NFL Week 4 Analysis: Lions 42, Seahawks 29 Winners and Losers

Weren’t you entertained?!

You were probably at least a little frustrated that the Seattle Seahawks lost a thriller 42-29 to the Detroit Lions. It is the fourth year in a row that this game has become a shootout, but this time the Lions were able to defeat Seattle. Even without the injuries, this would have been a difficult task, but the Seahawks bravely persevered thanks to an outstanding offensive performance.

Seattle isn’t going to go up 20-0, so deal with it. In addition to the negatives, there were also a lot of positives in this book, so let’s get to the winners and losers!

winner

Geno Smith

I don’t care about the interception late in the game in a losing cause (although I do care about some of the riskier throws early in the quarter). Smith did everything he could to win that game and he was sensational. It’s a shame he doesn’t play in an offense that passes the ball heavily at the 1-yard line so he could get even more touchdown passes. I think the 4 TD/4 INT ratio doesn’t do him justice.

Smith was statistically brilliant (38/56 for 395 yards) and did so under great pressure. Aidan Hutchinson had 10 pressures alone and did everything but get a sack. Geno made phenomenal plays on the run, fought his way out of danger, delivered accurate passes, and did top-10 quarterback-style things all night long.

It’s a shame that too many of Smith’s best performances also came during some of Seattle’s worst defensive games.

Ryan Grubb

I’m a little concerned about how much passing the script had in the first half, but I’m thrilled with his adjustments in the second half and his general play instructions. Make a lateral play to get out of 3rd-and-16? Awesome. Aggressive attack on Detroit’s man coverage? Clever. More midfielders like Jake Bobo, Jaxon Smith-Njigba and Noah Fant? I love it. A screen pass that actually gained more than 5 yards? He could be a wizard. Seattle had 38 first downs. 38! Over 500 yards of offense!

Grubb is also still learning to navigate NFL coordination. This was the best we’ve seen on offense in the last four weeks, and the passing game really looks like it could develop into one of the best in the NFL with only slightly better pass protection. I’m thrilled. That’s my biggest positive takeaway from today’s defeat.

Kenneth Walker III

Welcome back, K9. The only thing you can say is that he didn’t get the ball anymore. He had 16 touchdowns for 116 yards and 3 touchdowns, and his most impressive play was this ridiculous flip/somersault off his back for a first down. They’ll live with his occasional -6-yard runs that are too hard for him to tackle if it means the ridiculous highlight plays he makes.

Jaxon Smith-Njigba

JSN only had 51 yards receiving. He also had eight catches, five of which were first downs. Otherwise there would have been six The OPI via Tyler Lockett. I know we haven’t seen him as a deep ball option yet, but he moves the damn chains, which excites me. Bobby Engram crossed with Tyler Lockett would be one heck of a receiver.

DK Metcalf

I’ll be a little hesitant to put DK here. His 7 catches for 104 yards make him the first Seahawk in franchise history to complete a trifecta of 100-yard receiving games. That lost fumble was costly, however, and he’s done it a few times before when trying to fight for extra yards. The dubious OPI against Tyler Lockett probably doesn’t happen without his holding penalty, which wiped out Zach Charbonnet’s first down two plays earlier. Metcalf has five penalties and all of them were either stopped or penalized by OPI.

Still, I can’t deny that he’s worked hard to create the tougher sideline grabs he’s struggled with in recent years. His lead on the opening play of Seattle’s first drive was sensational. On the unfortunate side: I’m convinced Metcalf caught the ball on the two-point conversion, and he got damn near interfered with in the end zone late in the game.

Jake Bobo

More Bobo! His blocking was solid, he caught three passes for 30 yards and was just one yard from the end zone on one of his catches.

AJ Barner

The rookie demonstrated his receiving talent with his first NFL touchdown. He had two grabs for 27 yards on the night, and since he was a bit of a skeptic when he was drafted, he really thrives in this offense as a blocker and receiver.

Derick Hall

My only defensive winner of the evening. Hall’s development as a pass rusher has been unreal. That one-armed throw to Goff for his fourth sack of the season was a grown man’s move. I’m thrilled with how he’s looking so far, and his jump in year two could be just as big as Boye Mafe’s, if not bigger.

