Some thoughts on the game

[warden]

We went on the road and went toe to toe with a very good team. Came up one play short. Sure I would have liked to see a win but I do appreciate the effort we gave. Our offensive line woes caught up with us in the second half. But that will get better as health and unity improves. The Bengals secondary did a great job of covering our receivers. Our defense did a really good stopping arguably the second best QB in the league. Lots of good stuff happened today.

 

[Mike D in 332]

And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air, Gave proof through the night that 12 flag was still there.

Yes, flag still flying at my front gate.View attachment 61247

You have a front gate? Good for you. Things aren’t so bad really

 

[Mike D in 332]

My good friend is a Bengals season ticket holder and was nice enough to take me to the game today. I had never been to Cincinnati. I have to say their fan base, as I met them, were mostly super nice and supportive of their team instead of trash talking Seahawks fans. I was also proud that there were a lot of Seahawks fans in that stadium.
Felt like we were going to win until the last series.

 

[Bear-Hawk]

• The defense continues to improve. That's a really, really hard offense to hold to 17 points when they're actually healthy - and this is the first time all season that offense has been fully healthy. They're getting home to the quarterback more often and the defensive secondary is fast as all hell. Run defense appears to be totally fixed, even without the best personnel. Cam Young is playing well, and Jarran Reed is playing better than ever after sucking ass in his time away from here.
• The offense is discombobulated. They've got serious timing issues, they cannot figure out what to do in the redzone, and third down continues to be a pain point. Will they find their groove?
• The offensive line, despite vastly overperforming through injury, is starting to hit growing pains - especially on the right side. Bradford is nasty but raw, and Curhan will never be a consistent pass protector.
• It doesn't feel like they're rushing enough. They're tunnel-visioned on the pass game, and the lack of balance seems to be hurting everyone.
• Lou Anarumo is a known boss at disguising coverage. They destroyed Mahomes a few years back by dropping 8 a ton and confusing him, allowing the pass rush to make his life hell. I suspect this played a role in how slow Geno and the offense were to process and get open.
• Disappointing loss, but they bought themselves a little breathing room with 3 solid wins prior to the bye. Feels good to still be above .500 post loss. Lots to be excited about, lots to worry about.

I am looking forward to getting Abe Lucas back.

Seahawks outgained them by more than 150 yards but converted in red zone only 1-for-5, while Bengals were 2-for-2. I thought that was the story of this game.

 

[hgwellz12]

It was absolutely the story of the game

 

[Kamcussionator]

Bradford and Haynes both had a rough game.

Watch Haynes on 4th and Goal. (9:41 mark)
Watch Bradford/Curran on 4th and 8 (11:16 mark)

It'd be funny if it wasn't our team.

 

[projectorfreak]

This loss was on pete in my book , just kick a field goal n let the D get it back and kick another and we win
It isn't always about getting a TD and i was thinkin oh crap we just lost unless we can get a td against them but their dline was givin us fits all day so take what points you can and that's all u can do even if it feels like a loss at the time
Our D played great compared to , well the best they've played in a long time

 

[morgulon1]

I believe during the more recent KJ All day podcast KJ Touched on this. I think KJ being a former player for PC and experiencing it knows PC teams tend to come out flat after a bye week. He alluded as much when Gee asked him who he thought was gunna win.

I watch KJ all day and misses that . Could you go into a little more detail for me? Did he say they didn't prepare for the after bye game?

I think the game came down to the Bengals getting excellent pressure with their front 4 verses Seattle's substitute offensive line. Geno made some uncharacteristic throws but I think he'll be back. He was under a lot of stress.

 

[knownone]

It's pretty clear the O-line's inability to run and pass block is a huge issue.

 

[themunn]

2nd half was basically a shut-out. The 3 pts came off the interception and defense gave up 0 yards. After the first 2 drives the defense gave up just 77 yards on 8 drives (that's excluding the final and ninth drive i.e. the kneeldown). That's incredible against a near-healthy Burrow in his own house.

In retrospect we had plenty of opportunities to play it safe in red zone knowing 3 points was a gimme, but gave up the ball in the redzone twice. Take 3 points there and it's an easy FG in the final drive to win it, but guess we have become so accustomed to the defense being able to hold up when it matters that we kept going for 6.

Adams looked fantastic again and it's looking like there are few weaknesses on that side of the ball, although I still feel like we could have gotten more pressure on Burrow.

 

[TwilightError]

My one note about the game is that Bobo is what we hoped JSN would be.

 

[themunn]

My one note about the game is that Bobo is what we hoped JSN would be.

JSN had a pretty decent game yesterday.

Geno missed him wide open streaking for a TD with about 3 mins to go in 4th quarter as well (he ran for first down instead)

 

[Lagartixa]

Geno is a good quarterback and can distribute the ball. The issues that he has always had is when it comes to crunch time he rarely if ever comes through. That’s the difference between a good quarterback, and a great quarterback.

