4 losers (and one winner) from the Seahawks Week 5 loss to the Giants

The Seattle Seahawks played their worst game of the season so far on Sunday afternoon. With the return of some key defenders, 12s expected an easy win. apparently, so did the Hawks.

If there's one lesson that can be taken from this egregious, awful, and not-good-at-all loss, it's that there are no gimme games in the NFL. Sorta like in college football, as AlaBAMA found out Saturday. Not that the Giants are the Commodores of the NFL. But the Hawks certainly weren't the highly-rated Crimson Tide, either. There was no reason for this team to come in so flat and unprepared with a chance to take a commanding lead in the division.

Of course, Seattle still leads the NFC West. That's only because both the Niners and Rams lost too. The Hawks can't take much solace in that, though. As poorly as Seattle played today, they would have been pancaked by either team.

The Seattle Seahawks had so many losers, my head is still spinning

Let's start with a few fun stats, shall we, 12s? Six days after the Hawks put on a powerhouse display of offense against the Lions, they did virtually nothing versus the Giants. The first half was especially awful. The time of possession in the first half was just 8:05 minutes for Seattle. If not for the fumble forced by Jerome Baker and the spectacular 102-yard return by Rayshawn Jenkins, Seattle would have had one lone field goal on the board in the first half. Still, the Hawks did manage to come up with one winner.

Winner: Geno Smith

On a day when the Seahawks quarterback was mobbed by the Giants' defense, he still managed to put up decent numbers. Smith connected on 28 of his 40 passes for 284 yards and one touchdown. Not exactly a stellar game, you might think. But when you consider that he was sacked seven times and hit another 10 times, that's a pretty solid game. Add his four carries for 72 yards, each of them critical to the Hawks' limited success, and Smith was clearly a winner today.

Now, consider that the Giants never had to defend the run, but they could play pass defense for the entire game. Other than Geno Smith's own brilliant runs, the Hawks ran the ball seven times. Don't worry, 12s, I'll expound on my thoughts on that issue a bit later here. For now, it should be clear to even the most diehard Geno critics that when the opposition knows that you're going to pass - and your offensive line is suspect at best - the quarterback is set up for failure. Smith played well enough to win. Unfortunately, he was about the only member of the team that could make that claim.

Loser: DK Metcalf

For the second time in two weeks, DK Metcalf fumbled and killed a key Seahawks drive. He also had two big drops in the first quarter. He wound up with four catches for 55 yards on seven targets. I suppose we can be grateful that he didn't commit a holding call to kill another drive. If anyone can get a discount on those little gyroscopic balls that build hand strength, please send a pair to Renton, Washington. Don't worry, they'll know who to deliver them to.

Loser: Tre Brown

Tre Brown has had an odd career. One week, he plays like an All-Pro and shuts down the opposition, Then he'll turn around and play a game like this. He was tagged twice for holding penalties. On the first, it extended a Giants drive that turned into the first New York Field goal. The second contributed to the Giants' second touchdown of the game. Brown was burned on that TD as well. As Bob Condotta wrote in his grades of the game, Tre Brown was the primary reason he awarded the Seattle cornerbacks a D. That was probably being generous.

Loser: Ryan Grubb

Hmmm... it seems that I recall the Seahawks talked a lot about ball control and using the run game to set up explosive plays in the passing attack. During camp, Grubb waxed poetic about the opportunity to use the talents of Kenneth Walker III and Zach Charbonnet. Grubb has told the media, "When you talk about some of the run/pass balance, you have backs like Nine and Zach, you're pretty excited about your ability to run the ball."

Are you really, Ryan? At some point, he has to realize that Kenneth Walker III is still on the team. Last week versus the Lions, Walker got just five carries in the first half. They miraculously remembered he had a helmet and kept him going in the second half so that K9 wound up with 80 yards in all. That was promptly forgotten today, as Walker had five carries. For a guy who supposedly loves the run/pass balance, Grubb doesn't have a very good concept of the definition.

Loser: Mike Macdonald

Wow. All the expectations about how good the defense would be once the Hawks got Nwosu and Love and Williams back, and this is what we got. I'm shocked, as I'm sure most 12s are. Lee Vowell had it absolutely right: Macdonald was outcoached by the Giants OC, Mike Kafka. Outcoached badly and outclassed. The Hawks never adjusted to the screen passes the Giants ran, Last week, the Seahawks had the excuse of missing a half-dozen key defenders when they allowed Jared Goff to go 18-18 to set an NFL record. There's no excuse for allowing Daniel Jones to play like the second coming of Eli Manning.

Coming into this game, Jones was ranked 24th in passer rating and 15th in QBR. He graded nearly 29 points above his passer rating and 16.1 points above his QBR. In layman's terms, Mike Macdonald's defense turned Daniel Jones into rookie sensation Jayden Daniels. That's unconscionable and inexcusable. Hawks defensive coordinator Aden Durde has to share the blame, too. There's plenty to go around, that's for certain. If you think I forgot about the offensive line, at this point, it's obvious where they belong.

I'm still a believer in Macdonald, and Grubb for that matter. My mistake was in believing that a rookie head coach, rookie NFL OC, and DC wouldn't have growing pains. Hopefully, we've seen the worst of it now. With such a tight turnaround, we can only hope the coaching staff figures things out in time for Thursday night.

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