Seahawks 2022 season review: The best of times, the worst of times

The Seahawks gave us moments of sheer dread and pure ecstasy

As  I said earlier, I’m not giving you a game-by-game recap. However – the Hawks followed up the loss to the somewhat hated Niners with another loss, this one to the Falcons. The offense was better, but not quite good enough to overcome the defense’s pedestrian showing. Geno and his crew really stepped it up the following week in Detroit. Seattle had by far their best offensive showing of the year. How good? Well…

They hung 48 points on the Lions, only the second time they’d topped 40 points since 2018. They scored twice in every quarter for the first time since, well, never before in the Pete Carroll era. Even in the games that saw them annihilate their opponents with 50-plus points, the Hawks never had such a consistent, methodical offense as in the shootout versus the Lions.

Of course, the defense was virtually as awful as the offense was great. As it turned out, Detroit had a legitimately dynamic offense. Just ask the Packers about them. As for the Hawks, Geno Smith was virtually flawless. More than half of his 30 pass attempts either picked up a first down (14) or resulted in a touchdown (two). Rashaad Penny reminded everyone how great he could be, slashing his way to 151 yards and two scores of his own on just 17 carries.

The Hawks offense would never be that great again. Penny went down for the season in the very next game. Kenneth Walker III showed exactly why the Hawks drafted him as highly as they did, rushing for 88 yards and a touchdown on just eight carries. Still, I can’t help but wonder how much better the Hawks would have been if Penny had only missed a game or two. That would have given Walker just enough time to show what he could do, and given Seattle a ridiculously nasty ground attack when Penny returned.