The Seattle Seahawks faced a lot of questions in Cincinnati, along with a revitalized Bengals offense. Was the resurgent pass rush legitimate? Could a banged-up secondary back up DK Metcalf's claim of superiority? Most of all, could the offense convert on third down? We got all those answers and more. For Pete's Sake, one of those was not the answer the 12 wanted.
For those of you who subscribe to the tl;dr lifestyle, the answers are: sort of, yes, and no. The Seahawks got quite a mixed bag in Sunday's loss to the Bengals. The defense definitely showed up, especially in the second half of the game. The offense piled up the yards, outgaining the Bengals by nearly 170 yards. The Seahawks had 24 first downs compared to the Bengals 15 and controlled the ball eight minutes longer than the home team. Easy win, right?
Sadly, no; it was neither easy nor a win. The glaring issue that faces this Seattle team week after week struck again in Sunday's loss. At times, it seems that this offense couldn't convert a third down if you gave it to them via penalty. Seatle converted just five of 12 chances against Cincinnati, which is sadly an improvement on their performance coming into this game. Add in their O-for-two record on fourth down, and you have the reason for the day's 13-17 loss.
The Seattle Seahawks have to start converting on third down
Let's rip off the bandaid and talk about the bad stuff first. That means it's time to talk about the Seahawks and their third-down performance. After four games, the Hawks were an abysmal 13 of 45 on third-down conversions. That's a success rate of just 29 percent. After today's loss, Seattle is 18 of 57 on third down. So, yay, their success rate skyrocketed to nearly 32 percent. Unfortunately, the Hawks were donut for two on fourth down versus the Bengals. That not only dropped them from 50 percent for the season to 33 percent but was a huge factor in their loss to the defending AFC North champs.
We can't gloss over the team's performance in the red zone, either. After week four, the Seahawks had scored on 10 of their 17 trips to the red zone. Sure, it would be nice if more of them were touchdowns, but coming away with points matters. Against the Bengals, the Hawks were just one of five in the red zone. None of those were on a missed field goal, either, so that's all on the offense. This team simply has to improve on third down. It's a testament to their big play ability that they've won three games despite ranking 31st in third-down conversions. And, they have to get it going again in the red zone.
It wasn't all gloom and doom for the Seahawks offense
Yes, the Hawks offense fell down on the job on third down. and on fourth down. And in the red zone. Yeesh. I don't feel one bit better, but I can hardly ignore it. So, that being said, the Hawks did generate some offense today. They generated 381 yards and 25 first downs. Neither are earth-shattering numbers, especially as Cincinnati fields what has been a mediocre defense. But through the first five games, the Bengals surrendered averages of 350 yards and 20 first downs. That's not a stout defense by any means, but the Seahawks put up even better numbers. You know, other than on the scoreboard, which are the only numbers that truly matter.
Individually, the Seahawks were a mixed bag on offense. Kenneth Walker III ran for 62 yards on 19 carries and one score. As usual, they were all tough yards for Walker. He was also called for illegal blocks twice, both of which contributed to killing drives. So yeah, that's quite the mixed bag for Walker alone. Geno Smith added 20 yards on four carries, so it was good to see that aspect of his game reassert itself. I'll have more to say about his overall performance in a bit. For some reason, the Hawks only handed off to Zach Charbonnet twice in this game. They did throw his way a couple of times, but considering what we've seen from him so far, he has to get more than four touches in a game. Especially in a game when the offense struggled so much in crunch time.
The passing game was much the same as what we saw on the ground. It was as much about missed opportunities as successes. Well, more, considering that the Seahawks lost. Tyler Lockett was Mr. Reliable as always, hauling in six of his eight targets. DK Metcalf had the kind of game we see crop up between his spectacular performances, as he caught just four of ten targets. Most notably, he and Smith missed the connection on Geno's critical second interception of the game.
On the plus side, we had more Jake Bobo sightings, as he caught two passes for big first downs. Even better, Jaxon Smith-Njigba got on track as we expected, bringing in four of his five targets for 48 yards. That one missed target was a big one; again, we'll get to that. After a few weeks of heavy involvement for the tight ends, they were on a bit of a hiatus again. Colby Parkinson caught three balls for 16 yards, while Will Dissiy and Noah Fant combined for just two catches and 13 yards. It makes no sense to come out of the red zone with just one score out of five trips and give your tight ends so few targets.
