SEATTLE — Defense wins championships.
Yeah, we get that.
But at some point, at some minimal level, you have to play offense, too, and the Seattle Seahawks are well short of the mark in that department.
Seattle’s offensive futility for the first 26 minutes of their 39-32 NFL loss to Arizona on Sunday would have been comical if it hadn’t been so painful for Seahawks fans to watch.
And while there are a lot of reasons the Seahawks fell so far behind so early, the offense certainly was one of them.
On their first four possessions, the Seahawks (4-5) had five penalties, 21 total yards, one first down, and a safety that occurred when quarterback Russell Wilson bumped into tackle Russell Okung, dropped the ball and had to fall on it in the end zone to prevent an Arizona touchdown.
Factoring in the penalties, the Seahawks moved backward on three of their first four possessions.
They came to life on their next possession and drove 80 yards for a touchdown, but even with that they had the ball for just eight minutes, 43 seconds of the first half, and they went to the locker room trailing 22-7.
And don’t be fooled by the final tally of 32 points.
The offense was better in the second half, yes, but the defense did most of the heavy lifting. The defense scored one touchdown and set up another by recovering a fumble at the Arizona 3-yard line.
Those accounted for 12 points as the Seahawks went for two after both TDs and failed on both.
So the offense really generated just 20 points on its own.
The Seahawks have proven the past two seasons that you don’t have to score a lot of points to win a championship.
In fact, they have never won a regular-season game under coach Pete Carroll in which the opponent scored more than 27 points. They aren’t built for shootouts, and they don’t win them, as was the case again Sunday.
In their four victories this season, Seattle has scored 26, 13, 20, and 13 points.
So you can be just sort of mediocre on offense and still win some games, but you can’t be flat-out bad, and that has been the case too often this season.
The stat sheet will suggest that Arizona’s offense had a field day on Seattle’s vaunted defense, and there is some truth to that. But when you’re on the field for 22 minutes in the first half against a good NFL offense, it’s going to look bad.
The offense hung the defense out to dry, and that is becoming a theme of this season.
The penalties early on were especially frustrating as tight ends Luke Willson and Jimmy Graham had three penalties on the first four series. They each were flagged for holding, and Willson also was called for a facemask penalty that was initially and incorrectly assigned to tackle Garry Gilliam.
A holding penalty also killed a promising drive late in the third quarter when the score was 25-17 and the Seahawks had the momentum.
After converting on fourth-and-1 at the Arizona 47, Seattle had an apparent 11-yard run by Marshawn Lynch nullified by a holding penalty called on guard J.R. Sweezy. The Seahawks failed to convert from first-and-20 and punted.
The Seahawks had another killer penalty on their final offensive possession. Trailing 32-29 with seven minutes left, Seattle appeared to generate some momentum on back-to-back passes to Doug Baldwin that gained 42 yards and gave Seattle a first down at the Arizona 45.
But Wilson was called for intentional grounding on the next play to make it second-and-23, and they punted after two incomplete passes.
Arizona (7-2) drove down the field and clinched the victory with Andre Ellington’s 48-yard touchdown run.
Seattle finished with 14 penalties for 131 yards, and penalties had a direct hand in killing at least five drives. The Seahawks aren’t built to recover from first-and-20-or-more, and they failed to convert on any of those situations Sunday.
If there’s anything remotely positive to come from Sunday’s offensive performance, it was that Seattle scored touchdowns on two of three red-zone possessions. The Seahawks entered the game scoring touchdowns on just 29 percent of their possessions inside the opponents’ 20-yard line, which was last in the NFL by a wide margin.
They went to Jimmy Graham to set up their first red-zone touchdown. Graham, the tight end who was acquired in large part to cure Seattle’s red-zone woes, was the targeted receiver on Seattle’s first two red-zone plays in the second quarter.
Both passes were incomplete, but defensive pass interference was called on safety Tyrann Mathieu in the end zone on the second, and Seattle’s Will Tukuafu scored on a 1-yard run on the next play.
Optimists will look at the Seahawks’ remaining games and see a string of games they should probably win.
But if they continue to play offense like they did in the first half Sunday — and have for much of the season — don’t count on those victories.
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