Here are a few wishlist items I was hoping I would see from the Seattle Seahawks as they were to defend their home turf against a Tua-less Miami Dolphins football team.

I needed to see a dominant defensive effort against an offense playing with a backup quarterback.

Check.

I needed to see continued efficient quarterback play from Geno Smith.

Check, again.

I wanted to see better running production from backup Zach Charbonnet.

Yet, another check.

I needed to see some semblance of a lopsided victory for Seattle in front of the Twelves.

Checkmate.

On the surface, Seattle pretty much gave me the type of victory that I was hoping for, are now 3-0, and solidly in first place in their division. Yet, at the same time, they did not make this an easy affair for me.

It was fitting that the refs tossed as many yellow flags in the air on the same day that the Seattle Seahawks organization decided to honor girl athletes playing flag football throughout the region. If I were to write a feature film comedy centered around a NFL franchise, I might be inspired to use this game as inspiration for a game played in the storyline.

I have been watching the Seattle Seahawks regularly for over forty years of my life. Since 1983, I have watched almost every game. I cannot remember a more stress inducing blowout victory in favor of the Seahawks than this one against the hapless Miami Dolphins on this date of September 22nd, 2024. Holy fucking flag fest.

I get it that Seattle has a banged up offensive line, and is missing their most explosive offensive weapon who isn’t DK Metcalf in Ken Walker, but holy crap-fest was this ever a hard watch throughout most of the game. Seattle played a great first quarter of football, and then for the next two and a half quarters, they could not stop crapping all over themselves, offensively.

They played such an offensive slop fest through much of this game that it could have easily led to a loss, if Miami had a quality starting quarterback playing for them. Fortunately, they did not, and the end result was a box score that showed a good old fashioned ass whooping against an inferior opponent, which is something, for sure.

Seattle’s revamped defense played against a backup quarterback, and they whooped his ass all over the field, knocked him out, and then they whooped up on the backup to the backup. They effectively did what any quality defense would and should do, and that is definitely a thing worth praising.

In this regard, I think we should absolutely celebrate Seattle, and their new defensive minded head coach for getting the Seahawk defense to play at a high enough level to make this a very difficult day for an explosive Miami offense. To be honest, even without Tua Tagovailoa, I expected Mike McDaniel to still cook up an explosive enough of an offense attack against Mike Macdonald’s defense to make this an interesting match. In fact, in days leading up to kick off, I was anticipating Seattle with Geno Smith winning a shootout.

But in the end, our Coach Mike handily beat their Coach Mike, and we won the Coach Mike Battle with a punishing defense. In an ideal football world, this is the way that I prefer winning, so I guess I should be happy.

In many ways, I am damn happy about this style of victory. Seattle, despite the constant offensive line screw ups, was still the much more explosive offense, and they were, by far, the more intimidating defense on the field.

But they got so much more work to do, if they want to be a real contender this year, which is what I would really like them to be. It all centers around figuring out their offensive line. They must get better up front on offense moving forward.

As much as it is great to soak in a lopsided victory for your favorite team, I’m supremely annoyed that, within the stat sheets, Geno Smith tossed two picks and only one touchdown in what was otherwise another very efficient outing for him. Both picks involved instant pressure up the middle, and I don’t believe there was much more he could have done outside of eating a sack.

Seattle’s guard play is currently trending towards crisis status, and if they want to be the offense that they are capable of, something needs to radically change right now. If they do not have the players on the roster capable of playing better, I highly encourage an aggressive approach from the front office to bring someone in who will.

Ryan Grubb’s offense is predicated on an aggressive mindset, but the amount of inside pressure Seattle’s guards are giving up is hair-pulling-ly frustrating, on top of their penalties. This offense, as he would like to call it, is not sustainable playing like this.

At this rate, Anthony Bradford is becoming the most unpopular Seattle offensive lineman since Germain Ifedi ever wore an Action Green uniform. Something has to change. Either Grubb opts for more of a conservative ball control attack, or his interior linemen suddenly figure out how to play better within this aggressive passing attack, or this team does something bold to shake up its starting offensive line for the better.

At the very least, I would say let’s give rookie Christian Haynes more of a chance to compete with Bradford because, at the very least, he’s a badass run blocker. The truth of the matter, however, is that I feel destined over the next few weeks to write about how much I want John Schneider to trade for a quality guard.

