The defense was good until it was almost awful
Time for that splash of glacial water, 12s. There was bad news, that being that at the most crucial stage of the game, the Seahawks' defense fell apart. As Bob Condotta wrote for The Seattle Times, it was hard to explain exactly what happened on the final two drives. Through the first three quarters, Seattle had held Washington to 213 yards on nine drives. The Commanders had only managed three drives over 20 yards. Sounds like good news, right?
Then Commanders quarterback Sam Howell turned into the second coming of Slingin' Sammy Baugh. He took his team, not once, but twice, down the field on a pair of 70+yard drives. The Commanders generated 40 percent of their offense and more than half of their points in the fourth quarter. That's not just bad news; that's pretty close to inexcusable. It's as if the Seattle defense had a flashback and thought they were back in Baltimore on those two drives. They missed assignments, missed tackles, and very nearly missed the chance to stay in the hunt for the playoffs.
There was still some bad news regarding the offense, though. Yes, the Seahawks cranked out a season-high 489 yards when they had the ball in their hands. But Washington came into the game ranked 28th in defense. Add that they traded away Montez Sweat and Chase Young, and you better roll up some yardage on that team. Despite the 29 points, this team was still horrendous on third down.
The Hawks converted just 4 of 14 opportunities against the Commanders. I just asked our site expert if I can shorten Commanders to Commies, and he suggested that would be a poor decision. So I'll go with Ders. Anyway, Seattle is now 34 of 108 on third down, a dismal rate of 31.5 percent. That has to change for this team to have any chance of making the postseason, let alone doing something when they get there.