Congratulations, San Francisco 49er Fans. Your team is finally, regularly, kicking the snot out of the Seattle Seahawks. It took your team long enough!

Even when Pete Carroll’s Seahawks were showing signs of decline with Russell Wilson, and your team was on the rise to become the prize of the conference, the Seahawks were at least good for laying a big old frustrating bucket disappointment on your Sunday afternoon. Now, it appears the tide has finally turned, and I think with it, maybe Seattle ownership needs to consider the bigger picture more after the season if these Seahawks end up with a losing record. After all, this is what San Francisco decided to do years ago when it was clear that Pete Carroll was making Jim Harbaugh his personal pool boy.

I love Pete Carroll as much as the next fan, and, emotionally, I don’t want him gone, but I also don’t want to continue watching these Seahawks looking more and more like the clueless clown of the division whenever playing the Rams and 49ers. This team spent over $130 dollars in this past year to better compete with these power house 49ers, and to be honest, they look worse than they did last year playing them. That’s not a good thing

Seattle added to it’s defense Leonard Williams, Dre’Mont Jones, brought back Bobby Wagner, added Julian Love, and drafted Devon Witherspoon, and they have Jamal Adams back, and still this defense has no real answer for Kyle Shanahan’s offense. That’s a bad look.

Personally, I think Seattle’s usage of a 3-4 defense against the Shanahan scheme is a dumb idea, especially considering how well Carroll’s old 4-3 front played against it even in the Ken Norton Junior years. Why Carroll has been persuaded into shifting away from his 4-3, I will never understand, but on the replays of Christian McCaffery banging it up inside for big gains, it clearly shows each time how there’s not enough big bodies in gaps up front and it puts more stress on the linebackers.

I officially hate the 3-4 defense. I think this whole idea of how much more “exotic” defenses can be with it is vastly overrated. There’s a few teams in the league that run it well, but the great defenses of San Fransisco, Dallas, Philly all operate more out of 4-3.

I was writing about this stuff a lot last year at this time, and after last night’s game, emotions have boiled over. I hate that Carroll has shifted away from his 4-3 stuff that he knows inside and out. Sure, there’s some nice pieces in place, but I think think they would work better in the older scheme.

I don’t even know what to call this defensive scheme, either. It’s not even a true 3-4, and it certainly isn’t a 4-3. It’s like they are being multiple in their fronts just for the sake of it.

As an actor, if I were to go into an audition for a national Ford commercial with the intent of doing a lower class Brooklyn accent one minute, and then shifting into a British accent the next just to be multiple, the well paid casting director would most likely never call me in again.. ever. That’s how I feel about this Clint Hurtt defense for Seattle.

As for the offense, I don’t know where to even start. I think everything going on right now sucks, and I will take a very unhip position of believing that Geno Smith is not the problem of it.

I think Shane Waldron is really struggling to come up with anything that they can hang their hat on, and I don’t think he’s nearly as creative as others in the league as coordinators. I also think he has been doing a really lousy job adjusting to how defenses adjust to his play calling, and too many times he’s calling long developing patterns against a strong pass rush with no outlets for the quarterback to go towards.

The best two things Seattle did on offense last night were stretching the defense on an incredible one handed catch by Jaxon Smith Njigba that was all about the player and not the play caller, and then a nifty jet sweep by Dee Eskridge. That jet sweep reminded me how much of a staple that play is in a Sean McVay offense, and isn’t that the offense we are supposed to now have here?

With JSN and Eskridge on this roster, the jet sweep should be ran at least four to five times a game in order to keep defenses thinking. Right now, defenses don’t have to think when playing against Seattle. It’s like they know everything Waldron is going to throw at them. That’s not a Geno Smith problem. Drew Lock isn’t going to fix that. Neither will Michael Penix Junior or Bo Nix.

I hate it all so much that I officially don’t want Waldron back next year. Unless he miraculously turns this offense around during the toughest portion of this season, nothing is going to move this needle for me.

This offense has way too much talent to be playing this poorly. My one shiny silver lining to Seattle now having a down year is for them to have a high enough draft pick next Spring to potentially draft one of the many talented quarterbacks in college right now, but if they did that, I wouldn’t want that rookie walking into this situation with Shane Waldron as his OC.

Seattle clearly needs a new OC, and if they continue a long stretch of losing games badly like this, I think it’s entirely fair for Jody Allen to consider how much longer Pete Carroll should be running the show, as well. After all, it was Pete Carroll who decided to bring in Waldron when he had no coordinating experience at any level, and it was also Pete Carroll who promoted Clint Hurtt to defensive coordinator over bringing in a proven coach at the position.

If Carroll was persuaded to change to a Vic Fangio 3-4 defense, why didn’t he just go after Fangio who was available? And while we are at it, why didn’t he pursue Dan Quinn after he was fired from the Falcons and bring him back home?

If Pete Carroll’s mantra is “to always compete,” don’t you think part of that should be going out and getting the best coaches out there for his staff? I would think that would absolutely be essential to that.

I don’t know if there’s a lot of good coaches on this staff anymore. I’m sure that there are a few. Andy Dickerson seems to be a fine OL coach. Greg Olson is a well respected quarterback coach and a former coordinator. They hired a fancy pass rush coach this offseason and Boye Mafe has developed nicely. I just look at this situation and feel like Carroll could have done a LOT better putting together the best staff possible.

This makes me literally start to question how much longer Carroll should be going at this. He is in this fourteenth year as the HC and VP. Only legendary Husky coach Don James has coached longer in this market than Carroll has, and not by much.

Pete Carroll is 72 years old and has been coaching for 50 years of his life. Coaching is an incredible grind, and he’s been grinding at it for almost as long as I have been alive.

Mike Holmgren went about ten seasons here and was exhausted at the end, and needed to step aside as a much younger man than Carroll is right now. His team had quickly gotten old and injured and it was clear that they needed a reset. He was too tired to do it, and he knew it.

When I watched how this team gave away the game last week in LA, got blown out a few weeks back in Baltimore, and blown out at home against a dreaded 49er team, I see a young Seattle team with enough talent to be playing better than they have. Ultimately, the buck should stop with Carroll.

I don’t think Seattle is a juggernaut contender, either, but they should be playing better than this. They should be smarter, and more disciplined on both sides of the ball. That is a coaching issue, plain and simple.

So, we will see when this goes in the next month and a half. They have a ridiculously tough stretch that they are in the midst of right now, but so what. Life is not fair, and as Chuck Knox used to say as the Seahawks coach, you have to play the hand you’re dealt.

If they get blown out like this in each of the next three games, I think Jody Allen needs to consider moving on from this entire staff, or maybe Pete Carroll should consider doing what Holmgren did, and just step aside. Maybe take a year off and go grab one of the So Cal coaching gigs, and bring his career full circle.

I say this all being a huge Pete Carroll fan, but first and foremost, I’m a Seahawk fan, and if what this team needs most moving forward now is fresh eyes on the program, then I’m for it. Having said that, if Carroll is able to clean it up, and get this ship sailing right again, I fully support him finishing this out right.

Time will tell us soon enough how this 2023 Seahawk ship sails, and damnit all towards the high heaven if these waters aren’t about to get crazy ass stormy over the next month. Hang onto your butts.

Go Hawks.

Also, fuck George Kittle.