Clutch performance is a very real thing. Every one of us has seen players come through (or fail to do so) in clutch situations (by a variety of potential definitions of "clutch"). Clutch ability, on the other hand, has been shown repeatedly, across many sports, in many different ways, not to exist. A player may even be better "in the clutch" by at least one of a variety of different definitions and measures over a whole season, but he's then no more or less likely to have a good season "in the clutch" the next year than any other player whose overall performance is as good as his. Obviously, a very good player has a better chance of playing better "in the clutch" than a not-so-good player, because he's more likely to be better in any situation.

What happened to Tom Brady's magic clutch game-winning powers in the two Super Bowls against Giants teams with inferior rosters? He failed in both. Does that mean he's a choker who can't win in big situations? Of course not. First, it's a team sport. Second, we know he succeeded in other "clutch situations" too. But not at a rate any higher than you'd expect from a player who performed at the level he performed in all situations. People around here say Wilson is a killer in the clutch, so who was that fumbling away the game against the Jets last week when down by just three points with plenty of time to get into field-goal range? Did he forget how to be clutch?

Saying a "clutch player" used his magic to make his team win (or that a "choker" failed to do so) is the kind of lazy talk-radio or talking-head-mediot narrative that people eat up. For one thing, it's easier to understand than actually looking into what happened schematically on the two teams and looking at actual strengths and weaknesses of players and specific good and bad things they did on specific plays. Never mind that it's made-up and false. It's easy, and people are lazy. For another, sports mediots have gotten us used to using tiny samples (in the case of the NFL, single games or even specific moments from specific games) in team sports to draw conclusions about the character of individual players, which is just plain silly.

The Colin Cowherds of the world want us to believe that even among guys who are among the top 0.4% of the top 1% of the top 1% of the top 1% of the world population in what they do, some guys are just "winners" and others are just "losers." In Cowherd's case specifically, I think it's because he enjoys feeling smaller than the athletes he crowns "winners" (like the guys who get off on having their wives cheat on them, because feeling like they're inferior to the guys screwing their wives is exciting to them) and bigger than people who disagree with him. What's interesting is that even in Cowturd's bizarre world, being a "winner" isn't consistent. I can't remember if Cowherd had tagged Wilson as "not a winner" before he decided Wilson was a "winner," which held for at least a few years before he decided Wilson is "not a winner."

 

[SoulfishHawk]

And that first drive was a thing of beauty. Maybe the best all around drive/variety of play calling all season. Then......wtf?
When the O Line is getting pushed back and/or Geno is just off, why the hell do they keep calling pass plays?
We've seen this SO many times the last couple of years. Run the f'ing ball.

 

[LastRideOut]

Just watched the highlights. Seattle looked pretty good on defense.

If the defense can continue to get better, things get easier for the offense. I think there are reasons for optimism.

 

[SoulfishHawk]

No doubt. Holding that offense to 17 points on the road is pretty damn impressive.

 

[SeAhAwKeR4life]

The problem is, Geno has been "bad" two games in a row. Regardless of our win against NY, he wasn't good in that game either.

I don't think Geno is as bad as those two games, but he has to play better.

3-2 is a "mediocre good" team, when we were counting ourselves "elite".

If Geno can get back to his best game, we will be fine, but the difference between 3-2 and 4-1 is staggering. It's the difference between locking in a wildcard, possibly challenging for the division, and having to fight the Lambs (and possibly lose out on) the wildcard berth.

If we don't snap out of it quick, the season will be a failure.

 

[AgentDib]

We still had three OL spots without the pre-season starter and it caught up to us against a Bengals front that was abusing the right side of our line. It's easy to second guess with hindsight, but it seems obvious that we should have run the ball more to keep the Bengals pass rush honest, particularly with Bradford and Curhan being strong run blockers.

I agree with Lagartixa that clutch is not a real attribute and it's a lazy take just to say that Geno lacks clutch. He simply didn't play that well, was confused at times by the defense, and had poor pass protection that made his life difficult. He'll have days when he plays better, and he's still good enough to win games if the team is helping him out. It's not like we were in position to draft Stroud, and Witherspoon has been great so far.

The defense was very encouraging. It was so good that there are even a few people in this thread who think we should have actually kicked a field goal trailing 4 points with only 2 minutes left (odds are abysmal on that). The defense just kept making key stops in the second half against a very potent offense and giving the offense try after try.

 

[hoxrox]

We still had three OL spots without the pre-season starter and it caught up to us against a Bengals front that was abusing the right side of our line. It's easy to second guess with hindsight, but it seems obvious that we should have run the ball more to keep the Bengals pass rush honest, particularly with Bradford and Curhan being strong run blockers.

I agree there were times in the game where Waldron got pass happy. Charbonnet only got two carries the entire game. And the run plays that were called were extremely vanilla.

It's becoming apparent to me that Waldron has a specific game plan going into the game and doesn't really adjust or deviate from that game plan. Like there's no plan B...

On the other hand, I was encouraged to see Hurtt making adjustments and holding Burrow to only 3 points in that second half.

 

[FattyKnuckle]

I am looking forward to getting Abe Lucas back.

Seahawks outgained them by more than 150 yards but converted in red zone only 1-for-5, while Bengals were 2-for-2. I thought that was the story of this game.

The play calling was abysmal in the red zone. I put a lot of that lack of success on Waldron. Just pathetic.