Seattle Seahawks Week 6: The good news and the bad news from the loss to the Bengals

Yes, the Seahawks had plenty of bad news as well

I'm not going to spend a lot of time dissecting Geno Smith's game. Several of our staff have already done an excellent job of that. In fact, Geno himself has been quite eloquent in taking responsibility for the loss. No, he wasn't the only person at fault, but he does deserve the lion's share. That's the life of an NFL quarterback. When the team wins they often get too much credit, so it makes sense that they also shoulder the blame when things go wrong. Yes, Smith made some really poor decisions in this game. But one of the things I like most about Geno Smith is that he fully accepts that, and will work to prevent the same mistakes in the future.

I wish I could say the same for DK Metcalf. We've talked about his ridiculous penalties a few times on the 12thManRising podcast a few times already. I'm sure it's frustrating to watch the ball fall to the ground when you're wide open. Or worse, fall into a defender's hands because there was a mix up on a route. But Metcalf simply cannot keep committing these stupid penalties. Not every one of his 10 or 15-yard penalties kills a drive, but too many do. At best, it causes the Seahawks to run a play that they would have preferred to use at a more critical point in the game. Metcalf has to stop.

In perhaps the worst news of all, Pete Carroll refuses to recognize the problem. It's one thing to be a players' coach, the best in the NFL, but it's another to let stupidity like this slide. I'm not saying Metcalf is stupid for committing these penalties again and again. It's obviously a question of emotional maturity. But it is absolutely stupid for the Seahawks to continue to condone his behavior. Carroll has said before that he and Metcalf have talked about it. Okay, fine, but nothing changed. After this week, Pete somehow said that DK wasn't frustrated, but that he was only continuing his block. What? Let me rephrase that: WHAT??? How on earth is Metcalf continuing a block when the play was long over, and he shoved the player after Metcalf had basically stopped blocking?

For me, this is by far the worst news to come out of Week 6. Pete Carroll went overboard to excuse Geno Smith's poor play in the fourth quarter. Yes, the line had issues, and that wasn't good either. But Smith himself accepted the blame; let him. As for Metcalf, how long will it be before Carroll loses the team, if he doesn't rein in behavior like this? No, I don't think it would happen anytime soon, but if Metcalf can do whatever he wants without consequence, why should any other play worry? I'm Carroll is having conversations behind the scenes. I would hope that leaders like Tyler Lockett and Bobby Wagner are too.

But at some point, DK Metcalf needs to get his rear end placed firmly on the bench after his next childish penalty. You want more Bobo? Trying to figure out how to get Smith-Njigba more involved? Need to throw to the tight ends more? Gee, seems like a couple of series with Mtcalf on the bench would solve those issues. And remind him that football is always a team sport, on every single play. Now that would be some really good news.

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