Seattle Seahawks: 3 Big takeaways from loss vs. 49ers in Week 15
By Samuel Teets
The Seattle Seahawks could have — and should have — finished the 49ers before overtime, but now they look back at a disappointing Week 15 loss.
The Seattle Seahawks lost in overtime to the San Francisco 49ers, who entered Sunday with a 3-10 record, with a final score of 26-23. I thought the game would be close, but I didn’t actually expect the Seahawks to end up losing. There was no way Seattle, a legitimate playoff team, should have lost to the 49ers who have been floundering through the season. It’s inexcusable.
With the loss, Seattle’s record is now 8-6, the same as the fourth seed Dallas Cowboys. But it isn’t the Cowboys that the Seahawks need to be worried about. The Minnesota Vikings, who the Seahawks just beat last week, won in Week 15 and are now 7-6-1.
It seemed that the Seahawks were going to run away with the fifth seed in the NFC because they seemed to be trending up while the Vikings were trending down. However, now there’s a sincere chance the Seahawks drop to the sixth seed, and they still need to worry about the 7-7 Washington Redskins finding a way to leapfrog them for that spot.
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The Seahawks still have to play the 3-11 Arizona Cardinals in Week 17, but their Week 16 matchup is the scary one. In Week 16, Seattle will face Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs, but they will be playing at home in front of the 12th Man. There’s a lot more emphasis on that game not that the Seahawks are in danger of losing the fifth seed. None of this would have been a problem though if the team had just shown up and taken care of business though.
Seattle needs a shutdown corner
Shaquill Griffin hasn’t lived up to the expectations this year. Many fans hoped he would turn into a true top corner and be able to cover the best receivers on opposing teams, but that has not been the case. Griffin is not the leader or played that the Seahawks secondary so desperately needs.
Don’t get me wrong, the secondary is playing far above expectations and all of its key members are talented, but they don’t have a Richard Sherman or Earl Thomas and that will hurt them in the long run.
The Seahawks are ranked 20th in the league in pass defense, allowing 247.4 yards per game through the air. The run defense is ranked 15th, which isn’t great, but at least it’s in the top half of the league. If the Seahawks are going to be a playoff caliber team year in and year out, then the pass defense needs to be better. You can’t be giving up an average of 344.5 yards per game to Nick Mullens and hope to be one of the top tier teams in the league.