Seahawks fail to score a TD in 17-9 loss to the Packers

Published 1:30 am Sunday, September 10, 2017

GREEN BAY, Wis. — Earl Thomas was back.

Unfortunately for the Seattle Seahawks, so were their offensive-line issues.

With Thomas back leading Seattle’s defense from his free safety position for the first time since breaking his leg last season, the Seahawks sacked Green Bay quarterback Aaron Rodgers four times and intercepted him once — all in the first half — and held Green Bay scoreless into the third quarter.

But Seattle’s porous offensive line couldn’t give quarterback Russell Wilson — and thus the offense — enough time to produce any sustained success, and the end result was a 17-9 loss in the season opener for both teams.

“I’m disappointed that they were able to be as aggressive up front as they were with their defense ….” Seahawks coach Peter Carroll said. “I was surprised that they were able to do that. It’s what made it hard to get the running game going for us like we wanted.”

Seattle had just 50 yards on 16 carries from its running backs. Wilson was the team’s leading rusher, with 40 yards on two carries.

The Seahawks have scored three, five, six and now nine points over their past 16 regular-season games dating to Week 2 of 2016, a 9-3 loss at the Rams. Wilson played that game with a sprained ankle. They scored just 10 points in their previous trip to Green Bay last December. Seattle is 0-4-1 in those empty-on-offense games.

This was the fifth time in the past 16 regular-season games the Seahawks’ defense held a foe to 17 points or fewer — yet Seattle lost.

“We understand that sometimes the offense is not in rhythm like it needs to be,” Thomas said. “We just have to stand up, come back stronger. When we have tough challenges like that, it’s going to keep building our character. We needed that.

“It’s not frustrating. We want to be the best. And put it on us if we have to put it on us, man. We just have to capitalize and keep giving Russ those opportunities to get in rhythm.”

About the only time it happened Sunday was when Seattle was in no-huddle, 2-minute-offense mode.

Wilson threw quickly. The besieged line didn’t have to block for long on quick-hitting plays, and the Packers’ pass rush didn’t get 30-plus seconds to rest between plays. The Seahawks gained 115 yards and scored six points on six plays (19.2 yards per play) running its hurry-up offense at the end of the first half and in the middle of the fourth quarter. Wilson wasn’t sacked or even hit on any of the no-huddle plays.

They gained fewer than that — just 110 yards — on their 42 plays in their conventional, huddling offense (2.6 yards per play). Wilson was sacked three times and hit seven times.

“Yeah, the times were we really had the rhythm was when we were in 2-minute,” Wilson said. “It’s something we have to see and study and see if it’s something we can do a little more of, or better job at.

“You’ve got big guys on the defensive line that get tired, you know, kind of slows them down a little bit. Also, we are playing instinctive. We are playing fast. … It’s kind of like fast-break basketball a little bit.”

For disgruntled Seahawks fans, there is this: Seattle is likely to be favored in its next five games, including next weekend in its home opener against San Francisco. The 49ers lost Sunday 23-3 at home to Carolina.

Then again, the way this line is affecting Seattle’s entire offense again, who knows?

Wilson completed 14 of 27 passes for 158 yards. This was the sixth time in the past 16 regular-season games he didn’t throw for a touchdown. That had happened just four times in his previous four seasons before this stretch.

Seattle nearly had first and goal at the 2 down 17-6 midway through the fourth quarter after Wilson’s pass briefly found the hands of rookie Amara Darboh. But Green Bay’s Ha Ha Clinton-Dix sprinted over to the sideline and whacked the ball from Darboh’s grasp for an incomplete pass. The Seahawks settled for Blair Walsh’s third field goal in as many tries and trailed 17-9.

Green Bay defensive tackle Mike Daniels recorded 1 1/2 sacks on the Seahawks’ first three offensive plays after halftime. Daniels beat right guard Mark Glowinski on the first one, then jab-stepped quickly inside spun-around left guard Luke Joeckel to sack Wilson and force a fumble that Green Bay recovered at the Seahawks 6.

Ty Montgomery ran in for a touchdown on the next play. Poof! Seattle trailed 7-3 and never caught up.

The Seahawks answered on the next series with their first sustained drive not in a 2-minute offense, to a field goal to make it 7-6. That was after Wilson’s third-down pass sailed over Jimmy Graham’s head incomplete at the back line of the end zone. Two Packers defenders made contact before the ball arrived, but no flag followed.

“It looked like a couple guys were jumping on him. I don’t know,” Carroll said of the officials. “And then they said that the ball was clearly overthrown. If that’s what it was, I think it hit the white (paint just beyond the back-line boundary of the end zone).”

And Graham is 6-foot-7.

The Seahawks’ concern about the pass protection of their line — with guys starting for the first time at four positions — led them to use Graham and fellow tight end Luke Willson plus running backs Chris Carson and Tre Madden to help block. Some of Wilson’s early completions came to those extra blockers after they released into short routes. Graham’s first three catches netted 8 total yards.

The result over most of the first half was Green Bay’s five defensive backs and one, sometimes two, linebackers easily covering Seattle’s four receivers running routes down the field. That’s why Seattle had 25 total yards over the game’s first 29 minutes.