Seahawks make statement in primetime – just the wrong one

Dec 16, 2024, 11:08 AM

Seattle Seahawks Green Bay Packers Kingsley Enagbare...

Green Bay's Kingsley Enagbare celebrates a sack against the Seattle Seahawks on Dec. 15, 2024. (Steph Chambers/Getty Images)

(Steph Chambers/Getty Images)

BY ZAC HERETH

Seattle Sports

SEATTLE – The Seattle Seahawks made a statement – just not the one they were hoping for.

Rost: What the Seattle Seahawks’ 30-13 loss to Packers showed

The Seahawks had a chance to keep their grip on first place in the NFC West and prove they’re ready to compete against the top of the conference with a victory over the Green Bay Packers. But it became rather clear early on Sunday night that Seattle was in for a long evening during an eventual 30-13 loss on Sunday night at Lumen Field.

With the defeat, the Seahawks (8-6 record) fell back into a tie for the division lead with the 8-6 Los Angeles Rams. But just as important, the result showed the Seahawks still have plenty of ground to make up to be considered among the top teams in the NFC.

The Packers were a true measuring stick for a Seattle team that holds only one win over a squad that currently has a winning record. Green Bay entered the game with the fourth-best record in the NFC at 9-4. All four of its losses had come to the conference’s three best teams – two against the 12-2 Detroit Lions, and one apiece against the 12-2 Philadelphia Eagles and the 11-2 Minnesota Vikings.

The Seahawks gave them little trouble, falling behind 14-0 while giving up touchdowns on the Packers’ first two drives and never pulling within a score after.

“The main thing (head coach) Mike (Macdonald) was stressing in this game is that we had to start fast, and we didn’t,” safety Julian Love said. “So we were just playing catch up the whole game.”

Green Bay finished the game with a sizeable advantage in just about every category. Rushing yards? The Packers outgained the Seahawks 140-80. Passing? Green Bay held the advantage with 222 yards to Seattle’s 173. Penalties? Both teams committed five, but the Seahawks’ miscues totaled a whopping 108 yards compared to the Packers’ 27. Turnovers? Green Bay held the advantage with a plus-one margin. Sacks? It wasn’t even close, as the Packers racked up seven and kept the Seahawks from getting to quarterback Jordan Love at all.

“It stings. I thought just in general you got to give Green Bay a lot of credit,” Macdonald said. “I thought they outcoached us. We didn’t have a good enough plan in all three phases. I’m responsible for that. And then, frankly, we didn’t play good enough. The things that we’ve been doing that have won us games, we didn’t do those things.”

The last part of what Macdonald said was the most troubling. After taking steps forward on defense and the offensive line in recent weeks, the Seahawks regressed in both areas.

Early on, Green Bay and running back Josh Jacobs had Seattle’s defense looking more like the unit that started the season than the one that keyed the four-game winning streak it took into the game. Jacobs had all but one touch on the Packers’ 10-play opening touchdown drive and burned the Seahawks for a pair of big plays on the 80-yard TD march that followed.

Josh Jacobs WOULD NOT GO DOWN. 😤

via @NFL | 📺 NBC & Peacockpic.twitter.com/mbWj54Vc9a

— Sunday Night Football on NBC (@SNFonNBC) December 16, 2024

By the end of the first quarter, Jacobs already had 46 yards on the ground and another 38 receiving. He was up to 73 rushing yards by the end of the first half as Green Bay led 20-3.

“We’ve been doing such a good job the past, I want to say six weeks, stopping the run, and we just didn’t early on,” Love said. “A lot of that opened up their game and got everything going, and, yeah, we let a pretty good running back get started early, which defensively you can’t do.”

To the defense’s credit, it started to figure things out after Green Bay’s second touchdown and played pretty well the rest of the way, but it needed to show up for all four quarters of this one.

Offensively, the Seahawks’ struggles on the line and with untimely turnovers were on full display again.

After allowing zero sacks for the first time all season a week ago, the line surrendered seven sacks for the third time this season. And Green Bay was able to do so without bringing much extra pressure, as all five of its sacks through the first three quarters came on non-blitzes according to NFL Next Gen Stats.

The Packers have racked up FIVE sacks on non-blitzes against the Seahawks. 😳#NextGenStats powered by @AWSCloud. pic.twitter.com/6DGt6mgdtA

— Sunday Night Football on NBC (@SNFonNBC) December 16, 2024

Then there was a costly interception thrown by Geno Smith in the red zone with Seattle trailing 20-3 in the second quarter. The pick was Smith’s fourth to occur in the end zone this season, which is tied for the most in the NFL according to ESPN’s Brady Henderson.

The Seahawks surprisingly made things somewhat interesting late, pulling within 10 points in the fourth quarter despite Smith leaving in the third with a knee injury. But it never felt like they had much of a chance to complete a comeback with Sam Howell in at quarterback, and it feels like they wouldn’t have gotten it done with Smith either.

Seattle is now 1-4 against teams with winning records, with the lone victory coming in the season opener against the Denver Broncos in the first career start for rookie quarterback Bo Nix. In the four losses, the Seahawks have been outscored 127-72. They’ve lost three of those games at home, too.

“We know what type of team we are, we know what the goal is and what we’re trying to accomplish,” linebacker Ernest Jones IV said. “… That’s win the division, go into the playoffs, get a home playoff game – one or two, whatever the case may be – and you see what happens in the playoffs.”

With the Vikings and Rams as two of the three games left on the Seahawks’ schedule, they’ll have to figure out how to beat playoff-caliber team to get there.