Seahawks-Lions All-22: 10 takeaways from Week 2

10 takeaways I had from re-watching the game in All-22: Seaside Joe 1664

Normally, I like to have Seaside Joe up at 7:15 AM PST, but as I was writing another scathing review of how the Seattle Seahawks have played for most of the 8.25 quarters of the 2023 season, I decided to re-watch the entire Lions game in All-22. Some of what I’ve written about Geno Smith’s performance needs to be amended, everything I’ve said about the defense needs to be taken seriously.

I see a glimmer of light in the distance with the arrival of Devon Witherspoon and the return of Jordyn Brooks.

I also see veterans who were advertised as “upgrades”, instead looking like stopgaps who may soon need to be replaced with next edition of upgrades.

There were 10 takeaways I had from re-watching the game in All-22.

1 - The #1 reason I wasn’t fair to Geno Smith

And it’s not that I didn’t give him credit for his dribbling skills…

As I said on Monday and will keep saying, I don’t care about Geno’s box score stats. I care about his decisions. At this point, I think we can mostly trust Geno’s arm, accuracy, physical abilities to execute. It’s the throws he turns down and the split-second decision making that has me questioning if he’s going to be on the job for Seattle past this season.

In watching the All-22, there were not many times I felt he could have made a better decision. In situations like stalling inside the DET 10 and settling for a field goal, it’s clear Geno didn’t have anyone to throw to and that’s more on Shane Waldron. I heard Bills QB Kyle Allen and QB coach Jordan Palmer say on a podcast this week that “60% of red zone plays are off-schedule” aka it’s up to the QB to improvise and “go make a play”.

However, I’m not sure that Waldron ended up calling the best opportunities for Geno and the offense on those other 40%. That’s been a HUGE problem for the Seahawks recently: 28th in red zone offense in 2022.

Now you’re saying, “But they’re fourth in red zone offense to start this season!”

I would correct that: They played the Lions.

Dating back to the start of the 2021 season, the Seahawks have only had four games in which they had an offensive EPA (estimated points added) of 15 or better. Out of those four games, THREE are against the Detroit Lions. Same head coach, same defensive coordinator, pretty much same team.

The other was against the David Culley-coached Houston Texans in 2021.

I can’t get on board that Seattle’s offense is “on track” based on playing a team that they’re so consistently “on track” against. You may think you like every Wes Anderson movie, then you watch one that doesn’t have Bill Murray in it and say to yourself, “Hmmm, maybe I just like Bill Murray movies”.

The Lions are the Seahawks’ “Bill Murray”.

Now, here’s what I was really impressed with by Geno on Sunday: Dude was grinding under pressure.

For all the talk of the tackles surpassing expectations—AND THEY DID—Geno Smith put in the work to take the focus off of the offensive line. I mean, no quesiton that Aidan Hutchinson looked ORDINARY on Sunday, but people tend to just lose sight of the offensive line during the game and instead turn to, “Well, how many times was the QB sacked?”

Geno was sacked once, but a lesser QB under pressure could have easily been sacked 5-6 times. Highlights like the one above were kind all over the film in the second half, and perhaps it even gave him too much confidence to run around like he did for a 17-yard loss on the last drive.

So, I’ll say it: My Bad.

HOWEVER—I’m not going to forget that it was against the Lions. I’m not going to forget Week 1. I’m not going to forget how Seattle’s offense played after Week 9 of last season. There’s a much bigger picture here and even if Geno is just a cog within that machine, he’s the most important gear.

I think most teams would be elated to have Geno Smith…in about 75-percent of their games. This is a conversation best re-visited after seeing how he’s adjusted when facing the San Francisco 49ers, or his rematch against the Rams, or playing against the Dallas Cowboys, the Philadelphia Eagles, the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Baltimore Ravens, the Cleveland Browns…get it?

Hopefully he’s more battle-tested and ready for those games when they come. The Carolina Panthers had the makings of a great defense, but will be without cornerback Jaycee Horn and linebacker Shaq Thompson, two of their most important players on that side of the ball.

2 - Devon Witherspoon is what I was waiting for

As they did on the flea flicker—which I think could happen to literally any cornerback in the NFL—the Seahawks could end up giving up big plays as Witherspoon experiences his pro-wing pains. (Professional+Growing Pains)

But man, this guy balled out in his debut and he goes balls out on every play. EVERY play.

On the fifth play of his first career drive, Witherspoon is tasked with a mano-y-mano tackle heads up against 12th overall pick Jahmyr Gibbs and he fearlessly ripped him to the ground to hold him to a one-yard gain.

And probably his most notable play of the day was going step-for-step with tight end Sam LaPorta, the 34th overall pick of the draft, to make a fourth down stop which is essentially as good as an interception.