I mean, seriously, if the Dallas Cowboys are now in free fall, and they wouldn’t mind a day two draft pick from us, I wouldn’t mind taking right guard Zach Martin off of their hands for them. They aren’t going to be able to keep that whole team together anyways after paying Dak and CeeDee.

This is kinda what I want Seattle to do moving forward. I feel like, with Geno Smith, they got the quarterback Grubb needs to get to the whole of his playbook, and have it executed properly. I think they are blessed with all sorts of weapons on offense, but they need a functional offensive line. This should be the main agenda for John Schneider now that this team is 3-0 to start the season.

Mike Macdonald’s defense is starting to gel. You can feel it. Players like Big Cat Williams, Jarran Reed, Boye Mafe, Derick Hall, Tyrel Dodson, Riq Woolen, Julian Love, Rayshawn Jenkins, Byron Murphy, Spoon, and many others are starting to feel each other. Through three weeks now, you can feel the dynamic qualities of these guys meshing together, and they now have Uchenna Nwosu set to return. Buy stock in this Seahawk defense.

This offense, also, is close to being special, if they can just sort out of their offensive line. There is no reason why they should not be aggressive making this happen.

Simply put, they should show Seattle fans, once again, that they are not akin to the Seattle Mariners resting on laurels, but are the Seahawks willing to be aggressive to get over the top. Nobody will fault them for sending a high draft pick to a struggling team who will be sellers before the trade deadline, if that player is a quality guard.

I also do not care if their move is to simply sign some cagey older vet out there like Duane Brown to come in and play guard, but I need to see these sort of moves, if they cannot get a guy like Bradford to settle down, and play better ball. By restructuring DK Metcalf’s contract, Seattle has the funds to go get better players up front, if need be.

Therefore, I need to feel like this organization is determined to hold onto, and build off of their lead in this tough NFC West division. I mean, I neeeeeeed it to happen.

I feel this way because I think that contention for the division title is right there for them, this year, if they want it. So many pieces on this team are there, and so many young pieces are stepping up, and playing really well.. accept for their guards. Even third string tackle Stone Forsythe is subbing in decently enough at right tackle.

I do not mean to highjack the feel good nature of kicking the absolute snot balls out of the Miami Dolphins, but fucking hell do I ever need to see better offensive line play. I just do. Please.

Pretty please.

Great win, otherwise, though. I oddly believe that, too, despite the stress load.

Admittedly, in prior years, this would have been the type of game to make me nervous about losing to a backup quarterback, anyways. Pete Carroll teams developed a nasty habit of playing down to an inferior opponent, loosing to backups, and I tried really hard to shake nerves heading into this one. I will be the first to admit that watching the offensive line mishaps in this one gave me PTSD fits at times.

Agro texts from my friend Matt didn’t help settle these vibes, either. Even though I recognize that he is an absolute tin hatter conspiracy enthusiast about NFL refs, the flags that flew anytime Seattle was on offense for two and a half quarters felt like the first thirty minutes of Saving Private Ryan to me, and made me question the amount of coffee I drank throughout the morning.

Never mind the fact that Boye Mafe, Derick Hall, Tyrel Dodson, and Dre’Mont Jones made me fear for Skylar Thompson’s life at moments. Never mind that Seattle’s tight ends came to life, Charbonnet played a great game, and DK Metcalf continues to prove that he is as unique of a talent as there is in this league.

Optimistically, I was wishing for a very clean game, but the reality hit me in the face yet again that NFL football is often really hard to win at. In this league, the talent discrepancies are often razor thin between most clubs, and different teams match up against other opponents differently than others.

Look what the Denver Broncos did to the Tampa Bay Bucs on the road, and what Carolina did to the Raiders. I bet Baker Mayfield and Gardner Minshew didn’t see those beatdowns against them coming moments before kickoff.

I dunno, football stirs up emotions inside me unlike any other sport. Sometimes, I feel like it is that perfect girlfriend who is amazing in every way until she’s into her third glass of champaign.

In this one, against the Fins, she drank too much after not eating enough to sustain good offensive line play, I think. Maybe better offensive guard play, and a dry month is just the thing she needs. Either way, I’m here for her.

Go Hawks.