‘Unacceptable’: Seahawks vow to clean up penalty issues

SEATTLE – Coming off their first loss since last November, the Seattle Seahawks returned to their winning ways with a 30-23 victory over the Los Angeles Chargers on Sunday.

But afterward, the reigning Super Bowl champions had a bad taste in their mouths.

Brock: ‘A lot to clean up’ for Seahawks after penalty-filled win

Seattle committed 14 penalties for a franchise-record 150 yards, including a handful of costly flags that extended Los Angeles scoring drives and allowed the winless Chargers to hang around until Derick Hall recovered Uchenna Nwosu’s strip-sack fumble with 54 seconds left.

“I think we’re all collectively kind of pissed,” veteran linebacker Ernest Jones IV said. “In this league, you can’t extend drives for offenses, and we did that a (heck) of a lot today. So we’ll address it as a defense tomorrow and we’ll get it fixed going into next week.”

The Seahawks’ 150 penalty yards surpassed the previous single-game franchise record of 148, which came in a 2018 overtime loss to the San Francisco 49ers. Seattle’s 14 penalties were tied for sixth-most in team history.

Seven of the Seahawks’ flags were 15-yarders – including two apiece on back-to-back second-half Chargers touchdown drives that cut into Seattle’s 27-6 lead.

“To have seven personal-foul penalties is unacceptable on any level, however you slice it,” head coach Mike Macdonald said. “That’s not us, and that’s not going to be how we play football around here.”

In the closing seconds of the first half, safety Nick Emmanwori drew an unnecessary roughness penalty for head-butting a Chargers player. That turned a potential 54-yard field-goal attempt into a 39-yarder for kicker Cameron Dicker, who split the uprights to cut Seattle’s lead to 20-6 at the break.

On the Chargers’ third-quarter TD drive, cornerback Devon Witherspoon came up with a tackle for loss, but was flagged for unnecessary roughness after throwing running back Keaton Mitchell to the ground when he was already out of bounds. Three plays later, Emmanwori committed a personal-foul facemask penalty on third down that extended Los Angeles’ scoring march.

And on the Chargers’ fourth-quarter TD drive, edge rushers DeMarcus Lawrence and Hall were both flagged for roughing-the-passer penalties. Lawrence’s flag negated a sack that would have put Los Angeles in third-and-long, and Hall’s penalty wiped away a third-down stop.

“We were off the field multiple times and we got penalties,” Macdonald said. “So it’s cut and dry. That’s not how we’re going to do business. That’s not how we need to play. That’s unacceptable.”

The penalties weren’t isolated to Seattle’s defense. The Seahawks also had five offensive penalties for 45 yards and three special teams flags for 25 yards. And on the other side, the Chargers committed 16 penalties for 130 yards.

In addition to Sunday’s flag-filled affair, Seattle had 10 penalties for 98 yards in its Week 1 win over the New England Patriots. Through four weeks, the Seahawks are averaging 81.8 penalty yards per game, which is third-most in the NFL. Last year, they had the ninth-lowest mark at 46.6 yards per game.

“We have a spectrum around here on how we ascribe penalties,” Macdonald said. “One is the cost of doing business. In terms of playing style, we want to play hard, and sometimes we make mistakes. And on the other side of the spectrum is (what) we call selfish penalties.

“So this is going to be a through-not-around next 24 to 48 hours on how we address the penalties.”

Jones echoed that sentiment.

“We talk as men,” Jones said. “Like, ‘Hey, we just can’t have that.’ It’s as simple as that.”

The Seahawks know they can’t afford the same mistakes next Sunday, when they host the unbeaten 49ers in a highly anticipated NFC West showdown.

“Everybody in that locker room knows it, so it’s gonna be everybody,” Macdonald said of the penalty issues. “The guys will be great. Any time we’ve set our intention on something – really, I have a hard time finding an exception – the guys have done it.

“So we just have to be honest with our process on how we approach it and how we go through it.”

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