The Seahawks' laundry list of problems is far from resolved, and time is running out

SEATTLE – Mike Macdonald was being sarcastic when he said it, but the Seattle Seahawks coach actually found a fitting explanation for the disaster that unfolded at Lumen Field on Sunday afternoon.

“It's a long list of things,” Macdonald said after his team's 31-10 loss to the Buffalo Bills. “If you want, we can go line item by line item.”

Let's do this. For the sake of brevity, we'll limit the list to five items.

1) Ken Walker III and Zach Charbonnet combined for 16 rushing yards on 12 carries. Charbonnet scored on a 1-yard run in the fourth quarter as Seattle lost by four touchdowns. Geno Smith led Seattle in rushing with 16 yards on five attempts, thanks largely to a meaningless 13-yard scramble on Seattle's final possession.

2) Buffalo running backs James Cook and Ray Davis combined for 140 yards on 23 attempts. Cook scored two goals in the second half. Bills quarterback Josh Allen had 29 rushing yards and converted more third downs on the ground (two) than Seattle did all game (one).

3) Seattle committed 11 penalties – six on offense, four on defense and one on special teams. The Bills committed 13 penalties, but none of their penalties were due to the quarterback throwing the ball to a defensive lineman's head after a play, as Smith did in the third quarter. Neither of Buffalo's flags resulted in two teammates attempting to fight each other on the sideline, which occurred after fullback Derick Hall called a penalty on the passer in the second quarter.

4) Both quarterbacks threw interceptions, but the difference in reactions on the other side of the ball highlighted the divide between the two teams. After Allen was picked off by cornerback Josh Jobe in the second quarter, Seattle gained zero yards on four score-to-go plays and turned the ball over on downs. After Smith intercepted a batted ball intended as a screen pass in the third quarter, Buffalo gained 51 yards in seven plays and scored a touchdown.

5) The Seahawks completed three explosive passes, and two of them came when they were down 31-3 early in the fourth quarter. The other was a 17-yard reception from Walker. The Bills, on the other hand, had six explosive plays in the air and three on the ground.

“It’s just an overall crappy performance,” Hall said. “It burns. It hurts.”

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The loss, which was their third straight home loss, dropped the Seahawks to 4-4 and erased their NFC West lead. Seattle trailed the entire game and suffered the worst defeat of Macdonald's young tenure, both because of the result and the way it looked. The Seahawks were outmatched, out-coached and undisciplined the entire game. Their rain-soaked fans booed almost as often as they cheered.

Meanwhile, Buffalo's fans lined most of the lower bowl behind the visitors' bench and roared at the end of the game when a pair of knockdowns by Mitch Trubisky put the game on ice.

“Hats off to Buffalo,” Smith said. “They came in and beat us at home. Your fans travel well. It was really loud in there and sometimes it felt like we were on the move.”

It's also a familiar feeling. This is the first loss this year in which Seattle never had a chance to tie or take the lead in the fourth quarter, but the issues that led to the collapse are things Macdonald has tried to address most of the season fix. The laundry list alone isn't the reason Seattle is on track for a third straight season of mediocre success. It's the fact that everything on the list is a recurring problem.

“Coming into this game, we had some things we wanted to focus on and we weren't able to get the job done today,” Hall said. “It’s that simple.”

The Seahawks were one of the worst teams in the league at defending the run. In six of their eight games, they have allowed running backs to combine for at least 118 yards. To address this deficiency, they made two separate trades for the first seven players. It was similar on Sunday. Although the Seahawks improved the depth of the defensive line this week by acquiring Roy Robertson-Harris and trading inside linebacker Jerome Baker for Ernest Jones IV, the Seahawks still missed tackles, couldn't get out of the blocks and walked while trying to catch Cook and to bring Davis down, bad angles.

