Seahawks disappoint in 17-14 loss to the injury riddled Redskins

Yesterday’s loss was tough. Heading into the game I had the upmost confidence this would be a relatively easy with a promising showing from the offense and the defense doing their thing. There’s no easy wins in this league and yesterday proved that. Washington came into CenturyLink Field, arguably the toughest place to play in professional football, with a beat-up team, no less, and took their opportunities to secure a tough road win.

As a fan it’s easy to put the blame onto a single player, coach or unit however I’d categorize yesterday’s showing as a total team loss. No single group was without their mistakes and what it ultimately came down to was Seattle not capitalizing on their opportunities.

The offensive line disappointed, particularly on the right side. Oday Aboushi seemed to get manhandled for the majority as well as giving up key penalties. Germain Ifedi is also leading the league in penalties by quite a margin, it’s these errors that should be easily correctable but seem to happen week in week out. The team gave up 16 penalties total for a staggering 138 yards. They’re right on track to blow last year’s total penalty calls out of the water, not something I can think about in a calmly manner whatsoever.

Looking at the game stats it’s a struggle trying to work out how they lost. The team won just about every statistic going. Total yards, passing yards, rushing yards, 1st downs, total plays, time of possession. What the offense didn’t do is turn opportunities into points. Blair Walsh had his most forgettable day of his career missing all three of his field goal attempts. Kicking very much requires mental strength and I’m concerned yesterday’s game will stay in his head moving forwards.

A lot needs to be corrected on this team, particularly on offense and special teams, with Seattle travelling to Arizona on a short week, they don’t have long to correct their mistakes but equally, they don’t have time to delve into a state of self-pity. They need to bounce back aggressively.

Below Tristen Burnett covers the defensive side of the ball.

Painful, that is the word that comes to mind. The defense that seemed to be on the field all day, gave us god moments, but will be remembered by the bad moments. Bobby Wagner opened up the game on a “0 Dog” blitz, showing man eyes on the back if the back stays in to blitz he then turns into the free blitzer. Which is exactly what happened here, letting him come free and sacking Kirk Cousins for a safety.

The Redskins were held to just 21 total yards of offense in the 1st quarter, showing the Seahawks defense coming out with a chip on their shoulder after last week’s breakdown versus Houston. Finally, on Washington’s 7th drive they were able to use the Seahawks turnover and bad kicking by Blair Walsh to cap off a 71 yard march down the field attacking a secondary without the help of Earl Thomas. It doesn’t help that the Seahawks just let the Redskins hang around. Big time players on this Defense need to make big time plays. Kam Chancellor and Richard Sherman both dropped interceptions that surely would have swung momentum in the favor of the Hawks.

With the Redskins sticking around all game and the Seahawks taking a late 14-10 lead, Kirk Cousins sprang into action picking on a secondary that wasn’t feeling it today. We also saw them pick on rookie Shaq Griffin, when Josh Doctson outran him for a catch that took the Redskins to the 1 yard line. They inevitably punched it in taking a 17-14 lead. What we did see is that Bobby Wagner was dominant as usual. He was responsible for Seattle’s only first half points and finished with 12 tackles, 3 of them being TFL’s. Newly acquired future Hall of Famer Dwight Freeney showed up to play also. He recorded two sacks out of the six Seattle’s defense had in the game, taking advantage of a banged up Redskin’s offensive line. All in all the Seahawks had a good day on the defensive side of the ball, but just had some plays they wished they had back. It is going to be a quick turnaround with the Seahawks playing the Cardinals on Thursday night, but also gives them zero time to feel sorry for themselves. We hope Sheldon Richardson and Earl Thomas will be back ready to go, but if not guys like Bradley McDougald must step up again.