As I Sea It: Seahawks-Browns
No Spoilers In Headline, But Spoilers in Article! Seaside Joe 1701
The Seattle Seahawks entered Week 8 with an opportunity and one that they needed to take advantage of with four of their next six games coming on the road. The San Francisco 49ers had lost the last two, so a win over the Cleveland Browns combined with a Niners loss to the Cincinnati Bengals would mean a taste of first place for the Seahawks entering Week 9.
Grab your spoons…
The Seahawks beat the Browns 24-20 and the 49ers lost to the Bengals 31-17, giving Seattle a slight advantage in the NFC West at 5-2. That and the fact that Geno Smith successfully threw a screen pass for a touchdown is by far the best Seahawks news of the week.
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I’m still fighting my itchy trigger finger to point out all the things that made me feel ill during the game, but in the interest of just enjoying a win that I honestly didn’t expect late in the fourth quarter, Seaside Joe will focus on the good first.
Jamal she wrote
A “he really used his head” pun? Too easy, I would never…
As I sea it, the Seahawks have a difficult decision to make with Jamal Adams next year.
Even though Adams didn’t necessarily have a dominant game, from what I could tell on the broadcast, he’s made impact plays during each of his appearances so far this season. Adams may have been a little lucky to get his head in between P.J. Walker and the intended receiver, but good players create their own luck.
Jamal Adams has an extraordinary $26.9 million cap hit in 2024, the second-highest on the team behind the $31.2 million of Geno Smith (more later on him and whether or not Seattle will actually pay that), and I’ve been consistent all year that the end is nigh.
But now I’m thinking…how?
Sometimes safeties are treated like the running backs of defense. “Replaceable” and “Cheap” and “Just use a third round pick”. Who have the Seahawks really had to boast about at safety since Earl Thomas and Kam Chancellor? Marquise Blair was a bust. Ryan Neal wasn’t as good as PFF said he was and that’s showing with the Buccaneers right now. Tedric Thompson, Lano Hill, Bradley McDougald…Seattle has always had to move on.
Nobody other than Quandre Diggs has been worth extending.
At the end of this game, Adams and Julian Love combined for the interception to put the Seahawks offense close enough to not blow their last opportunity. Seattle has managed to discover a lot of quality players on the cheap lately, they may need to use that cap advantage to keep Adams even when he’s the highest-paid safety in the NFL.
Double Darrell
As I sea it, the Seahawks will really miss having Uchenna Nwosu. Darrell Taylor came out with one of the most memorable plays of the day by sacking P.J. Walker on third-and-10 to all but end the game, but his deficiencies as a run stopper—and really Seattle’s lack of pressure on Walker all day—emphasized how much different this defense COULD look without Nwosu.
Taylor now has 2.5 sacks in the last two games after having zero in the first five.
Boye Mafe tied the franchise record for most straight games in a single season with a sack (5) and he needs one more to tie the all-time record. Jordyn Brooks had arguably the best play of his entire career by getting a strip sack off of Walker, leading to a Seattle touchdown and a 14-0 lead at the time.
Bobby Wagner led the team with 13 tackles, followed by Brooks at 10, Diggs at 9, and Adams, Mafe with 8.
Walker went 15-of-31 for 248 yards with one touchdown and two interceptions. However, I would have to say that the Seahawks defense should be a little disappointed with their performance, especially by giving up 155 yards on 40 rushing attempts and 5.1 yards per play.
Seattle averaged 6.6 yards per play but lost time of possession 36:40 to 23:20.
This was a game not won because of the turnover margin so much as the turnover timing. Geno Smith had two interceptions, including another in opponent territory near the red zone, but lucky for the Seahawks he didn’t give the ball on the way on the last drive like Walker did.
Did P.J. Walker outplay Geno Smith? I kinda think he did. At best, it was even, which is interesting commentary given that Walker was cut by the Bears in the preseason and on Cleveland’s practice squad at the start of the season.
We all scream for ice screen
As I sea it, the Seahawks figured something out with the screen pass game finally and iced the game with a successful screen. I had texted a friend over the weekend (and nearly put into the vision board this week but then forgot) that the Seahawks would score a touchdown on a screen pass. Then Geno Smith found Jaxon Smith-Njigba for the game-winning nine-yard touchdown with :44 seconds left.
(While I’m taking credit for things I DIDN’T do, I also meant to put on the vision board that the last team to have the ball would win, which was almost/kinda true.)
It’s kind of amazing that JSN gets the ball with an unblocked man in front of him but finds the edge and the rookie gave credit to DK Metcalf for the block after the game.
