. After the Rams tied it at 10 apiece, it felt as if Seattle tried forcing the issue with the play-action fake.

It certainly is understandable as the ground game was picking up, but with no Tyler Lockett, I felt as if Seattle should have just taken the 3-4 yard completions to stay ahead of the chains. Russell Wilson’s bailout guy is Tyler Lockett. As we have seen over the years, no one is better in the scramble drill than Lockett. With him out due to COVID, it didn’t make sense for the Seahawks to continually look down the field. Although they have playmakers in Metcalf and Eskridge, Wilson doesn’t quite have the same rapport with them on the off-scripted plays.

When Seattle did take their shot down the field, Wilson often missed. This came as a huge surprise since Russell Wilson is known for his moonball. D.K. Metcalf was visibly frustrated and rightfully so, as he seemed to beat Jalen Ramsey numerous times throughout the game. The loss can’t solely be blamed on Wilson, but he did miss a couple of huge throws and held onto the ball for some untimely sacks. Outside of the opening drive in the second half, the Seattle Seahawks offense was very much stagnant when I felt they should have continually worked the short passing game, incorporating RPO plays.