Here’s how the Seattle Seahawks grade out in their 25-17 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers on Sunday at CenturyLink Field:
OFFENSE
The game couldn’t have started any better for Seattle’s offense. The Seahawks opened with a 13-play, 75-yard, 8-minute-5-second touchdown drive that continued to emphasize Seattle’s resurgent run game. But the offense went south after that, with the run game stalling and the Seahawks constantly finding themselves in long-yardage situations. Seattle’s pass protection broke down when the Chargers no longer had to worry about the run, and quarterback Russell Wilson’s crushing pick-six in the fourth quarter proved to be the difference. Yet the Seahawks took advantage of Los Angeles penalties to fashion one last chance to tie the game, with Wilson’s pass bouncing off David Moore in the back of the end zone on the game’s final play.
Grade: C-
DEFENSE
The first half was a nightmare for Seattle’s defense, which allowed 249 yards and three touchdowns. Too often Seattle had Los Angeles pinned deep to start drives, only to allow the Chargers out of jail immediately via big first-down plays. The defense tightened up considerably in the second half as Los Angeles’ offense didn’t score a point in the final 30 minutes — linebacker Bobby Wagner willed the defense into improvement with 13 tackles and three passes defensed — and the defense came up with the critical stop in the final two minutes to give the Seahawks one last shot at tying the game.
Grade: B-
SPECIAL TEAMS
Seattle was nearly perfect on special teams. Punter Michael Dickson was phenomenal with a 50-yard net, and he was aided by a coverage team that was nails on both punts and kickoffs. Kicker Sebastian Janikowski did miss a field goal, but that was a high-degree-of-difficulty kick from 51 yards. With Los Angeles being a mess on special teams with two missed extra points, a missed field goal and poor punting, Seattle’s dominance of special teams could have stolen the Seahawks a win.
Grade: A-
COACHING
There were a lot of curious coaching decisions in this one. Credit has to be given for the halftime adjustments made on defense. But the managing of timeouts and the clock at the end of the first half limited Seattle to a field goal when a touchdown was a possibility; the play calling seemed overly conservative on long situations for a team trailing by multiple scores; and some of Seattle’s 10 penalties that came at inopportune times, such as the 12-men-on-the-field penalty that gave the Chargers an important first down in the first quarter and the pick-play offensive pass interference call that took away a first down in the second quarter, can at least in part be attributable to the coaching.
Grade: D+
OVERALL
This is a weird one to evaluate for Seattle. On one hand, the Seahawks played poorly and didn’t look anything like a contender. On the other, Seattle was one play away from potentially tying the game against a quality opponent, despite the poor play. Did we learn much about the Seahawks from this one? Hard to tell. But on balance the loss, which dropped Seattle to 4-4, was the most important thing.
Grade: C-
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