Unfortunately,Tennessee’s “exotic smashmouth” offense proved to be too much for the Hawks defense and the streak of road losses in the month of September now stands at 6. That’s right, the Seahawks have not won a road game in the month of September since Week 4, 2013 against the Texans.

Offense

The Seahawks offense started out slow but picked up in the 2nd quarter and really seemed to look like the offense of yesteryears. Doug Baldwin had an outstanding game tallying 105 yards on 10 receptions and a TD. Unfortunately, Baldwin went down late in the game and it was later confirmed by head coach Pete Carroll that he suffered a groin strain however, the team was unaware of the severity of the strain. I’m sure all 12’s are with me when sending good vibes Doug Baldwin’s way and hoping for a speedy recovery! Baldwin was targeted the most today at 15 times and I bet you’ll never guess who came in second…(well you probably will because you probably watched the game)…Jimmy Graham! That’s right, Jimmy G, who had just 5 catches for 10 yards through week 2, was targeted 11 times and caught 7 of those passes for 72 yards. He even attempted to hurdle over a defender, unsuccessfully, but the effort was much appreciated. This was most definitely the performance the Seahawks were expecting to see every game since acquiring Graham however, he’s been a bit of a let down. Luke Wilson, Paul Richardson and Chris Carson all recorded receiving TD’s but it still wasn’t enough to get the W.

The offensive line managed to hold the Titan’s defense to only one sack on Russell Wilson for a loss of 9 yards. That’s impressive coming off of back to back 3 sack games. They were able to give him more time in the pocket as well so that was promising. I think the key to the offensive success today was the implementation of the no huddle on the majority of plays.

#Seahawks have scored 26 of their 35 points this season, incl all 14 today, on drives that have included the no-huddle offense. #justsayin

— Gregg Bell (@gbellseattle) September 24, 2017

All 4 of the Seahawks TD’s were a product of boosting the tempo and using a no huddle offense approach. Russell Wilson only rushed for 26 yards and seemed as if he felt more comfortable not having to rely on the run game so much, also finally having more time to throw throw the ball thanks to his o-line. Despite the loss, Wilson put up 373 yards passing along with those 4 TD’s which is an impressive stat that will fall to the wayside due to the outcome of this game. CJ Prosise and Chris Carson had meek performances on the ground but both backs made some big receptions with Carson’s being a 10 yard dump off in the 3rd quarter and his first career TD. The offense did all they could today and finally seemed to be in synch, however, it just wasn’t enough.

Defense

Just as we thought the defense was the least of our worries, Seattle’s D gave up 33 points after being completely worn down by the rushing attack from DeMarco Murray and Derrick Henry. There were rumblings of Murray struggling with a hamstring injury in the first 2 weeks but it appeared today that he is at 100%. Evidence being his monster 75 yard TD run in the third quarter where he was juking defenders left and right like a spry 20 year old! This is the longest run against the Seahawks in the Carroll coaching era, which began in 2010. Ultimately, Seattle’s defense allowed 195 rushing yards today, 165 of those coming in the second half, which was the most allowed by the Seahawks since Oct. 28, 2013, when they gave up 200 yards against the Rams.

We gave up too many big running plays.

– DE Frank Clark

What really hurt the defense today was the number of penalties. Richard Sherman had 4 penalties called on him in the first half alone, three stemming from one play (interference, holding and unsportsmanlike conduct). In the second quarter Sherman was called for a late hit on Marcus Mariota who was already being shoved out of bounds by Kam Chancellor. Of course this infuriated the Titan’s bench and caused an all out brawl, well an all out verbal brawl. Subsequently, Sherman was called for a a live-ball personal foul instead of a dead-ball unsportsmanlike which prevented his ejection from the game. Alas, the Seahawks ended up with 98…yes, 98 penalty yards to just 45 for the Titans.

Up Next

Seattle will head back home to face the 1-2 Indianapolis Colts on Sunday, October 1 at 5:30pm PST. The Colts will be riding high after nabbing their first victory on the season against the Browns earlier today, however, they’ve struggled this season and I’m predicting the Hawks will even their record out with a victory. Go Hawks!

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