I gotta be honest. I had a lot of fun at this game. I had fun hanging out with my good buddy, David Hogan, who has sweet seats down towards the Seahawk bench, and I had a lot of fun with the fans in this section. I even had fun with the one Ram fan sitting close to us who genuinely seemed like a pretty cool guy as we chatted about Zakk Wylde, Ozzy Osborne’s former guitarist who performed the National Anthem before the game.

In many ways, despite all the fucked-up-ed-ness of the Seattle offense with continual bad snaps, penalties, and dumb turnovers, I thought this was a pretty fun game to be at with how hard Seattle fought to stay in it, and the chance they had in overtime to still pull out a win. Sure, there were times I was losing my mind with frustration, blowing my cool with the turd bird refs, but there was also times where I got magically swept up in the excitement of Seattle potentially still pulling through.

So, I kinda gotta say that if you have come to this blog hoping to read a rage driven piece about how baldy the Seattle Seahawks pissed away a prime opportunity to beat a very beatable LA Rams team to stay on pace inside a very competitive NFC West division, you may have come to the wrong place. I am sure there are plenty of other rage filled Seahawk bloggers to help you get further riled up about this team after this one. You have every right to feel ready to give up on this team, but I actually found things in this match that do give me hope about the longer future of this team.

Conversely, if you have clicked to this piece for a feel good outlook for this team, hoping that I take it easy on players as they struggled with a bad offensive line, questionable play calling, I don’t think you’re going to totally dig this piece either. There are players on this Seattle roster who are being paid lots of money to function competently as professionals, and they are continually struggling to the point of costing this team wins.

It is one thing if you are a rookie such as Michael Jerrell forced into the starting lineup due to injury, and adjusting to NFL talent you are playing against, but it is something else if you are a seasoned vet who is supposed to be one of the better players at your position in the league, and you are playing as though you are one of the worst, at times. When you are a seasoned vet who is paid well, you are under constant scrutiny, and I am not in the mood of protecting players I like who are under performing.

Let me get right to the Geno Smith stuff now, so that we can press forward with the other pluses and minuses coming out of this one. I don’t really want to hear it about the poor state of this Seattle offensive line anymore, I just don’t. Geno Smith cost Seattle a chance to win this game by throwing three interceptions (one not totally his fault but two others that were horrendously bad and were red zone turnovers taking points off the board).

His second pick of the day will stay in my mind for a long time as it was pick six forced in the end zone against coverage when he had Ken Walker perfectly wide open in the same vicinity and he didn’t opt of him in what would have been a very easy dump off. It was a 14 point swing in the game as to took a potential touchdown away from Seattle, and it gave LA a stupid one.

Had he tossed it to K9, it might have been a very easy score for us. Instead, he stared down into coverage, was hit as he threw into coverage, and he offered Rams safety Kamren Kitchens an improbable pick six gift. That pick was so bad that my mind doesn’t even go to Kitchens picking him off yet again in the red zone minutes later on a pass that was to nobody other than Kitchens. Good God.

Geno Smith had as bad of a day as I have ever seen from him, from a turnover perspective. The three touchdowns he threw and the 360 yards that he threw for make this day seem much prettier than I sorta thought it was from him.

When I think of Geno Smith now in this offense, I think of the new testament quote from Jesus saying “he who lives by the sword, dies by the sword.” Ryan Grubb has built this offense to be so reliant on Geno Smith drop back passing that I think we are all forced to live and die watching it.

At times, it looks spectacular. Geno can rip a tight spiral downfield as good as anyone, but then at other times, it looks like a train wreck when Geno presses to make a play when a more patient veteran quarterback would throw the ball away, choosing to live for another down.

I am writing this not to be a dick to Geno, and suddenly jump onto the Anti Geno bandwagon of this fanbase. Anyone who has followed this blog knows how much I have appreciated his play here since taking over for Russell Wilson. I gotta call things honestly as I see them, though.

For the year, Geno Smith has thrown for a lot of yards, completed a lot of passes, has thrown some pretty touchdowns, but has also thrown way too many interceptions for this point of the season, and lately, they are starting to look worse, and worse. In fact, I fear he is reaching Jameis territory, or at the very least, Sam Howell territory.

