Seahawks ‘Deep Freeze’: 5 Takes on Geno & Loss at Chiefs

Almost placing their postseason hopes on ice in chilly Arrowhead Stadium, the Seattle Seahawks didn’t capitalize on quite a few scoring alternatives amid an offensive implosion and suffered a devastating 24-10 loss to the Chiefs on Christmas Eve.

Slogging by means of one other powerful outing, Geno Smith accomplished 25 out of 40 passes for 215 yards and threw a late landing to tight finish Noah Fant, whereas rookie Ken Walker III eclipsed 100 speeding yards for the primary time since Week 9. In defeat, Darrell Taylor registered Seattle’s lone sack on Patrick Mahomes and the protection held Kansas Metropolis to simply 77 speeding yards and three.5 yards per carry.

Coach Pete Carroll urged Seattle has to work on “every little thing” after this one. We’ll be extra particular … 

This is 5 fast takeaways from the Seahawks fifth loss in six video games:

1. Atrocious situational soccer price Smith and Seattle in a winnable highway recreation.

Out of the gate, the Seahawks did not do themselves any favors on offense with penalties and destructive performs on first and second down killing drives earlier than they may get rolling. 

On their first 4 possessions, they did not choose up a single first down and the Chiefs did not face a 3rd down shorter than third-and-6, permitting their pass-rushers to pin their ears again looking down Smith. Even after they lastly moved the chains on their fifth drive, they promptly reverted again to ineptitude with a destructive run on second down, transferring them off-schedule to arrange third-and-11. 

For the half, they transformed just one out of seven third down alternatives and in addition had been stuffed on fourth down after returner Godwin Igwebuike gifted the offense with area place previous midfield.

Popping out of halftime, Smith and the Seahawks did not carry out any higher on third downs, solely changing as soon as on seven tries within the ultimate two quarters. Making issues worse, with higher outcomes on early downs serving to them lastly maintain drives, they superior the soccer deep into Chiefs territory thrice all the way down to the 34, 29, and 20-yard line, someway failing to attain a single level.

On the primary two alternatives, Smith’s fourth down throws to Colby Parkinson and Laquon Treadwell fell wanting the sticks. Then, halfway by means of the fourth quarter with the sport nonetheless inside attain, the quarterback did not seem like on the identical with receiver Marquise Goodwin and threw an unpleasant finish zone interception to Juan Thornhill. 

Sealing their destiny, they completed with three factors on 5 possessions that superior into Kansas Metropolis territory.

2. Regardless of early struggles, Ken Walker III and the run recreation got here to life after halftime.

Contributing to Seattle’s third-down issues within the first half, Walker did not have a lot to work with because the offensive line continued to have points creating push in opposition to an aggressive Kansas Metropolis entrance seven. Bottling up the rookie from the beginning, the Chiefs held him to 16 yards on 9 carries within the first half, together with registering three tackles for loss and two tackles on the line of scrimmage for no acquire. However in contrast to previous weeks, offensive coordinator Shane Waldron did not abandon the run recreation and caught with it, opening the door for Walker to have a giant second half and assist the offense discover some traction.

With Waldron mixing in additional underneath heart runs and a mixture of between the tackles and perimeter runs, the Seahawks leaned closely on Walker out of halftime, as he rushed 17 instances for 91 yards to gas three possessions that went deep into Chiefs territory. Placing his wheels on show, he amassed 5 carries of at the very least 9 yards within the half, together with a 20-yarder for a game-high.

Sadly, even with Walker operating effectively and the offensive line bouncing again with backup proper sort out Stone Forsythe checking into the lineup, it wasn’t sufficient because the crew could not discover a solution to end drives till it was too little, too late.

3. Clint Hurtt’s protection turned in a valiant, albeit uneven, defensive outing in opposition to the NFL’s most potent offense.

