SEATTLE — The drones during a Lumen Field halftime show stayed up in the air, but the Seattle Seahawks had already crashed back down to earth in a 30-13 loss to the Green Bay Packers on Sunday.
The Packers dominated in every phase, surging to a 20-3 halftime lead in front of 68,766 that included a significant number of Green Bay fans. Seahawks quarterback Geno Smith exited with a knee injury in the middle of the third quarter, and Seattle was unable to overcome an early hole and his absence.
“It really stings that we had a great opportunity in front of the Twelves…,” said Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald, whose team, now 8-6, saw its four-game winning streak end. “Just in general, you’ve got to give Green Bay a lot of credit. They outcoached us — we didn’t have a good enough plan in all three phases. I’m responsible for that.
“Frankly, we just didn’t play good enough. The things we’ve been doing to win games — we didn’t do those things.”
The Seahawks slipped into second place behind the Los Angeles Rams. Both are 8-6 but LA currently holds the tiebreaker thanks to an overtime win on Nov. 3. The good news is the Seahawks could put themselves in position to travel to Los Angeles on Jan. 5 for the division title. A win against Minnesota on Dec. 22 and another four days later in Chicago are imperative.
The question is, who will be the quarterback against the Vikings and beyond? It wasn’t known after the game how much time Smith will miss. The veteran quarterback jogged back out of the tunnel and put his helmet back on, but did not return with his team down by 17 points.
The Seahawks defense gave Green Bay all it could handle in the second half, but Seahawks backup quarterback Sam Howell and the offense were unable to stage a comeback. Howell completed five of 14 passes for 24 yards and an interception. His quarterback rating was 14.6, and he was sacked four times behind an offensive line that struggled once again.
“At the end of the day, I’ve got to be better,” Howell said. “My job is to be ready to go in there and play well and help this team win. I didn’t do that today.”
Macdonald said after the game that Smith will be fully evaluated Monday, and that he believed there was no structural damage.
The Seahawks couldn’t stop the run in the first half and had meager success running it themselves. Smith’s red zone interception bug returned, as he threw his fourth pick deep in an opponent’s territory to give him 13 total interceptions for the season. The offensive line that allowed no sacks a week earlier against Arizona permitted seven to the Pack.
Packers running back Josh Jacobs — who rushed for 229 yards against the Seahawks while with the Raiders on Nov. 27, 2022 — carried the ball 14 times for 73 yards in the first half. He finished with 25 rushes for 94 yards and four receptions for 42 yards.
“I’d like to start with, I think I’ve got to come out, making sure that I’m going, so we don’t wait until later on in the game,” said Seahawks middle linebacker Ernest Jones IV, who recorded a team-high nine tackles and forced a Packers fumble. “In any game, those first 15 plays you’re going to get new stuff from the offense. They came out, tweaked a few things, and attacked areas that gave us problems earlier in the year.
The injury bug crept back up as well. In addition to Smith’s injury, center Olu Oluwatimi went down with a knee injury of his own, forcing Jalen Sundell — who played tackle in college and was not selected during the 2024 draft — into snapping duties.
Meanwhile, Green Bay quarterback Jordan Love put together an efficient evening, going 20-for-27 for 229 yards and two scores — good enough for a rating of 123.8.
“We have to start fast, and we didn’t,” said safety Julian Love, who recovered the fumble caused by Jones.
Four plays after Jones and Love combined to get the Seahawks the ball back, Zach Charbonnet’s 24-yard TD run closed the gap to 23-13 with 11:16 to go in the game. That’s as close as Seattle would get in the second half, however. Charbonnet, starting again with Kenneth Walker III unable to return from a calf injury, finished with eight carries for 54 yards. Jaxon Smith-Njigba recorded 10 catches for 83 yards and finished the game six yards shy of 1,000 for the season.
The Seahawks’ slow start did not pair well with the Green Bay scoring on its first two drives.
The Packers made their intentions clear on the first drive when Jacobs touched the ball nine times on Green Bay’s 10-play TD drive to start the game.
The Packers mixed things up a little more on their second possession. Romeo Doubs finished off an eight-play, 80-yard drive by dragging Julian Love into the end zone for a 14-0 lead with 1:54 to go in the first.
Any hope of a comeback was dashed when Smith was hit by Green Bay linebacker Edgerrin Cooper with 7:12 to go in the third. After a few minutes in the tent, Smith headed for the tunnel. He emerged later and put his helmet back on. Macdonald said Smith wanted to return, but the team held him out, down by 17 in the fourth quarter.
This story originally appeared in seattlesportsnow.com, of which Aaron Coe is a co-founder.
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