The Seattle Seahawks came back from San Diego with a surprising result, they lost 30-21 at Qualcomm Stadium to the San Diego Chargers. As with most Hawks fans I thought they would make the short trip down the coast and win pretty handily, boy was I wrong. “Underestimate is the sign of getting fucked up,” Pete Carroll nor any of the other coaches or players would admit this but I’m sure they underestimated the Chargers and thought if they just showed up they would win. This doesn’t mean they lollygagged through practice all week it just means as the defending Super Bowl champs they thought their past accomplishments would strike fear into the opposition’s hearts and minds. In fact it is quite the opposite, now Seattle will have a target on their backs and every team will prepare the hardest the week they play them. Last season the Seahawks might have flown under the radar because most of the national media was focused on the Denver Broncos and the San Francisco 49ers. This season the spotlight is shining directly on the Pacific Northwest with every result being scrutinized to the 1000th degree by all the armchair/Monday morning QB’s from the 206 to the 305. It’s still very early in the 2014 campaign so there is plenty of time for Pete Carroll to remedy these issues but with the Denver Broncos making an appearance at CenturyLink Field they will need to make some major adjustments ASAP.

Let’s start out with the good from the game (admittedly not much) but there were a few lone bright spots. Russell Wilson had a very nice game, 17/25 for 202 yards with 2 TD’s and 0 INT’s, even with his offensive-line breaking down within seconds of the snap. I was looking thought the box score on ESPN.com and I found something very confusing. Wilson’s passer rating was 119.1 out of a possible 158.3 but his total QBR was 29.2 out of a possible 100. If 50 is considered average QBR then Russell had a below average game but if you watch the game you would know this is flat out wrong. He made all the right decisions when it came to knowing when to throw the ball away and when to run. His control of this offense is so impressive, all he needs is a little bit better protection/time to throw the ball. Bobby Wagner may have had the only good game on the defense. I heard on KJR one of the hosts said he has had 9 or more tackles in the last 13 straight games. Luke Kuechly, of the Carolina Panthers, gets all the praise and accolades as the best “middle or mike” linebacker in the NFL but Bobby Wagner isn’t too far behind him in the statistic department. Plus Wagner is on a defense with Earl Thomas, Richard Sherman, Kam Chancellor, Michael Bennett, Cliff Avril, K.J. Wright and Brandon Mebane so he is often overshadowed by the bigger names but he is just as important. Those 2 players were the only ones who had good games while everyone else was either average or below average.

So many of Seattle’s key players did not play up to their production against San Diego and it showed. First of all, the Chargers made attacking the Seahawks down the seams their main plan of attack on offense. Antonio Gates victimized Kam Chancellor and K.J. Wright on multiple occasions when they were assigned to cover him, he ended up having 7 receptions for 96 yards and 3 TD’s. The last time Gates had 3 TD’s in a game was in Week 7 of the 2005 NFL season against the Kansas City Chiefs. I won’t put all the blame on those 2 because the pass rush was non-existent besides the 1 sack by Michael Bennett. Philip Rivers had so much time in the pocket which made it was easy for his receivers to find the holes in the zone coverage or run precise routes against man coverage. I give the Hawks D-line a little bit of a pass because Rivers was uncharacteristically slippery in the pocket, breaking out of a couple arm tackles and scrambling for some yards. I also give a ton of credit to Rivers because he didn’t force the ball downfield and into the teeth of the Legion of Boom. Instead he just checked down to his short pattern receiver or his RB coming out of the backfield. These were major problem areas but I have 2 specific issues which I think doomed the Seahawks the most.

First, Marshawn Lynch didn’t get enough rushing opportunities. He only had 6 carries for 36 yards, this is simply not good enough. In the game against Green Bay he had 20 carries for 110 yards and 2 TD’s. The Seattle offense is predicated around Lynch and his ability to gain tough yards and keep the chains moving thus keeping the ball for long periods of time and wearing down the opposing defense. Russell Wilson is the future of this team but the O-line isn’t good enough for him to sit back in the pocket and throw the ball repeatedly, which was evident against the Chargers. I understand the Hawks were down almost the entire game but that is no reason to stop handing the ball off to your Pro Bowl caliber RB.

Second, Richard Sherman and Earl Thomas (to a lesser degree) both played horribly, possibly the worst games in their Seahawks careers. Thomas wasn’t his usual play-making self, normally he is right in the middle of the action, either crashing down on the RB from his safety position or breaking up/intercepting a pass. He still had 7 tackles in the game but at one point he had to come out of the game and hydrate. I won’t ever attribute this loss to the heat but it certainly played a factor. After the game, Keenan Allen was quoted as saying Richard Sherman “isn’t a shutdown cornerback” which I find preposterous but that is my opinion. I believe Allen should have/meant to say he (Sherman) does have weaknesses and we used those weaknesses to our advantage. The Chargers ran a ton of short, quick routes at Sherman forcing him to make open field tackles, which is not his strong suit.

Being the defending Super Bowl champions places a huge target on the Seattle Seahawks back, every team they face this season will circle this game and make sure to bring their A game. This means the Hawks can’t take any opponents lightly and will need to take their game to another level if they want any chance of repeating. I’m sure the coaching staff talked about this during training camp but now the players have firsthand experience of how hard the road will be to reach back to back Super Bowls. I was wondering how long it would take the Seahawks to figure out you can’t win a game based on reputation alone, luckily it happened in Week 2. There are some glaring weaknesses with this team but in the end I’m still extremely confident in their ability to repeat as Super Bowl champions.