Beneath hearth over the previous six weeks as opponents have ran roughshod on the Seahawks’ protection and lacking two key starters in Ryan Neal and Al Woods, coordinator Hurtt’s unit had each cause to fold this week making an attempt to decelerate Mahomes and the No. 1 scoring offense within the NFL. However whereas they did enable 24 factors, Uchenna Nwosu and firm gave every little thing they’d, opening the sport with a fast three-and-out, holding the Chiefs to 2 third-down conversions on six possibilities, and forcing three punts within the first half to maintain Seattle inside hanging distance.

Extra impressively, whilst Smith and the offense stored tripping up drive after drive and didn’t capitalize on virtually numerous alternatives to win the sport, Seattle’s protection stored battling within the ultimate two quarters. 

On Kansas Metropolis’s first three possessions of the half, Mahomes and his counterparts produced 13 web yards and completed every drive with a Tommy Townsend punt, together with after security Johnathan Abram made a implausible play sticking with perennial All-Professional tight finish Travis Kelce throughout a scramble drill for a key third down go breakup. 

For the sport, the Chiefs transformed on solely three out of 11 third down possibilities, punted six instances, and in addition turned the ball over on downs as soon as. If the offense would have been capable of do something at Arrowhead, the protection performed greater than ok to win in a hostile atmosphere.

4. Finally, explosives did Seahawks protection in once more with minimal help from the opposite aspect of the ball.

Although Seattle’s protection performed higher than anticipated and held an electrical offense in test for a lot of the afternoon, with no margin for error, they nonetheless allowed too many chunk performs to arrange scoring drives. 

Trailing 7-0 early within the second quarter, Kelce fought by means of unlawful contact from security Teez Tabor and made a formidable catch reaching down towards his shoe tops for a 27-yard completion all the way down to the Seahawks nine-yard line. Two performs later, Mahomes made them pay with a straightforward landing toss to backup operating again Jerrick McKinnon to increase the result in 14. Moments later, poor tackling that has plagued Seattle all yr lengthy returned on a busted display play as Isiah Pacheco rumbled 32 yards to arrange a Harrison Butker area objective earlier than halftime.

Within the second half, with the Seahawks nonetheless down 17-3 with underneath eight minutes to play, the dam broke within the type of back-to-back explosive performs to Kelce.

First, Mahomes hit him in stride for a 20-yard completion after he beat linebacker Jordyn Brooks throughout the sector on a crosser. On the very subsequent play, Brooks did not stick with Kelce as he ran down the seam and the quarterback hit him excessive, permitting the athletic tight finish to race all the best way to the Seattle eight-yard line for a 52-yard acquire. Mahomes then put the dagger within the visiting crew by scrambling to his proper and efficiently diving for the pylon with give Kansas Metropolis an insurmountable 21-point benefit with underneath 4 minutes left.

5. Shoddy clock and recreation administration helped take the wind out of Seattle’s sails in each halves.

On the sector, the Seahawks merely did not execute effectively sufficient on offense to offer themselves an opportunity to win the sport. However the teaching employees did not precisely assist their gamers succeed both because of poor recreation administration from a clock perspective. 

Within the first half, play calls got here in late to Smith on two totally different events with lengthy third downs looming, forcing the quarterback to name timeout. Although they did handle to get a area objective from Jason Myers with one second left to play, not having at the very least a kind of timeouts practically price them factors when Smith’s third and objective throw snuck out of the tip zone proper earlier than the clock struck double zeroes.

Within the second half, the timeout points continued. 

After Walker scampered outdoors for an 11-yard acquire and a primary down, the Seahawks had been in disarray on the line of scrimmage and Smith was pressured to once more name timeout earlier than a primary down play. Then within the fourth quarter, after they’d superior the soccer all the best way to the Chiefs 20-yard line and picked up one other new set of downs with a Walker run, they burned one other timeout with the play clock set to run out after breaking the huddle late. Two performs later, Smith threw his back-breaking interception to Thornhill. 

Including in these timeout miscues with the questionable resolution to go up on factors with two botched fourth-down alternatives within the half, everybody concerned with the offense had a hand within the cookie jar when it got here to their dismal efficiency.

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