SEATTLE – The Seattle Seahawks are currently a bad, sloppy, and undisciplined football team that is struggling to find anyone in the league they can beat.

With a 26-20 loss to the Los Angeles Rams in overtime on Sunday afternoon, the Seahawks have lost five of their last six games, including four straight at home. It’s the first time since 2008 that the Seahawks have lost four straight games in Seattle. It’s only the fifth time in team history the Seahawks have had a season with four straight home losses.

While the struggles of the defense have been responsible for several of the losses during the swoon, it was the offense that couldn’t get out of their own way in Sunday’s loss to the Rams. Geno Smith threw two critical interceptions in the red zone, with Kamren Kinchens’ 103-yard interception return forcing Seattle into chasing the game late.

Then two straight runs stuffed by the Rams in overtime thwarted the Seahawks’ attempt to steal a victory in a game they never seemed deserving of winning.

Seattle committed 12 more penalties as well on Sunday, with two holding penalties from rookie right tackle Mike Jerrell wiping out a pair of big completions from Smith to Jaxon Smith-Njigba. More issues with snapping the football for the second straight week as well contributed to nuking Seattle possessions.

It’s a football team that seems miles away from the one that began the season 3-0. And with the trade deadline upcoming on Tuesday, it may not be wise for the team to chase fixes for a team that may not have the ceiling their hot start suggested was possible.

Here are the takeaways from Seattle’s loss to the Rams:

– Offensive mistakes overflow.

Geno Smith has largely been a massive positive for the Seahawks at quarterback, but his three interceptions on Sunday afternoon were extremely costly.

Particularly, the two in the red zone were the most damaging. Smith held the ball too long and had his arm hit by Byron Young on a first-and-goal play from the Rams’ 4-yard line. The throw fluttered far from any Seattle receiver as Kinchens picked it off and raced away for a touchdown that gave Los Angeles a 20-13 lead with 11 minutes remaining.

Then, after Cody White’s blocked punt gave Seattle a prime chance to recover and tie the game shortly afterward, Smith’s side-arm throw for tight end A.J. Barner was again snagged by Kinchens as Barner was caught in traffic at the line of scrimmage.

“I just want to really start off by apologizing to my teammates, really, to the city, to the organization,” Smith said. “They put a lot of trust in me with my decision-making. And you know, when they put the ball in my hands, when my teammates play the way they play today, and, you know, give us a shot to win the game. I got to make sure we do. And you know, the things I did today, mistakes that I made, you know, they affected us negatively. And, you know, really cost us this game today.”

Smith rebounded to lead the Seahawks on their game-tying drive that forced overtime. A fouth-and-5 strike followed by a 14-yard touchdown pass to Smith-Njigba tied the game at 20-20 as Seattle went 73 yards on eight plays. The Seahawks then drove back into the Rams red zone in overtime before the two failed run attempts on third and fourth down.

“He made some big-time plays for us,” head coach Mike Macdonald said. “It’s not easy, didn’t have a lot of time back there. They had a good rush plan. We’ve got to protect him better. And I’m sure he’s going to tell you that he’s going to take ownership of the three picks. We’ve got to make smarter decisions in that way. We’ve got to finish drives. We’ve got to take care of the football. You guys see it. We see it. We have to be better if we’re going to win.

Smith was sacked seven times in the game as the offensive line had another abysmal game. Two errant snaps that sailed by Smith led to highly negative plays that thwarted drives. They follow on the heels of a wild snap last week against the Buffalo Bills that nuked another red zone drive as well. Several more snaps on Sunday required Smith to make one-handed snags to haul in as the center operation with Connor Williams was problematic all game.

“Connor is doing a great job, phenomenal job. Hats off to the way he plays and competes,” Smith said. “No one’s perfect out there. Nobody is perfect. I’m not perfect. None of us are perfect. We compete together and fight together. There’s a lot of things we’ve got to clean up, sure enough. But just the way that we compete, the way that Connor is out there competing, I’m not going to bat an eye. Whatever we have got to do to make it right, we’ll make it right.”

The offensive line combined for six penalties in the game alone. Mike Jerrell – again replacing an injured George Fant – had two holding penalties and a false start. Anthony Bradford had a holding penalty and a false start, and Laken Tomlinson had a holding penalty.

The two penalties to Jerrell wiped out a pair of catches for Smith-Njigba that racked up a combined 78 yards.

“We’re not there yet by any stretch of the imagination,” Macdonald said. “I thought the guys played hard. We’ve been playing hard up front. But that’s going to be part of what we’re looking at over the next week. I just say it’s fair to say in all three phases it’s kind of all on the table right now of adjustments, things we need to move and shake and really being evaluating everything. So that will be a big part of it.”

