Last year the Baltimore Ravens broke the Seattle Seahawks, racking up nearly 300 rushing yards on the ground and breaking their will to tackle for the rest of the regular season. This year it looks like the same thing may have happened in the team's Week 4 loss to the Detroit Lions. While it was nowhere near as ugly as the Ravens game in 2023, Detroit's utter dominance at the line of scrimmage appears to have had a similar psychological effect on this team, particularly their defense: namely, they've been devastated.
After getting upset by the lowly New York Giants last week, the Seahawks are currently getting blown out by the San Francisco 49ers at home, 13-0 midway through the second quarter. Aside from one catch and run from DK Metcalf and one PBU in the end zone by Artie Burns, it's been pretty much all ugliness in all three phases. Here's how it's going.
Seahawks offense is broken
Seattle's offense is broken thanks to a couple of dynamics that they just can't seem to break out of. The biggest problem is that third-string right tackle Stone Forsythe can't block anybody, least of all the Aidan Hutchinsons and Nick Bosas of the league. Offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb isn't doing enough to adjust for that fact, and as a result Geno Smith is already in forced-panic mode.
Under pressure in the pocket, Smith threw a nasty interception in the first quarter that was both a poor decision and a bad throw. Ever since Smith has been trying to force-feed the ball to a double-covered DK Metcalf with no luck. Thus far Smith is just 4/9 for 53 yards with a 24.1 passer rating.
Ken Walker and the run game are doing better than last week, but that's a low bar. Walker has managed just 17 yards on eight carries (2.1 yards per attempt) so far.
Seahawks defense is really, really broken
As bad as things look on offense, the situation is far, far worse on the other side of the ball, where they are missing some key pieces but look totally lost. The biggest issue here is that they simply can't tackle. The high level of execution and the ferocity that they displayed in Week 1 against Denver is completely gone now. Jordan Mason is currently averaging 8.1 yards per carry against this "defense."
The Seahawks are also becoming extremely sloppy on the back end. The worst play so far was a bad gamble by free safety Julian Love, who either made an all-time business decision not to hit Deebo Samuel as the ball was arriving, or badly misjudged the angle to get there. Samuel scored easily and already has 87 yards on just two catches.
Seahawks special teams are beyond broken
And yet, somehow the special teams unit has managed to be even worse. Special teams coordinator Jay Harbaugh is off to a really bad start in his new position, as this unit is failing all over the place. Last week's loss to the Giants was capped off by a blocked field goal, and the issues have continued into this one. Dee Williams continues to make atrocious decisions regarding returns, consistently setting the Seahawks up in poor field position. If you're looking for a silver lining, punter Michael Dickson is having a strong game, averaging 52.7 yards per punt. That's about all that's going well for this group right now, though.
When a team is performing this badly all around, it's ultimately on the head coach. It's more than just a little concerning that the Seahawks look poorly prepared for the second week in a row. Mike Macdonald has to engineer a way to turn this around, because he's about to be on a three-game losing streak heading into the toughest stretch of the season.
