Seahawks' defense so bad that Lions' Dan Campbell gives game ball to wrong player

There is an easy built-in excuse for the Seattle Seahawks for what happened in Week 4 against the Detroit Lions. Seattle's offense was fine. The unit had 38 first downs, an NFL record for a losing team. The issue was Seattle's terrible defense.

The excuse is that Seattle was missing key defensive players such as Leonard Williams, Boye Mafe, and Byron Murphy II. Uchenna Nwosu was missing, too, but he has missed the entire season so far, and the Seahawks were fine without him in the first three games. In Week 4, the Lions scored 42 points on 50 offensive plays.

To put that into context, that had happened just six times in the history of the league when a team did not also have a special teams or defensive touchdown. Detroit almost had a defensive touchdown, but not quite.

Seahawks bad defense gave Lions coach Dan Campbell too many option in Week 4

Lions quarterback Jared Goff did not throw an incompletion and went a perfect 18 for 18 passing for 292 yards, two touchdowns, and a quarterback rating of 155.8. Goff also had a receiving touchdown on a pass from wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown. Detroit was having a lot of fun with Seattle in Week 4.

One might expect, because of Goff's ruthless efficiency against Seattle, that Lions coach Dan Campbell might give him the game ball. Instead, that went to someone else: Jameson Williams. Williams had two catches for 80 yards, including a 70-yard touchdown. That was part of the problem for Seattle. Detroit had too many options to give a game ball to.

Asked about Goff's perfect performance in the team's post-game press conference, Campbell said, "Well, I just gave the game ball to somebody else - so I feel awful right now." Goff did deserve a game ball, of course, but so did several other Lions. Seattle's defense gave them that opportunity.

The hope, of course, was that what 12s saw in Week 4 was a mirage. Once Mafe, Nwosu, Williams, and Murphy return, the defense should bounce back. Or maybe Seattle was exposed by its first real test against a good offense this season. We likely will not know the answer to that for many games to come.

A couple of aspects that must be fixed, though, are run defense and tackling. Even with a healthy Williams and Murphy in Week 2, the New England Patriots had 185 rushing yards. Tackling has been a problem in two of the four games. Unless that issue is remedied, it doesn't really matter who suits up for the Seahawks.