Good Lord in Heaven. Where do I frigging begin with these notes? I’m gonna keep this really simple, y’all.

The Good

Russell Wilson is the best football player in the league right now, and his numbers today completely backed that up: 29/43 passes, 378 yards, 5 touchdowns, and 0 INTs. Russell Wilson willed this team that was down 13-21 at halftime to this win. Period.

Tyler Lockett was also unbelievable hauling in 13 grabs for 152 and 2 touchdown grabs. If he is not in the pro bowl this year, the NFL is a total joke.

Rookie phenom DK Metcalf had a massive break out game with 6 catches for a 123 yards and a touchdown, but the bigger story for me was backup tight end Jacob Hollister catching 4 passes for 37 yards and 2 touchdowns. This team has missed Will Dissly’s pass catching at tight end, and slowly, Hollister is looking like the guy who can adequately replace his production. This is a big plus for Seattle’s passing offense.

Chris Carson ran well against the top run stopping defense in the league, although he fumbled twice.

The Bad

The defense. I quit taking notes on this because, by halftime, I didn’t really understand what the point was anymore. That was the worst first half performance I have ever seen out of a Pete Carroll Seattle Seahawk coached team. I can credit them some for slowing Tampa’s offense down more in the second half, but there were still broken coverages, missed tackles, and a general overall lack of consistent pass rush.

This is getting really hard to watch week in and week out. I don’t know what the answers are for this season. I think it is just something fans might have to learn to live with. However, I think there might be some hard choices for Pete Carroll to make heading into the offseason, whether it is coaching or players, or both. My initial thought is that it’s players. Seattle needs a lot of help on that side of the ball right now.

The Ugly

Jason Meyers missed two field goals and an extra point. Both field goals were easy. If Seattle would have lost this game, that would have been the story. Why can’t Seattle get right at kicker?

Moving Forward

Seattle is 7-2 and they are riding an extremely hot quarterback. It’s going to be exciting how they add incoming big play receiver Josh Gordon into this mix.

Russell Wilson is the clearly a league MVP player right now. I think the Seahawks will most likely make the playoffs because of that, but if Gordon becomes a good fit in Seattle, they can still have a pretty special season by catching even more fire offensively. That’s exciting.

What’s troubling is that the defense has yet to get out of it’s own way. They haven’t fixed all the missed tackle issues, and today there were blown coverages galore. That’s troubling.

If Seattle can just be average on defense, then we can talk about maybe being a genuine contender. It’s certainly possible between now and the end of the regular season they do clean it all up, but presently they are clearly testing our patience.

Hang in there, Twelves.

Go Hawks.