Seattle Seahawks win a game in Week 18, lose a season, and should lose a coach too

The Seattle Seahawks defeated the Arizona Cardinals in Week 18 21-20 but did not get a gift from the Chicago Bears in Week 18. Chicago lost to the Green Bay Packers. This means Seattle will miss the playoffs for the second time in three years. A team trending downward needs to make some tough decisions about its roster and coaching staff this coming offseason.

If there is a positive to not make the postseason, at least Seattle will have a draft pick in the teens. If Seattle wants to find a long-term quarterback in the first round of the 2024 NFL draft, one should still be available when Seattle is slotted to pick. Or if Seattle wants a safety or defensive tackle, a high-end player should be available for those spots as well.

Most likely, Seattle won’t make a lot of offseason changes. Head coach Pete Carroll could just point to the team finishing with a winning record. That isn’t a good argument, but one Carroll is likely to make if he is even questioned at all about how to make the team better in 2024.

Seattle Seahawks beat the Cardinals in Week 18 but the ultimate cause was lost

Week 18 looked a lot like Week 17 for the Seahawks defense. The Cardinals were averaging 7.5 yards a rush for much of the game until the end when they simply appeared to try to eat more clock. That backfired on Arizona, however, as kicker Matt Prater missed a makeable 43-yard field goal attempt. That gave the Seahawks the ball with a bit under 3 minutes left and Geno Smith led the offense 67 yards and dropped a dime to Tyler Lockett for a 34-yard touchdown. Seattle then went for 2 and converted that to take the lead with 1:54 left.

The Cardinals got the ball back but Prater missed another field goal - this one 51 yards - and the Seahawks won. No playoffs, but at least they didn't go 3-7 to end the season. Just 4-6 (and that isn't good enough either).

At least the Seahawks' offense played with pride with the season lost as the team already knew that the Green Bay Packers had defeated the Chicago Bears and Seattle was not going to have a chance to make the playoffs. But one side of the ball playing to win while the other side, the defense, seems incapable of helping the offense win and that is bad. Changes need to be made.

That might need to start with Pete Carroll. The Seahawks might simply need a proverbial fresh set of eyes to see how to fix the team. Defensive coordinator Clint Hurtt definitely should not stay; his defense got worse at the end of the season. Seattle got run over the last two games of the year including 206 yards in Week 18. Offensive coordinator Shane Waldron wasn't consistently good this year, either, but he probably stays.

Of course, every coach might change if Pete Carroll steps down or, extremely unlikely, gets fired. That is unlikely since Seattle won their final game. But Hurtt has to go.

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