Before the season, we projected the Seahawks would win nine games. It was fewer than many optimistic fans were picking, but we saw a tough schedule and had big questions about the offensive line and run defense.

After a soft 3-0 start, the Hawks have come back to Earth against better teams and sit at 3-3 largely because their offensive line and run defense have failed them.  

They gave away the game against the Giants with mistakes in every phase, and then they followed that up by making a bunch more mistakes against the 49ers in a game they could have won if they had played it more cleanly.

“Right now, we’re just coming up short,” Mike Macdonald said. “We’re just not doing the things that good football teams do to win football games.”

They look a lot like Pete Carroll’s undisciplined teams of the past few years; they still cannot run or stop the run. They also are coaching themselves into holes.

Ryan Grubb has leaned far too heavily on the pass: Seattle is No. 1 in the NFL in pass attempts, No. 32 in rush attempts. Grubb has not done much to help his struggling offensive line in the past two games. He gave Kenneth Walker III the ball just five times against the Giants and Geno Smith was sacked seven times.

Then Grubb overcompensated by giving Walker the ball on the first play of almost every series against the 49ers. Grubb fell into a run-run-pass pattern that was easy to discern for both viewers and the 49ers, who keyed on the run and held Seattle to 52 rushing yards while creating obvious passing situations where they could pressure Smith.

On top of that, Smith and DK Metcalf had a really odd game – Smith threw two picks, including one on a screwy-looking route by Metcalf, and the receiver had one TD called back and barely missed another while catching just 3 of 11 passes his way.

Even 49ers All-Pro linebacker Fred Warner seemed to think the Hawks were their own worst enemy: “I don’t know what was going on with their offense.”

One thing we know is the offensive line is not good. The guards have been mostly bad (no surprise), and third-string right tackle Stone Forsythe has struggled in pass protection (also no surprise). Charles Cross indicated the line has not yet jelled.

“We all just (need to) continue to be better as a group,” he said. “Just continue to get better week to week and just try to stack on that.

“You’ve got to continue to be consistent with moving the ball well and playing together … and everyone just getting on the same page. … We’ll just continue to work together and see things through. One set of eyes, all five of us as one, and just continue to jell together.”

It certainly would help if George Fant or Abe Lucas gets back at right tackle at some point.

The defense has been missing players all season, hurting its ability to come together under Macdonald. Uchenna Nwosu is having another injury-busted year – he’ll miss at least eight games when all is said and done. Byron Murphy has fallen prey to the Seahawks’ first-round injury curse – having missed the past three games with a hamstring injury. A bunch of other guys have missed at least one game as well. There has been no continuity on that side at all.

“The biggest thing I would say is guys not playing or not having a ton of time to play with one another,” Derick Hall said. “We’re banged up. We have some injuries across the front and we’re just trying to piece it together. … When we’re all together, we’re a better unit. Just really trying to fit around and still learning how to play with one another early on in the year.”

The defense took advantage of an easy early schedule. But it has not been able to stop the past three opponents. After giving up just 14.3 points and 249 yards per game in a 3-0 start, the Hawks have yielded 35.7 and 431 in their 0-3 skid.

The run defense has been every bit as bad as we were afraid it might be. The Hawks rank 27^th in rushing yards per game and have given up at least 175 in three games, including 228 to a 49ers team that was missing Christian McCaffrey and 175 to a Giants team led by backup Tyrone Tracy Jr.

Julian Love and Tyrel Dodson both said the big plays they have surrendered have been cases of one guy not being in sync with the rest of the unit, not doing his job.

As Dodson put it, “If one brick is out of the brick wall, the whole wall is going to fall down.”

The Hawks made a move to try to add a brick this week, trading for veteran D-lineman Roy Robertson-Harris from Jacksonville. He looks like a versatile end/tackle with some pass-rush ability. The Hawks’ pass rush has been largely ineffective (ranking 19^th) due to injuries to Nwosu, Murphy, Boye Mafe, et al.

That has been part of the reason the Hawks have just one takeaway in the past five games. That is the worst stretch in Seattle history. They are minus-6 in turnover margin, thanks to 10 turnovers by the offense and special teams.

“We have to win the takeaway differential. That’s a team stat,” Macdonald said.

Love said, “It starts with me on the defense, and we have to create more turnovers.”

Devon Witherspoon agreed: “Defense has got to play better. We’ve got to create more takeaways. So that’s been a common theme.”

Macdonald explained: “I think it starts with stopping on first-down type plays. … If you’re not forcing them into passing situations, it’s hard to affect the quarterback. … If teams have options to run or pass all the time, it’s hard to get them behind the 8-ball.”

Macdonald insisted it all can be fixed.

“There are one of two options: Give up or fight like heck to make it right. That’s what we’re going to do. We’re six games into the season and there is a lot of football to be played.” 

It’s also going to be a lot of tough football. The next three games are at Atlanta, home vs. Buffalo and home vs. the Rams. If the Hawks don’t solve their problems and start playing a lot cleaner, they could easily be sitting at 3-6 entering their Week 10 bye.

Then they have four more division games (starting with the 49ers), three vs. the NFC North and one at the New York Jets. There are no gimmes at all (even Arizona has shown it can rise up), and the Hawks are going to have to find ways to fix their predictable problems if they are going to have a shot at even the nine wins we projected.