SEATTLE — Seahawks wide receiver Doug Baldwin sat in his locker, still in uniform, and held nothing back.
If you thought that performance by the Seahawks’ offense was bad in Sunday’s 30-23 loss to the Dallas Cowboys, well let’s just say you’re not alone.
The frustration didn’t begin with the final whistle; TV cameras caught Baldwin in a heated, one-sided conversation with quarterback Russell Wilson.
Seattle’s offense, so explosive at times this season, sputtered and stalled through four quarters, and aside from a few big plays, was more or less a disaster against the Cowboys.
“What you think, man, we’re frustrated,” Baldwin said when asked about that conversation with Wilson. “The offense can’t (expletive) move the ball. We’ve got too much (expletive) talent over here not to be moving the ball. It’s not on Russ; I’m just saying in general, our offense, we’re just too (expletive) good not to be moving the ball down the field. I’m not mad at Russ at all, it’s a collaborative thing. We’ve all got to pitch in and do our part. We’ve all got to be better.”
And it’s hard to fault Baldwin for being upset. From Darrell Bevell’s play calling to the execution, it was a rough day all around. Wilson had one of the worst games of his stellar career, running back Marshawn Lynch was so limited in his role, especially in the first half when he had two carries, that his agent, Doug Hendrickson wrote on Twitter: “Bevell knows he has a running back?”
The Seahawks had just nine first downs — only three in the first half — and finished with 206 yards. And while the offense looked pretty good on its opening drive, which ended with a field goal set up by a 53-yard catch by wide receiver Jermaine Kearse, it did almost nothing after that. The Seahawks’ first touchdown came off of a blocked punt, which Mike Morgan returned for a touchdown, and their second was the result of a muffed punt that gave the Seahawks the ball at the Dallas 14-yard line. Seattle’s other two field goals both came thanks to short fields, with Seattle moving the ball only 5 yards on one scoring “drive” and 12 on the other.
Wilson struggled, posting the third worst passer rating (47.6) of his career and lowest since his rookie season, and put the blame on himself.
“First of all, I could have played a lot better,” Wilson said to open his postgame press conference. “I didn’t play my best game. … For whatever reason, we were just off. I’ll take the blame for it. I could have played better.”
Yet the blame is hardly on Wilson alone. The Seahawks’ inability to get Lynch the ball more was baffling, though head coach Pete Carroll said that was an issue with not getting enough first downs, and therefore plays, to do so. And Dallas clearly had a good plan in place to stop receiver Percy Harvin, who finished with minus 1 yard on five offensive touches, yet the Seahawks kept trying to feed him the ball.
Baldwin, for one, wasn’t buying lopsided time of possession — Dallas had the ball for 37 minutes, 39 seconds compared to 22:21 for Seattle — as the reason for their struggles.
“No, (expletive) that,” he said. “We had plenty of time. We had plenty of time to make (expletive) plays on the field, plenty of time.”
Baldwin believes the offensive struggles go beyond what we saw on Sunday. Wilson’s ability to make big plays in Washington Monday night helped the Seahawks win, but that was another game that showed some flaws, according to the receiver.
“We have to stop BS-ing ourselves,” he said. “We have to be real with ourselves. When we get in the meeting room, we actually have to pay attention to the things that are not going right. Pay attention to the things we are not doing right and correct them, and not just blow smoke up our tails and think that everything’s going to be all right just because we won the last game.
“I thought we played (expletive). I thought we played (expletive) last week, too. We didn’t correct the things that we needed to correct from last week. … We have penalties, we’re not running the ball like we need to, a whole bunch of (expletive).”
Obviously Baldwin was frustrated in the moments after a loss. At one point Ricardo Lockette implored his fellow receiver from two lockers over to take a deep breath. And Baldwin will probably have a more even-keel opinion of the offense later this week, but he’s absolutely right that the offense has a lot to fix.
With a healthy Harvin and a still maturing quarterback, the Seahawks certainly should be better on offense this season. And at times they have been, but Sunday’s game was a harsh reminder that the offense is still far from being a finished product.
Wilson needs to be better, as do his receivers, his line, and yes, the play calling. No matter how disjointed the game is, a team that prides itself on its physical style of play simply can’t afford for Lynch to be carrying the ball twice in a half. Following this loss, the Seahawks are now just 2-9 when Lynch gets 10 or fewer carries.
After one attempt at a late-game comeback quickly ended with the Seahawks going four-and-out, Seattle got one more chance with 1:05 left on the clock. Two plays into that desperation drive, Wilson was intercepted on a pass intended for tight end Luke Willson. It was a fitting end, because it gave the Seahawks’ offense one last chance to look bad on a very rough afternoon.
The Seahawks’ offense isn’t as bad as what Baldwin described Sunday. This loss did, however, show there is still a lot of work to be done.
Herald Columnist John Boyle: jboyle@heraldnet.com
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