The Seattle Seahawks may have defeated the lowly Atlanta Falcons on Sunday, but they made it unnecessarily difficult. Seattle bested Atlanta by a score of 27-20 when it should have been a blowout.
The Seahawks dominated the first half on both sides of the ball, leading 24-0 at halftime. However, Atlanta opened the second half with a touchdown drive featuring a two-point conversion and subsequently drove for a field goal to score 11 unanswered points. The Seahawks were stuck in the mud on offense and unable to get out of their own way on defense. If not for Marquise Blair forcing a fumble from Falcons running back Devonta Freeman and Bobby Wagner’s subsequent recovery, Atlanta would most likely have scored more unanswered points.
Brian Schottenheimer’s play-calling was extremely conservative in the second half, likely as a result of the sizable lead Seattle had built. Russell Wilson only threw the ball six times in the second half. Bleeding the game clock is ideal late in the fourth quarter for a team with a big lead, but not when there is plenty of time for the opposing team to catch up. In addition, Atlanta’s 38-year-old backup quarterback Matt Schaub threw for 460 yards. Regardless of the Falcons’ level of talent at their skill positions, the Seahawks defense was repeatedly gashed for chunk gains and fell victim to untimely penalties.
Seattle possibly caught a huge break with Matt Ryan being held out with an ankle injury but the pass defense’s struggle against Schaub is not an isolated incident. They have also struggled to contain backup quarterbacks such as Mason Rudolph and Teddy Bridgewater (although those QBs have turned in fairly solid performances as of late) and seem to play down to the level of inferior competition whenever they face such a team. There were a few strong individual defensive performances, but Seattle must play better on the defensive side of the ball as a collective unit in the near future. The Seahawks cannot afford showings like this with the rough schedule they have ahead.
The Seahawks will play the Buccaneers (2-5) on Sunday at CenturyLink Field. After that, the going gets tough and there will be plentiful opportunities for Seattle to prove it has what it takes to compete for a Super Bowl this year.