JSN had three catches for 36 yards; Tyler Lockett was the main attraction with eight catches for 81 yards and a touchdown; TEs still do not have a touchdown this season and Noah Fant was the only one targeted this week, catching two passes for 32 yards; Jake Bobo had two catches for 23 yards and rushed for a touchdown on a sweet cutback; but maybe the most interesting story is that DK Metcalf was targeted 14 times and only had five catches for 67 yards.
“Geno forces it to DK” is becoming a meme, which is maybe a little bit concerning because it follows a “DK is frustrated that he isn’t get the ball enough” narrative.
Metcalf had 43 yards on one play, meaning that the other 13 targets gained 24 yards. Okay, maybe no big deal against the Browns defense. Something to monitor.
Kenneth Walker only had eight carries and gained 66 yards (with a long of 45) and Zach Charbonnet had 53 yards (vision board) on five carries.
Riq and Meek
As I sea it, Riq Woolen is having a weird season, no? Sunday was a microcosm of what I see as an up-and-down for Woolen as he was a little careless on a hands to the face penalty that could have cost the Seahawks the win (Devon Witherspoon was caught with the same penalty earlier) and I’m just not sure he’s having the same type of shutdown year that he had in 2022. Yet he also had an interception and should have had another. I’m NOT worried about Woolen, but the season has been a little up and down I think.
ABCDEFGeno
As I sea it, Twitter is starting to break. For the first time all season, I could see cracks starting to form with people who have been adament all year long that any fan who thinks that the Seahawks might need to bench Geno Smith is an idiot who “doesn’t know ball”.
The “you disagree with me? then you don’t know ball” is the most insecure response.
Sorry, Jacson.
Between the second touchdown drive (which took 41 yards because it came after a turnover) and the last touchdown drive (which took 57 yards because it came after a turnover), the Seahawks offense was as bad as any in the NFL. As bad as P.J. Walker’s Browns!
And that would not be concerning if it was uncommon because Cleveland does have a great defense. However, we all know around here at Seaside Joe that is it VERY common. It’s the norm!
The Seahawks offense has checked out of almost every game after the first quarter, and especially the first half.
I’m sick of blame. We don’t need to disagree or argue. We can all accept that whatever the reason, Seattle’s offense has been unacceptable and the biggest tests are yet to come: The Ravens are on deck in Week 9 and they are a much better team than the Browns…a much better offense and with a comparable defense.
The Seahawks go to Baltimore, L.A., Dallas, and San Francisco in four of the next six weeks. Seattle also plays the Moons and 49ers at home in that window. The 49ers have lost three in a row…I’m not writing them off because of it. I’ll believe that Geno Smith is good enough against the 49ers when it happens for the first time.
We can rest the talk that the Seahawks will bench Geno for at least another week, partly because we’re living on the high of a win, but the bad drives, bad throws, and now bad games are stacking up. The Ravens are first in points allowed, first in passing touchdowns allowed, and first in net yards per pass attempt allowed.
Here we go to Baltimore.
I was immensely impressed that the offense got to a 14-0 lead vs this defense. I expected this game to be a repeat of the 2016 Cards slugfest that was all punts and couple FGs. I was immensely impressed with Lockett, who continues to be a low-key cheat code and the OL, who did solid work keeping Geno as clean as possible versus a top-tier pass rush. I was immensely impressed by Jake Bobo, who continues to make great decisions when needed. I was really impressed with Dickson's punting, he was booming kicks and pinning the Browns way, way back into their own territory.
I was immensely disappointed that the defense gave up 20 points and let the Browns have the lead, even after halftime when they had a golden opportunity to make adjustments and get some rest. This defense bleeds 3rd downs and screen passes like they've never played either, and while the Browns are really good at screen passes, we've seen every screen pass humanly possible in this division for years and we still can't stop them. Walker should not be a third down conversion machine and yet he was for half the game.
Waldron and Geno need to stop babying DK by forcing plays his way. Geno needs to stop staring down 1st reads. I'm happy they got the win against what was the best defense in the NFL. It sure as hell wasn't easy but clutch drives don't grow on trees, so give both sides of the ball credit for making up for earlier mistakes and pulling out a win.
Does DK have some weird force field that pops up around him on every other play? Geno is normally accurate, but he’s thrown a lot of dog balls to his big, fast receiver. It’s not like DK doesn’t get passes thrown his way; it’s that he gets too few *catchable* balls thrown his way. (And that the refs are cool with DBs climbing all over him.)
And, shout out to DK for keeping his cool. He was really zen this afternoon.