The Seattle Seahawks are learning firsthand that defending the Super Bowl championship is not for the weak. After a Monday Night Football 34-17 defeat to the Chicago Bears, the team dropped to 4-4.
The Seahawks’ offense has struggled to adjust since Klint Kubiak left as offensive coordinator. Brian Fleury has struggled to sustain the offense from game to game. Even the returns of running backs Zach Charbonnet and Jadarian Price, and the trade for perennial All-Pro guard Quenton Nelson, did little to cure the Seahawks’ offensive woes.
On the night, the Seahawks totaled 252 yards on offense and, on defense, a normally stout unit, allowed 363 yards and 34 points. Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald knows this won’t repeat, and the team must raise its level of play across the board.
Finding Themselves
Jaxon Smith-Njigba has picked up where he left off last year as the best wide receiver in football; however, he at times has been the only offensive threat for the Seahawks. In the first half of the Chicago game, Smith-Njigba had 92 receiving yards, and Sam Darnold had 94 passing yards. The Seahawks need improvement; however, Mike Macdonald doesn’t believe the team needs a complete shake-up.
Speaking to Seattle Sports 710 on his weekly radio show, Macdonald reflected on where the Seahawks are at this point in the season.
“If we’re going to go out, we want to go out in our way and our style, and that wasn’t us, or the best version of us at least,” Macdonald said, via the team’s website. “So that’s why I think it’s so tough. We have to focus on recapturing us and making sure that we’re us when we turn the tape on. There were too many times throughout that game where that wasn’t us in terms of just our style of ball. That’s where we need to get better.”
One of the biggest pieces of the Seahawks’ offense getting back to their style is their offensive line, and figuring out how to reconfigure the pieces after acquiring Quenton Nelson.
Figuring Out the Line
Finding consistency on the offensive line has been an ongoing struggle for the Seahawks. Charles Cross is dealing with injuries; the team traded for All-Pro Quenton Nelson, but he’s now injured, and they’re sliding Grey Zabel around the line. Offensive coordinator Brian Fleury has had his hands full.
Ari Horton of Seahawks.com, in her November 5 article, wrote about Fleury’s evaluation of the line play in the team’s Week 8 loss to the Bears.
“I wouldn’t say that it was perfect,” Fleury said. “But considering all the moving parts and the new people in new places communicating in different ways, I was overall happy with what they were able to do out there. I think that there’s room for growth and I’m excited to see that growth.”
Injuries have become one of the biggest stories with this Seahawks team, and with Sam Darnold and Nelson both out against the Arizona Cardinals this week, it continues to haunt the Seahawks. In the meantime, both Mike Macdonald and Fleury are working with the pieces they have to try to get back to Seahawks football.
Seahawks HC Macdonald Says Team Needs To Find Itself Again