Struggling Seahawks offense needs another midseason surge

This is the time of year that the Seahawks’ offense usually gets going.

That has been the refrain repeated around town for the past week now. Something to calm the concerns over an offense that has reached the end zone just once over the past nine quarters of play.

The Seahawks are going to be all right because this is the point – eight or nine weeks into the season – where Seattle usually stops grinding its gears on offense and starts gaining momentum. That, more than anything, is what makes Monday’s game against Buffalo so very important for Seattle. Not just because of what it means in the standings – though it’s certainly important there, too – but because after two downright cadaverous performances by Seattle’s offense, everyone is searching for signs of life.

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And this is the time of year Seattle’s offense usually gets going.

That was the case last year when the Seahawks went from averaging 20.9 points over the first half of the regular season to 32 points in the second half. It was definitely true in quarterback Russell Wilson’s rookie season in 2012 when Seattle’s scoring almost doubled from 17.5 points through the first eight games to 34 over the final eight.

In fact, Seattle’s scoring average improved in the second half of all but one of Pete Carroll’s first six seasons as head coach, and while the Seahawks are technically one game short of the halfway mark, everyone will be watching Monday night’s game for signs of improvement from the offense in general and the quarterback in particular.

Is Wilson feeling better than he has, coming back from first an ankle injury then a sprained knee ligament and more recently a strained pec?

“There’s no doubt,” Carroll said Saturday.

Wilson ran full speed in practice this week, the first time he was able to do that since before the regular-season opener, and while no one is expecting him to be as elusive or agile as previous years, the expectation is that he’s getting better.

He needs to because after seven games, Seattle’s offense is threatening to skid into a ditch. The Seahawks have failed to score a touchdown in two games, their defense has scored as many touchdowns as the offense over the past two weeks, and now Seattle will face a risk-taking Bills defense that has held five of its eight opponents to fewer than 20 points this season.

The Seahawks are a team whose pass protection is better than many expected, but Buffalo has 26 sacks, tied with Denver for the most in the league entering this week’s games. Seattle has allowed 12 sacks this season. Only three teams have given up fewer, and while that’s a huge step forward, that is going to be tested by a Buffalo defense that includes Lorenzo Alexander, who entered the week with a league-high nine sacks.

But this is the time of year the Seahawks offense usually gets going, right?

Because the offense needs to if it’s going to avoid the team’s longest winless streak in five years. That sounds weird: winless streak. But that’s what a tie will do to trends. The Seahawks haven’t won a game for back-to-back weeks, and if they’re beaten at home by Buffalo it will mark the first time since 2011 that Seattle has gone three straight games without notching a win. That was back when Seattle toggled between an injured Tarvaris Jackson at quarterback and an ineffective Charlie Whitehurst en route to a 2-6 start that effectively sunk the season.

This isn’t as deep of a crisis. The Seahawks are the only team in the NFC West that has a winning record, and with a victory over the Bills, Seattle will have fewer losses than every team in the conference except for the 7-1 Cowboys.

But a loss to the Bills and the Seahawks have a one-game lead in the division heading on the road to play a 7-1 Patriots team that has the best point differential in the league.

A loss to the Bills and the belief that Seattle’s offense gets going this time of year will start to feel more like an act of faith.

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