At least the Seahawks pass defense showed up
I can't exactly say better late than never, because if the Hawks defense played the entire game they way they played in the second half, this game would have been a cakewalk. In the first half, the Seahawks allowed 162 yards, 143 of those from the arm of Bengals QB Joe Burrow. Cincinnati scored on their first two possessions, and it looked like this would be another shootout for the Hawks, much like the Lions game. By the way, after dismantling Tampa Bay, Detroit is now 4-1, so tell me again how that wasn't a big win for Seattle, doubters.
Actually, let me give credit to the defense after those first two drives. The Bengals rolled up 142 yards on their first two drives. On their next nine drives, the Seahawks defense held them to just 72 yards. For those scoring at home, congratulations. Sorry, I had to go there. And that's - nope, I get one per article. Okay, back to football. What that means is that Seattle's D forced six punts and made an interception on seven drives. The Hawks defense allowed zero yards on the other two drives. Technically, they allowed minus one yard on the last play, but it was, unfortunately, a victory formation for the Bengals. Too bad Hurricanes coach Mario Cristobal wasn't in charge of Cincinnati today.
Allow me to say a few words about DK Metcalf and the quote that got the Bengals' attention, notably that of star receiver Ja'Marr Chase. For the record, Metcalf didn't exactly say Chase was garbage. He didn't come close to that. He simply said that he believed his guy, Devon Witherspoon, would get the best of Chase. Hey, maybe he meant he would get the best game that Chase has, right? Okay, no, he didn't. As for the supposed matchup, it wasn't that likely to occur as the Seahawks simply don't play that style of matchup defense. Besides, if they did, Riq Woolen would be the correct choice to cover Chase, not a rookie in his fourth game - no matter how good that rookie was in Week 4.
As it turned out, Chase did up against Witherspoon several times, and he not have a big game. Chase was targeted a whopping 13 times and came away with six catches for 80 yards. He didn't have a bad game by any means, but in the two previous games that saw him with double-digit targets, he had 192 yards and three touchdowns, then 141 yards. Against Witherspoon, by my count, he caught one pass for three yards and came up empty three times. That's a pretty solid day for Spoon. Oh, and I should probably mention that Tre Brown had kind of a big day on his return to the lineup. He broke up two passes, forced Tee Higgins to be flagged for offensive pass interference, and had his second interception of the season. Not a bad day at all for the overachiever.