12 reasons I’m not worried about the Seahawks

The Seattle Seahawks lost to the LA Rams on Sunday by an ugly score of 9-3. It’s the first game since 2012 in which the Seahawks have not scored a touchdown of any kind and the offense looked mostly putrid, with plenty of blame going to the most-patchworked version yet of the offensive line. But I’m honestly not even worried about the Seattle Seahawks. Here are some reasons why:

• The defense has given up 19 points and one touchdown in two weeks. The Miami Dolphins scored 24 points in New England this week after scoring 10 in Week 1. Amid 22 defensive drives, they’ve given up one touchdown, four field goals, and forced 13 punts. If you stopped focusing on the Seahawks’ offense -- not that I’m saying it doesn’t matter, only that there are three phases of football — you’ll notice that they still might have the best defense yet under Pete Carroll. And that’s even more important than a great offense.
• It’s the Rams. The Rams beat the Seahawks in 2012, they went to the divisional round of the playoffs. They beat them in 2014, they went to the Super Bowl. They beat them twice in 2015, they went to the divisional round of the playoffs. Losing to the Rams has already been a part of three of the last four seasons and while it’s not ideal, it’s acceptable. Michael Robinson said after the game on Sunday “They know something about Seattle” and that may be true. Let’s see if the rest of the NFL “knows something” before we freak out because losing to the Rams isn’t nearly as worrisome to me as losing to just about any other team. That would be unusual. Today’s result was not.
• Fucked up conditions. Not just the 90+ degree heat, which is a factor and an unusual factor that won’t come into play in most of Seattle’s games, but also the fact that there were 90,000 fans there. The fact that it was the first game in LA in 21 years. This was a weird game under weird conditions so I’m not going to freak out about the results. Would be a little more worried if they continued to lose in the St. Louis dome moreso than a stadium that not even the Rams had played in since 1979.
• For literally all the reasons I wouldn’t freak out about a team after two games. Especially a team that has proven so much over the previous four years. A team that consistently struggles in September and October before dominating in November and December.
• They might be the healthiest they’ve been all season headed into next week’s home game against the San Francisco 49ers. Now that would be a concerning loss.
• Winning on the road within the division is tough always.
• The Seahawks still almost won, if not for a shoestring tackle by Troy Hill and then a fumble by Christine Michael, who knows. Today the 49ers lost by 19, the Jaguars lost by 24, the Bucs lost by 33, and the Colts lost by 14. Seattle still hasn’t lost by more than 10 since 2011.
• There were a few plays that almost broke the game open in the Seahawks favor. When Russell Wilson (healthy) starts to get his timing right with Paul Richardson (healthy) and Jimmy Graham (healthy), the offense should be a lot better.
• Germain Ifedi isn’t starting yet but all things considered, should be back at some point (maybe after the Bye week in Week 6) and that could change their fortunes much like benching Drew Nowak in 2015.
• Frank Clark has three sacks, as many as he had all of last season.
• Todd Gurley averaged 2.7 yards per carry.
• Lockett is still really good.