The Seattle Seahawks suffered an incredibly demoralizing defeat at the hands of their division rivals, the Los Angeles Rams. Seattle fell 26-20 in overtime to fall into last place in the NFC West.
The game was essentially a roller coaster. Seattle’s offense went from being stuck in the mud in the first half, to scoring 13 unanswered in the final minute of the second quarter, to being ineffective for most of the second half, then a heroic drive to tie the game late… only to blow it in overtime. Seattle’s defense was stellar for most of the game, until they surrendered 83 yards in only four plays in overtime to seal the loss.
Then there’s Geno Smith. Seattle’s quarterback threw for nearly 400 yards and three touchdowns, including one to tie the game late. But he also threw three interceptions, two of which were in the fourth quarter. Even Jaxon Smith-Njigba. He had 180 yards and two scores, but a blatant drop directly contributed to one of Smith’s interceptions.
Needless to say, there were plenty of highs and lows from Week 9. I asked Smith about what, if anything, was something positive to takeaway from the defeat headed into their next game in Week 11.
“Yeah, I think you just look at the way that we fight. We compete. We’re never going to back down.” Smith stated. “I don’t believe in moral victories at all. I think you either win or lose. Today we lost. The great thing about life is you get another day, you get another chance. We’ve got eight games. That’s all I’m focused on is the next eight games. I’m taking it one by one. I’m going to do my thing. I’m going to get better.”
As bleak as things look right now, the Seahawks still have a prime opportunity to still achieve their goals. At 4-5 and in last place, they have some climbing to do, but no one in the division is better than 5-4. Seattle still has both games against the Arizona Cardinals, as well as rematches with the Rams and 49ers. Obviously, these will be challenging. But not insurmountable.
The best thing the Seahawks can do is take the Bye Week seriously and focus on what they can do to clean things up. Otherwise, if their hole gets too deep, then their goals are going to start getting further out of reach.
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