Officials not to blame for one terrible play by Seahawks in Week 5 loss

We all wanted the officials to make a call. After all, the NFL changed the rules about what players can try to do on field goal attempts, in part because Seattle Seahawks players Kam Chancellor and Bobby Wagner were so good at what they did. They could jump the offensive line and try to block the kick. The NFL deemed that too dangerous, though, at least to a degree.

The issue was that Chancellor and Wagner could take running starts and time the snap so they leaped over the line just as the ball was being snapped to the holder. The league allowed players to still jump the offensive line, though doing so would be more difficult if there was no running start.

The other part of the rule was that a defensive lineman could not pull and drag an offensive lineman to the ground. A player can push a lineman toward the ground as long as there is no holding of the player's head. That could potentially lead to injury.

Officials made the right no-call on the Seahawks' blocked field goal in Week 5 against the Giants

In Week 5 against the Giants, with 1:03 on the clock in the fourth quarter, Seahawks kicker Jason Myers attempted to tie the game on a 51-yard field goal. The problem was that New York blocked the kick as Isaiah Simmons was lined up at the line of scrimmage and jumped the line (without using another player as leverage) was multiple Seattle offensive linemen, but most specifically Laken Tomlinson, were pushed to the ground. By rule, the Giants did nothing wrong.

In fact, Seattle should have simply done their job and not allowed themselves to so easily be pushed to the ground. Linemen do need to get low on long field goal attempts, but they do not need to simply give themselves up. That is what happened on the play.

The play was simply another example of how the Seahawks were out-prepared and out-schemed against the Giants. This has been the case for two straight games. This also happened to a degree against the New England Patriots in Week 2 when Seattle could not stop the run.

The positive feelings of head coach Mike Macdonald's first three games are almost completely gone. He hasn't had his team ready in the last two games. The blocked kick was not his fault, it was the fault of the players. But overall, the Seahawks appear to be digressing as the season grows old instead of improving.