If you are reading this blog, you are likely a big time Seahawks fan. I mean, why else would you waste your time with it? Maybe you are just here for my typoes and half-baked proses, but who knows.

If you are, in fact, at diehard Twelve, I am not going to tell you how you should handle the pain and misery of watching the Seahawks stink up Lumen Field in a 30-13 loss to a Rams team that wasn’t expected to be very good this year. If you threw your beer at your television set when DK Metcalf started losing his mind in the final minutes of the fourth quarter, I support that. If you were trying to stab out your eyeballs with toothpicks watching Seattle’s lack of pass coverage and pass rush, I totally get it. If you want Pete Carroll and John Schneider fired, okay. Twelves need to feel their feels.

For me, I’m kinda not all that upset with this loss. I mean, it sucks a nasty wet fart to lose like that, especially to the mother stinking Rams, but I just still see a lot of silver linings for this team.

Truthfully, I never really jumped onto the bandwagon that was considering Seattle to be a serious contender this year. As much as I have wanted to believe that, deep down I have accepted a more realistic idea that we are probably another draft class away from reaching that status.

So, for me, 2023 is about continuing to play young guys and developing them through the course of a season. If they win a bunch of games doing this, that’s fantastic. If they struggle and lose a lot of games, but still stay somewhat competitive in those matches, I think that can also be very ideal.

In many ways, I think these 2023 Seahawks are in a win-win situation. Winning a lot of games now means that they are a contender, and if so, then that’s super. Losing, however, for me, simply means another draft next year to which they will be picking in the top ten range, thus further building up a deep, youth, talented roster, and as many know, next year’s draft class appears to be potentially a very loaded one at quarterback, and anyone who reads this blog knows how much I dig Geno Smith, but I also see the value of having a talented young passer on a cheap rookie contract, too, if that comes to be the situation.

So, as much as I have been hoping another fun season for this team potentially winning a bunch of games, perhaps going further in the playoffs, there has been another side of me envisioning scenarios where Seattle falls short, and I sorta think that’s okay in the long run.

One scenario that I felt could lead to a lot of losses is losing a number of key starters. What happens if Geno gets injured for a month or more? What if we lose Tyler Lockett, or K9, Riq Woolen, or Quandre Diggs?

In this game against the Rams, Seattle was in fairly decent control of it heading into halfttime. Then they lost starting right tackle Abe Lucas, and then left tackle Charles Cross went out of the game; two of the very brightest talents on their roster. The lack of depth behind both was instantly felt.

Seattle couldn’t pass block or run block well enough with the reserves, and Geno Smith is not the style of quarterback who is going to dodge a heavy rush with his legs and agility like vintage Russell Wilson had years back. He looked constantly hurried and flustered, got sacked a bunch, and sorta lost composure going for a deep go route to DK Metcalf on third and four instead of opting for a shorter completion.

A strong narrative of this game will be about how badly Seattle’s offense played in the second half, and to be clear, they did. They needed to find a rhythm and they needed better poise. I would also say that the aggressive attacking style defense that Pete Carroll and Clint Hurtt had kinda been promising didn’t show up on any level outside of stopping the run, and that did not help matters at all. They were gawd stinking awful on third downs.

The truth is that the Rams didn’t need a run game with how open their receivers were for Matt Stafford. I’m no football film junky, but I sensed a lot of soft coverages. Riq Woolen looked bad. Tre Brown looked bad. Bobby Wagner, Jordan Love, and Quandre Diggs didn’t look great, in my opinion. There was no pressing receivers at the line of scrimmage. This felt like a Ken Norton Junior 2018-2019 Seahawk defense. They played the run well, but didn’t get home on the quarterback, and couldn’t cover to save themselves.

Also, I never got a sense of the disruptive inside pass rushing force that Dre’Mont Jones was supposed to be after signing a monster deal to come to Seattle, and supposedly be the next Michael Bennett. Jarran Reed looked more impactful of a DT stuffing the run, blocking a kick, and putting at least some pressure on Matthew Stafford.

From, what I saw, Clint Hurtt had Jones doing a lot, from being in a three point stance as a three tech, to standing up as what looked like an inside blitzing linebacker? We will get more into the whole concept of different looks in a moment.

While it was fun to see edge rushers like Boye Mafe and Uchenna Nwuso stuff the run and get tackles for losses, nobody got home on Stafford. The coverage and the pass rush were, in no way, connected in this game. That was a huge disappointment for me.

