Coming off their fifth loss in six games after a 26-20 overtime defeat to the Los Angeles Rams last Sunday, the Seattle Seahawks found themselves licking their wounds during their bye week, searching for answers to address everything that has plagued them amid a 4-5 start.
Rather than dwell on Seattle's continued self-inflicted mistakes, including a pair of red zone interceptions thrown by Geno Smith in the latest loss at Lumen Field, coach Mike Macdonald maintained a sense of optimism heading into the bye on Monday, demonstrating a glass half full mindset with the belief his team can turn things around in quick order after a week-long reset.
"We have to clean those things up, but we have an opportunity here this week to attack the heck out of this bye week," Macdonald said. "Our players get a chance to really recover and take care of their bodies and coaches-wise, we got some work on our hands to go attack this thing and really continue to streamline what we're doing, how we're coaching it. We're trying to get done and have a great plan for next week so we can really hit the ground running on Monday and ramp into the second half of the season, which is critical for us. We have to start producing better results."
Unfortunately, while time will tell whether or not Macdonald and his staff found the answers they sought during a much-needed week off to help get the Seahawks rolling out of the break, results from the rest of the NFC West this weekend have made their task of climbing back into the division race as well as the playoff hunt look all the more daunting.
With the Seahawks being idle on Sunday, the first place Cardinals stayed hot and looked the part of a formidable NFC contender at home on Sunday, beating down on the hapless Jets in a 31-6 blowout victory. Quarterback Kyler Murray played nearly flawless football, completing 22 out of 24 pass attempts for 266 yards and a touchdown, while the run game contributed 147 yards on the ground in a balanced all-around offensive effort.
An improving Arizona defense also shut down Aaron Rodgers and company, holding New York to 207 net yards and under four yards per play. The Jets managed to advance into the red zone three times, but only turned those opportunities into a pair of field goals, while the Cardinals scored four touchdowns on five trips inside the opposing 20-yard line to snatch their fourth consecutive victory and maintain sole possession atop the division standings.
On the other side of the country, though they had to eek out the win, the 49ers found a way to overcome three missed field goals earlier in the game to edge the Buccaneers 23-20 at Raymond James Stadium, jumping back over the .500 mark and keeping pace with the Cardinals. Returning from an Achilles injury, Christian McCaffrey only rushed for 39 yards, but he caught six passes for 68 yards to pace the offense and rookie Ricky Pearsall scored his first NFL touchdown in the win.
San Francisco still hasn't quite hit its stride either, in part due to a plethora of injuries on both sides of the ball, but Brock Purdy and company continue to find ways to win games. Even if they haven't been as dominant as prior years, the defense held Baker Mayfield and Tampa Bay to five third down conversions on 14 attempts and 215 net yards, which proved to be just good enough in a tight road win that pushed them a full game ahead of Seattle.
Comparatively, the Seahawks are the only team in the NFC West that isn't trending upward at the midway point of the season. While Macdonald's squad has floundered since the start of October and completely wasted a 3-0 start, the Cardinals have won five out of six games, the 49ers have won three out of four, and the Rams have a chance to push their win streak to four games when they host the 2-6 Dolphins on Monday Night Football.
Making matters worse, with Arizona and San Francisco beating conference foes on Sunday, both teams improved to 3-3 against the rest of the NFC. Los Angeles would improve to 4-4 if it wins over Miami on Monday night, while Seattle has a dismal 1-4 mark against intraconference opponents. If Macdonald's team can climb back up the standings in the second half, tiebreakers currently are not working in their favor at all.
As Macdonald rightfully pointed out, there's still a lot of football left for the Seahawks to play, including two games against the division-leading Cardinals and a rematch with the 49ers in the next month. Winning two of those games or all three would work wonders towards improving their standing not only in the division, but against other playoff hopefuls vying for a wild card, and the morale within the organization could be transformed in no time.
At the same time, however, the next three weeks could derail Seattle's season completely with at least two losses in that span, dropping them to seven losses on the season with just five games left to play on the schedule. With Arizona, Los Angeles, and San Francisco all surging over the past month, Macdonald's team has minimal margin for error left and if the ship is going to be righted, it absolutely must start with a road trip to Santa Clara next weekend and a home date with Arizona the week after.
Based on how their rivals played this weekend, already challenging divisional matchups will be even trickier for the Seahawks to come out victorious in, and missing those opportunities would all but unofficially knock them out of playoff consideration before the calendar even flips to December. That's the reality Macdonald and his staff will have to sell to players upon their return with hopes of bringing out their best play in the second half to salvage a once-promising season.
