Yes, there is always plenty of chatter about our perennial Super Bowl hopefuls. But I also find that there is always some angle to Seahawks coverage that just doesn’t seem to get enough airplay. This column is dedicated to that “elephant in the locker room.”
With all the hand-wringing in town this week, and reading actual words about how the Saints “dominated” the Seahawks on Sunday, you’d think that the home-town team actually looked bad losing 33 to 27.
Now, surely, Seattle looked absolutely terrible on a handful of plays. But in reality, New Orleans simply looked like Alvin Kamara… who, quite frankly, makes just about every team look terrible at times. So kudos to Kamara.
But let’s talk about the defense for a minute. Those missed tackles on Kamara aside (and there were a LOT of them), Seattle held the Saints to a total of 265 yards (including Kamara’s 161!) and 15 first downs. The Saints’ other marquee weapon, Michael Thomas, just about disappeared… by design. Yes, Teddy Bridgewater (who is a fine QB, btw, and no slouch to replace Brees in the lineup) threw to wide-open receivers on 70% of his completions… but that was what Seattle gave him. The Saints were unable to find favorable one-on-one matchups for Thomas. This bodes well for the season; Griffin and Flowers, folks: they took away Michael Thomas.
So no: Seattle’s D did not get dominated by the Saints. Quite the opposite.
And need I go through a detailed analysis of how Seattle did on the offensive side of the ball? 514 total yards? 26 first downs? 4 for 5 in the red zone? Career day for Lockett? Another spectacular day for Wilson?
But there was this to start the day: a penalty, a three-and-out, a punt… and a punt return for a TD. And I predicted this would happen at some point, just two weeks ago.
And there was this: a Chris Carson fumble, this time returned for a TD.
And there was this: a missed FG turned into a TD because of an easily-correctable error.
I think the handwringing is because “experts” don’t like admitting they are wrong, as I was last week in announcing that the “Thump” is back. Experts would rather say “something is wrong with the team” than “I didn’t see this coming.”
But Sunday’s loss does not mean it’s time to panic. It doesn’t mean the wags are wrong. It doesn’t mean the Hawks are done.
If I were Pete Carroll, I wouldn’t be second-guessing myself, either.
He should simply be emphasizing what he always has: take care of the ball, and the game will take care of itself. Stay the course. Stay disciplined.
But I will say it again: Michael Dickson is not helping the Hawks win the field-position battle this year. He’s got to get that fixed, and quick.