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Seattle was also one of the worst teams in the league at defending passes. Allen completed 7 of 9 play-action passes for 104 yards and a 12-yard touchdown to tight end Dalton Kincaid in the second quarter. Kincaid's touchdown came while Hall and Reed stood on the sideline arguing after the former's penalty extended Buffalo's drive on third-and-7 from the 24-yard line with 38 seconds left. Robertson-Harris had to get between them after Hall and Reed grabbed each other on the sideline.

Six for DK before half time!

📺: @NFLonFOX#NationalTightEndsDay | #BillsMafia pic.twitter.com/4nlK2PQyYO

– Buffalo Bills (@BuffaloBills) October 27, 2024

Hall said he believes his attack on Allen was legal. “It felt like I was leading with my hands,” he said. Macdonald saw it differently.

“It wasn’t a smart penalty,” Macdonald said. “That’s not how we train our guys to attack quarterbacks.”

Hall said that Reed's argument was about “being smart.” Hall described Reed as a leader on their defense and acknowledged both players “could have done some things a little better.” The two made peace and continued the game without any problems.

“He just came up to me and said, 'I love you,' and I told him, 'I love you,'” Hall said. “Things happen in the heat of the moment, but we both love the game, we both love each other. … There is no bad blood. We play together, we love each other (and) we’ll be back next Sunday.”

Seattle was without star receiver DK Metcalf (knee) on a Buffalo defense that was eighth in scoring and 12th in EPA per game entering Week 7. Metcalf went missing on Sunday. But his absence isn't the reason Seattle scored just three points on its two goal-line drives in the first half.

The first drive was torpedoed by a snap shot by center Connor Williams that sailed over Smith's head on second-and-goal in the third minute. Seattle eventually faced third-and-goal from the 27-yard line and settled for a field goal. After Jobe Allen intercepted — the quarterback's first of the year and the first of Jobe's career — Seattle took over at Buffalo's 7. That drive ended with no points after Williams accidentally stepped on Smith's foot on fourth-and-goal from the 1. Smith rushed and lost 6 yards.

HUGE defensive reaction @BuffaloBills after the INT and they get the ball back after a stop on 4th and a goal!

📺: #BUFvsSEA on FOX
📱: https://t.co/waVpO909ge pic.twitter.com/q9O1GlvZ1t

– NFL (@NFL) October 27, 2024

“My job is to be reliable and consistent, and I wasn’t that today,” Williams said. “It starts with me. I have to fix it.”

Williams said the rainy conditions were no excuse for his poor snap.

“It has to reach Geno and it has to reach him in the right place,” he said. “It’s entirely up to me.”

Macdonald described Seattle's running game as a “big concern,” and yet that's an easy statement. Seattle's running backs have combined for over 100 yards in just two games this season. There were times when the offense could function without getting much off the floor, but the more this continues, the more likely results like this will become. If the Seahawks can't dictate terms on offense like they did against Atlanta last week, games can quickly slip away from them, as was the case in this case.

Seattle knew this and still couldn't block well enough, leaving its running backs unable to do much. Walker only had two runs where he gained more than 2 yards.

“(It's) frustrating not being able to do what we promised,” said Seattle receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba, who led the team with 69 yards on six catches. “Cat on our heels and we felt like we couldn't catch up when we were down. Bad feeling.”

Smith, who completed 21 of 29 passes for 212 yards, said: “When you talk about all the things we want to do well, I don't think we did any of them today. We have to look at ourselves in the mirror and move on from there.”

The Seahawks will enter Week 9 against the Rams (3-4) tied in the division with the Cardinals (4-4) and perhaps the 49ers (until Sunday night's game against the Cowboys).

But a team that is incapable of running the ball, playing cleanly, stopping the run or containing playful passes will almost certainly be playing meaningless football in December and January. The Seahawks knew that going into this season. They knew it after their three-game losing streak. And they certainly knew it as they walked off the field on Sunday.

“We have to get it right” has become Macdonald’s motto after these familiar defeats. But at some point it's worth asking whether this group is capable of correcting its long list of mistakes before it's too late.

(Photo by Geno Smith: Joe Nicholson / Imagn Images)

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