Which begs the question as to how much more Mike Macdonald can tolerate seeing his pass happy quarterback in this pass happy offense turning the ball over at this rate. For the year, Geno has thrown 11 touchdowns to 10 interceptions. He is now on pace to throw for 5000 yards, 22 touchdowns and 20 interceptions. That is almost exactly what Howell did in Washington last year. Food for thought.

This is probably the right time for this team to hit its bye week, and get a long breather, and for all the new coaches to get together, and properly evaluate what they have on this roster, and how they can best, most realistically stay competitive in a schedule that doesn’t really feel super easy anymore. I suspect, win or lose, we come out of this bye week with some adjustments to scheme, and maybe some adjustments to the starting lineup.

While I am not calling for Geno to be benched in favor of Sam Howell, I am wondering, however, if they need to consider dialing back this offense in a way in which they can be more protective with the football. On the surface it feels like they are being way too cute with all of audibles and pre snap business. Sometimes you just want to see a play come in, and see them man up and run the play.

I wonder if coordinator Ryan Grubb either puts too much on their plate, or gives Geno too much free reign to be constantly changing out of calls. I watched a lot of University of Washington football when Grubb was master play calling that historically good offense, and I do not recall Michael Penix Junior changing things up to this degree. I feel a lot of the times, the plays game in, it was all predetermined where the ball was going, and Penix stayed within the calls.

This is mostly all I want to spend on the Geno elephant in the room. After this game, I am now thinking, for the first time this season, whether the coaches will turn to Howell, if they come out of the bye and lose to San Francisco and then lose to Arizona, and Geno is still being this careless with the football. Personally, I don’t think Howell is better, but at some point they have to evaluate whether he has the chops to be their future starter, and if this team drops to 4-7 by the end of November, I can see the logic then with making this sort of change.

As we head into the bye week, I will expand on more of my thoughts about the Seahawks and the quarterback position in this offense. I know Geno hasn’t been helped with this offensive line, and Connor Williams, who is supposed to be one of the better centers in the league, apparently has forgotten how to cleanly deep snap an accurate football, but I have growing thoughts on what I really truly yearn to see at QB spot for this team down the road.

Now onto the better things to gleam from this loss against the Rams. There are a few things that actually give me a lot of hope about the future.

For one, Jaxon Smith-Njigba finally had his signature break through game that showed us all why he warranted a first round pick status. His 7 catches for 180 yards and two touchdowns was out of this world dynamic, and he could have had even crazier numbers if it weren’t for holding penalties that called back some of his grabs, and a bobbled pass that he couldn’t haul in which resulted in the first INT of the game for Geno.

This team needs its highly drafted players to start showing that those high end investments are worth it. I feel so so about left tackle Charles Cross, so so-ish with Devon Witherspoon, I feel better about Byron Murphy II, and I am actually starting to feel like JSN has the chance to shine in this league very brightly, especially coming out of this game. Last week, he was the only bright spot on a bad offensive performance against the Bills. This week, he might have been the best player in the entire game from either team.

Anyone who follows me knows how much of a believer I am in DK Metcalf, and that I believe the team should hold onto him and extend him, but this performance from JSN makes me think that if the right deal came up for DK, I think I could be okay with letting go. In the same breath, could you imagine what this game against the Rams would have been like had DK played in this one?

I think with how the defense stepped up, we could be talking about a very comfortable win for Seattle at home, honestly. In fact, I am almost certain of it. I think this would have looked like the win we got in Atlanta against a very good Falcons team.

Fans need to understand that DK’s value to this team extends well beyond what he does housing go calls at any point of the game. His unique size/speed ratio forces defenses to constantly has to consider shifting more coverage his way, and that uncorks opportunities to others. The fact that he still puts up gaudy numbers despite this attention should tell you how special he is, but his lapses in judgment when he loses his cool in certain situations blinds a degree of fans from seeing his truer value.

One of the biggest silver linings out of this game, however, is that I think Seattle could have a very special wide receiver tandem in the future with JSN and DK, assuming that Tyler Lockett is probably nearing the end of his solid career here. That is something to be excited about. JSN stepping up like this, gives me so much hope for that.

I also want to shout out very special props for practice squad receiver Cody White stepping into this game, and contributing in massive ways by blocking a key punt, and hauling in two gorgeous grabs down field. Had Seattle won this game, he would have been most certainly that talk of town all week. If there is one Seattle player I am most sorry for seeing us not get the W for, it is Cody White in his stellar efforts.

