New levels, new devils: What we learned from the Seahawks Week 6 loss to Cincinnati

The Seahawks need Abe Lucas and Damien Lewis back — badly

Seattle's been showing up to games missing both their second-year tackles for most of the season to this point, and they've held up admirably. Jake Curhan shut down Aidan Hutchinson admirably in week 2, and most of the other primary pass rushers they've faced have been relative non-factors this year, Aaron Donald notwithstanding.

That changed this last week. Charles Cross came back and handled Trey Hendrickson pretty well, but the Bengals have a lot of unsung guys all across their front seven, including DJ Reader, Sam Hubbard, Logan Wilson, Germaine Pratt, and rookie Myles Murphy. It was just too big a project with too many moving parts for an offensive line that already had a lot of moving parts, between Curhan still filling in for Lucas, Phil Haynes moving to the left side to cover for the injured Damien Lewis, and Anthony Bradford taking Haynes' usual spot at right guard.

The results are exactly what you might have expected. The running game went nowhere, save for the now-commonplace Ken Walker explosion for 21 yards. The passing attack was fruitful, but unbalanced and off timing. It looked much more like a game from 2017 than anything the Seahawks have done in the last year.

When an offense stalls out in that sort of manner, the offensive line is almost always the first place to check for issues, and it's been no different for the Seahawks. This makes it two consecutive games that they have had issues moving the ball consistently, and it certainly follows that the litany of injuries to the line is a key contributor to those struggles. I can't fault Haynes for struggling out of position, but he was already the weakest link on the line, and Anthony Bradford doesn't appear to be ready to assume starter snaps yet.

In short, Damien Lewis is consistently one of the better-regarded guards in the league, and Abe Lucas was maybe the best offensive lineman the Seahawks had last year. Seattle's going to need them on the field to reach their full potential.