4 winners and losers from Seattle Seahawks meltdown versus Ravens Week 9

There is no way to spin what happened to the Seattle Seahawks in Week 9 as anything positive. On the third play of the game for Seattle, quarterback Geno Smith threw an out-route to receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba that should have been a first down only JSN bobbled the ball and Seattle had to punt. Things just got worse from there.

Seattle had only 6 first downs, the worst under head coach Pete Carroll since 2010. No other team in the NFL in 2023 has had that few of first downs this year. Four different Baltimore Ravens individually had more rushing yards than Seattle as a team. The 37-3 final felt more like 63-0.

I think by contract I have to name at least one winner for the Seahawks each week. I could have gone with Jason Myers as he scored Seattle's only points so I guess he did his job. But that would be too easy and I wanted to search long and hard for a position player who did, well...not as bad as everyone else. So here is the one winner and three losers for Seattle from Week 9.

Seattle Seahawks loser No. 1 - Receiver DK Metcalf

Let me be clear: On his own, DK Metcalf didn't really do anything wrong in Week 9. For anyone putting any of the blame on Metcalf for Seattle's loss, that person clearly did not watch the game. Metcalf had one catch on a crossing pattern that he took for 50 yards and deep into Ravens territory. That one play accounted for - and I kid you not - one-third of the Seahawks' complete output as far as total yards go.

Metcalf is just one of the losers from Week 9 because he is being wasted currently in Seattle's system. He has a quarterback who cannot consistently get him the ball at the right times and in 2023 the Seahawks simply aren't throwing the ball deep as much as they used to. One reason is that Seattle's offensive line has been so banged-up so the down field plays haven't had as much time to develop, though that doesn't explain why offensive coordinator Shane Waldron didn't design a scheme where Geno Smith would get rid of the ball quicker.

DK Metcalf also should have had a touchdown catch as on Seattle's only scoring drive - again, thanks to the running ability of Metcalf - he made a beautiful in-cut in the end zone and Smith simply missed him by a great enough margin that Metcalf had no chance to make an attempt for the ball. Metcalf gets too many flags, of course, but overall his production would be better on a team with better quarterback play and an offensive system better designed to get him the ball in creative ways.