Seattle Seahawks handed first loss of 2024 in 42-29 thumping by Detroit Lions
By Jake Parr, edited by Charles Hamaker
Detroit, MI - The Seattle Seahawks took their first loss of the season tonight, in front of a national audience on Monday Night Football facing the Detroit Lions. The Hawks’ vaunted defense -- which forced the Miami Dolphins to settle for a measly three points last week -- parted like the Red Sea for Detroit running back Jahmyr Gibbs (78 YDs, two touchdowns). Seattle quarterback Geno Smith had a mixed performance tonight, putting up 395 YDs to just 1 TD (86.5 passer rating). His favorite target, star wideout DK Metcalf, gave up a fumble in the first quarter that resulted in a Lions touchdown, which proved to be the beginning of the end in a high scoring affair between two teams that have met each other in the regular season often over the past few years.
Seattle Seahawks wide receiver DK Metcalf (#14) attempts to catch a pass with Detroit Lions safety Brandon Joseph (#12) draped on his back during the Seahawks' Monday Night Football loss to the Lions on September 30th, 2024 at Ford Field. (Photo by Lon Horwedel/Imagn Images)
Offense struggles to march in time
While today's game featured the triumphal return of Seattle's star running back Kenneth Walker III, there was little to celebrate on the offensive side of the ball. Geno Smith in particular looked like an imitation of himself. His box score starts excitingly. 395 yards and a 67% completion percentage are competitive numbers. But they only amounted to a single passing touchdown. And when factoring in the 1 interception he threw, Geno finished the day with an 86.5 passer rating. The majority of his passing yards came in the 2nd half when the game was already out of hand, and didn’t amount to much on the actual scoreboard.
Wide out DK Metcalf, with the exception of a 20 yard catch on Seattle's first play from scrimmage, was unable to get any separation from the Lions’ secondary. That actually proved advantageous, though, in the third quarter when he generated a pass interference call deep down the field, leading to a 9 yd AJ Barner TD catch, the first of his career. Metcalf was able to do damage when he got the ball, averaging 14.9 YDs per carry, but that was less often than Seattle head coach Mike Macdonald would have liked. Of Metcalf’s 12 targets, he was only able to haul in 7 of them.
Running back Kenneth Walker III made the most of his return to the gridiron, putting up 80 YDs and 3 touchdowns, including Seattle’s first TD of the game, a 1 yard run to the right side in the second quarter. He also made an acrobatic move on that drive where he avoided a tackle by somersaulting over a defender, looking more at home in WWE than the NFL.
Detroit Lions wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown (#14) celebrates with quarterback Jared Goff (#16) after a trick play touchdown where Goff caught a pass from St. Brown during the teams 42-29 win over the Seattle Seahawks at Ford Field on Monday Night Football on September 30th, 2024. (Photo by Junfu Han/USA Today Sports)
Defense leaves the gate open
Seattle's defense, which has been standout so far this season, ran into real trouble today. Or rather, trouble ran into them in the form of Lions running back Jahmyr Gibbs, who found holes big enough to drive a car through, and took advantage. The Lions’ second drive is emblematic here. After a great punt pinned Detroit at their own 7 yard line, the Lions ran roughshod through the defense line. Of the 93 yards in the touchdown drive, 58 of them came on the ground, including the final touchdown yard. This was after the Lions’ first drive, a three-and-out featuring a 14-yard sack, where the D-Line really shined. For the vast majority of the game, however, the D-Line was about as open as the grand canyon and about as aggressive as an anesthetized sloth.
The Seahawks defense also let Jarred Goff do basically whatever he wanted to after that first drive. Goff completed all 18 of his passes for 292 yards, 2 touchdowns and no interceptions. His 155.6 passer rating is just shy of “perfect,” being artificially held down by the fact that it treats all completion percentages above 77.5% as 77.5%, and any yards per attempt above 12.5 as 12.5. If it were calculated using his actual completion% of 100% and yards per attempt of 16.2, his passer rating would be an even higher 189.91. That is what the Seahawks defense allowed today.
Making matters worse is that DB Julian Love, who has impressed this year was taken out of the game with a thigh injury and is officially listed as “questionable.” Love joins Byron Murphy II and Leonard Williams as defensive cornerstones down with injury. Considering that the defensive unit let the Lions throw 42 points on the board tonight, Defensive Coordinator Aden Durde will be looking to get his crew back to full health as quickly as possible.
When the going gets rough
In their first 3 games, Seattle looked like the pace setting team. Even in the 2 safety game vs. the Broncos and their narrow win against the Patriots, the Seahawks were the team to beat, and were able to claw their way back to a win. In tonight’s game, though, the Seahawks gave up initiative to Jarred Goff and the Lions, and played from behind all night. In chess, beginning players are taught to enforce their will on the board and make their opponent play reactively, on the back foot.
But today it was the Seahawks who were on the back foot, sometimes literally as Geno Smith succumbed to the pressure of the Lions’ D-Line, getting sacked 3 times. Tonight’s game against the Lions has felt like the first time the Hawks have come up against a complete team. Will they be able to bounce back for the rest of the season or, like this game writ large, will they fumble the good field position their 3-0 start gave them?
What’s Next?
The Seahawks have a quick turnaround after today's Monday Night Football highlight. They'll be taking on the 1-3 New York Giants at Lumen Field this Sunday. The Giants have struggled out the gate in this early season, and Macdonald will be looking to bounce back from tonight’s loss and kick them while they're down. That game will be at 1:25 pm PT, and will be televised on CBS.
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Check out our previous Seattle Seahawks articles here.
Check out our previous articles written by Jake Parr here, and his Lookout Landing articles here.
Thumbnail photo by Junfu Han/USA Today Sports
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