The Seattle Seahawks lost to the Cincinnati Bengals 17-13 in Week 6. The game was one Seattle could have won, but they failed to convert on scoring opportunities once in the red zone. Plus, a slow start defensively ultimately doomed Seattle.
Seattle is still 3-2 with losses to an NFC West rival and a team that has made deep runs in the postseason in each of the last two years. The losses are forgivable. But some of the reasons Seattle lost need to be fixed.
On a more positive note, the defense overall looks a lot better the last two weeks. Maybe the unit has finally evolved into a good one. But they still need to be better prepared to start the game. That is one of the three disappointments that follows.
Seattle Seahawks started too slowly on defense
Overall, the defense was fantastic, of course. After the Bengals' second drive of the game, Cincinnati only got 73 total yards. They did score 3 points after a Geno Smith interception (that appeared to be more the fault of DK Metcalf), but after Cincinnati took over possession, they got zero yards but were already in Seattle territory. So, yes. The defense was good enough to win the game after the Bengals' first two drives.
And the first two drives of the game for Cincinnati were enough to win the game as it turns out. Quarterback Joe Burrow was getting the ball out excessively quick which made the Seahawks pass rush nearly invisible. There are two issues with this. One is that Cincinnati receivers were immediately beating the Seattle defender off the snap. Two is that even if Burrow is getting the ball out quickly, Seattle's defensive line still could have beaten their man quickly and gotten some pressure on Burrow, at least enough to disrupt the timing of the play.
This changed in the second half, of course. And it wasn't because the Seahawks started blitzing more; They blitzed plenty at the beginning of the game. Seattle actually began playing more people in coverage which meant Burrow didn't have an immediately open receiver so he had to take more time to throw. This allowed the Seahawks to get home a few times while also playing well in coverage. I just wish the change had happened after the first drive of the game.
Seattle's offensive line regressed even with Charles Cross back
To be sure, for most of the season the Seahawks have had to deal with backups playing most spots along the offensive line and that has somewhat limited what the offense was trying to do. For instance, a team doesn't throw deep all that much if they aren't sure how well their blocking will hold up in front of the quarterback as the longer play is developing in front of them. But against Cincinnati, even with starting left tackle Charles Cross back, the offensive line wasn't as good as in recent weeks even though Seattle's offensive scheme didn't change all that much.
Maybe part of the issue was that starting left guard Damien Lewis was missing. Over the last couple of years, Lewis has been the Seahawks' best and most consistently good offensive lineman. Seattle also doesn't have a natural replacement for him. Phil Haynes played in place of Lewis in Week 6 and Haynes was bad.
Haynes allowed 4 quarterback pressures, 2 sacks, plus a quarterback hit, and a hurry. He also picked up a penalty. If Lewis can't go again in Week 7 due to his ankle injury, maybe Seattle could have Jason Peters step in. Peters was signed earlier this year and is a future Hall of Famer who simply happens to be old for an NFL player.
Jake Curhan has been solid at right tackle while presumed starter Abraham Lucas is out with a knee injury. But he was atrocious against the Bengals and allowed 7 pressures, a sack, and 5 quarterback hits. Even Cross wasn't that great as he allowed 4 pressures and 4 hurries.
Seattle had zero creativity in the red zone
I like offensive coordinator Shane Waldron a bunch and he can be creative, especially in the way he uses tight ends. That's what made Seattle's red zone offense against the Bengals so weird. The Seahawks went 1-5 in the red zone (I guess you could say 2 for 5 but one of those trips would be a field goal that was made after Seattle had been moved back outside the 20-yard line) and there wasn't a lot for Cincinnati's defense to guess at what was going to happen.
Maybe part of the issue was the Seahawks' first drive. Seattle drove down the field, having just one negative play, and then scored a touchdown after having two 6-yard runs inside the 20. Maybe Waldron thought Seattle would just run the ball once close to the end zone. But then that changed too and the plan was for Geno Smith to drop back and try to throw passes for touchdowns.
The problem there was that most of those pass plays weren't quick-developing plays but instead had routes open with Smith trying to stand in the pocket for several seconds. But Smith wasn't innocent about what happened in the red zone either, of course. He was sacked a couple of times, but one was when he had several seconds to either throw to a receiver or throw the ball away, and then he ran into the rush. On another play, Smith threw an atrocious pass in the direction of Jaxon Smith-Njigba that was easily intercepted.
Still, had Seattle used some different alignments or tried something different other than the same plays that weren't working, maybe the Seahawks get one more touchdown. And one more touchdown would have won the game.