In that regard, as I was watching this lack of “Pete Carroll football”, I was pretty darn annoyed, to be honest. I would imagine that it’s tough to play an attacking style defense if you are willing to give up easy completion after easy competition. It makes me wonder what the plan is, and here is my greater point and concern.

There was a simplicity with the old 4-3 LOB defense. It allowed good, talented, smart football players to play fast, and adjust quickly to things pre snap. Everyone understood the structure, and it freed them up.

To use a music analogy, some musical snobs can scoff at bands such as the Ramones back in the day for having simple cords, but the simplicity freed them to be more precise, and exact, and fast, and they recorded a boat load of catchy tunes in the process over the years. Sometimes, less notes is a good thing.

The Vic Fangio 3-4 that Hurtt has been trying to adapt calls more aggressive coverages and mixed looks in attempts to send pressures different ways, and confuse quarterbacks. What I fear is happening right now is some weird nowhere land in between both philosophies.. like Carroll is trying to strive for some middle ground with trying something new with a lot more notes and meshing it with what he knows in his cover three stuff.

I am, of course, speculating on all of this, and what do I really know about NFL defenses, anyways? – But I will also say this following thing.

I really miss Carroll’s old 4-3 cover three scheme that was consistently really good against the run, was good at getting to the quarterback, was willing to be bend don’t break against the pass, made timely plays in the backfield, and had a great mixture of solid vets, a few pro bowlers, and had great depth with young up and comers. I wish Carroll would get back to that scheme. San Francisco runs it. The New York Jets run it. Dallas runs it. It is still relevant in this league.

I want Pete Carroll to be The Ramones again. I pine for it.

What I also really, super duper, big time wish for is that DK Metcalf would get past his occasional bush league WWF antics out on the field. In the past, I have been more forgiving of him taunting defenders and losing his cool than many others have been. I chalked it up to immaturity, and have felt he would outgrow it over time.

Well, he has been in this league for five years now. It is time to grow up. His taunting in the late fourth killed any remote opportunity for Geno Smith to mount a late comeback. It showed lousy leadership. It also made him look like a total idiot, and it doesn’t look super great that he laid a cheap shot hit on Rams corner Ahkello Witherspoon, either.

DK Metcalf isn’t dumb, and this is why this continual behavior has become so damn frustrating for me. He should know better by now.

I think he needs to decide what he wants to be. Does he want to reach his fullest potential as a pro, win a Super Bowl, be an eventual Hall of Fame player? If so, he needs to play smarter, and not put up dumb bulletin board material in the Rams’ locker room days before the game by talking trash about their secondary and fans, and not start jawing in the final critical moments of the game, and taking an unnecessary cheap shot on a defenseless defender just to look like the tougher dude.

DK Metcalf is starting to come across as a dude who wants to trash talk in order to get under the skin of the opposition, but when the going gets tough for himself, he loses his cool and acts like a chump in the aftermath. He’s gotta get past that shit. He makes too much money to not be better than that.

So, yeah, in some ways, I’m not sweating this loss. The Giants got boat raced at home and lost to the Cowboys 40-0. The mighty Bengals got beat up by the Browns. Pittsburgh lost badly at home to the 49ers. The Super Bowl champs lost at home to the Lions. Shit happens in football, and far be it for me to be shocked that a Rams team, two years removed from winning a Super Bowl, came up to Seattle and took it to maybe an overconfident Seahawk roster.

But not seeing any real step forward with a defense that was promised to be better, and not seeing great composure by highly priced vets like Metcalf, yeah, those are harder things for me to watch as a diehard Seattle Seahawk fan. Those are things that I really hope that I don’t continue seeing in 2023.

Right now, I’m trusting that Pete Carroll is going to get both of these things turned around. Frankly, I don’t have any other choice.

I also don’t need the Seahawks to go into Detroit and beat the Lions next Sunday. If they do, then that’s awesome. What I do need to see is a way better effort, and way better composure, and way better fight.

If the effort is there, along with the composure and fight, and they lose a close match, I will not fault this team. The Lions look like a really tough out, they will be more rested, and they will be at home in front of a stadium full of jacked up fans. If Seattle manages to beat them on their turf, under those conditions, this miserable game against these super annoying Rams will long be forgotten in my mind.

Here’s to hoping for that. Go Hawks.