Seahawks Lose to New Orleans Saints, But Hate The Game, Not The Players

Nate Gowdy

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The Seahawks lost 25-20 to the New Orleans Saints in one of the more infuriating football games you’ll ever watch. It was awful. Really, really bad stuff. But I think in whatever Seahawks-related fury you may be feeling (and if you’re like me, your rage is of the slamming-the-coffee-table-hard-enough-to-break-it variety) it’s worth remembering this team played admirably on Sunday. Remember that. It’s hard. But try.

Let’s start by setting aside our collective Donald-Trump-interrupting-you-on-national-TV level rage, by admiring the defense. While they gave up 25 points, they did so while overcoming some ludicrous calls against a phenomenal passing attack, and spending a ton of time on the field for the second straight week. Earl Thomas turned a turnover into points. Bobby Wagner imposed his will in both the running and passing game. Cliff Avril continued to be spectacular rushing the passer off the edge. And this solid defensive performance was turned in on the road in the morning without Kam Chancellor, Michael Bennett (who will tragically be out 2-3 weeks after arthroscopic knee surgery) or any strong-side linebackers. Overall the defensive work was solid even if their time on the field was infuriating.

And even if watching the offense made you just-bit-into-a-sandwich-and-there’s-way-too-much-mayo-and-also-the-mayo-went-bad-and-now-you’re-gonna-be-sick-for-days angry, the much maligned Seahawks attack wasn’t worthy of being as maligned as in recent weeks. Despite not throwing for a touchdown again on Sunday, Russell Wilson played pretty well, running the offense efficiently and only making one major mistake, an absolutely brutal interception. Wilson even started to get some plays on the ground. The offensive line held up pretty well in the passing game considering they were playing mediocre basketball player George Fant at left tackle (the run blocking is still very, very bad). Despite very, very bad run blocking, Christine Michael broke some solid runs in the second half. Doug Baldwin, Jimmy Graham, Paul Richardson, Tyler Lockett and Doug Baldwin all made at least one great play in the passing game. Again, plenty of anger, but no one really to be angry at.

The anger lesson here is that the margins in any NFL game are narrow enough that the better team is a break or two away from losing most of the time. Sure the Patriots can take a dozen bad breaks against the Browns and survive, but when you’re playing Drew Brees in New Orleans one or two breaks can decide the game. And this Sunday? The Seahawks lost the break battle by dozens.

I’m not going to go through the litany of close plays and bad calls that cost the Seahawks a chance at winning on Sunday. I’m just going to say that losing how the team lost was woken-up-at-4am-and-then-forced-to-listen-to-nothing-but-Meghan-Trainor-for-a-six-hour-road-trip torturous because there wasn’t any significant breakdown. There wasn’t a moment where the defense let a tight end run free, or Russell Wilson took a huge sack late. Instead there were just weird clock decisions and a particularly gruesome set of defensive holding calls. Gruesome defensive holding calls that may have made me reached-for-a-chip-but-grabbed-a-bee-and-then-ate-the-bee-and-got-stung-in-the-throat furious.

Which is all to say there were no villains on Sunday aside from Ed Hochuli and his officiating crew. And that is the most frustrating way to lose a regular season game. So here’s a hug from Earl Thomas. Pay no attention to flag that it drew. Just focus on the hug.

The good news is that while this will hurt the Seahawks in the race to get a bye in the playoffs, the Cardinals choked really hard in Carolina to leave Seattle still in control of the NFC West. And while the Michael Bennett news is bad, as knee injuries go, it could have been far, far worse. So even if you’re realizing-you’re-face-to-face-with-Tim-Eyman-and-don’t-have-any-mace disappointed in the Seahawks, know that brighter days should be coming soon.