Seahawks News: Pete Carroll, Al Michaels, Damien Lewis and Micah Parsons

The Seattle Seahawks are now 6-6 and could get pulled out of the playoff picture if the Los Angeles Rams and other teams win this weekend. Not that Seattle really looks like a playoff team currently, so their making the playoffs would not be earned at this point. There is still time to change that.

Geno Smith is not a huge part of Saturday's news, but I do want to point out that he played mostly extremely well against the Dallas Cowboys in Week 13. He did throw an interception but the Cowboys simply made a great play on the throw. Otherwise, how can one really argue with Smith's numbers: 23 of 41 for 334 yards and 3 touchdowns. He was under constant pressure. He simply can do nothing right for some people.

Now that said, he needs to be good again in every game the rest of the year. The Seahawks season hangs in the balance as things trend downward but there is still time to correct things. Unless, of course, the Seahawks are simply not capable of doing so. But here is some other news for Saturday.

What were the Seahawks thinking not blocking Micah Parsons on fourth down?

I ask the question above without having an answer. Parsons might be the closest player the NFL currently has to the great Lawrence Taylor and if anyone were to say in a huddle during Taylor's day, "OK, here is the play, but just no one block number 56" then other players in the huddle might look at that person like they are insane. Because, well...that person would be insane. The play call not to block Parsons should have gotten the same reaction before the play started.

The play in question happened late in the fourth quarter on Seattle's final drive when they needed to pick up a first down near midfield and needed two yards. Seattle had no timeouts so a pass call was pretty obvious. Parsons moves around the line a bit but had lined up to Geno Smith's right while the Cowboys were also loading up the middle of the line as if they were going to blitz. Right tackle Abraham Lucas went toward the middle of the line after the ball was snapped leaving Parsons a direct line to Smith.

The problem was that Lucas did what the design of the play directed him to do. Maybe Lucas assumed that running back DeeJay Dallas would stay back to block instead of going out in a pass route but the lack of awareness by everyone to simply account for Parsons, including offensive coordinator Shane Waldron, was mind-numbingly stupid. Geno Smith could do nothing as the team had zero timeouts and it was fourth down. He could have let the play clock expire, I guess, but that wouldn't have been smart either. The point is that when Seattle had to pick up a first down, the design of the play let the team down and that should never happen.