Firstly, a win is a win. So while this one was mostly frustrating and about as unenjoyable as a win can be, the Seahawks at least avoided the embarrassment of losing to a quite terrible Arizona team.

The problem is, the Seahawks aren’t much better.

The Cardinals came into this game as desperate as any franchise in the league. They were ranked last in many categories. They couldn’t pass, run or defend. Those things are quite important in football.

First-year coach Steve Wilks was already feeling the heat.

As a consequence they decided to start their rookie quarterback for the first time. It was a desperate attempt to find a spark. ‘Over to you, Josh‘.

Everything was stacked in Seattle’s favour. The experienced QB. The momentum of a win last week. Arizona was hapless.

Yet the Seahawks put in a performance so disappointing, even with the win it’s hard to be optimistic for the rest of the year.

Rosen couldn’t have asked for a gentler introduction to the NFL. His most uncomfortable moment was when he raised his hand to Bobby Wagner for assistance following a five yard run. Wagner rejected the opportunity to help Rosen from the turf. He otherwise had a clean pocket throughout. He wasn’t harassed, pressured, blitzed or confused. He had all day to pick his passes.

Once again Seattle’s below-par pass rush was exposed.

He deserves some credit. He played well in his first start. But it’s not an exaggeration to say he was practically ‘eased in’ to the pro’s today.

It was frustrating. But this isn’t a surprise, right? We’ve known for weeks the pass rush wasn’t going to be great in 2018. They didn’t have Dion Jordan or Rasheem Green either. It was always going to be an issue today.

They could’ve done more to make life difficult for Rosen. But the defense is doing better than expected through four games. They aren’t the problem.

The offense is.

This unit was supposed to be a positive this season. They had the experienced quarterback, the new-look O-line, new coaches, a re-commitment to their preferred identity, a first round playmaker.

We all expected the defense to take a step back. Instead, the offense is trundling along. Starting, stalling, stopping, starting again and being ferociously dull throughout.

The quarterback looks uncomfortable, restricted and a million miles off his best. They were an incredible 0/10 on third downs. And worst of all — having told everyone over and over again how they want to run the ball — they continue to pick weird moments to contradict their vision.

The decision to pass on 3rd and 1 at midfield with a 17-10 lead in the fourth quarter was the definitive example of this. They ran the ball well today, averaging 5.0 YPA on 34 attempts. So of course… you pass in that scenario.

It fell incomplete. They punted. Arizona scored a touchdown. The Cardinals then missed a potential game-winning field goal. A game that was in control, that was crying out for the classic ‘run to win’ approach, was suddenly in grave danger of becoming a terrible loss.

They got lucky.

There’s still time to work this out and admittedly, this is the first time they’ve changed offensive coordinators in over seven years. It’s the first time Russell Wilson has worked with a new play caller. And we know Pete Carroll likes to get involved too, which isn’t always a good thing.

Either way, Wilson’s creativity seems to be completely stymied in this offense. The run has shown signs of life in the last two games. Wilson had flashes against Dallas but he just doesn’t look comfortable.

They have to fix this to have any chance of being remotely competitive next week against a fantastic Rams team.

It’s also time to wonder if this arena in Arizona (whatever it’s called these days) is cursed. Having taken Kam Chancellor and Richard Sherman’s Seahawks careers a year ago, it seems to have another victim in Earl Thomas after he suffered a broken leg.

This is likely the lasting memory we’ll have of Earl in a Seahawks uniform, flipping off the team he won a Super Bowl with:

A lot of people are going to tell you that Thomas’ holdout and approach is validated by this latest injury. The opposite is true. The Seahawks are validated. They didn’t want more dead money committed to ageing players. They’ve been there, done it and got the T-shirt with Kam Chancellor, Marshawn Lynch and Michael Bennett.

If Thomas’ issue is they’ve changed their approach when he was next in line for the juicy third deal, we can all sympathise with that. But the Seahawks don’t owe him a repeated financial error. They protected themselves against this scenario.

However, they’re not without blame. Because now it’s official. They won’t get anything for Thomas. He will walk as a free agent in the off-season. They were pretty bad with him and scraped to 2-2. A second rounder was reportedly on the table from Dallas. They should’ve taken it and moved on.

Instead they’ll likely get nothing. And make no mistake, this isn’t a team close to contending. The next off-season is a big one if they want to reload and get back to the top. Yet they currently own just FOUR picks in rounds 1,3,4 and 5. They are unlikely to receive any comp picks as things stand.

They appear caught between a desire to compete this year and think longer term. In reality, they’re not doing either particularly well. They’re ill-equipped to be truly competitive and don’t have the stock to be ‘one draft away’ from an invite back to the top table in 2019.

Even worse, one of the few positives so far — Will Dissly — has a patellar tendon injury. The worst news possible.

This wasn’t a fun Sunday. Sadly, we’ve said that too many times over the last year and a bit.

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