The Seattle Seahawks are now on a three-game losing skid, and they haven’t looked particularly good in any of them. Seattle has a litany of issues in all phases of the game right now, but one is standing out as a deeply concerning trend: this team, particularly the offense, is starting out slower than molasses in January.
Through six total quarters of first half football in the last three outings, the Seahawks offense has scored a grand total of 13 points. A touchdown against the Lions, then a pair of field goals against the Giants and 49ers each. This is obviously not good enough, especially when two of those opponents (Detroit and San Francisco) had 21 and 16 first half points, respectively.
Unfortunately, this isn’t even really a recent trend, either. In Week 1, Seattle looked as bad as we’ve seen them starting out against the Denver Broncos. The only times this year the Seahawks have not looked entirely lost in the first half was when they scored 17 points in both the New England and Miami games.
Seattle’s inability to get going early is putting this team in a bind. They have generated some success in the second half, but it’s drifted into “too little, too late” territory each time. I asked quarterback Geno Smith about this trend and what the genesis of it may be.
“Yeah, not starting fast. Not executing. That’s the main thing, not executing. Lack of execution,” Smith stated. “This is a game of inches as they say. The margins are small, especially up here at the big boy league. You got to do all the right things all the time. We failed to do that today.”
The Seahawks just played three games in eleven days. An absolutely brutal stretch, no matter who the opponents are. Perhaps what this team needs is a little down time to rest, get healthy, and then have the requisite time to have full on practices to iron out some of these issues.
Otherwise, if they have yet another slow start in Atlanta, the Falcons are going to make them pay.
