2 winners (and 4 losers) from the Seahawks Week 6 loss to the 49ers

The Seattle Seahawks dropped their third straight game in all-too-familiar fashion. There wasn't enough offense, and there was almost no defense. Once again, there were plenty of losers in this game. Frankly, it wasn't exactly easy to find a winner.

We don't exactly do subtitles, but if we did, I'd choose: 4 losers in addition to the millions of 12s who watched that fiasco. Losers, as in the time wasted watching the game and the sleep lost after. That was, that was - what's the word- UGLY. A more colorful and not family-friendly phrase comes to mind, too. Yours may not be the same as mine, but I'm sure it shares the same robust flavor.

This game was painful to watch. The Hawks had no answers on defense and were woefully inconsistent on offense. As bad as it was, the final score of 36-24 is misleading. Seattle's offense only scored 17 points on a Niners defense that was missing their best player in the secondary. The Hawks also escaped a muffed punt that wasn't called, which would have undoubtedly led to even more San Francisco points. Yeah, it was bad.

The Seattle Seahawks had far too many losers again in Week 6

Loser: Geno Smith

What can I add that hasn't been said, written, or yelled already? Smith finally had a bad game. I doubt the Geno-haters are gloating; I mean, hopefully, they're true 12s, and would rather see the Hawks win, even if it means Smith had to play well for it to happen. See, that's the thing; Smith is one of the very few reasons Seattle won their first three games. Last I checked, he doesn't play defense.

That being said, there's no defending Smith's performance in this loss. Well, maybe some. He did make more than a few brilliant throws. He suffered some dropped ball by receivers and had a 52-yard touchdown called back for an illegal motion penalty on Kenneth Walker III. But his first interception was simply an awful throw. He was off-target for most of the night. Unfortunately for Smith, he has to perform at his peak every week for this team to win.

Loser: DK Metcalf

Yes, Metcalf was the recipient of that 52-yard TD that was called back. He fought for every reception, other than that picture-perfect floater that went for naught. And to his credit, he didn't fumble once. Huzzahs all around. But there were still a few problems with his game. As we've seen too often, Metcalf had too many dropped passes. And as the ads say - but wait, there's more!

Metcalf also failed to get both feet inbounds on what could have been a critical touchdown for the Seahawks in the penultimate play of the first half. If DK gets both feet in, the Hawks trail 16-7 at the half instead of settling for a Jason Myers field goal. Metcalf was the target on Smith's second interception, too. Smith took the blame for the miscue, but broadcaster Kirk Herbstreit believed that Metcalf drifted too far on his route, allowing the rookie corner to easily cut to the correctly placed ball. Either way, three catches on 11 targets is an awful performance.

Loser: the offensive line

Speaking of awful performances...yikes. Ryan Grubb finally got with the program and got the ball into Ken Walker's hands. Not that it did K9 much good. Walker had 14 carries, two more than in the Lions and Giants games combined. Unfortunately, he only managed 32 yards. At least the Hawks tried to get him the ball even more, targeting him eight times for eight receptions.

But if there are no holes, and no one is blocking the edges, there's nowhere for Walker to go. As Bob Condotta wrote in his grades for the game, the offensive line allowed Smith to be pressured all night. When you're not opening holes for the running game, and you're not protecting the quarterback when he drops back to pass, you might as well just sit in the stands and grab a hot dog and a beer.

Loser: Mike Macdonald

After the loss, Macdonald said, "We've got to start faster. We have to win the takeaway differential. That's a team stat. We're just not doing the things that good football teams to do win football games. So we're going to attack it. We're going to take a breather here and really go back and dissect the heck out of this thing. I just told them, 'You have one of two options. You can give up, or you can keep fighting like heck to make it right,' and that's what we're going to do."

That quote was per Brady Henderson for ESPN for those keeping track. The Seahawks' defense has now surrendered an average of 35.67 points in the last three games. That, dear 12s, ain't good. Before the game, I wrote that the Hawks needed a shakeup on the coaching staff. Several fine folks on social media opted to not read the article and assumed I wanted Macdonald to be fired. Thank you to those who actually read it. You know my stance was that Macdonald should turnover playcalling duties so he can focus on the job he was hired to do. You know, be the head coach.

I'm also grateful to the one person who criticized the article and actually read it. Okay, he made a bad assumption that I wasn't aware that Robert Saleh - the former head coach of the Jets and 49ers defensive coordinator - worked for Pete Carroll. Uh, yeah, I'm aware, thanks. As for the point that Saleh runs a different scheme, ummm... how well is the current scheme working? I'm pretty sure that Macdonald and Saleh would be smart enough to figure things out on that front. The point was - and is now made abundantly clear - Macdonald's defense isn't getting it done.

Winners: Jason Myers/Michael Dickson

I could have just said the Seahawks special teams, I know. Laviska Shenault had a spectacular 97-yard kickoff return for a touchdown to spark the Hawks in the second half. The only problem with that is that he also fumbled a kickoff in the second quarter, which led to a Niners field goal. And, of course, we had the Dee Williams muffed punt that wasn't. It was one of the very few lucky breaks for Seattle.

But let's talk about the only two guys who actually play FOOTball on the team. As for Mr. Myers, he more than fulfilled his duties. Myers was three of three on extra points and nailed his only field goal attempt, a 20-yard chip shot. Mr. Dickson had a fine game as well. His four punts averaged 54.0 yards, and he downed two inside the 20-yard line. Only one was returned, and that was returned for 11 yards. A net average punt of 51.25 yards is a good night's work by any standard.

There you go, 12s. I ended on a positive note. I do believe this team will turn it around because I believe Mike Macdonald will turn it around. I don't care if Robert Saleh is the answer. I just want Macdonald to focus on the big picture, and I believe he will. Leonard Williams believes it too. And that's good enough for me.

More Seahawks news and analysis: