The Seahawks season is over after a tough loss on the road to the team that will represent the NFC this year in the Super Bowl. That’s cool. Next year, it’s our turn.
Sure, the few people who wandered in here by mistake – those of you that aren’t true 12s – are laughing about my assertion that it’s our turn next year. First, by our turn, I mean the Seahawks, not me personally, our site, nor the 12s in general. Well, it will be the 12s turn, because they’ll be doing a lot of celebrating. By next year, okay, it’s this year – 2023 – but next season. Next year just plays better.
Now exactly why this coming season will be a Seahawks year, I’ll leave for another time. Let’s look back on this year’s successes and failures, and see how it all balanced out. I think you’ll agree with me that this year has to be counted as a success, although there may be a few qualifiers to that statement. I’m not going to dissect every game, but a closer look at the first two contests, and see how they served as harbingers for the entire year.
Seahawks first two games set the tone for the season
The hype for the Hawks first game of the year was unreal. The NFL gave it the spotlight it deserved on Monday Night Football. The Seahawks would face their former quarterback Russell Wilson in what most of the talking heads saw as a debut for a team headed for the postseason. Well, they were right; they just had the wrong team. Wilson went on to have the worst season of his carer, and Geno Smith had his best. We saw the seeds of those performances in this game.
Russ actually had one of his best games of the year, but still struggled to find the end zone. He missed several open receivers, something we’d seen far too often in his last couple of seasons in Seattle. Meanwhile, Geno played a brilliant game. He completed 23 of 28 passes and threw for two scores. While he fell off toward the end of the season, Geno Smith looked like the nine-time Pro Bowler, not Wilson.
The defense showed us what was coming, too. They surrendered 433 yards but created key turnovers to hold the Broncos to 16 points. While Coby Bryant got burned on one of those scores, he bounced back with a fine rookie season. Rookie tackles Charles Cross and Abe Lucas played like five-year starters, and rookie cornerback Tariq Woolen allowed just one catch on three targets. Free agent linebacker Uchenna Nwosu kicked off his great year with three pressures and a sack. Things were looking up in the Emerald City. It certainly looked like the best of times.
The Seahawks were in for a rollercoaster season
The worst of times came calling quickly for the Seahawks as they went on the road to San Francisco. Virtually everything that worked in the first game failed against the Niners. The defense again gave up over 150 yards more than the offense gained. Unfortunately, they weren’t nearly as good at keeping their opponents out of the end zone this time. Al Woods had three tackles for a loss but he was virtually the only standout on the Hawks defense. Tariq Woolen had Seattle’s play of the day, blocking a field goal that Mike Jackson turned into a spectacular 87-yard touchdown.
But that was it for the Hawks. Smith had one of his worst outings of the season as the Niners’ front seven’s pressure was relentless. Geno was hurried five times, hit seven, and sacked twice. He also threw his first interception of the season, as neither Rashaad Penny nor Kenneth Walker III could get going. The game was far worse than even the final 27-7 score made it appear.
When I say rollercoaster, that is exactly how the Seahawks’ season played out. There were tremendous peaks to be sure. How wonderful was it to flash your Hawks gear when the team was cruising along at 6-3? To be sure, there were balanced by the lowest of lows, as the Seahawks followed that great run by going 1-5 to tumble out of the playoff race, all the way to 7-8. A certain correspondent – who shall remain nameless – was so bold as to map out the path for the Hawks to win the NFC West when they were 6-4. Yeah, okay, it was me. They didn’t follow the path I expected at all, but they did forge their own path to the postseason.
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.
The Seahawks season turned on injuries
It wasn’t just the injury to Penny that hurt the Hawks. Kenneth Walker III was ready to step up and have his own spectacular year, it’s true. He’s certainly one of the best candidates for Rookie of the Year. Of course, one of his main competitors for the award is his teammate on the other side of the ball, cornerback Tariq Woolen. Without a doubt, Woolen was absolutely amazing.