The majority of the issues with the team as a whole can be distilled down to the offensive line being a complete mess. It’s neutered a running back in Ken Walker III that should be a weekly star, and left Smith trying to pull a Houdini act to make the offense go successfully. The two runs in overtime were the final blow when Seattle couldn’t pick up a yard to keep their possession going.

“We’ve got to be able to get a half yard in two shots,” Macdonald said. “Great football teams convert third and fourth and short, and right now we’re not doing that. There’s math — if you kick the field goal, they’re on four downs all the way to field goal range — I felt like we had a great opportunity to win it with a touchdown right there.”

And Macdonald is right. The decision to go for that fourth down was unquestionably correct. The fact they were unable to convert that decision is the problem.

– A step forward defensively. 

The biggest disappointment from Sunday’s loss is that the Seahawks delivered their best defensive performance in well over a month, and it still wasn’t enough for a win.

“I thought they played extremely well and I thought we played physical and tackled a lot better,” Macdonald said. “The tackling is everything. There’s lack of space. We communicated really well. I just felt like it showed some of the progress we’ve been making off the field and we brought it to the game today with good spirit and good energy. Proud of those guys.”

The Rams were held to 366 yards of total offense, which is their lowest total since a Week 3 win over the Miami Dolphins. Los Angeles was also just 3-of-13 on third down, which is also the best mark since the Miami game.

Additionally, the 68 rushing yards allowed were the second-best mark of the year behind the Dolphins, and just the third time an opponent has been held under 100 yards on the ground.

“I think just a collective effort to improve it,” safety Julian Love said. “Everyone was kind of locked in to the plan all week. We were repping it pretty clean the entire week, and just the mindset. A mindset to challenge. Also, the d-line took it upon themselves to just really try to take over in the run game, and they did. Seeing it from the back end, those guys were getting after it all day.”

Riq Woolen’s interception of Matthew Stafford helped Seattle score 13 points in the final minute of the first half to grab a 13-3 lead at the break.

“Having the same guys going out there, you’re able to stack some of that progress from week-to-week, I think that had something to do with it, too,” Macdonald said. “It’s one game, let’s go back, let’s look at it. I think we can keep taking it to the next level.”

– Michael Dickson, special teams had a great day.

With the offense sputtering and making mistakes in the first half, the Seahawks needed the help of Michael Dickson’s right leg to help keep them in the contest.

Dickson averaged 47.2 yards per punt on Sunday as he delivered booming kicks with exemplary kick coverage. Dee Williams, Laviska Shenault Jr., K’Von Wallace and Drake Thomas all combined to help on tackles in punt coverage as Xavier Smith managed just 17 yards on four punt returns.

Additionally, Cody White blocked a Ty Zentner punt that gave the Seahawks a great scoring chance to flip the game in the fourth quarter that the offense squandered away.

“Jay (Harbaugh) set up a great scheme,” White said. “(Jake) Bobo had a great pick, and then anytime I get an opening to go block a punt, I’m going to take it, and I’ve been working on the technique. I trusted myself, so when it opens, I know I’m going to go make the play.”

The lone blemish of the day came with Myers’ missed extra point on their opening touchdown. Michael Hoecht partially blocked the attempt as it was deflected wide left.

– Jaxon Smith-Njigba delivers a career-day with 180 yards, two touchdowns. 

Jaxon Smith-Njigba had a breakout performance with DK Metcalf missing a second straight game due to injury.

Smith-Njigba caught seven passes for 180 yards and two touchdowns against the Rams, including the game-tying score late in the fourth quarter.

“He was all over the place,” Smith said. “He played with extreme fire. Shoot, he was just doing his thing. That’s who he is. We’ve got to continue to build on that.”

If you throw in the two catches negated by Mike Jerrell holding penalties, he would have had nine receptions for 258 yards on the day.

“I hate losing. (It’s) whatever,” Smith-Njigba said. “I’d rather win, 100 percent. My confidence level, it’s always been the same. I’ve known that I could break out and have an amazing game whenever, but it’s the wins that counts.”

The only negative for Smith-Njigba on the day was having a ball he was unable to haul in deflect into the arms of Rams safety Jaylen McCollough for Geno Smith’s first interception of the day.

“I think [he] did a heck of a job today being able to make plays, keeping us in it,” receiver Tyler Lockett said. “Big time fourth down catch to even give us a chance to be able to go to overtime. And then being able to catch that ball [for the touchdown to tie the game]. Geno threw a great ball in that window between two defenders and JSN was able to not only catch it but also keep his feet in bounds.”

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