Seattle Seahawks Plenty Of Blame To Go Around After Loss To Cincinnati Bengals

It was a "good news, bad news" scenario for the Seahawks on Sunday in the 17-13 loss to Cincinnati.

It was a "good news, bad news" scenario for the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday in a 17-13 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals at Paycor Stadium. The good news? The team played well enough to win if not for costly mistakes. The bad news? The team played well enough to win if not for costly mistakes.

The Seattle defense held a stout Bengals offense to just 17 points, and superstar quarterback Joe Burrow to only 185 yards passing. As a matter of fact, Cincinnati gained just 214 total yards. But somehow that was too much, even with Seahawks quarterback Geno Smith passing for 323 yards and Seattle gaining a whopping 381 total yards on the day.

Admittedly, Smith and the team made too many mistakes, with two interceptions not helping the cause. 

The Seahawks committed several self-inflicted errors on Sunday / © Joseph Maiorana-USA TODAY Sports

“I felt like the guys deserved to win today. Obviously, I didn’t do my best job today to get that done,” Smith said. “So those are things I put on myself, I lay right on my feet right, on my shoulders and I look forward to the next opportunity.”

Aside from the picks, Smith took a costly sack in the final frame that turned a 1st and Goal at the Bengals' seven-yard line into a 2nd and Goal from the 19. To make matters worse, it was one of four trips inside the red zone where Seattle was turned away without points.

Smith isn't solely to blame, though. The stopgap offensive line finally showed signs of weakness after near-miraculous performances in previous weeks, and one of Smith's picks was due to a miscommunication with receiver DK Metcalf. Play-calling could also be questioned.

“We had so many ways to win in that football game and so many ways to score and opportunities that got squandered,” Seattle coach Pete Carroll said. “But there was just a lot of positives moving forward.”

Where there are questions, there are usually answers. And time is the answer to the offensive line woes. Time to heal and time to gel. As far as the miscommunication issues, that can be solved in practice. The Seahawks are 3-2, second place in the division, and with the opportunity to correct some early-season errors, could be in line for another playoff appearance.