Geno Smith did not play well - and that's putting it kindly
Which brings me to Geno Smith. I am a big fan of Geno, so I am constantly amazed by the cry for Drew Lock to take over. I'm glad Lock is our backup, but he has in no way shown that he's better than Smith. He was two for six in relief of Smith in Week 4. Two of those six passes were bad throws, and of his 63 yards passing, a whopping 11 yards were the result of his passes. The remaining 52 yards were courtesy of Mr. Noah Fant. Again, I'm not knocking Drew Lock, but the clamor for his elevation above Geno Smith is absurd.
Now all that being said, Geno played his worst game of the season today. As Lee Vowell wrote, Smith gave the Seahawks ample reason to take a deep look at next year's draft class. On the surface, his stats look okay. 27-41 for 294 yards is a good day. I mean, it's a damn sight better than the 112 or 110 he threw for against the Rams or Giants. Unfortunately, he also threw two interceptions. Remember those plays I said we'd get back to? Yeah, we're getting all caught up here. There isn't exactly a good time to throw a pick, but some are worse than others. A desperation Hail Mary bomb at the end of a game that gets picked off, well, that isn't great, but what else are you going to do? No, Smith's INTs in this game were far worse.
The first was the one target that Smith-Njigba didn't catch. JSN was double-covered, and Smith threw the ball late and to the inside of JSN's route. It was the easiest pick ever for Bengals defensive back Mike Hilton. Even worse, that pick was made at about the Bengals three-yard line with the Seahawks driving to take the lead back, trailing 14-10. Smith's second pick wasn't quite as egregious, but the end result was just as disastrous for Seattle.
Trailing 14-13, Smith set up at his own 36-yard line. He clearly expected DK Metcalf to cut his route across the field. You can just as clearly see that Metcalf expected the ball to come to the outside. The end result was another easy pick for the Bengals at their own 42. That led to their only field goal of the game, and the decisive four-point lead they would never surrender. Did Metcalf run the wrong route, or did Smith run the wrong play? Regardless, Smith called the play and threw the pass. That might not be fair to Geno, but he took the blame for the loss after the game, and rightly so.
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.
The Seahawks front seven did more than enough to win
Now, I'm not about to compare a three-sack performance to the mind-boggling 11 sacks the Hawks put up two weeks ago versus the Giants. Still, after the first two drives, they put enough pressure on Burrow to shut the Bengals offense down. On those first two drives, Burrow completed 13 of 15 passes for 123 yards. That's not exactly winning football. After that, though, he was just 11 of 20 for 62 yards. He had a clean pocket on those scoring drives. After that, the Seahawks sacked him three times and put him on the ground on five more plays. No, not exactly the numbers they put up against New York, but it was certainly enough to win the game.
Jarran Reed, Dre'Mont Jones, and Boye Mafe all had one sack, one QB hit, and one tackle for a loss. Nice to see another Dre'Mont sighting, as those were just his second sacks and quarterback hits of the season. As for Jarran Reed, he is playing like a force of nature. Good grief, man. Another testament to the effectiveness of the Seattle pass rush is the low average yards per catch. On the first two drives, the Bengals averaged 9.5 yards per catch. After the Hawks tightened the screws, Burrow averaged just 5.6 yards per catch. The only time Cincinnati scored in the final 47:40 of the game was a four-play "drive" of zero yards, after Geno Smith's second pick of the game.
As for the rushing defense, I suppose you could say they came through as well. The Bengals ran the ball 15 times and managed just 46 yards. Yes, that's a slight improvement on the 3.18 yards per carry Seattle had allowed through the first four games. Cincinnati running back Joe Mixon came into the game averaging just under four yards per carry and was held to 38 yards on a dozen carries. Not an astounding job by the Hawks, perhaps, but it was Mixon's worst performance of the year. It was also a far cry from Seattle's sieve of a run defense last year.
Sure, you can say the defense shouldn't have spotted the Bengals two touchdowns. I can see that, to a point. I'd prefer to focus on the fact they made adjustments and absolutely shut their opponents down after that. For Pete's Sake, when the defense plays like that, the offense has to come through, too.