For Pete’s sake: far more than three Seahawks sank the team in Week 12

The Seahawks defense was a disaster, and everyone is to blame

Now as a special reward for all the good little 12s that made it to the third page, I have a confession. As I already admitted, I really don’t think that Geno Smith and Abe Lucas were the primary culprits in this loss. The Hawks put 34 points on the board, and that should win almost every game. It certainly should have been enough to beat the Raiders, who came into the game averaging 22.5 points per game and had only topped 30 twice. No, dear 12s, it was obviously the defense that lost this game. And I can’t blame just one player, either.

Let me begin by giving Quandre Diggs credit for picking off Derek Carr not only once, but twice. I think we may have all been lulled into thinking this game was going to be a piece of cake when Diggs picked off Carr on the very first play. Or even worse, maybe the Seahawks defenders thought so, too.

That just about ended the Seahawks defensive efforts for the night. Okay, that isn’t quite true, but it’s close enough. Jordyn Brooks had 16 tackles, and Cody Barton had a dozen, plus tipped another Raiders pass to give Diggs his second INT. Poona Ford recorded the only sack of the day for the Hawks, half of their four QB hits, and one of the measly three tackles for a loss.

But there was virtually no defense against the run. As Matt Calkins wrote in the Seattle Times, “…the “L” Seattle suffered Sunday stemmed primarily from a “D” that was feeble at best and nonexistent at worst.” The Raiders Josh Jacobs is a very good player, yes. He’d already posted four 100-yard performances coming into Sunday’s contest and was averaging 5.1 yards per carry. But he isn’t Marshawn Lynch or Shaun Alexander.

At 6-5, the Seahawks are suddenly one of the teams sitting just outside of the playoff picture. Perhaps I was a bit too optimistic when I wrote how the Hawks had a clear path to the division title. The Raiders were supposed to be one of their easy wins. As we saw, there is no such thing as an easy win for this team. And until the defense gets right, there might not be many more wins, period.