Anthony Bradford

Didn’t commit a penalty. Hang the banner! I’ll assess the offensive line in more detail later in the week during the All-22 review.

loser

The entire defense

I can understand those of you who were outraged by “thoroughly humiliated” in the headline of the final result summary. I’ll stick with it. I’m fully aware of the injuries on the defensive line and know that put the Seahawks in a bad spot, so I knew it was going to be difficult.

That was still one of the most efficient offensive performances allowed in modern NFL history. By no means was this even remotely a decent performance. Giving up 42 points on 50 plays and forcing just six third downs while allowing an average of nearly eight yards per play is terrible. According to Stathead, only six teams in NFL history had scored at least 40 points in 50 games or fewer without scoring a defensive or special teams touchdown. In total, only 41 teams had scored 42 points in no more than 50 games regardless of the circumstances, and that’s on well over 1,000 occasions over the decades of football.

While the missing starters were significant, most of those starters were present in the 180+ yards allowed against the New England Patriots rushing offense. It is still a major issue throughout the defensive line and linebackers and needs to be addressed soon given the offenses they face.

Dre’Mont Jones has a high-profile contract and outside of his sack he was again anonymous for safety reasons (in pseudo-garbage time). He’s technically a starter and is at least taking big snaps. Devon Witherspoon is not a reserve and was promoted by David Montgomery and also may have had some sort of coverage failure on Jameson Williams’ touchdown and Amon-Ra St. Brown’s receiving touchdown. Technically, Jarran Reed is a starter opposite Byron Murphy II and was a starter last season. He had a sack and there wasn’t much to talk about after that.

Tyrel Dodson? Starting linebacker. Was repeatedly taken out of position and failed to stop David Montgomery at the goal line for a touchdown.

The available starters and some of the regular backups getting playing time contributed to this performance. It wasn’t just Myles Adams, Quinton Bohanna and Tyus Bowser out there. If the same scenario had happened under Pete Carroll, I don’t think he would have received the same forgiveness, at least not recently. I’m not mad at Mike Macdonald; This is just a serious assessment of what I saw. It won’t be that bad again (I hope), but I’m disappointed that it was so easy for the Lions to split them up in general.

Trevis Gipson

I think I’ve seen enough of Gipson to wonder if he’ll even be on the roster now that Uchenna Nwosu is ready to play and Seattle gets one of their many players back from IR or PUP. For all my criticism of Darrell Taylor, he has never looked more out of his depth, and he is definitely ten times as strong as the athlete Gipson. The combination of missed tackle and face mask was brutal, as were his efforts against the run and on the trick play TD to Goff.

Officiating

This is not a “refs were biased against the Seahawks” complaint. Seattle had six first downs via penalty and received a ton of calls against the Lions’ secondary, particularly rookie Terrion Arnold. I didn’t like the offensive pass interference call against Tyler Lockett, but I understand why it was called because Lockett didn’t really disguise it as a route.

The fact that Metcalf’s two-point conversion is not automatically checked is a mistake. The DPI he didn’t get was ridiculous, but I would probably argue that the DPI in his favor on that two-point conversion was questionable.

Unfortunately, there are nine more penalties for the Seahawks tonight. You can’t say that most of them were unjustified.

Final remarks

• The special teams return game continues to hurt the Seahawks. Forget Jason Myers’ miss, because that was a long shot; Dee Williams had a good punt return and a kick return in the shootout against Tre Brown and Dareke Young, respectively. It’s just not a good unit at the moment.
• Hopefully Julian Love’s injury isn’t serious. He left the team with a bruised quadriceps and now the Seahawks are piling up the bruises. You’re looking for a bruise.
• No problem if Mike Macdonald scores 28-20, trailing by 2. The idea is that if you don’t convert, you still have one less possession, but if you convert, you can take the lead by getting the higher PAT percentage. In other words, go for two when there’s more room for error to make up for the failure to convert than, say, when the game comes down to a two-point conversion in a one-point game. I also praise him for going deep into his own territory at the start of the second half.
• I think a visit from Daniel Jones will be a welcome sight for a defense that may be without key players again. Considering Thursday’s short week against the San Francisco 49ers, some degree of “load management” could be in play against a fairly weak New York Giants offense whether Malik Nabers plays or not. However, I’m much more worried about the OL against Dexter Lawrence.
• As long as the Seahawks handle their business against the Giants, they’ll enter Week 6 with the NFC West lead and a 4-1 record. I’ll happily take that if it comes to fruition.