I believe it was Shakespeare who wrote, "Beware the ides of the NFL season." Actually, that was probably John Clayton. I mean, it was Week 15 that showed us the Seattle Seahawks weren't quite ready for the Packers. There were no backstabbers in this loss - nothing like what De'Vondre Campbell did to his teammates. But I did list one backstabbing group among the losers of Week 15.
The Hawks looked as bad as anyone may have feared in their loss to the Pack on Sunday Night Football. Very few players had a good game, and far too many had awful games. That's reflected in Bob Condotta's grades, as his highest for any unit for this loss was a C. Even that might be too high.
Okay, so we had a lot of losers in this one. We did see a few glimmers of hope in the game. A few, not a lot. You can't exactly sugarcoat a 30-13 loss. Especially when you were already worried that the Seahawks' resurgence to first place in the NFC West was an illusion of the schedule. And man, was it ever an illusion.
Seattle Seahawks weren't ready for prime time after all
Coming into this game, I was concerned that the Hawks weren't as consistent as they needed to be to be a true contender. I shouldn't have worried. Seattle was very consistent Sunday night. The only problem is, they were consistently bad. Okay, that isn't quite true, as one player had a decent game, up until the point that he made a terrible play. But first, the king of the bad plays of Week 15.
Riq Woolen
The third-year cornerback was having a nice bounce-back season from his tackling issues last year. He'd only had a couple of bad games this year, notably against division rivals Los Angeles and Arizona. Woolen had his worst game by far against Green Bay. I don't need to go into the gory details again. Let's just say if there was a way to make a bad play, Woolen found it.
Geno Smith
The beleaguered Hawks quarterback had a decent night against the Pack. He completed 15 of 19 passes for 149 yards under an unrelenting Green Bay pass rush. The Packers sacked Smith three times, and he was pressured 10 times in all. 10 pressures in just 23 dropbacks is a miserable rate - but we'll address that soon enough. Smith again threw a terrible interception in the end zone when Seattle had a chance to make it a one-score game. The fact he should have been picked off on the pass just before that makes it even worse.
Sam Howell
Then again, it could have been worse. Oh wait, it was. After Smith was injured in the third quarter, Howell got his chance to show all the Geno-haters had been right all along. Or maybe they weren't. Granted, coming into the Week 15 game with one snap under your belt all season isn't the best scenario. Not a great design for success to enter the game trailing 20-3, either.
Howell was just 5-14 for 24 yards. I'll allow that he faced an even more consistent rush than Smith did, as Green Bay knew Seattle had to pass to get back into the game. Howell was pressured on 12 of his 17 dropbacks, a ridiculous rate of 70 percent. And he had one good series, going two for three for 21 yards en route to a 24-yard touchdown run by Zach Charbonnet.
But that was far too little, too late. Other than that series, Howell was 3-11 for 3 yards and an interception worse than Smith's. Seattle gained five yards on four series after that sole scoring drive led by Howell. It's just one game, but the Seahawks might want to look for a quarterback in next year's draft.
Offensive line
What a shock, the offensive line played poorly, right? I think 22 pressures, 12 QB hits, and seven sacks add up to a pretty miserable performance, don't you? After his breakout performance last week against the Cardinals, Zach Charbonnet was hauled back to reality with 54 yards on the ground. He did break free for that 24-yard scoring dash, so maybe he wasn't so bad after all. Even minus that run, he still had 30 yards on seven attempts, a solid average.
But overall, this line was atrocious. Olu Oluwatimi was only in for the first two series and his backup Jalen Sundell was overmatched. Far worse was the fact that guards Laken Tomlinson and Sataoa Laumea were blown up all night by the Packers' pass rush. Maybe John Schneider should put a little more value on guards after all.
Mike Macdonald
The coaching staff didn't have the team prepared for Green Bay on either side of the ball. After the loss, head coach Mike Macdonald admitted just that. Outschemed, outcoached, outprepared, out-idea'd - okay, that should be read as having fewer ideas than the opposition. No matter how you look at it, almost no one on the Seahawks was ready for this game.
Jaxon Smith-Njigba
Well, no one except for Jaxon Smith-Njigba. He was targeted 12 times and caught 10 of those passes for 83 yards. Note that Seattle only had 173 yards in receptions, with a net gain of just 128 yards in the passing game. That tends to happen when you can't keep the other team off your quarterbacks. Smith-Njigba is now clearly the top receiver on the Seahawks and proved it again.
Seahawks season-ticket holders - well, some of them
Well, some of the Hawks season ticket holders, anyway. We saw some glimmers of gold among all the ugliness of the game. Unfortunately, the gold was on Packers fans. A lot of Packers fans.
Here’s how much green and gold—and cheeseheads—are in the lower bowl of Lumen Field for Packers at #Seahawks pic.twitter.com/fxSDIVCJon
— Gregg Bell (@gbellseattle) December 16, 2024
Cheers for the Packers were noticeably louder for most of the game. As many commented all over social media, far too many season-ticket holders bought their tickets as the means to a social event, not because they were ever actually fans of the Seahawks. What true member of the 12s would sell their tickets to a high-profile game like this?
Sure, they bought the tickets, it's their right to sell them. But it's pathetic that some so-called fans would ever criticize team owners for their financial decisions, then turn around and make one of their own. The true 12s have every right to be outraged at this. Some of the Seahawks played poorly, true. But at least they showed up for their team. Those fans who sold out their team - literally sold them out - are the only real losers.