Seattle Seahawks look like the flop of the season in ugly Week 1 loss to Rams

This isn't what we expected, is it, 12s? We thought that the Seattle Seahawks would be a tick better than 2022 and sprint their way into the 2023 postseason with a couple of wins over the Los Angeles Rams and Arizona Cardinals. Well, maybe we can hope they get one victory over the Rams this year.

We didn't expect to see Seattle get throttled by what we thought was a diminished Rams team. Seattle honestly looked like they were still playing a preseason game while the Rams were ready for the regular season. Seattle looked flat, frustrated, and flustered. DK Metcalf had an ugly unsportsmanlike penalty in the second half for no reason, and so did Quandre Diggs.

It would be easy to make excuses. The Seahawks lost both starting tackles, Charles Cross and Abraham Lucas, to injuries. But the game had turned prior to them being hurt. The offense sputtered after the first three drives when Seattle collected all 13 of their points. The Rams, meanwhile, kept churning along, overtook Seattle and never looked back.

Rams blow out Seahawks in second half of Week 1 Seattle loss

The statistics are ugly. Seattle finished with only 171 total yards and they had 168 in the first half. So, yeah. 3 total yards in the second half by Seattle. Was Geno Smith the issue? Not by himself. Shane Waldron's play-calling was extremely inconsistent as well. The run game seemed decent, and, in fact, Kenneth Walker ran 12 times for 64 yards. That's a 5.3 yards per carry average. Not counting Walker's run, Seattle's offense had 107 yards on 33 plays - 3.2 yards per play.

And while many were worried about Seattle's run defense, the far bigger issue was the Seahawks pass defense. Matthew Stafford finished 24 of 38 for 334 yards. He wasn't sacked and was hit only twice. That's atrocious pass defense by Seattle. The Rams ran 40 times for just 92 yards.

At least Bobby Wagner was in on 19 tackles and Boye Mafe flashed at times. We also shouldn't overreact, though it would be easy to do, to the Week 1 loss. Can Seattle get better? Of course. They can still make the playoffs even, though they would have to be better in every facet of the game to get there.

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