Jim Moore: Let’s not pretend the Seahawks are equipped for anything but mediocrity
Thursday night’s Seahawks’ game reminded me of the time the Sonics lost a playoff game at the then-Coliseum. After the final horn, the public address announcer said: “Thanks for coming everyone, see ya next year!”
Normally a nice sentiment, but the Sonics weren’t eliminated from the playoffs with that defeat. They still had a chance to win on the road, which would have led to a Game 7 back at the Coliseum.
The Seahawks’ 31-13 loss to the 49ers didn’t end their season - they still have six games left - but when 12’s in the future belly up to a dive bar and discuss the 2023 team, they’ll note that any optimism for another Super Bowl was extinguished on Thanksgiving.
It’s comical to think they have a shot now. Yet the Seahawks are 6-5 and middling their way to a second straight postseason appearance that will no doubt conclude in one-and-done fashion again.
Crazy to think this team led the NFC West while the 49ers were inexplicably losing three games in a row last month. Even crazier to think that if the Seahawks had won Thursday night, they would have been back in first place at 7-4, holding the tiebreaker advantage on the 49ers.
Instead, the Seahawks looked like “a team in need of wholesale changes from the top down,” wrote Michael-Shawn Dugar in The Athletic.
Fair point since the Seahawks were manhandled and otherwise dominated by the vastly superior 49ers, especially in the first half when Seattle managed only 11 yards on its first five drives. The ugly trend continued for the offense - the Seahawks have gone 20 straight possessions without a touchdown and have come up with only three TDS in the last four games.
You know the saying “it is what it is.” With the Seahawks it is what it isn’t. When you’re 6-5, it suggests you’re better than average and at the very least halfway decent.
But the only quality win came against the 8-3 Lions in Detroit in overtime. Next up in the quality department - a narrow win over the Browns, who were operating with a backup quarterback.
Then it’s a big drop to wins where they had to claw and scrap to prevail in the fourth quarter over 1-9 Carolina, 2-9 Arizona and 4-8 Washington. Their only blowout victory came in New York over the largely hapless 3-8 Giants.
Usually a gap between an 8-3 team and 6-5 team is two games. I know, duh. But the gap between the 49ers and Seahawks is more like 10 games off of what we’ve seen in the teams’ last four meetings - San Francisco has outscored Seattle 113-43 in those games, essentially an average of 28-10.
When directly asked, Pete Carroll didn’t answer a question about the size of the gap Thursday night, probably knowing it would have taken so long to go through all of the differences that it would have crept into Friday morning.
Following big losses, everybody wants to blame somebody, and if you’re into that kind of thing, Geno Smith and the offensive line were mentioned along with a defense that couldn’t stop the Niners much if at all. But Shane Waldron seemed to be the guy who took most of the bullets. The offensive coordinator is not calling the right plays or is unimaginative and lacks the creativity that is critical to ball-moving success.
To this I say: what a bunch of crap. Yeah, let’s blame the offensive coordinator, again and again no matter who he is. I always come back to a coach who studies opponents and game film all week long. He’s calling plays he thinks will work. He can’t block and make passes and catches.
In my book it’s more about execution than play design, and sometimes those Jimmies and Joes on the other side of the ball are simply a hell of a lot better than yours, which was the case Thursday night. Waldron could have called exotic plays all game long and the 49ers would have laughed in his face.
You can laugh in mine too. I made a dumb $100 bet with co-host Jason Puckett at KJR-FM, contending the Seahawks would finish 2-2 in this four-game stretch that started with the 49ers. He went with 0-4. In three weeks after the Seahawks face Dallas, San Francisco again and Philadelphia, I’m guessing Puckett will be the new owner of a crisp Ben Franklin.
Next up are the Cowboys, the top-scoring team in the league, averaging 31.5 points a game. Their point differential is +182. The Seahawks’ is -20. And Dallas is 5-0 at home.
The schedule is more favorable down the stretch with games against Tennessee, Pittsburgh and Arizona. By then we’ll be talking about the resilient Seahawks, admiring the way they’ve bounced back to earn a wild-card berth, hoping their late momentum will carry into the playoffs.
But let’s not forget what they truly are, a team that’s not equipped to make any kind of Super Bowl run whatsoever.
Jim Moore has covered Washington’s sports scene from every angle for multiple news outlets. You can find him on Twitter @cougsgo, and on KJR-FM 93.3, where he co-hosts a sports talk show from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on weekdays.