Dave Boling: Seahawks take deserved drop to NFC West basement after another poor showing on home field

SEATTLE – Surprising how entertaining bad football can be when both teams perform with comparable incompetence while the title of the worst team in the NFL’s weakest division is at stake.

The Seattle Seahawks played good offense for, oh, maybe a couple minutes on Sunday, but their defense was stout enough to push Sunday’s battle against the Los Angeles Rams into overtime, where the Hawks failed to pick up 1 yard on two critical plays, and then surrendered the touchdown that gave the Rams a 26-20 win.

This could have been a tourniquet win for the Hawks, something to slow the bleeding to buy time to identify and heal the countless areas of competitive damage.

Instead, it was the fifth loss in six games, which included four straight at Lumen Field, once among the most forbidding territories for visiting NFL teams.

Now 4-5, the Hawks have fallen from the NFC West Division lead all the way to the basement. The Rams leveled up at 4-4 with their third straight win.

It made for an exciting game, and the crowd of more than 68,000 was into the action – often not even booing.

Although, we’re using “exciting” in the Demolition Derby sense, not in the Football as an Art Form way.

Simple explanation. For much of the day, the Seahawks did not look like a professional football team.

Especially on offense. Quality NFL football teams do not chronically struggle to get the ball from the center to the quarterback. Shotgun snaps, for the second straight week, led to big losses. This is the most fundamental process in the game, from Pop Warner to the NFL.

“Right now, we’re doing too many things that (are) not winning football,” coach Mike Macdonald said, offering a broad and accurate assessment.

Quarterback Geno Smith? Three touchdowns and three interceptions. But, again, the guy was under constant pressure from a Rams’ front that owned the Hawks’ offensive line. They smashed Smith for seven sacks for minus 46 yards. Smith absorbed 11 quarterback hits on 34 attempts.

The 103-yard pick-six interception of Smith’s pass to the end zone in the fourth quarter put the Rams up 20-13.

Smith stood at the interview podium afterward and apologized to his teammates, the city and the organization. “The mistakes I made today really cost us the game,” Smith said. Sorry, Geno, you were just a cog in the dysfunctional machinery.

Receiver Jaxson Smith-Njigba scored the tying touchdown in the final minute of regulation to help it get to overtime. And for most of the game, he calmed fans’ nerves about the leg injury that sidelined star receiver DK Metcalf.

Smith-Njigba was probably the brightest aspect of this game, scoring twice on seven catches for 180 yards, which doesn’t include the 78 yards on a pair of catches that were called back due to offensive line penalties.

Yes, penalties again. This time, 12 for 95 yards.

The blocking? Again weak, which made Kenneth Walker III’s 83 rushing yards feel almost heroic.

In contrast to previous examples of lax tackling, Seattle limited the Rams to 2.8 yards per carry on 24 rushes. Linebacker Ernest Jones IV, acquired two weeks ago from the Titans, came up with nine tackles and contributed to some key run stops in the Seahawks Red Zone.

Recently elevated from the Hawks’ practice squad, Coby White picked up 44 yards on a pair of receptions and also blocked a punt in the fourth quarter.

“Defensively, I thought (we) played extremely hard, and tackled better,” Macdonald said.

Yes, fair enough. The defense mostly played well enough to beat a somewhat average NFL opponent. That group can keep Seattle in games if the offense can somehow get some of its problems cured in the final eight games.

Coming into the game as minus-4 in turnovers, the Hawks were minus-2 Sunday, and went 0-for-2 in goal-to-go situations. And somehow battled, in futility, until the end.

“Despite playing a bad game over all, we had a chance and we didn’t close it out,” said safety Julian Love.

The story is getting redundant. But more painful is the fact that it keeps happening at home, in front of so many thousands screaming their guts out for the Hawks.

Macdonald acknowledged that the team didn’t live up to support it received.

They get a week off for the bye next week. They can use it, although that may not be enough time to hammer out everything that needs serious repair.