O’Neil: The Seahawks’ loss to Broncos wasn’t good, but it also wasn’t as bad as it looked

Seattle’s quarterback did not play particularly well, the kicker missed two field-goal attempts on consecutive plays and the Seahawks also had a touchdown negated by a penalty.

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Seattle also watched as the Broncos were given a touchdown after the officials put their heads together, changed their mind and couldn’t unchange it after a replay review.

Oh yeah, then there was a fumble that wasn’t reviewed because the challenge was deemed too late.

So while there’s no such thing as a good loss, the Seahawks’ 27-24 defeat in Denver wasn’t as bad as it looked. Or as bad as it could have been.

Now, it wasn’t a good loss. Russell Wilson was sacked too often. Six times. And there was the abomination of a final drive in which Seattle managed just four plays and 11 yards in the final 61 seconds as Wilson dropped a snap, receiver Jaron Brown committed a false-start that resulted in a 10-second run-off and the Seahawks were reduced to throwing two desperation heaves from inside their own 20-yard line.

But as far as road-openers go, this was fairly standard stuff for the Seattle Seahawks, who are now 1-8 in road openers under Pete Carroll.

The fact Seattle gave up three passing touchdowns wasn’t shocking. Not only have the Seahawks had to reboot their defense, but they started a rookie in Tre Flowers at cornerback, which is especially unusual because he had been a safety up until the moment Seattle drafted him.

There were plenty of encouraging signs in this game from the 105 yards receiving that rookie tight end Will Dissly accounted for in the first half to the three second-half catches by Brandon Marshall, who may turn out to be more important to this Seahawks season than anyone could have imagined.

There were some problems, too. Shaquem Griffin had a difficult debut starting in place of K.J. Wright at linebacker, which may have explained Austin Calitro’s presence in the second half. Doug Baldwin also suffered a knee injury that knocked him out of the game.

And then there was Wilson, who passed for three touchdowns but also had a particularly ill-timed interception on Seattle’s half of the field in the third quarter and showed too much faith in his ability to escape that resulted in some particularly awful sacks.

So as far as openers go, it wasn’t good. But it could have been a whole lot worse, and enough to make you think that things will get better for Seattle sooner rather than later.

It’s petty to blame Wilson for Hawks not becoming a dynasty

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