Why the Seahawks’ vibe out of their loss in Cincinnati is: We good
When the Seahawks lost their opening game, players in the locker room after were angry. They were embarrassed. They spoke of expectations unmet.
At practice a few days after that loss to the Los Angeles Rams last month, captain Bobby Wagner challenged his teammates’ purpose, their why of being great.
When the Seahawks lost their second game, a month later in Cincinnati, they were encouraged.
Yes, it’s still a loss. And the way they were muttering and shaking their heads on their ways out of Ohio Sunday reinforced how frustrating this one was that ended a three-game winning streak.
Yet Cincinnati may be one of the more encouraging defeats the Seahawks have had in a minute.
The defense was the most worrisome part of the team all last year and entering this season. It continued its four-and-a-half game uprising to not just formidable but, in some ways, first-rate.
“I think we played excellent,” linebacker Jordyn Brooks said after his seven tackles against the Bengals.
“Just wasn’t enough to win at the end.”
One week after Joe Burrow torched Arizona, Seattle (3-2) held the $275 million quarterback and his Bengals to 214 yards; the Seahawks gained 381. Cincinnati gained just 52 total yards after halftime Sunday, the day Seattle’s defense had all 11 starters healthy and play a full game for the first time this season.
The only three points the Bengals scored in the final 42 minutes came after the Seahawks’ Geno Smith threw his second interception of the day. The defense allowed zero net yards on Cincinnati’s “drive” to that field goal.
Defensive coordinator Clint Hurtt blitzed defensive backs early. Then when Burrow’s quick passes were beating them, he dropped the DBs back in coverage. The Seahawks blitzed linebackers Brooks and Wagner, and relied on the front six for pressuring Burrow.
It worked.
“Phenomenal,” safety Jamal Adams said Sunday, after playing a full game for the first time in 13 months.
Throttling Joe Burrow
Burrow, minted last month as the highest-valued NFL player at a record $55 million per year, had just 185 yards passing. Seattle sacked him three times, hit him five times and affected him on many of his 16 drop backs to pass after halftime. All three of the sacks were in the second half.
He began the game like an artist. He rhythmically connected ultra-quick throws to receivers running short routes. The Bengals easily scored touchdowns on each of their first two possessions.
In the second half Burrow was like a sprinkler. He was spraying passes all over the field.
Burrow completed 17 of his first 19 passes. He hit on just seven of his final 16 throws, including an interception by Tre Brown.
One of the league’s best at eluding pass rushers and blitzers to complete throws for big plays did little of that against Seattle as Sunday went on.
“I didn’t feel like he was moving, at all,” Brooks said. “I thought we just a really good job, in the second half, of really getting him flustered, getting him out of the pocket, getting a couple sacks on him.
“Once we got settled in, I feel like we got more matchier and stickier where we could take that away.”
That is why the Seahawks are encouraged heading to their NFC West home game against Arizona (1-5) Sunday. The half of the team they were most concerned about had been good and at times excellent this season — for all but a pratfall second half in that opening-game loss to the Rams Sept. 10.
Seattle held Joe Mixon and Cincinnati’s running game to 46 yards on 15 carries Sunday. When they sacked Burrow three times in the second half, hit him five times and affected him for two quarters, the Bengals offense, well, burrowed.
The Seahawks were 30th in the NFL against the run last season. Coach Pete Carroll and Hurtt made it their top priority to fix this offseason and preseason.
So far, they have. Seattle leads the league allowing just 3.2 yards per rush through five games.
Uncharacteristic offense
Geno Smith and the offense full of playmakers DK Metcalf, Tyler Lockett, Kenneth Walker and three effective tight ends malfunctioned Sunday. They got inside the Bengals 10-yard line four times and totaled just three points on those drives.
But these Seahawks see that as an exception to what’s been the offense’s norm the last two seasons since Smith took over for traded Russell Wilson as Seattle’s quarterback.
Smith was a Pro Bowl quarterback who set four team passing records last season. He was sacked four times and threw two interceptions at Cincinnati, twice his season total entering Sunday. He missed Metcalf in the second quarter open for a touchdown that wasn’t. He did the same with Jaxon Smith-Njigba in the second half.
If he saw either one so open and threw the ball, the Seahawks would be on a four-game winning streak, because of their defense.
“I just should have been better,” Smith said after the game. “I feel like my guys and the defense played a tremendous game.
“Those are things that are not characteristic of the way I’ve been playing, and I know that I can be a lot better. I need to look myself in the mirror and figure those things out, so I will.
“I believe in the type of player I am. I know (Sunday) is not indicative of who I am as a player.”
The Seahawks believe that, too.
That explains the relatively encouraged vibe inside the visiting locker room in Cincinnati following the game Sunday.
“The opener was pretty shocking. We played so poorly in the second half. Everyone was disappointed and surprised and couldn’t make sense of it,” Carroll said. “But now, when you stack some weeks together with real consistency and our effort and involvement and everyone’s commitment to it — even when you get disappointed with a loss like this that happened — they’re still seeing the future and where we’re going and where we can go.
“The hope is still there to put together a terrific season, one week at a time. You can feel that. There’s a confidence that comes from that.”
That’s how the Seahawks have progressed from September to October. Now they get their only consecutive home games, against the Cardinals then the Cleveland Browns (3-2) Oct. 29.
“The uncertainty from the first was left behind in week two,” Carroll said, thanks in part to Wagner’s stern buck-up talk. “Week three (over Carolina) and week four (at the Giants), we just built on it.
“So here we are again. Tough situation, good team, respected squad, and the game was so obvious. We just needed to catch one more ball, run one more ball in and we win the football game.
“Everybody is pretty clear about that.”
This story was originally published October 17, 2023 at 5:00 AM.
