The Seattle Seahawks fell to 3-2 in 2023 with a loss to the Bengals in Cincinnati in Week 6. Each scored a touchdown on their opening and then the Bengals scored another TD on their second drive but Seattle didn't score. That was basically the difference in the game.
Sure, a lot of things happened from the opening of the second quarter to the end of the game, but those 14 points in Cincinnati's first two drives were more points than Seattle could come up with for the game. Still, there was some good to come from the game for Seattle.
One is that the defense adjusted to what the Bengals were doing in their blocking and were eventually able to get pressure on Bengals QB Joe Burrow. Seattle's defense shut the Bengals down in the second half. So, yay! But here are some more winners and losers from Week 6.
Loser No. 1: Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll
Pete Carroll's team coming out of bye weeks simply seem a little flat to begin their first games back and don't appear overly prepared. Seattle has lost their last four games following bye weeks and that's not because Seattle is always playing fantastic teams. In 2022, Seattle fell to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and that Tampa team finished with a losing record. Cincinnati isn't as bad as its record of 2-3, but a relatively struggling Bengals offense came out and scored touchdowns on their first two drives and that ultimately was enough to get the victory.
But Carroll also made a very poor coaching decision with a little over 2 minutes left in the game. With the Seahawks trailing 17-13 and facing a fourth-and-six from the Bengals 7-yard line, Carroll decided to go for a touchdown. As there was plenty of time for Seattle to get the field goal unit on the field well before the 2-minute warning, Seattle could have made the game 17-16.
The field goal would have been an easy one for kicker Jason Myers and the play should have been completed before the 2-minute warning. The Seahawks still had two timeouts, so the Bengals would have gotten the ball back while Seattle still had three ways of stopping the clock (the 2-minute warning and their two timeouts). As well as the Seahawks defense was playing, there was a real chance Seattle could have gotten the ball back with plenty of time for Jason Myers to have a chance to kick a field goal to win the game.
Instead, of course, Seattle failed to get a touchdown. Seattle did get the ball back with a decent amount of time still, but were then forced to score a touchdown, which, as we all know, did not happen.