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Seattle Seahawks quarterback Geno Smith sees help in the offing, but he had to operate without the services of star receiver D.K. Metcalf on Sunday. Predictably the Seahawks lost to the Bills and here are the folks most to blame for the Week 8 setback.
Bills quarterback Josh Allen threw a pair of touchdown passes and led his team to a 31-10 beatdown of the non-competitive Seahawks. Running back James Cook torched the Seahawks for 117 yards and a pair of scores.
But perhaps the most notable part of the loss for Seattle came from two defensive linemen teammates throwing punches at each other on the sideline.
DL Derick Hall and DL Jarran Reed had to be separated
It’s hard enough to beat opponents in the NFL when every player is on the same page. When the fight descends into a brawl between teammates, it becomes near impossible. After being flagged for a late hit on Allen, Hall and Reed got into a gentlemanly discussion on the sideline. Or not. Halls said it’s part of the game, according to espn.com.
“He loves the game, I love the game, and in that moment I think things got heated,” Hall said. “But you know, he’s a leader. He’s the leader of our group. And when stuff hits the fan, you have to lean on those guys. And maybe we both could do something a little bit better.”
What could have been done better?
How about tackling Cook a time or two, instead of expending energy in a sideline fight? Hall had three tackles and Reed had one. Make that a season-low one for Reed. Head coach Mike Macdonald needs to shore up the tenches problem quickly. He said his team got outplayed along with the other issues, according to seahawks.com.
“That's a result of good football team that outplayed us in three phases,” Macdonald said. “And then it gets out of hand when you're doing the things we did today where we didn't help ourselves as well. It's a laundry list of things. We can go line item by line item if you want.
“The long and short of it is we got outplayed, outcoached, and we got to go make it right. Feel like it's too often we have had this conversation with you guys of going back to work on Tuesday and hitting this thing head on and seeing if we can get this thing turned around against a good Rams team coming in here.”
QB Geno Smith turned in an unimpressive effort
After settling in as the NFL leader in passing yards, Smith couldn’t keep it going against the Bills. He hit on 21 of 29 attempts for 212 yards with no touchdowns and an interception. However, he called the loss extremely frustrating.
“I thought we prepared really well this week,” Smith said. “I thought the guys were dialed in, we had great energy. Obviously, it didn't show up on game day today. We had too many self-inflicted wounds. That's been our story this season. We got down there in the red zone twice, had a shot at points, and came away with nothing. Well, we got three points, but we want to score touchdowns. Those are things that, again, we've got to be better at. I'm going to look at myself first and see what I've got to do better and take it from there.”
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Also, part of the bad day included a stumble and fall by Smith on fourth-and-goal from the 1-yard line in the first half.
What did Geno Smith say changed the outcome?
Smith said scoring instead of coming away with nothing twice in the red zone changed everything, according to seahawks.com.
“I think it's a much different game,” Smith said. “Hats off to Buffalo. They came in and beat us at home. Their fans travel well. It was really loud in there and kind of felt like we were on the road at times. They came out and fought and beat us. We can say we made mistakes, but they capitalized. Those are things we've got to get better at, and we got a big week ahead so the time is now.”
The early woes forced the Seahawks into comeback mode.
“You never want to play from behind, but those are the cards we were dealt and you've got to do it,” Smith said. “We put ourselves in those positions. So if there is anyone to be frustrated at it's our own self. We can play from behind, (and) we have shown that we can fight back and get back into games. You don't want to make a living out of that. For us, we start talking about fast. Two three-and-outs to start the game is unacceptable.”
Head coach Mike Macdonald struggled
The Seahawks haven’t been good enough on defense this year, and that’s on Macdonald. They gave up over 29 or more points for the fourth time in the five games. Predictably, they lost all four of those contests.
However, after starting the year with three straight wins, and good defensive performances, the Seahawks have hit the skids. Macdonald said it needs to change.
“We talk about stacking wins around here, and when you're going on and off, back and forth, it's frustrating,” Macdonald said. “You want to be able to build on the good things that we're doing so we can get our program to where we want it to go. When you take steps back like today, it's very sobering, frustrating. But this is the NFL. If you don't bring it and have your best against good teams, you're not going to win those games. Our guys know that.”
