Despite Promise, Seahawks Fail To Soar

This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

The New York Sun

Before the 2004 season began, the Seattle Seahawks were a popular Super Bowl pick among the football punditry. Those picks seemed prescient when the Seahawks swept through their first three games by a combined score of 65-13.


Then the Seahawks fell off the cliff. After losing five of eight games, Seattle’s season reached its nadir this past weekend when it was embarrassed at home by Buffalo, 38-9. The Seahawks remain in the playoff hunt only because they play in the league’s weakest division.


The 2004 Seahawks were supposed to represent the culmination of six years’ worth of building by head coach Mike Holmgren, who had put together four straight 10-win seasons in Green Bay. Instead, they are emblematic of the frustration that Seattle fans feel about a team that has never quite gotten over the hump. In his five seasons in Seattle, Holmgren has only two playoff appearances and zero playoff wins, and right now it seems unlikely that he will add to the second number even if the general mediocrity of the NFC West adds to the first.


Seattle’s most disappointing unit is the offense, which this season has been far less than the sum of its parts. During the past two years, Matt Hasselbeck had emerged as that most valuable of commodities: a good, consistent quarterback. But this season, Hasselbeck has been far from consistent, and nowhere near as good.


Hasselbeck’s completion percentage has plummeted from 61% to 54%. Last year, he threw for 3,844 yards and 26 touchdowns; at his current pace he would end this season with 3,360 passing yards, 18 touchdowns, and more interceptions than last season. Making matters worse, his numbers have dropped despite a league-wide rise in passing yardage and two games apiece against division foes San Francisco and St. Louis – the bottom of the league’s defensive barrel.


Hasselbeck can legitimately point to his receivers as part of the reason for his struggles. They have dropped an NFL-worst 28 passes by the league’s official numbers, and, given the inconsistent way dropped passes are tallied, that total is probably too low. But drops are only a small part of the explanation for Hasselbeck’s struggles; after all, Seattle was near the league lead in dropped passes last year, as well.


Seattle is running fewer screens and quick slants this year, and when Hasselbeck has to choose a receiver on long developing pass plays, he often mistakenly picks the one who is tightly covered. This rash of poor decisions is a particular problem on third downs, where his conversion rate on passes has dropped from 47% to 39% and his interception rate has tripled.


Hasselbeck has also suffered because his best third-down option, slot receiver Bobby Engram, has been hobbled by an ankle injury all season. Each additional third-down pass that falls short either turns seven possible points into three or turns a Seattle possession into a punt and another opportunity for the opposing team to score.


While Hasselbeck has struggled, Seattle’s ground game has picked up much of the slack. Running back Shaun Alexander leads the league in rushing yards and is averaging over 5.0 yards per carry. But these fine numbers hide some important failings.


Alexander’s third-down struggles match Hasselbeck’s: He has converted only three of 10 runs on 3rd-and-short. He’s also a boom-or-bust runner who mixes long runs with a number of carries that are stopped for no gain or a loss.


The Seattle offense has disappointed when compared with last season, but the defense has disappointed when compared with this season – specifically the first three games of the year.


The Seahawks’ off-season moves were primarily aimed at improving that defense, and after the first three games it looked like they had finally upgraded the unit to a championship level. During the season’s first three weeks, Seattle was allowing 243 yards per game and only 4.1 yards per play.


In hindsight, that impressive start was clearly a mirage created by three subpar opponents: New Orleans, San Francisco, and Tampa Bay back when Brad Johnson was still struggling as their quarterback.


Seattle’s defensive performance ever since has been horrid, with the Seahawks allowing 371 yards per game and 5.6 yards per play. Seattle may blame the defensive struggles on a multitude of injuries among the linebackers, but the most important injured player is defensive end Grant Wistrom.


The former Ram was the big Seattle free-agent pickup this season, a maniacal pass-rusher who always takes a double team and frees teammates to get to the quarterback. Without him, the Seattle pass rush has been relatively feeble, and when Wistrom did make it onto the field for a couple of games, he was clearly still hurt and less effective. Opposing quarterbacks with time to throw have easily found the holes in the zone defenses favored by coordinator Ray Rhodes.


The current version of the Seahawks has five weeks left to get its act together and somehow gel for a playoff run, but it doesn’t seem likely. If the offense can improve a bit, they still won’t be playing at the high level of last season. If the defense can improve a bit – even less likely, given the injuries – they still won’t surpass the mediocrity of last season.


The Seahawks are still the favorite to win the dismal NFC West, but they will probably back their way in thanks to a favorable schedule. The rival Rams will play the Eagles and Jets in the final two weeks, while the Seahawks will meet Arizona and an Atlanta team that by Week 17 will probably have nothing left to play for. But an extended postseason run is highly unlikely.


Then in the off-season, Seattle will have to solve the power struggle between Holmgren and team President Bob Whitsitt. With a number of important players facing free agency (including Hasselbeck, Alexander, left tackle Walter Jones, and defensive end Chike Okeafor), this version of the Seahawks will probably be broken up, having never come close to achieving its potential.


Fans will have to ask themselves who was at fault: Holmgren, whose ingame decision-making never seems to match his reputation, and whose handpicked quarterback has lost his way this season? Or Whitsitt, who stripped Holmgren of control over the personnel but must be held somewhat responsible for the lack of depth that allowed injuries to disable a promising start? Either way, it’s shaping up to be another un-cerimonious end to a talented Seahawks team.



Mr.Schatz writes for FootballOutsiders.com.


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