Veteran Seahawks say accountability is needed. And what about not being ready to play?
It was so quiet inside the Seahawks’ locker room late Thursday night, you could hear hopes to win the NFC West drop.
Amid the silence following the San Francisco 49ers’ latest rout of Seattle, 31-13 in a Thanksgiving night showdown that wasn’t at Lumen Field, defensive tackle Jarran Reed said it’s time for soul-searching. Time for personal accountability, roster-wide.
The 30-year-old veteran said he wasn’t concerned that this result and fourth straight lopsided loss to the Niners since the beginning of last season may represent how far the Seahawks still are behind San Francisco.
But...
“Guys need to check with themselves and ask themselves are they playing with the passion and the heart that they need to play with for us to win games,” Reed said. “Because right now, we’ve got to pick it up.
‘We have GOT to pick it up.”
Christian McCaffrey, Brock Purdy and the 49ers offense ran over and past the Seahawks on the game’s first drive. Nine, smooth plays, 71 yards and a touchdown on a 2-yard run by wide receiver Deebo Samuel had Seattle really from the jump.
And it got no better for the Seahawks from there.
Seahawks ‘not ready to go’
The Seahawks spent more than $60 million signing end Dre’Mont Jones and Reed. They went for defense with the fifth pick in this year’s draft, a generational spot for Seattle, with cornerback Devon Witherspoon. They traded a second-round and a fifth-round pick to get tackle Leonard Williams. The did that all to beat San Francisco to win the division.
Yet the 49ers put gaps as wide as Interstate 5 in Seattle’s defensive line. Again.
Then, there’s this:
“I think we didn’t come out ready to go,” Seahawks linebacker Jordan Brooks said. “First drive they were running the ball, throwing the ball. I don’t think we were all the way there mentally. That’s why they ended up with seven points right out of the gate.”
Wait...what?
Given the stakes Thursday night, that’s inexcusable.
A win and the Seahawks would have been in first place in the NFC West. The thudding loss means Seattle (6-5) is two games plus a tiebreaker behind San Francisco (8-3), with six games remaining. The Seahawks’ next three: at Dallas (8-3) next Thursday, at San Francisco Dec. 10 and versus Philadelphia (9-1) the following week.
“Look at ourselves. Hold ourselves accountable and be truthful for what we see on the film and how we can get better,” Brooks said.
“We’ve got six games left? It’s playoff mode right now.”
San Francisco rolled up 235 yards of offense Thursday before Seattle had 16. It was 24-3 at halftime. And it really wasn’t that close.
“You can’t spot them 24 points in the first half,” Seahawks safety Quandre Diggs said.
Offense doesn’t help defense
Because of their offense’s futility protecting hurting quarterback Geno Smith, DK Metcalf dropping two passes and running the ball with fill-in lead back Zach Charbonnet (for injured Kenneth Walker) only three times, the Seahawks’ defense was on the field for 22 1/2 of the game’s first 29 minutes.
“We got nothing done on offense in the first half,” Carroll said.
Smith played with a bruised triceps, from Rams tackle Aaron Donald slamming into his throwing arm in Seattle’s loss at Los Angeles four days earlier. Then Thursday late in the first half on one of San Francisco’s six sacks, Smith appeared to hurt his ankle. He limped to the sideline.
But the 33-year-old quarterback downplayed those issues for his and his offense’s issues in this one. He completed 18 of 27 passes for 180 yards and an interception against the sideline trying to complete a pass to Tyler Lockett. It was Smith’s eighth interception and 10th turnover in 11 games this season.
Smith didn’t warm up early as he usually does. He didn’t take the field until 51 minutes before kickoff, far later than normal, to save his arm from throws that didn’t count.
“It was good enough to play, so wasn’t thinking about it,” he said. “Just trying to go out there and win.”
He wore a black sleeve over his throwing arm. He said the triceps injury didn’t affect his throwing “at all.”
As for his ankle, Smith said: “I’m OK. I’ll be all right.”
If not for a rare errant pass by Purdy off Christian McCaffrey’s hands into Brooks’ for his first career interception and 12-yard return for a touchdown in the third quarter, Seattle would not have scored a touchdown. The Seahawks have scored one offensive touchdown the last two games, and only three in their last four games.
Three of those have been losses.
Seattle’s 5-2 start is now a 6-5 tailspin. And the schedule ahead is rough.
“I think we need to start faster on both sides of the ball,” Diggs said. “You can’t come out and let those guys get momentum and jump up and try to fight your way back in the game. Because at the end of the day, when you have to throw the ball and those guys are ready to rush, and when they’re up, they can run the ball and kind of play their game.
“For us, we need to start faster collectively as a team and we have to play complementary football. That’s all it really is.”
Asked how indicative this game is on where they are compared to the 49ers, Diggs said: “We’ll see them in two weeks and we’ll go from there. We need to worry about what we need to do next week and go from there. We need to put the work in, come to work and have an attitude ready to go out and compete and have some pride about ourselves.
“That’s first of all.”
This story was originally published November 23, 2023 at 5:15 AM.
