What We Learned: Seahawks’ offense just doesn’t add up

The Seahawks have allowed the fewest points in the NFL through the first two weeks, having given up 19.

They’ve scored the second-fewest points in the league, however, ahead of only the Rams, the team the Seahawks held without a touchdown on Sunday.

All that adds up to a 1-1 start in Seattle that has plenty of people scratching their heads, trying to figure out which direction this Seahawks’ season is headed.

Three things we learned:

1. Russell Wilson has not picked up where he left off. Wilson threw 24 touchdown passes while being intercepted once over the final seven regular-season games last year. So far this season, he has not been nearly as surgical in the pocket. Of course, he has also played six of the team’s eight quarters this season with an ankle injury severe enough that it would have sidelined most players and virtually all other quarterbacks. But even before the injury, Wilson wasn’t piloting the timing-based passing offense with the same precision as he was in the second half of last season. That doesn’t mean Wilson won’t get back to that type of efficiency. He’s just not there right now.

2. Points aren’t the only way to measure a defense. The Seahawks’ defense haven’t given up much this season, allowing just one touchdown so far. Seattle hasn’t taken away anything from its opponents, either. The Seahawks are one of three teams in the league that have yet to force a turnover. “That’s unacceptable on our side of the ball,” linebacker K.J. Wright said. That lack of turnovers helps explain Seattle’s deficit in terms of field position. The Seahawks’ average starting point for a drive in Week 1 was their own 22-yard line. In Week 2, it was even worse: their own 18. Generating some turnovers would go a long way toward turning that trend around. “We know when we get the ball, it puts our offense in good position to score,” Wright said. “It helps us win games, so we’ve got to find a way. We laid a goose egg these first two games.”

3. The bye can’t get here soon enough for Seattle. A Week-5 bye for the Seahawks seemed needlessly early when the schedule was announced. Now, it looks like an absolute God send, especially when you get a load of this week’s injury report. Tyler Lockett missed almost all of the second half of Sunday’s game with a knee sprain, and while he returned for the final 2 minutes, his availability will be a question. Fellow receiver Doug Baldwin told coach Pete Carroll he felt good on Monday, but he was also going to have tests done on his knee. There’s a chance that right guard Germain Ifedi returns this week from the ankle injury he suffered two weeks ago, but honestly, there’s a much better chance he’s out at least another week. Then there’s the continuing treatment for Wilson’s injured ankle and that Week-5 bye that at first seemed awfully early now looks like a huge benefit.

Three things we’re still trying to figure out:

1. How much is Carroll covering for the offensive line? He flatly stated that the Seahawks’ offensive line was not the problem after Sunday’s game, pointing instead to the team’s third-down conversion rate. But Carroll will never be mentioned in the same sentence as Mike Leach when it comes to how he talks about his team unless someone is stating that, “Pete Carroll is not anything like Mike Leach when it comes to talking about his team.” At the same time, it’s difficult to watch Seattle’s inability to build anything resembling momentum in the ground game and conclude anything other than that the offensive line that was the single biggest question entering this season has been the single biggest problem during the first two weeks.

2. Is Christine Michael Seattle’s best running back? He has certainly looked like it through the first two weeks. That’s not entirely a fair comparison given the fact that Thomas Rawls was working his way back to full strength in the regular-season opener and was knocked out of Sunday’s game by an injury to his shin. Michael is averaging 5 yards a carry through two games. The rest of the team is averaging 1.7 yards per carry. And while it was bummer that Michael fumbled in the final minute Sunday, he has been the single best thing about Seattle’s offense through these first two weeks.

3. How would things have turned out without three offensive pass-interference penalties? That’s not to say officiating cost the Seahawks a game. The OPI calls certainly didn’t help, though, nullifying a total of 53 yards in receptions in addition to pushing Seattle back 10 yards after it had first-and-goal from the Rams’ 3 at the end of the first quarter. That was as close as the Seahawks ever got to reaching the end zone on Sunday. The truth is that Seattle didn’t need any help shooting itself in the foot against Los Angeles, but the referees were willing to lend a flag. Those three plays were a huge factor in a game in which field position turned out to be so very important.

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