If the Mariners and Seahawks play at the same time next Sunday, I know what I’m watching

After a 39-32 loss at New Orleans on Sunday, the Seahawks continued their trend of going back and forth this season, showing promising glimpses, albeit with too many glitches to take them too seriously as NFL playoff contenders.

I thought their defense would be adequate and was intrigued about the potential when they switched from a 4-3 to a 3-4 scheme, but there are too many developing young players and not enough good ones overall to stop even middling NFL offenses.

If they’re going to give up 45 points to an injury depleted Lions team that was shut out by the Patriots Sunday and 39 to a Saints team playing without its starting quarterback and best receiver, how will they do against better offenses at full strength?

We can all agree on the answer to that one unless Pete Carroll pulls out some magical solution, and while all of this is taking place, I’m picturing former defensive coordinator Ken Norton chuckling to himself, thinking maybe he wasn’t the problem after all.

Imagine how the Seahawks’ offense must have felt Sunday after Geno Smith threw a beautiful bullet to Tyler Lockett, expertly finding him between three Saints’ defensive backs for a touchdown to pull the Seahawks within five points at 31-26. And to follow that up with a 69-yard touchdown run by Ken Walker that gave them a 32-31 lead.

But just like that, the Saints went in front again as Taysom Hill ran 60 yards for a game-winning touchdown, which wasn’t surprising since it was his third rushing score of the game and the Seahawks have been known for giving up explosive plays all season long.

Their defense isn’t good enough to overcome a D.K. Metcalf turnover, which was certainly questionable, and a TD catch that might not have been a TD catch by Chris Olave, and an idiotic fake punt that wasn’t supposed to be a fake punt by Michael Dickson.

Someone explain why Carroll wanted Dickson to do something different from what he’s already been doing in punt formation? Isn’t he one of the best punters in the league? Why did the Seahawks’ head coach suddenly want him to do that rugby thing of running to his right and knuckle balling it off his foot? I didn’t get Carroll’s explanation at all, and two plays later the Saints were celebrating in the end zone.

Everyone keeps waiting for Geno Smith to crash and burn and thought it might happen against the Saints’ defense, but all he did was bolster his bid to be the NFL comeback player of the year if not MVP of the whole darn league.

Peter King writes a weekly NFL column for NBCsports.com and unveiled a NextGen stat called Passing Score that measures all kinds of things for quarterbacks, such as expected yards after catch, expected point and win and interception probability. I don’t begin to think I can understand any of that analytical stuff, but according to this new stat, Geno is the NFL QB king with a score of 95 points, ahead of Patrick Mahomes (94) and Josh Allen (90). It’s interesting to note that Russell Wilson is 16th with 80 points.

In early September before the season started, if someone had asked if you’d trade Smith straight up for Wilson, hands down you would have said of course, in a heartbeat. Now would you? I wouldn’t. Smith has been better in Seattle’s system this year than Wilson would be - and that’s just based on how he’s played in Denver thus far. You’ve seen it, I’ve seen it, we’ve all seen it, Wilson has been awful as in gawd awful.

Meanwhile Smith had another sensational performance Sunday and is still leading the league, completing 75.2 percent of his passes. If this keeps up, he’ll beat Drew Brees’ season record of 74 percent.

If you think that’s preposterous, how about this? There’s a good chance that Sunday’s game against the Cardinals at Lumen Field will start around the same time as Game 4 of the American League Division Series game between the Astros and Mariners at T Mobile Park.

If you have one flat screen, I’m guessing you’ll be glued to the Mariners and checking in on the Seahawks during commercial breaks. What were the chances of that in years’ past? How about decades’ past?

I’ve been waiting for Seattle as a baseball town to catch up to and pass Seattle as a football town, and we’ve reached that point at long last. The Seahawks have become the sad sack team in comparison, and the Mariners are suddenly so competent that a World Series appearance this year is not out of the question.

Yet I still cling to a glimmer of hope for the sad sacks because of Smith and the NFC West, a division that seems up for grabs even if the 49ers appear to be the class right now. Maybe Jimmy Garoppolo will screw things up and negate the strength of San Francisco’s defense. The other NFC West teams - the Cardinals and the Rams - appear to be no better than the Seahawks, all with 2-3 records.

So at this point, the Seahawks still remain worthy to root for in a conference that is just as wide open as their division. The Eagles are the class of the NFC at 5-0, but does anyone look at them as being unbeatable, even against the Seahawks? Not in the least.

Carroll doesn’t need a Legion of Boom 2.0 or the best defense in the league, just one that can occasionally stop opponents and let Geno do the rest.

Jim Moore has covered Washington’s sports scene from every angle for multiple news outlets. You can find him on Twitter @cougsgo, and on 950 KJR-AM, where he co-hosts a sports talk show from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on weekdays.

This story was originally published October 10, 2022 at 11:21 AM.