Let’s face it. It was a weird week last week. In fact, it had gotten so weird on Wednesday that I actually found myself substantially missing 2020.

Weird isn’t even that right adjective to use for it. Disturbing is significantly more appropriate. Any person who values American democracy should be deeply disturbed right now. I value democracy, and I am, to my core, deeply disturbed, and have remained so since Wednesday afternoon last week.

So when kick off happened at 1:40 on Saturday, I found myself sort of caring less about this game. Like, I could take or leave a win. Not that I didn’t want the win, or wasn’t rooting for the win. Just, kinda.. yeah.. whatever.

The Seahawks sucked in this one. The defense played okay for spells, but couldn’t hold it together long enough. The Seahawks sucked, and the Rams simply sucked less. This, in a nutshell, was the game.

I apologize if the tone of this piece has a sore loser vibe. That’s not my intention. Had Seattle won this game, and even won handsomely, I was prepared to write in a similar fashion. What happened in this past week was a tipping point for me as an American, and I simply cannot get past it. I don’t know how, and I’m not sure that I am supposed to.

So, Seattle lost, and it was a crummy end to the season that was, for the most part, enjoyable. At least I found it enjoyable even though there is a growing trend of fans and maybe a few beat writers who appear to believe (seemingly very strongly now) that Pete Carroll can’t coach and Russell Wilson is broken as a franchise quarterback. I respectfully disagree, and I believe that the issues that plagued this offense over the past several games will become resolved during the off-season. Pete Carroll is not stupid and lost as a coach. Russell Wilson isn’t either as a quarterback.

Also, I am appreciative towards all the players and coaches that, to a degree, risked their safety to gather to play a professional sport during a massive pandemic that has now killed nearly 400,000 American lives. Their decisions to do that has given me a most welcome distraction to all that has been incredibly difficult to deal with in this past year. I am grateful for all that.

Here are my notes about the game.

The Good

I generally liked the way the defense played. I thought the pass rush was good. I thought young players like Poona Ford, LJ Collier, and Alton Robinson had some positive impacts up front. I liked how the linebackers and defensive backs were hitting and covering for stretches. It was unfortunate that they weren’t supported much by the offense and as the game wore on, the Rams had success against them and were able to push them around.

I loved the kick return the DJ Reed had to start the second half.

I loved the improvised scramble play the Russell Wilson had that led to a 51 yard touchdown pass to DK Metcalf that kept Seattle in it for a while. I could have stood to have seen more scramble drills in this one, frankly.

I like that whenever Seattle plays the Rams, Jarran Reed tends to grab a couple sacks a game, as he did it again in this one.

I thought Chris Carson had some good hard runs, and wished that he had gotten more.

The Bad

What can I possibly say about the offense that hasn’t been said a hundred times all over social media, and with those the cover the team?

It was so bad that I don’t even know where to start, anyways. I will just repeat on this blog what I said to a distressed friend on Facebook.

It’s hard to win a ball game against a dominant defense when you start the game with a 1st and 25 due to back to back penalties.

It’s hard to win a game when you drop multiple passes.

It is hard to win the game when you force passes into difficult coverage.

It’s hard to win a game when you throw a pick six.

It’s hard to win a game when you have a short quarterback pocket pass against a gigantic athletic pass rush and tight coverage.

It’s hard to win by not establishing the run and building off of it like what the Ram offense was eventually able to do against Seattle’s defense.

Ultimately, it is hard to win a game when you do not take advantage of what your best players do best, and a perfect example of that is Russell Wilson as the threat to run and pass.

This was a hard game for Seattle to win because they had all of these things working against them. It will haunt them through the off-season.

My hope is that it will lead to a more defined offensive identity that they can rely on in 2021 because it seemed like they were playing a big portion of this season without any identity. That is the one narrative out there that I fully agree with.

The Ugly

On Wednesday, January 6th, a large ground of paranoid insurrectionists stormed the United States Capital Building. They overtook a severely undermanned police force, and they threatened the lives of a US Congress as they were working to certify the November general election. It felt like a coup attempt to overtake the US government, frankly. That isn’t hyperbole. Never in my life would I imagine that ever being a thing. Yet, here we are.

The Seahawks lost. So what?

Football is a privilege that I have been able to enjoy all of my life. Democracy is a significantly greater privilege. That is what last Wednesday proved to me.

It’s not the end of the world if your football team loses and does not play well. Losing a long standing democracy is significantly worse. Last Wednesday, our democracy was threatened in a way it had never been since the War of 1812. Make no mistake about that.

It has had a carryover effect that effected my ability to enjoy my favorite team playing a playoff game that I should otherwise enjoy, and I think it will be something that I will have a difficult tune shaking off for a while. So, I guess maybe Tom Brady, or even the Rams now should just go win the Super Bowl because I frankly won’t care. Whatever. It doesn’t matter.

What matters if for Americans to collectively look at themselves in the mirror and ask themselves what they have personally done to contribute to our collective getting this this place that we are now in. It starts with each of us as individuals. It must.

This isn’t even a Republican versus Democrat thing for me right now. I am neither, and have proudly stayed a independent voter since I registered as a teen. Outside of being a diehard Seahawk fan, I fundamentally do not believe in tribalism, and what has been going in over the last several years in this nation is exactly why. Little good comes from that mentality.

No good came out of it last Wednesday. We have go to change.

Moving Forward

Hopefully, our country will start to finally come together. Hopefully, Wednesday last week was the rock bottom that we needed for that to begin to happen. Hopefully, we are not headed towards a needless second civil war.

I don’t believe we are, but for God’s sake, do we ever have a bunch of work to do. We must figure out a way to come together.

As for the Seattle Seahawks, I like them to spend the off-season sorting out their offense, and building more on defense. They have nice young pieces on both sides of the ball and they have top level talented veteran leadership.

Mainly, I like for Pete Carroll and Russell Wilson to come together during the off-season with a united vision of their offense and a fully bought-in commitment to that vision. I like for Seattle to continue building on it’s young pass rush, and having a defense that will compliment its offense. That compliment is mainly having a defense that will more reliably be able to protect leads.

I think they will be fine in 2021. That is the safe bet, but I would like to see them be better than fine. I want to see them fully realized. Just like I want to see this country of our realized.

Go Hawks, and God bless America.

Thank you for reading this blog.