The problem is that Seattle lost another critical starter in that very first game versus the Broncos. Safety Jamal Adams was gone for the season after just 15 snaps. How badly did his loss affect the Seahawks’ defense? Consider this: he had three tackles, one quarterback hit on his only blitz, was targeted twice and allowed no completions, and broke up a pass, all in those 15 plays. Jamaal Adams was fir, and the Hawks D never quite recovered. When Ryan Neal eventually took over at Adams’ spot, all he did was earn the top grade at safety from Pro Football Focus.
The problem with that is that the Hawks planned to play a lot of sets with three safeties. Losing Adams was a tremendous blow to the Hawks, one that has been overlooked far too easily. Despite that, the defense came into its own in week six versus the Cardinals. Seattle played by far their best defensive ball of the season as they held Arizona to just nine points. That evened their record at 3-3 and began their improbable run that had every 12 dreaming of a significant playoff run. The Hawks ripped off three more wins, and the future appeared to be happening right now before our very eyes. And then they took a little road trip.
Seahawks falter and fall out of contention
We’ve all written a lot about the Debacle in Deutschland. The defense wasn’t bad, really. Yes, they gave up too many yards on the ground, a theme we saw all too often this season. Unfortunately, the offense could never get on track against the Bucs. They were shut out in the first half, and as we’ve seen far too many times this year and in seasons past, the Hawks abandoned the run far too early. Walker only got 10 carries, this was only a week after he lit up the Cards for 109 yards and two scores on 26 carries. Jason Myers scored the Hawks first points of the game with 12:10 left in the third quarter. Despite one trailing 14-3 at that point, Walker only got three more touches.
That is a problem we would see again and again as the Seahawks continued their second-half slide. Seattle had their bye week after the overseas jaunt, but the extra rest did nothing for them. They lost in overtime to the hapless Raiders, a game that saw them surrender an unfathomable 283 yards on the ground. The Maginot Line provided a stiffer defense than the Hawks. I provided the link for those of you who slept through the second semester of World History; in short, it wasn’t very effective.
The Hawks did manage to eke out a win over the seriously depleted Rams but then lost to the at that point 4-8 Carolina Panthers. They then stepped into the back-to-back buzzsaws of the 49ers and the Chiefs. The defense actually played much better against those two teams – teams that may very well meet in the Super Bowl, by the way – but the offense again sputtered terribly. Seattle only scored 23 points combined in the two games. Things were looking grim at 7-8 with two games to play.
Seahawks completed their exhilarating ride in style
Thankfully, the NFL scheduling gods blessed the Seahawks with a pair of teams in their own death spirals. The New York J-E-T-S Jets Jets Jets were also 7-8 heading into this game, but they had lost four straight, including their last two games at home. The New Yorkers were in complete disarray, as they had just decided that their QB of the future, Zach Wilson, was destined to be their castoff of the future. Seattle dominated New York, matching their previous two games in scoring output while holding the opposition to a pair of field goals.
Seattle gave the 12s a classic nailbiter to wrap up the season. I’d say it’s fair to say that most 12s reached their cuticles before the Hawks secured their overtime win over the Rams to complete a wholly unexpected winning season. We all had to wait until the Lions punished the Packers by knocking them out of the playoffs and putting the Seahawks in. I don’t doubt that Quandre Diggs was more than happy to pay off on his promise of vacations for his former teammates. The Hawks were playoff-bound for the 10th time in Pete Carroll’s 13 seasons in Seattle.
Sadly for the Hawks and us 12s, the third time was not the charm against the 49ers. Still, I don’t think you could find a single member of the vast nation of 12s who would say they were disappointed with this season. Sure, we all wanted to beat the Niners and move deeper into the playoffs. Yes, there were some pretty bad times, but we mostly got great times. I can’t help but think of the words of the Seahawks leader in the locker room, Geno Smith. In a year in which most of the media wrote off the Seahawks, how sweet was it that none of them wrote back?