I’ll keep pounding home this point because I think it’s the most important one of all: I NEED the Seahawks to have more blue chip players. When we put together an “All-NFC West Team” at the end of the year, how many Seahawks are going to be on it? Seattle needs to catch up to the 49ers, especially on defense, and right now Witherspoon gives me the most hope that he’s on track to do that. Maybe not this year, but by 2024.

Not to steal an opportunity away from Seasider Doug to post the music video first, but I’m all in on Spoonman.

3 - Love Lost

At some point, I’m going to need to see Julian Love do something other than signal when it’s fourth down. Sometimes he does it even when it’s not fourth down.

This play isn’t really a great reflection on either Love or Spoon (I know I just gave him all the praise) but here you are in year five and missed tackles have been all over the film through two games. According to one site, Julian Love’s four missed tackles that we know of is already one shy of being a career-high.

When Jamal Adams returns, maybe he slowly works his way into replacing Love on a full-time basis. Okay, that’s not a bad idea. However, adding into this whole mess at safety with Seattle paying Quandre Diggs and Adams extraordinary sums is the fact that Love’s $3.9 million cap hit is still more than half of the NFL’s starting safeties. That’s not a crippling amount, I know, and it’s only been two games. It would be a lot for a backup safety though and it’s been a rough start.

Love did recover a fumble against Detroit, which is neat, but not adequately reflective of how he’s played on the other 146 snaps he’s played on defense.

As bad as Josh Jones was in 2022, and he was really bad, he was a cheap, throw-in, last resort when Adams got hurt. Love has been signed as the solution to that problem and the value difference between him and Jones right now seems close to negligible.

“Wow, that’s so mean!”

Okay. Is it as mean as the Seahawks ranking in the bottom-three of virtually every important defensive stat through two games? That’s downright maniacal!

4 - This is the most important context for Seattle’s “good” run defense ranking

The Seahawks wanted you to know that the defense ranks third in yards per carry allowed so far…

Here’s what they didn’t want you to know:

If you remove the 22 carries for 26 yards that Cam Akers had against Seattle in Week 1, the Seahawks have allowed 168 yards on 45 carries, which is an average of 3.73 yards per carry. Nearly a full yard difference from their total with the Akers’ game in there.

“Why would you remove the Cam Akers game though?”

Well, let’s frame it in this context: The Rams deactivated Akers in Week 2 and traded him to the Vikings on Wednesday in return for a conditional 2026 6th/7th round pick swap. That’s essentially the same as cutting him for nothing.

So, displacing the fact that the Seahawks did awesome against the worst starting running back in the NFL, Seattle would rank 21st in the NFL in yards per carry allowed, instead of third.

“Geez, Seaside Joe is so negative!”

Never negative. Always trying to do my best to bring us back to the center so that we’re not caught off-guard in the future when these numbers might bounce back to reality. I’m bouncing this idea off of the Julian Love section, but this is of course much bigger than one safety: This is about Pete Carroll, Clint Hurtt, the players Seattle has chosen to replace the previous players, and the fact that this isn’t a two-game problem…It’s a six-year problem.

If the Seahawks ranked fifth in defense last year, I wouldn’t be worried. The Seahawks haven’t had a top-20 defense since 2018 or a top-10 defense since 2016 and that’s why we need to monitor this situation week-to-week and not just let it keep stewing there and pretending it’s fine because Seattle won a game. Especially because Lions running back David Montgomery was very effective prior to leaving with an injury.

5 - Jordyn Brooks: Not part of the problem

I have nothing specific to highlight for Brooks, just a general takeaway that he was the most efficient Seahawks defensive player in the entire game. Even Tre Brown allowed a touchdown after his pick-six.

That’s two games in a row for Brooks as the defensive MVP.

Here’s where you start to hate me again: I just want Jordyn Brooks to be the fifth-best player on the defense, not the best or second-best. That’s really what he should be. He’s “Dre Greenlaw”, he’s not “Fred Warner”.

I don’t even want to say that he’s “K.J. Wright” because I think Wright was better. But that does maybe frame the situation best for Seahawks fans: You should want Jordyn Brooks to feel like the K.J. of the 2013 defense to the 2023 defense. Instead, we have to bring him to the top of the conversation because there aren’t enough other choices for “best Seattle defensive player” right now.

He’s better than Bobby Wagner right now. Wagner has missed more tackles in 2023 than he did in 2022. That’s 17 games vs. 2 games. Wagner’s value comes in many forms, I know, but for what it’s worth I think Brooks’ return from ACL is even more important than Bobby’s return from Hollywood.

There are still 5 more points to cover from re-watching the game in All-22 this week, including thoughts on the pass rusher who is most in danger of being benched, hope for two offensive weapons, and the part of the game that probably hurt Seattle’s chances of winning the most—and no, it’s not the end of regulation.

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