In the wake of the most embarrassing Seattle performance since the Seahawks were demolished by Baltimore last season, Brock Huard posited an interesting poll:
Our take: There is a lot of blame to go around.
The Seahawks are weak at the interior line positions on both sides and are getting pushed around by good teams. That’s John Schneider’s fault.
The Hawks have given away three games with poor prep and mental mistakes. That’s Mike Macdonald’s fault.
Macdonald’s No. 1 mandate when he was hired was to fix a broken defense. But this unit still has all of the same problems it had under Pete Carroll’s watch the past two years. It can’t stop the run, can’t tackle and can’t consistently defend the pass either.
After a strong start against bad offenses, the defense has given up 421 yards and 30 points per game over the last five – losing four.
The run defense has remained nonexistent. Every opposing back seemingly has his season-best total against the Hawks. James Cook ran for 111 and two scores for the Bills in their 31-10 shellacking of the Hawks.
The lack of a block-eating nose tackle is the same big problem for Mike Mac’s Hawks that it was for Carroll’s defense once he moved to a 3-4.
On top of that, the players cannot tackle and they take bad angles. Cook was held up at the line several times and yet managed to squeeze through little creases and evade the first tackle attempt – and sometimes the second and third.
The Hawks also give up a 67.5% completion percentage that is eighth highest in the NFL. Josh Allen threw his first interception in 301 attempts, but he also completed 70.6% against Seattle. It looked so easy.
The Seahawks’ corners are more heralded than the Bills’ receivers, but Khalil Shakir caught nine passes for 107 yards and Keon Coleman caught five for 70 yards and a TD.
Where is Devon Witherspoon? Where is the pass rush?
On offense, the Hawks still can’t run the ball. That’s because they have a really weak interior and have been down to their fourth right tackle. Against good teams, that makes throwing the ball difficult as well.
The offense was surprisingly miserable against the Giants and shot itself in the foot with penalties, dropped passes, missed blocks and bad snaps against the 49ers and Bills. Ryan Grubb has shown flashes of brilliance, but he is hamstrung by the inability to run the ball, and he has so far not come up with any answers.
The loss to the Bills featured a bunch of scoreboard-affecting mistakes, but the defense did not look ready to play and the offense just unraveled after its dumb mistakes inside the 5-yard line cost it 11 points. Macdonald did not keep his players’ heads in the game when they were still in the game.
Macdonald probably is going to have to give up defensive play calling if he is going to get any better as the coach.
There are still nine games remaining, so we will wait to see how Macdonald, Grubb and company do in those games before we pass judgment on the future prospects of the franchise under Macdonald. But the defense has been much worse than expected and Grubb has not been smart enough to figure out a way around their running troubles.
The Hawks have to get more out of their top picks, particularly 2023 first-rounders Jaxon Smith-Njigba and Spoon. Neither has made any impact this season. That is a major coaching failure.
Macdonald and his guys have to get the most out of their talent and then make up for their holes on the lines as well as they can.
Macdonald was always going to face a tough schedule in this first season. So far he has been average, going 2-3 against teams above .500 and 2-1 against subpar clubs. It won’t get any easier.
The Rams just knocked off the Vikings, showing how dangerous they are with both Cooper Kupp and Puka Nacua on the field. The Hawks will have their hands full this weekend.
After their bye, they face the 49ers again. And then two Arizona games sandwiched around the Jets, followed by three NFC North teams and then the Rams again in the finale.
We had them for nine wins (eight on the low end), and that is their pace. But it will be a lot less than that if they put up any more efforts as crappy as the one they had against the Bills.
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