For Pete's Sake: Critical observations from the Seahawks Week 1 loss vs the Rams
The Seattle Seahawks had zero offense in the second half, made almost countless errors on defense, and practically begged the zebras to throw their laundry in the fourth quarter. For Pete's sake, there's no way to paint this as anything but a terrible season opener as the Hawks fell to the Rams, 30-13.
As I'm sure many 12s will agree, this was one of the most frustrating games ever seen from the Seahawks. No, it's not as bad as a certain contest on February 1, 2015. I don't think anything will ever compare to that. If anything ever surpasses that debacle, I don't think I'd ever be able to watch any sporting event again. But this game ranks with the Hawks worst. Not because of the impact on the season; it's just week one, after all. But I can't recall ever seeing any team - let alone the Hawks - have such a wild swing in their performance.
The Seahawks were fine on offense in the first half. While they only scored one touchdown, they did add two field goals and missed another attempt. Four drives, three scores, and one missed kick is a good showing. The defense gave up one ridiculously long drive - I believe a 16-play drive qualifies as ridiculous - but were solid after that. Los Angeles never reached the red zone, was forced to punt, had one field goal blocked, and missed another. It wasn't pretty, but the Hawks had outplayed the Rams and looked like they were headed to victory.
Seahawks completely lost their way in the second half
Heading into this game I was pretty confident in our guys. After all, Cooper Kupp was out - in fact, he was placed on IR before the game. As it turns out, the Rams didn't miss Kupp at all. Puka Nacua - yay Huskies, I guess - and Tutu Atwell absolutely shredded the Hawks secondary. They were the first Rams duo under 24 years old to each get over 100 yards receiving since the Stone Age. Okay, it was 1954, I think, but that's bad enough. I fondly remember when most of us thought Seattle had so many quality defensive backs, they should trade one away. Good times, good times.
I'll get back to the defense, but the offense was far worse in the second half. When I say the Seahawks had zero offense in the second half, I'm almost speaking literally. Unbelievably, Seattle ran only 13 plays in the half and gained a whopping three yards until the final play of the game, when the Hawks suddenly remembered they had running backs on the roster. Zach Charbonnet picked up nine yards on Seattle's final play to push the Hawks into double digits for the half. Well, thank goodness for that, right?