Getty Seahawks QB Geno Smith getting sacked by the Ravens defense in Week 9.
The Seattle Seahawks took a demoralizing 37-3 loss to the Baltimore Ravens in Week 9. The matchup was billed as an NFC-AFC battle between two of the top teams in their respective conferences.
However, after the Ravens offense moved the ball up and down the field and the defense dominated Geno Smith and the Seahawks offense, it was clear one of these teams is a Super Bowl contender right now, and the other isn’t at this moment.
That’s certainly the conclusion former Seahawks quarterback Brock Huard came to right before he blasted the team on Twitter.
Brock Huard Destroyed the Seahawks After Losing to Ravens in Week 9
The Seahawks losing to the Ravens in Week 9 isn’t a massive problem in a vacuum. The Ravens are one of the best teams in the AFC, which is the stronger of the two conferences in the 2023 NFL season.
However, it’s not that the team lost. It’s how it lost.
The defense – which has looked dominant at times, albeit against some bad teams — allowed 37 points, the most the Seahawks have allowed in a single game this season. And just five days after bolstering the rushing defense by giving up a second-round pick for All-Pro defensive tackle Leonard Williams, the unit let the Ravens run for a staggering 298 yards.
On offense, the Seahawks may have been worse.
Smith’s unit produced just 151 total yards, 123 through the air and 28 on the ground. Those totals led to just six first downs. Seattle hasn’t had a single-digit first-down total since Week 6 of 2014 (9 vs. the Dallas Cowboys) and hasn’t had six or fewer since Week 6 of 1992, ironically also against the Cowboys.
This led to former Seahawks quarterback and Seattle-area media personality Brock Huard to absolutely ether the team on Twitter, writing that the Ravens’ gameplan, quarterback, defense, and toughness are greater than the Seahawks’.
He also pontificated that “If today was a measuring stick, the Ravens whacked you upside the head with that stick in every conceivable fashion of the game. Wow. Baltimore is an elite Suoer (sic) Bowl contender. They showed that today.”
BALT Gameplan >>>>> SEA plan
BALT QB >>>>> SEA QB
BALT Defense >>>>>>> SEA Defense
BALT Toughness >>> SEA toughness
If today was a measuring stick, the Ravens whacked you upside the head with that stick in every conceivable fashion of the game.
Wow. Baltimore is an elite…
That’s a brutal assessment of where the Seahawks are at right now, sitting at 5-3 and tied atop the NFC West with the San Francisco 49ers. However, after this incredibly poor showing, it could be fair.
Now the team has two weeks to get right against bad teams before the month-long stretch of the Seahawks schedule that will determine the success or failure of their 2023 season.
Seattle Should Be 7-3 Heading Into the Decisive Stretch of Their Schedule
As bad as the Seahawks’ Week 9 loss to the Ravens was, Pete Carroll and his squad now have two weeks to put this game behind them, improve on their deficiencies, and pad their win record.
Weeks 10 and 11 on the Seahawks’ schedule bring winnable games home against the Washington Commanders and at the Los Angeles Rams. After that, from November 23 to December 17, the Seahawks have a brutal stretch that will make or break the 2023 campaign.
In those four games, the team will face the 49ers, Cowboys, 49ers, and Philadelphia Eagles.
If the Seahawks can come through that stretch 2-2 or better, then they will have proved they are a legit playoff team by getting two wins against the three teams that almost everyone agrees are the class of the NFC this year.
That said, if these NFC standouts do to the Seahawks what the Ravens did to them in Week 9, the season could be unofficially over before Christmas.
That’s what is at stake in the coming weeks, so as Huard so subtly suggests, the team now has two weeks to get their game plan, quarterback, defense, and toughness before their season is on the line.