Now onto the brightest spot coming out of this game for Seattle, in my mind. For as much has you might want to bemoan his decision to not kick the ball in overtime, I think we have to commend Mike Macdonald for adjusting his defense in a very positive way that really shut down LA’s ground game, which is a really good one in this league.

The Rams are winning this year by running the ball. They don’t have the talent they used to have at all the receiver spots, their offensive line is okay, not great, Matthew Stafford is good not great these days, and because of all of this, Sean McVay is leaning into the run much more, and getting a lot out of it.

This was the aspect of this game I was dreading heading into Sunday, Mike Macdonald’s poor run defense versus McVay’s potent running offense. I gotta say, I think Mandonald’s defense more than won that battle.

You could also sense the Stafford getting annoyed and then flustered into inaccurate hurried throws. Sure, we didn’t collect sacks, and he made passes in the end during overtime when they counted, but Seattle’s defense played the Rams well enough to sneak this game out with a win, stopping the run well enough, and putting good pressure on Stafford through much of the game. Personally, I think head ref Clay Martin must have been a big Stafford fan with the way he was bailing out the quarterback with bullshit interference and roughness calls against the Seattle defense.

Still, they held one of the best run games to 68 yards, and they held Stafford to under 300 yards, barely. They also held McVay’s offense to 19 points. They forced four three and outs against MacVay’s play calling, and they are only defense to do this against his offense all year.

So get any idea that Seattle played marginally better on defense than they had during the last few weeks out of your head. They played significantly better, in my view, and this is important.

By hiring a defensive minded coach, I most need to see a massive defensive turnaround for this team from Macdonald this year. I need to feel this defense like I felt it in this game. I need to see games like this one, where this defense plays a good offense tough, and gives our offense a chance.

I am at a point where I could now almost give two flips with what this offense does with a piss pour offensive line that John Schneider fucked over Ryan Grubb with. I need to see a Mike Macdonald coached team play winning defense first and foremost.

In life, we are often faced with situations where we can only control what we are capable of controlling, and we have to live with all the blemishes beyond our control. John Schneider ignored the talent issues at offensive guard to such as extent last offseason, that his job might rightly should feel shaky right now, but Macdonald has enough talent on the defensive side where we should see this defense trend positively moving forward.

In that, I need to see good tackling, and good adjustments. I saw both against the Rams. Our linebackers led this team in tackles instead of safeties, and our first round pick defensive tackle was right there with them. The adjustment that Macdonald made to scheme was abundantly clear, as well. They looked, and they felt stouter up front, significantly more so than in recent weeks.

So, while I am sure many fans are very frustrated with this team now losing five of the past six games after a very promising 3-0 start, I am finding myself increasingly more patient. I don’t frankly care if they go 10-7 or 7-10 this year. I don’t.

The issues on the offensive line have become so glaring that I feel like we are going to need another full offseason to remedy it, and I also feel like there areas of the team like safety that feel dangerously thin, as well. This team has a talent deficit, and there is only so many places where you can point to for blame. The state of this offensive line should make John Schneider’s seat feel hot right now. It just should.

Further more, at this rate, I don’t know if I want to see Schneider make another splash trade at the trade deadline on Tuesday to temporarily patch things up. He made his mid season trades for Roy Robertson Harris and Ernest Jones to patch up the front seven of this defense. Good.

I don’t see a team giving up a good guard or right tackle in a league where there is a talent deficit at offensive line, all together. I would just soon see this team hold onto its future picks, and go hard at offensive line again next draft in addition to finally going spendy in free agency, pretty please.

As it stands now, they got a two week bye before they have to play the 49ers again. They have an opportunity to self scout, adjust as needed, and get ready to play teams tough through eight more games of the year.

Toughness is mostly want I’m after for this team the rest of the way. I really want to see toughness like this defense showed. They played a game against the Rams that was worthy of a victory.

Time for Geno, Ryan Grubb, and Connor Williams to step it up, as well. No more excuses about what is going on at right tackle, and guard. Be better, play smarter, play call smarter, you are paid to overcome, not add to this mess. I am here for it.

Go Hawks.